Jimbokav1971

Dec 2048. Liga Bwin. It's a decent(ish) month, but actually I see it as 2 pts dropped rather than 10 pts won. We're up to 4th and are 2 pts off Benfica in 3rd. If anyone remembers my criticism of the "new rivalry" feature at the beginning of the season I might have to rethink my words. Braga are absolutely romping it and are 4 pts clear of Porto at the top of the table. The other thing that shouldn't be ignored is that of the 9 goals we scored in the league this month, 7 of them were scored by (32g) Ramos (POR), (which brings him to 19 goals from 19 appearances so far this season). UEFA Champions League. I fielded a weak squad because I couldn't afford for Arsenal to have an off day and for us to somehow sneak a win and finish 2nd in the group. As it is we still almost got a result. Taça de Portugal Placard. We won, but we should have won by way more. Taça da Liga Allianz Cup. The less said about this debacle the better. Awards. African Striker of the Year and World Golden Glove 3rd place. Goal-scoring GK's. No GK goals this month. Finances.

Oh I see. If you use any grey players at all then you don't get a Best XI? Is that right?

You say you used grey players, but your squad had non-grey players in it. Does that mean that you gave grey players contracts or something else? Apologies if I've missed something obvious.

Nov 2048. Liga Bwin. What an awful month. We conceded a late equaliser that cost us 2 pts against Benfica and then we conceded 2 late goals against Moreirense to cost us 3 pts. xG watch. We should have beaten Benfica and we should have obliterated Moreirense. Belenenses 1.74 - 0.83 Benfica. Belenenses 3.65 - 0.86 Moreirense. UEFA Champions League. Our last game in the Group Stage is against Arsenal, but I have to be careful that we don't win it because if we do then we will jump above them via head to head record and I want to finish 3rd remember. Taça de Portugal Placard. Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

Oct 2048. Liga Bwin. The 2 pts dropped against Farense were a blow considering quite how dominant we were and the fact that we also missed the target with a penalty, but that's balanced out with the undeserved point we gained away at Guimaraes. We've dropped to 3rd now and Benfica are 1 pt ahead with a game in hand and Porto are 1 pt behind, also with a game in hand. xG watch. Belenenses 4.14 - 1.20 Estoril. Guimaraes 2.32 - 1.58 Belenenses. Farense 0.15 - 3.52 Belenenses. UEFA Champions League. I'm happy to lose this and we're now in 3rd but need to also lose the next game. Taça de Portugal Placard. I was resting players for the weakened game against Dortmund, so I thought they might as well play in the Cup. Goal-scoring GK's. I have no issues with him skying this penalty because there are no morale issues at all and there is absolutely nothing that I could have done. Finances.

Sep 2048. Liga Bwin. We might have dropped points against Famalicao, but they were the 1st points that they have dropped this season so we have to just take the little wins. We're up to 2nd, 2 pts behind Braga because they have a game in hand. Benfica are 1 point behind us with a game in hand and Porto are 5 pts behind us with a game in hand. xG watch. We won all 3 of the xG battles this month. Belenenses 1.86 - 1.69 Famalicao. Belenenses 3.48 - 0.60 CdP. Leixoes 2.41 - 2.58 Belenenses. UEFA Champions League. I rotated the whole squad against Arsenal and not only didn't we lose but we almost won. We also then went and beat Zenit with another weakened squad. The problem I've got now is how to finish behind Arsenal but ahead of Zenit. 2 losses to Dortmund will really help that and that's the next 2 games up. Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

Aug 2048. Liga Bwin. In some ways it was a decent opening month. We took 3 points off Porto and Sporting, but new rivals Braga turned us over at their place. In actual fact I'm quite happy with our start because although we trail Braga by 2 pts, (and they have a game in hand), we're 3 pts ahead of Benfica & 5 pts ahead of Porto, (although they also have a game in hand). These 3 teams are likely to be our main competition again. xG watch. Porto & Braga both dominated us and where we came out on top against Porto, we lost out against PdF after the morale hit from the Braga game so Belenenses 1.06 - 2.25 Porto. Braga 2.19 - 0.63 Belenenses. PdF 1.43 - 2.60 Belenenses. Belenenses 2.32 - 0.57 Sporting. Nacional 1.13 - 2.39 Belenenses. UEFA Champions League Group. Arsenal might be the holders and Haaland would be 48 now were he still playing for Dortmund, who have qualified from the Group in each of the last 10 seasons, but often crash out in the 1st Knockout Round. I think this is a perfect opportunity to have another go at the Europa League. It's amazing how often FM predicts real life. Haaland went to City in my game too and as well as 342 goals in all competitions for City, he finished on 133 International goals from 132 International Appearances. Goal-scoring GK's. As I selected the squad for the 1st league game against Porto, I noticed a few issues with his happiness. I set his asking price at £50M to scare the vultures off, but I have removed it now because I don't want him missing penalties. He doesn't seem to like any training, but I don't really want him to have no individual training. It was on GK Technique and have moved it to GK Reactions. That seems to be sorted now. The Asking Price unhappiness will be removed tomorrow. I'm not sure how it will impact him in todays game if we get a penalty. There were no penalty opportunities and in fact he has only taken 3 shots this month, but I can't afford to take a risk with his happiness. If there is an issue I need to fix it each and every time and if I do that I think I have a real chance of him scoring close to 20 goals a season. Finances.

Yeah, it's definitely based on expected finish, but as they haven't go near us for the last couple of seasons that seems a bit strange. On the other hand we have lost our best player so maybe they know more than I. Braga also have a competitive rivalry with Benfica, (which seems a little strange), but they won the league in 2044/45 and have finished 3rd in 4 of the other 9 seasons in the last 10 years, (so maybe not that strange). It will be interesting to see if we can create a competitive rivalry with Benfica & Porto over the next few seasons? We already have a local rivalry with Benfica, but nothing at all with Porto.

International call-ups. Aug 2048. The 2048 European Championships have just finished and Portugal were knocked out by Spain in the Semi-Finals. Spain went on to lose to Italy in the Final as they won their 3rd European Champs of the 7 played during this save, (and were Runners-Up in another). The only structures loaded in this save are Portugal, Spain and Brazil, so I would have expected Portugal to do better than they have and although Spain have only won 1 Euro's, they have also been Runners-Up on 2 other occasions. Before I look at the World Cup I would expect both Spain and Brazil to have dominated, (but then again that wouldn't exactly be a surprise no matter what Nations were loaded). Spain have won the World Cup twice during this save and finished 3rd on 2 more occasions. Portugal have finished Runners Up on 1 occasion. Brazil have won the World Cup once and were also Runners Up on another occasion. Spain have only won 1 Nations League but they have been Runners Up twice and finished 3rd 3 more occasions, (so in the top 3 in 6 of 14 seasons). Portugal have won it twice at the start of the save and then nothing for years until they were Runners Up this year. We've got a few players who have represented their Country at Senior level. (POR) In addition to the above, (31g) Simões (POR) 6'1" and (32g) Ramos (POR) have regularly been called up to the Senior (POR) squad, but have never made their International debut. There are also 3 of our ex players currently in the (POR) squad. (ENG) (44c) Ogbu (ENG) (NGA) * hasn't been capped yet, but it's surely a matter of time. I would also expect (45e) The Gimp (ENG) 6'2" to get close to making the (ENG) squad. (TAN) (CIV) (GNB) (CPV) (34b) Lopes. (CPV) has moved on now and has 60 Caps.

Developing Rivalries. Aug 2048. This is a tiny feature, but I think it's actually a perfect example of how many aspects of the game are a great innovative idea, but unfortunately fail to deliver on the fine details. It's the 1st time I have ever seen this message, (I think), and I think it's great so I'm certainly not complaining, but it actually doesn't really do what it says on the tin. The reason for the competitive rivalry being created is seemingly because are expected to be competing for the same finishing spots in the league. Well that's ok, but we beat them by 11 points last season, 26 points the previous season, (although we finished on the same points 3 seasons ago). I think my problem with how it's working is that I don't want it to be based on our anticipated finishes. I want it to be based on our actual finishes. So if this message had arrived 3 seasons ago after we had finished level on points and they had finished above us by virtue of our head to head record then this would have been brilliant. But as it is it just makes me feel a bit meh and is typical of the way lots of really good innovative ideas are implemented. Either they don't link to other stuff under the hood or they don't actually do what they are meant to do.

Job Offer. Jul 2048. Sporting came in and offered me £5.3M per month in 2032, but neither Porto nor Benfica have been in for me nor R.Madrid or Barca. It's the 6th time that Spain have been in for me, but the 1st time they have done so as the #1 ranked Nation in the World.

Striking options. Jul 2048. Deciding who to play in what squad and who is going to go out on loan and to where is a big deal. It's even more important when you're playing a Youth Only save in a top Nation. It's of absolute vital importance that I put the effort into this area, especially where our striking options are concerned. Senior squad. Ideally I want 4 strikers to play for the 1st Team, (or 2 pairs to be more specific). (32g) Ramos (POR) has been our main man for years and although he's 31 now, he's just returned his best ever league scoring figures so he will be 1st choice on the left again. 22 year old (41c) Abrantes (POR) * will again be his partner, but he had a strange season last year and although he started well, he REALLY fell off in the 2nd half of the season. I willing to stick with him and give him another go though. (44a) Simões (POR) * played a supporting role on the left last season and although he struggled just a little in the league, 3 goals in 4(8) appearances is still decent for a teenager, and in all competitions he scored 10 goals in 12(10) appearances. When not required for the 1st Team, he also contributed 5 goals in 18(1) appearances for the B Team so that his development wasn't stunted. The question I have now is do I play him in the same role again this season, or do I loan him out to another Liga Bwin sider where he might play a full season? The 2nd choice right-sided striker last season was (41g) Amaral (POR) *, but he didn't have a great season and only scored 6 goals and 3 assists in 14(21) appearances in all competitions. That's not good enough. (39a) Moreira (POR) * is a player who hasn't really been given much of a chance, but I'm considering using him as the 2nd choice left-sided striker instead of (44a) Simões (POR) *, (assuming I can get him out on loan to another Liga Bwin club), but actually I've just seen him PPM's and remembered that this bloke has the "plays with back to goal" PPM so he can't play on the left. If he plays then he has to play on the right...... (45c) Rosa (POR) * is the other player in the mix and he had a full season in the B Team, so maybe he should play a support role in the Senior Squad this season, and allow (44a) Simões (POR) * to go out on loan and get a full Liga Bwin season under his belt.

That's what I thought too, but I wasn't paying attention. It's a new stadium for the B Team.

A big loss. Jul 2048. (35a) Paulo Júnior (POR) * is one of, if not THE best player we have produced so far in the save. He's made 470 appearances for his boyhood club and made 80 Senior appearances for Portugal. It's gutting to lose him on a free, but he just wasn't interested in staying and it came down to a choice of getting a fee for him or keeping him for an extra season. It wasn't a hard choice to to choose 1 more season over just about any amount of cash. Surprisingly, he's only on the Favoured Personnel list when I would have expected him to be an ICON if not a Legend, (like me). @Sonic Youthmentioned recently that we're in need of a good young GK coming through because (31g) Simões (POR) 6'1" s 32 now and we need a replacement, (although he is contracted for 4 more seasons). We do have a couple of GK's who should be capable of stepping up in the form of (40c) Teixeira (POR) 6'3", (who has played the last 3 seasons in Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG and will surely be stepping up to Liga Bwin this season), 19 year old (45i) Ion (POR) (ROU) 6'1", (who was our B Team GK in Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG last season), and even at a push we have (39i) Sérgio (POR) and (42m) Firmino (POR) could come in and do a job, (so things aren't quite as bad as they might be). My now not so secret plan however is to possibly bring (35b) Amílcar (POR) 6'1" back from Germany when (31g) Simões (POR) 6'1" leaves/retires With regards to what other products of our Academy are options to be re-signed, then the top of our shortlist shows that there are 3 current (POR) Internationals now at other clubs. You haven't seen (40b) Ramalho (POR) * for a while so here he is.

I think that's a pretty fair summary. January seems to be a problem every season and I might consider rotating the squad this season to freshen the seniors up when they do play so that 1 loss doesn't become 2 and then 3 or 4. We got to a Final of 1 Cup and lost to 1 of the Big 2, (I think we have the measure of Sporting now), so can't be upset at that. Champions League is just unlucky with the draw but apart from an awful performance in the 1st leg maybe we might have sneaked through. We actually have a few defenders on the way through now, (but more on that in a future post), and yes indeed GK is what I want to see come through next, (although I do have a plan for that).

Season Summary. Jun 2048. Liga Bwin. I'm astonished that we haven't unlocked this achievement before now, but I suppose we have all been about scoring 1 more than the opposition rather than conceding 1 less. I think as we develop better strikers we will really push on in the coming years because at the moment although (32g) Ramos (POR) has been called up to the (POR) National side, he has never been capped. We are getting to the stage where we have a whole group of strikers who will be able to compete at this level. Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG. I don't care about winning this trophy. It is simply a tool to develop young players. UEFA Champions League. Considering we won the Group Stage, we were a little unlucky to be drawn against PSG in the 1st Knockout Round. PSG finished 2nd in their Group behind Man City and eventually finished Runners Up to Arsenal. Taça da Liga Allianz Cup. Taça de Portugal Placard. Portuguese U23 Premier League South. Portuguese U23 Premier League Championship Group. Taça Revelação Sub-23. Portuguese U19 First Division Group B. Portuguese U19 First Division Championship Group. UEFA Youth League. Top Goal-scorer. 22 league goals is the best return that (32g) Ramos (POR) has managed in his career. Top Assists. Best XI. Facilities. Finances.

May 2048. Liga Bwin. We finished the season with a bit of a whimper, despite going unbeaten over the last 12 games of the season. Goal-scoring GK's. 15 goals in a season is good, (it's great), but (31g) Simões (POR) 6'1" also missed 4 penalties so it could have been 19, (and I lost count of the number of times he hit the woodwork from free-kicks). Finances.

Apr 2048. Liga Bwin. We smashed Benfica with a hat-trick from (32g) Ramos (POR) but then despite dropping points against Porto, we still sit 2nd with 3 games remaining. We're 10 points behind Benfica and considering we dropped 12 points from 15 in Jan and have dropped 4 more points since then we might have been able to challenge them for the title were it not for our January woes. Records. This wasn't actually me trying to set a record. He's a right back who I actually played at left back because I didn't have anyone suitable at all, (an U23 game had been played earlier on the same day and restricted my options), so he was the best option available. His match rating was poor at 6.3, but I wonder how much of that was his performance and how much was because he played out of position because it seems pretty harsh to me. Goal-Scoring GK's. That's a rubbish penalty and I wonder is there a reason for it related to happiness/morale so let's have a look..... It was mentioned in a recent report that he was no longer benefitting from the individual training, (so I changed it), but it seems he didn't like the change. Unhappy with training overall is more concerning is more of a problem if it can't be resolved by just fixing his unhappiness with his individual training. I'm not sure why he is feeling particularly under pressure at the moment, but obviously feeling under pressure is not ideal for a penalty taker. In hindsight it's no surprise that it was a rubbish penalty. I've changed his individual training and it's instantly had an impact. I think the individual training negative is historic now because the wording has changed from "has" to "had" so it should vanish shortly. I'm actually not sure how to resolve the pressure issue, but as he's on 13 goals, (but has failed with 4 spot kicks this season), and there are still 6 games remaining at the time of writing, I think there will be more penalties that need to be taken so I can't ignore it. Neither praising nor criticising last performance seems appropriate so that leaves me with praising/criticising recent form, training/development or conduct. I'm not really sure that any of them particularly fit but I'm wondering about praising conduct...... I'm going to go for the top option with an arm around him. Finances.

I thought I had them this season. At the very least we should have beaten Porto an finished Runners Up. We dropped 15 points out of 18 over end of Dec and through Jan.

Mar 2048. Liga Bwin. I think the 2 dropped point against Leixões might have just finished our challenge for 2nd spot. UEFA Champions League. We were unlucky not to win and although (32g) Ramos (POR) scored, he also had 2 more ruled out so could have had a hat-trick. The damage was done in the 1st leg though and we were unlikely to be able to overhaul a 3 goal deficit. Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

Youth Intake day. Mar 2048. What a I looking for? Ideally any position across the back 4 or a GK. It's not a Golden Generation though. I obviously don't know where the strength of the intake is in terms of quality, bit in terms of numbers at least we have a few options at the back. 2x Elite Talents, 2x Top Talents and then 6 Good Talents but it remains to be seen how good they actually are. Squad by PA. Not much CA on show, but our existing players are now at a level where this is to be expected. Squad by Actual PA. When we look at Actual PA, it looks a little better if anything., with 2x players at 150+ PA. To put these PA levels into perspective, (48b) and (48c) are the 6th and 7th players at the club, (ranked by Actual PA) and (48a) is ranked 16. Considering the 22 players on the list are spread over 17 years, to get 3 from this intake is certainly pleasing. (48b) Teixeira (POR) 6'3" looks a little raw, but there is certainly enough there to be working with. Improving his physicals will be a priority, as is his marking and heading. (Unamb) is an issue, but thankfully it isn't twinned with the dreaded (L.Det) so should be ok in terms of development. (48c) Bronze (POR) 5'10" looks excellent and the fact that we have a right back called Bronze almost made me nickname him Lucy. I really like the look of him. (48a) Côdeas (POR) 6'0" looks the best of the 3 on show, but even if her had the same PA, his (L.Det) might mean that he might not reach it. (His Pro is 13 though so fingers crossed)

Feb 2048. Liga Bwin. We go from falling apart in January again to 100% wins in February. I don't know what the issue is in January. It can't be just the transfer window issues, (but I think it is). We're in 3rd now and are just 3 pts off 2nd placed Porto, (who we play away at the end of April). UEFA Champions League. We got hammered and we even saved a penalty. We were battered and I have little hope of turning things around in the 2nd leg. Taça da Liga Allianz Cup. Another Final, but this time we can't come out on top against the Big 3. Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

Jan 2048. Liga Bwin. What an absolute pig of a month. We have gone from only losing 3 league games all season, to losing 4 in 1 month. We've plummeted to 4th and from challenging for the title we're now trying to hang on to a Champions League spot. Taça de Portugal Placard. Our poor form wasn't limited to just the league and we also crashed out of the Cup in a really poor performance. Taça da Liga Allianz Cup. We bounced back to get through the Semi and our season might just be saved by a Cup Final. Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

Just had a look at that and posted in there. Thanks for pointing it out. Really interesting thread. To anyone else who is interested in personalities and how they impact things, you might be interested in having a look at this.

I was linked to this thread by @Thebaker because of the way I look at the penalty taking attribute, (and because of the way I used to go into fine detail with the development of players). Loving your work so far. There are a few things that jump out at me. Ambition of 1 has a positive difference in relation to the (All 10) control group. Important Matches of 20 has a negative difference in relation to the (All 10) control group. Det 20 bossing it as expected. Pressure 20 is a surprisingly high result for me. 1 Pro & 1 Press have a significantly bigger negative impact than 1 Det. That surprises me. If Det 20 has the biggest positive impact, why doesn't Det 1 have the biggest negative impact? A possible explanation for 5. & 6. is that I notice the "standard deviation" for both 1 Pro and 1 Press is small, (5.6 & 10.0), compared to the 20 Pro & 20 Press (13.4 & 14.9). Not suggesting anything at this stage. More just thinking out loud. Temp 20 is a strange one, but a little like Dirtiness & Injury Proneness, is 20 a good score or is 1 a good score? Is Temp possibly like that where 20 Temp is actually a bad score and 1 Temp is a good score? (I don't know I'm thinking out loud again). The Important Matches 20 data also doesn't make sense to me. Relatively small difference between Imp Match 20 & Imp Match 1 groups, and indeed Imp Match 1 out-performed Imp Match 20 on 2 of the 7 samples. Amb 1 out-performed Amb 20 in 1 of 7 samples. Temp 1 out-performed Temp 20 in 4 of 7 samples. Consis 1 out-performed Consis 20 in 1 of 7 samples. Imp Match 1 out-performed Imp Match 20 in 2 of 7 samples. Det 1 out-performed Det20 on 1 of 7 samples. (It's too easy & lazy to blame the small sample size. That might be it, but equally it might not). This takes a little concentration and thought so I will try and come back to this. I'm struggling to work out the definitions of some of your columns. Difference, Variance, Standard Deviation & Spread definition please? (I'm stupid).