SixPointer

Good to see the physical side of the intake improving! No sign of any real Mexican link in the academy?

It sucks when life gets in the way of FM. I’m feeling that way right now. Squeezing the most out of my day off and the 1 hour a day I have to spare! Started brilliant, unbeaten at this stage already you look like a serious promotion contender.

Nicely presented! And a very nice club choice. Following along!

Nice club choice! Always has a soft spot for them because of Le Tiss and his wonder goals

I really hope you get to that number one spot. You deserve it!

What a result and game against Barcelona

Season Three - 2025/2026 A very mixed season to say the very least, some highs but a real struggle for consistency. The fact I was trying to implement some new tactical ideas did not help, another thing is a lack of transfer windows means players come and go all season and its leading to huge turnovers. Competitions - After topping a group with Boca Juniors we made it to the quarterfinals of the Copa Total Sudamericana, fellow Andean side Club Atlético Nacional from Medellin gave us a right turning over. Nevertheless a very good run, in a continental competition. The Copa Libertadores is another high point, qualifying out of the groups and beating Belgrano on the way to doing so, we are rewarded with a big tie in the knock rounds against Fluminense FC. Copa Venezuela is secured, after the semi final heroics of our goal scoring goalkeeper we crawled to the title in the final, in truth i think the cups are the only reason i'm still in a job. Our league form was patchy to say the least, I wanted to move away from the 4-2-3-1, so there was a lot of tinkering and perhaps too much. In the end it was back to the 4-2-3-1, but the board is still giving me grief. Coloccini has become frustrated with board, after all third place isn't the end of the world and he is trying to shape the club for long term success, with his transfer business he has taken the academy to a higher level, upgraded both facilities at the club, all while being competitive on the continental front and delivering a trophy. He said in recent interviews that he thought given the time to create a clear philosophy at the club he could one day bring a continental title to Venezuela, but now it seems like he is fed up with a nagging board, who cant see his long term vision. Transfers - Leaving the club was some key players, none more so than Vivas but we struck a great deal for him, with a good sell on fee. Ruiz, Uzcátegui, Ortega and Cordero all make profits after being at the club for a season. Taborga goes for a loss but he had fallen out with Coloccini, young Valbuena, a youth product makes a nice 300k for the club. Ignacio Anzola , was tasked with replacing Vivas, and in truth he just couldn't match his levels, he came with such promise but never really hit the level. Jorge Echeverría came in to lead the line, more of a flair player who was able to link the play better, he hit double figures, but getting the strikers to finish was a real problem again. Anderson Contreras proved to be a real bargain, taking some weight of the creativity in deep areas, the left footed DLP was responsible for 11 assists. Andrés Romero on a free was a huge bit of business, again securing one of the best players in the league, buying local tried and tested is a philosophy for now, Anzola has backfired but maybe pre season will sort him out. The best 11 for the season, defence proving to be a real weak spot, i never really could get a settled back four that was consistently performing, i also tried a back three for periods of time which is something i want to work on in the future. Into Midfield the double pivot is an area of real strength, Bahachillie is the best player at the club, when he plays well the team plays well, he is lethal at the near post at corners. Wide left is an issue but Romero will solve that in the future, Garica picks up Injuries all the time but has moments of real quality, Andrade just gets stronger and stronger, i think he will be the next big sale. Eche came in and made the centre forward role his own, Monzon and Diaz (injured for 9 months now) struggled to get any sort of goalscoring form going. Tactically Our biggest weakness is our leaky defence, one that doesn't face a lot of trouble as well, goalkeeping is an issue it would appear shipping +9 for expected goals. Teams love to hit us on the counter and it really is something i need to solve. I think our high line, combined with still having a higher than average OPDA is an issue. Allowing teams time to pick their long balls behind our high line, again I was experimenting a lot this year. I had been working on some forms of Bielsa ball. I may or may not keep that up, I suppose it depends if I stick around at the club. Coloccini is after all frustrated with an impatient board who won't let him explore tactically and find his masterplan, perhaps he may turn to another fellow countryman in Diego Simone for advice. Right now I feel it would be annoying to walk away, because the squad just needs three players of real quality added, a lot of work has gone into it and it felt like somewhere that building a club capable of winning a continental title was possible. The Argentine still has them in the Copa Libertadores, but he has also won everything domestically. There is certainly some thinking to be done over the next few days. After all, the two teams above us massively punched above their weight, hugely outscoring their XG and XPTS. This is what good teams do though they over perform on what's expected of them, this year we were the opposite and done just okay, our goal scoring hides from the fact that our goalkeeper and defence need more protecting and upgrading.

Thanks man. Angostura F.C. A team we really should be beating!

Season is done hopefully tomorrow evening I can have the review done. If not it will be on Monday morning after my night off on Sunday!

Alejandro Araque sends us to the Copa Venezuela final, hitting his 9th goal of the season, 9/9 from the spot, i dont think i have had a more ruthless penalty taker in all my saves. Pitty he has been awful at keeping the ball out his own net this season. @Jimbokav1971 i know your a big fan of the goalscoring keepers!

Love the idea of the loan deal, risk free like you say. Something I have actually started to do myself. I wasn’t a big fan of loan deals previously but if you structure it like you have it makes total sense! I had two strikers on loan, both with contracts running down both done well on loans and I’ve no signed both for free

Thanks bud! Hopefully get the season of to a start tomorrow on my night off

Monday is usually both shadow plays with a general tactical session. Then Tuesday match tactics, game Wednesday, Thursday recovery and review. Friday match tactics and Saturday game. But depends what the gap is between game. The general idea would to be get as much tactical sessions in before the game and make sure we have rest, recovery and review after.

Do you think both can secure safety in Serie A? If they can lead you to that. Workout how much money it’s worth staying in the league and then decide if it’s worth it.

Looking good for champions league football next year

Good business, you confess to a couple of mistakes but i feel like you covered for them. Uros looks extremely talented, looks like he could become a lethal weapon with that acceleration pace and first touch. I do love a physical striker but he seems to have enough already to lean towards being complete.

Yeah, frustrating that it’s actually down to the board to improve the facilities and they are complaining to me. Okay never thought of that as an idea perhaps something I can do. Appreciate that! The idea to manage in South America came from reading a book on holiday, Tears at la Bombonera. Christopher Hylland telling his stories of living in South America and his love with the football as he toured many places for the football. He also lived in Argentina for a long period. If you like reading something you should give a read. Especially having lived there yourself.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

A quick update to round up last season, some stats, some transfers and Youth Development. We are far superior than most clubs in attack in the league. Our aggressive but clinical nature is something I am very happy with. The aim is to create lots of chances and try and take as many as possible. I don't mind being overly aggressive as the law of averages and how we perform it will eventually pay off, in theory. Outscoring our XG by 14 points is a sign of our ability to find the net with lower quality chances. Our 18 goals from corners is an incredible amount, I always pride myself on set plays, especially my corner routines. You can see we favor the front post which aims for a specific player, but also switch it up to the back post to hit another player to keep our opponents on their toes. Our possession stats have certainly improved from last season, I think we have found the balance of being a good passing side. Some issues still lie in our out of possession, we do not press as high as I would like, but we still boast the best defense in the league, but conceded two more goals than expected. We don't allow a lot of passes against us and win our fair share of tackles, which means the press is effective, so maybe i am being over critical, increasing the OPDA may lead to more goals being conceded. Something definitely worth managing, I have found myself using the drop of more instruction at times, so a full blown high press is maybe still a while away, but as the saying goes, if it's not broken don't fix it....... Of course to pull off this style of play you need a certain level and type of player, now at this level they can be hard to come by. As you can imagine there has been some amount of turnover of players at the club, some have actually come and gone. With having such a small scouting team, trials have been a huge part of finding players, we've had over 100 players on trial at Deportivo alone. The plan really has been to stick to players known in the league, or using the suggestions from scouts and Imediaties who brung some ideas in, after a big player sale we added to the youth setup but also increased our scouting range this brought about some more finds. The first season brought up a rather large spend......... well a huge spend. But it was calculated, Yerson Chacon had already agreed to sign for AC Milan for 600k, with a 25% sell on, unfortunately he got a really bad injury on his third game which will hinder his progress, i also knew that come the next season their would be a large chunk of players that would be moved on, reaching 1.8 million pounds. We also received a good amount from Samuel Sosa sell on clause, 25% of 625k giving us a nice 275k So players brought in, there is a vast amount so ill zone in on a few so you can get the just of my recruitment process. Abraham Bahachille - signed for 300k, a deep lying playmaker signed from Cabello in our league, he finished the season as player of the year and top scorer at the club, he is the front post targetman at corners. Juan Camilo Pérez - signed for 100k from the relegated Carabobo, a very exciting winger who would be far to good for the level below, he finished the season with 10 direct goal involvements Diego Osio - signed from Cabello also for 350k, The man i thought could be my libero, but he never really got going in truth, he's been a steady performer but hoping for more next season. Kervin Andrade - signed for 400k from Deportivo La Guaira, who surprisingly aren't playing him. He has been a standout since he got fifteen assists and six goals, he does take his fair share of corners which skews this slightly. There were a few more squad players that arrived from the league as well, but for the last couple I'll bring you a few that Immediately brought to my attention. Alexander Díaz & Florián Monzón both arrived on loan deals, Monzon has since signed permanently after his deal at Velez ran out, he shone in his first 10 games so went ahead and made the pre contract deal, since then he tailed off. Diaz has a 500k option in his loan deal, and has scored 11 goals in 22 starters, so am on the fence with him right now. Enrique Taborga - at 525 k is our biggest outlay to date, i wanted someone on the left hand side that could invert as a full back but also do a job as a IWB, he started like a flash at the end of last season 5 games 3 assists but second season he never hit the heights again, this coming season am expecting bigger things. Luiz Henrique - at 17k from Santos and with 15 direct goal involvements is the bargain of the save so far, the Brazilian has excelled in the attacking midfield slots. Youth Development I will be the first to admit this is a real weakness for me when it comes to football management, it's something I have never truly mastered. Yes I have had some really great players come through but i haven't got a clear plan or philosophy when it comes to it. The nature of the save doesn't lend itself to becoming a huge youth development save either, I'm planning on jumping around a lot, but I thought I would share a few players that have come through that look like they have some real potential. Gabriel Rodríguez the young right wing back came through in our first intake and has already made 14 sub appearances and 5 starts, mainly because Vivas plays the inverted role but if we use an attacking wing back this kid has the ability to attack. Daniel Mejias was the top talent from the second intake, at 15 he already has some standout attributes for becoming a solid attacking midfielder, he got some game time along with Freddy Scaramelli at the tail end of the season. Now like I said, not a strong point of mine so open to some suggestions on how to get the best out of two good intakes. I'll document some progress, but it's never going to be a fountain of youth save I am afraid. I tend to lean more to the tactical side of things.

Prefect for the plans you have! Planning on upgrading the coaching staff? Maximise the gains from the promotion?

I agree with sheriff. I think more than ever fitness is a huge factor this edition of fm

Congratulations on promotion, surely the owners will loosen the purse strings!

Big business In Amsterdam!

Maldini looks a marvellous piece of business.

It’s a role I’ve used down the years. But you always had to move the wingbacks into the DM line to get it so drop between the CB’s and even then it still wasn’t as good as the reworked one for FM24. It does a great job now