SixPointer

Tendency to punch would be required as well 🤣

Nice to see the support change! The league title have a big effect! 👏🏻

Criminal!! I though he was a real coup! Nightmare shrew!!!!

Destroyed the group. Some big scalps

The skins is becoming something of an analyst’s dreams! strong early season form. Defensive sound and scoring well when those two come together it’s usually a good sign!

I can’t take credit for coming up with the DNA ideas. The person I seen it from first was @Deisler26 Not fully in, a few things definitely lacking. The tinkering and tweaking I want to do more game by game but I can’t afford to dwell on writing as I need to try play abit quicker this year! Try my best to cover all bases!

Really enjoyed the write up! Great depth and looking forward to more love the club. Their stadium is fantastic in the forest. It’s gave me one of the best football experiences ever. Being from Edinburgh we don’t get treated anywhere near as good as football fans do in Germany. me and my wife visited Berlin when they were still 2.bundesliga and watched a game against Bochum. Free travel to the game the journey through the woods to the group was magical and the atmosphere was incredible at the game. Throw in some German pints and it was the best place I’ve been to for a game. Hands down beats anywhere else I’ve visited for games.

Congratulations on the title. Potential to be a huge club!

Certainly has the flair of the little genius

It’s more Nagelsman ish than anyone else. Which I suppose you can group so many others under. Oliver glasner is former player with over 500 appearances for the club so he certainly had an influence. Thanks mate I try to add clips to help people feel part of the tactical vision. I know but it’s a lot of reading, should be more trimmed in future now the scene is set. there is a left back in Senegal am really Interested in but the board have slashed my wage budget so I’ll need to see some players move. I have a few contacts to look at. A couple of younger ones look good but need more scouting and it’s not cheap!

Doesn’t get any closer than that really!! Well done Matty. One big final to come?

Congratulations on the cup win!! Nice I take as well. Does sanz have a left foot and like to warm up juggling the ball?

In The Beginning First thing to address at the club for Franz would be the poor levels of staff at his disposal. To add with realism, I’ve followed suit on many people’s styles for now by only allowing for staff members who apply for jobs. Scouting knowledge is a big area that needed improvement, having loaded western Africa as database add on that’s something am keen to work on, but this may take some time. Therefore, the focus will be looking to expand into another area Austrian clubs often shop in, the Balkans, I loaded players from all these areas which should give us a decent pool, once we employ some scouts. A few big names in the first round of interviews, Lucio nailed down the job along with club icon and former Austrian international Muhammet Akagündüz. Both had desired tactical styles and Lucio is incredible mentality, also his world knowledge and international experience will be valuable. A few Key appointments in the scouting department, as Leo Lainer a man Franz trusted from their rime together at RB Salzburg comes to head up the scouting department along with former Croatian international Mario Stanic, who would provide a key link to the Balkans. Mbo Mpeneza joined the ranks with some basic African knowledge which was proving hard to come by. A vast improvement in the backroom team at the end of the recruitment drive, while this is a costly expenditure and for club not blessed with a massive balance it will take its toll, but for me it’s the biggest priority to get right when I first take over anywhere. A good backroom team is worth its weight in gold, especially if you like to develop players, create a club DNA and if you have a certain recruitment plan. Eleven players deal’s run out next summer, two important players, five regular starters and four squad players. Now I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing to begin with. On one hand it could be costly to try keep a hold of them all, most would want improved deals but on the other hand it does give me a chance to move some on without much fuss. Pomer, Mikic and Chabbi would fetch me a reasonable amount of cash to re-invest. Pomer and Mikic were both wide men and a pressing forward on the decline. Other than that club captain Ziegl (29), key player Nutz (30), Kragl (30) LWB, goalkeeper Sahin-Radlinger (29) would be given until the world cup break to convince me for new deals. The philosophy goes against keeping any of them except perhaps the goalkeeper but i do need one or two older heads around. Ungar is a very promising defender but does lack some DNA, so I would cash in, and Stosic is out for the whole season. A good spine is essential, these four will provide us that. Radlinger looks made up for an attacking sweeper keeper, Eccentricity isn’t my favourite, and he is a long way from being perfect but at this present time he will offer us a very good place to start from. Plavotic is a giant off a man will offer a threat in attack and should snuff out any high balls at the back, a little more aggression and acceleration would be welcomed but nevertheless a solid old school defender. Michael Martin who arrived on a free in the summer (before I took over) is the man I will be looking to lead the team. Technically gifted but also extremely determined and willing to work, bravery being his only doubtful, but I can cut him some slack there. Monschein will lead the line, looks to be a very adapt pressing forward, the ability to go in behind looks promising but he does also lend himself to linking playing with his passing and player traits. “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” – Pablo Picasso. Two million euros generated from player sales, I can take credit for all bar one, Ante Bajic was already done before aye arrived in town at the alpine foothills. The Pomer sale would come back to bite us, but more on that later.... Overall, I was delighted with the outgoing shifting players not suited or not up to scratch and giving me a small war chest for a club of our size and stature. Pomer's deal was up in the summer and while I felt he could be a valuable member of the team he wanted to explore his options. Ungar and Cosgun sales the fans were not best pleased about as both have potential but unfortunately, they don’t fit my style of play and with deals running out time to cash in on them. Mikic, Weberbauer and Chabbi were all squad players that I felt I could get upgrades on from the 650k generated from the three. Eugene Cheberko - Left footed ball playing centre back, who is equally capable of playing a defensive full back role. DNA-77 which is much more than the 70 points I have set me at this stage. His player trait should encourage progressive passes to the flanks. Looks a solid acquisition so far and has had some standout performances. Stefan Feiertag - The gamble! he does not meet the required DNA so he’s out with my recruitment plan, I just couldn’t ignore the chance to improve him and make some money, as I said in the in the previous post, I want to follow a money ball type approach. He is still raw at 20 and I feel I can get some market value from him. Four other Bundesliga teams were interested so was glad I got it done. Has had some injury problems but put in a man of the match performance in his first start. Nosa Iyobosa Edokpolor - A more attacking minded LWB to cover for the injured Kragl. Great personality and a DNA of 79 makes him the exact the type of player I want to recruit, the scouts brought him to me, and I agreed with their findings. He has been inconsistent he is either very good or very poor, a lot of this is down to my changes in game plan to be fair to him. Sebastian Leimhofer - Another one from the same club who just falls short on the DNA - 67, his aggression and natural fitness swings it though they also tie in with the style of play. Also, hardworking playmaker types are a very rare breed and I now have two in him and Martin. He certainly can pull the strings with flair vison and technique and is more a true playmaker than Martin, He provided great competition and showed his versatility also dropping into left wing back at times. He now looks to have shifted Nutz from his starting berth. Luca Kerber - A young German DM looks to be excellent value for money with room still to grow. DNA – 72, he has the ability to dictate play from deep and am currently training him to play more direct passes, hopefully using him to become our first progressive passer from deep in his pivot role. Started well and has nailed down a starting spot as the link man between defence and attack and looks very promising. Danijel Lončar - Last but certainly not least, i give to you my FM bargain. An agressive defender capable of playing RB or RCB, his only flaws are his concentration and decoosns, but in terms of my style of play and my level he is a supebr piece of bisness. Backed up by his perfoamnces to date, either at the right of my three man backline or in a defensive full back role he has been superb. DNA - 82 sums him up nicely. Victories aren't born on the field. You create them during practice. Rather inconsistent start in the first two months, won one, lost one and drew one and so on.... A real turning point was the win against Strum Graz, down to ten men we ground out a massive three points. During the game I switched to a double pivot for obvious reasons, but even with ten men I really liked what I seen. The shift from a 3142 to 3421 seen us put together a 10-game unbeaten run in the following ten games. 19 points from 27 available is anything but relegation form which we were tipped for. Wolfsberger AC and RB Salzburg are difficult draws to swallow, Pomer came back to haunt us with an 86th minute equaliser as he came off the bench. Back-to-back penalty misses in Salzburg at the death of the game cost us a truly memorable victory after they had only just equalised in a game we certainly held our own. Austria Wien kill any hopes of conquering the first step of the challenge this year as they knock us out the OFB Cup in only the third round, a tough draw but the form we were in am disappointed and a finishing for the world cup on a negative. As expected, RB Salzburg are flying, the big shock is us sitting in second, media predicted to finish 11th. Teams chasing do have games in hand, and it is tight into the middle of the table, so I for one won’t be taking anything for granted, that’s no to say we aren’t there on merit. Intelligent pressing is something I spoke about as being a key marker in our style of play, PPDA second only to RB, which is truly pleasing, the opponent completes just over 3 passes, before we make a defensive action. A nod to our pressing style backed up by our possession winning numbers and how many interceptions we force. This could point at us not having a lot of the ball, but we rank third in the league for average possession. All this combined has seen us face the second least number of shots on target against us. Safe to say our out of possession game is really thriving. My use of specific pressing traps against certain styles our opponents throw at us is something a plan on covering in greater detail later in the save. Attacking wise, creation doesn’t seem to be an issue, conversion perhaps could be better but it’s all work in practice. Passes completed are high, but this is having a knock-on effect on our final third passes which for me is way too low considering what am trying to create tactically. Progressive passes are something else I marked as a key component of the style of play and something I would like to measure our success on and when I look at our midfield numbers its points to us being a little too safe in this aspect. I do know that with progressive passes distance is a key factor, but key passes are still low as well, something to be addressed. Something else I wanted to measure my tactical philosophy on was attacking the space in behind a backline, I’ve used a combination of these two front three combinations to create these runs. Depending on how the opponent sets up, sometimes I like the PF starting his run a little deeper or allowing the AMs to attack the space. Other times usually when up against a slow centre back pairing, I want him stretching the back line and trying his best to break the offside trap. Coming from wide AM run from deep Deep pressing forward run Pressing forward agaisnt high line Am pulling wide to play through Some examples there off playing the ball in behind to attack, something that became clear is Kerber the Volante in the standard shape is usually the one who plays the pass before the key pass, he really does link defence to attack nicely. Martin and Monschein have really struck up a great understanding, assisting one and other many times. This is showing how my subtle changes can have a different effect on attacking patterns without deviating completely from the philosophy, this is something I want to master in all phases of our play. The final tactical ideal was to create overloads, again I’ve used subtle changes to the system to help create these in different ways, depending on opponents, shape, style, and personnel. Attacking mentality to create help create vertical play and risk taking, along with transitioning quickly, all key components of the style. On the left I have a central overload which tends to be the most used, designed to attack centrally while the wing backs provide supportive width, the two amc often used to overload the two defensive pivots in the most commonly faced formation the 4231. This is where the volante comes into his own, dropping to help the BWM with the ten in defence but making late runs to further overload the DMs with the double ten's. Creating a build-up structure with four players central players is great for ball progression. On the right a wide overload, the wing backs have full license to attack, with a back three behind and two destroyers in the middle they have cover to do so. The Am's are asked to move into channels or sometimes even asked to stay wide, as I look to create overloads in the half spaces. In comparison you can see how much wider the structure is, with the team almost splitting into two halves. ideally, I would like two diamond like shapes on either side, but I don’t want to lose central coverage completely. This is great against narrow systems as we still defend narrow but attack the channels and flanks as we transition. Defensively on both setups it really depends on what personal am up against, I have tinkered with trapping inside and outside, personally I still prefer to use opponent instructions at this stage. Mainly because I like to show full backs inside to the congested middle, but I like to show inside forwards, inverted wingers and wingers all down the flank, my three centre backs usually out number attackers and with Plavotic (leading header winner in the league) I often have a superiority to deal with crosses. Why don’t I invite crosses you say? simple answer am not sure how it works yet. i think combined with trapping outside it could make for some very good wide pressing traps but that is something am still trying to workout. As for our intelligent pressing, Counter press is always on as is more often pressing as standard. High press more often than not. The variables here are often the defensive line, if I feel I team is getting in behind on a high line I drop to standard and drop off more, if I think there is too much going on in front of us, I revert to higher and stepping up. Again, personnel dictates things here before for an against, am not blessed with a massive amount of pace in the back line, so against quick strikers naturally I deny them space. Against a big strong striker stepping up and letting Plavotic go man for man often dropping the outside defenders drop onto cover. Opponent instructions are real assent to make the pressing intelligent I don’t simply press all defenders and DM's, I lay traps to the weaker ones, mark good ball players, press weaker ones. sometimes I just allow the defence to have it but the minute it hits midfield I press relentlessly when I do this I drop to mid-block and turn up the pressing. Other times I mark central players and press wide or vice versa again coming down to our opponents’ strengths. Oberösterreich-Derby The match against LASK Linz is our only registered derby, while Blau-Weiss Linz from the Bundesliga 2 are rivals but no official derby. 70km west of Linz is where we lie in terms of the geography of the local rivalry, while I’m usually keen to manage teams with derbies within cities, preferably ones with only two clubs (due to me being from Edinburgh and our local rivalry which I live for). This time ill must settle for a regional rivalry! Rapid are set as a competitive rival which adds some incentive against them. A massive win in Linz, the central overload forced turnovers and our high pressing on the flanks stopped them progressing down our sides. Not a single shot on target for the hosts who were tipped to be among the title challengers this season. The back three provided immense cover as we defended wide and went man for man on across the back. Risky strategy but the reward was huge. The first goal is probably my favourite of the save so far, a turnover inside the opponent’s half, two passes and were in behind and lobbing the goalkeeper. It sums up everything I’m trying to create in terms of style of play. The second goal further backs up our pressing qualities and the strike well you don’t hit them much better than that for a young RWB! Conclusion Thanks for your patients first, been a slow start (typical) I had my doubts about the save and while it’s started, I still have this nagging thought about my Italian save. For now, I’m fully invested in the challenge, put Italy aside. Things started shaking but as we’ve grown into the tactical setups and tinkering things have paid off. During the world cup break its going to be all about planning for the recruitment in the summer, I don’t envisage a very busy winter window, but stranger things have happened. Evaluating the players with their contracts ending and deciding their fate will dictate a lot of this. The scout range will be increased for a short time as well to open western Africa (Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast) Sorry about the size of update a lot to take in, but to increase speed of play am trying to limit myself to three or four big updates a year rather than monthly’s.

Congratulations on the title!!

Balance is starting to be restored to the club!

The tactical switch has worked wonders! I think it’s a very good formation this year due to how pivots are playing. I’ve ended up at the same conclusion after a ropey start with a single pivot I switched to a double and it’s made things a lot smoother especially as I look to transition quickly. If big Sydney is half as good as he was in my Dutch save last year I think he will be something of a coup for you!

Very very good start to life in Lithuania! How have you been tactically setting up? Personally being from Scotland am a big fan of the nations league, mainly cause it’s the only way we have any chance of qualifying for anything these days 🤣

I’ve had him at my Austrian save. And he does exactly what you’d expect. Solid defender

Check out Daniel loncar in Croatia. Looks a real bargain. I picked him up for 50k very aggressive CB capable of playing RB as well.

Great club needing sorting out. And from the beautiful south!

Great idea. Best of luck in Lithuanian following

His cards are definitely marked 🤣

Looks like you really need a gem to come through which you can make a huge profit on to stop the plight

More focus on the league can be a good thing. Any sign of a new DAM?

After what you delivered in previous season I would have expected you to get more than ten games! Even in a slump!