_Ben_

I think he would be, too. My initial thought though was that I wanted someone to come in and provide a little more pace in the backline as we're not the fastest: This was the one thing that was identified both statistically at the end of the season and often in game through the eye test. We play a Higher defensive line and force the opponents outside, but, given our standard line of Engagement (which means play is somewhat squashed and compacted: intentionally), means we do leave ourselves open to hoofs over the top, particularly from defenders or defensive minded midfielders. I think that managing this is a more efficient solution to decreasing the compactness as it, in my eyes, would limit our offensive transition when there is a turnover. I took this screenshot of the Zenit game and our defenders are still really progressive in their passing and I think da Silva can certainly add to that. I'm looking to add Brings ball out of defence, below, to his game, too: I'm a little sad that he can't play as a midfielder as that'd open up the ability to learn traits like killer balls and even more disappointed that, given he's played over 100 games, cannot be mentored: I'd gone with the setup as, in an ideal world, want him to act like both a CB and DM - I though learning any of the below traits, from Kolosov or Podymov, would be beneficial to this: I will se whether none means none in this sense but, if not, there's going to be quite a long term job to align his traits with the style that I want him to have! I then also have to manage his potential lack of consistency and adaptability - so he's going to be a fun one to profile over the next months and years.

Interesting question... Well, for the last two years, my striker hasn't been my top league scorer: I feel that our style is more conducive to spreading the goals out - my forward players scored, on average, 6.3 goals last year but that does equate to 76 scored just by those players - hardly a poor return. The way that our play builds up is through the middle and we look to create overloads and space with third man runs, not really utilising an out-and-out striker or goalscorer. Hence why I've been not really too upset that Vlahovic is gone and I haven't rushed to replace him. I'm thinking about how to work with da Silva and will write up a post in reply to @tyler16 when I've thought my approach through!

(Late) June 2036 Not much to do here but just a few admin things, starting with a new contract for my reputable player, Kristian Nokkvi Hylnsson. With Krystian moving into the last twelve months of his deal, I felt that it was an appropriate thing to do, despite his age. With our newly formed Chinese link, he will continue to be an important money-making member of the team and his player stats remain at a really high level. He's also taken a near £10k p/w pay cut, which, when you consider that he was on £60k p/w when I started, is a hugely positive step for us as we look to maintain a steady cash flow. I'm very aware of his recurring injury and I definitely want to learn about how to manage players like this in the most efficient ways possible - even if one more could be the end of his career. --- With it being the start of the transfer window, I've been able to announce some new signings and one departure: Andrey Kudravets. Airton da Silva. Ibrahim Koroma. Hayri Sahin. Oded Maman. I knew it'd be difficult to keep Oded even though his goal contributions (14 in 48 games) was not, really, at the level I knew he could play at. His head was turned as soon as Arsenal came in and I've managed to accrue £12m upfront with two further £2.5m instalments, paid in six month blocks as well as 20% of his next sale. Maybe not the best deal for us, but a huge profit on the £2.4m I paid for him. He's joined by Viktor Mar Hreidarrson who has agreed to move to RB Salzburg on the 1st July as he, too, was unhappy. Losing two wingers is tough and I've replaced them with two players who hardly are marquee signings. However, both Koroma and Sahin were spotted through statistical scouting and returned really strong outputs in weaker teams in divisions every bit as strong as ours - so I am excited to see what they can do at a bigger fish in their respective pond. There certainly could be scope for a huge marquee signing here next summer though if one/both of these do not work out. They're joined by Airton da Silva, the pre-arranged, record buy, at £10.5m from Corinthians. I've profiled him several times and am really excited by him. Lastly, Kudravets, a man who I brought to Ural and who has conceded less than a goal a game for the last three years comes in as cup keeper. It's not the most realistic signing their first choice but with Agkatsev moving on, I needed a non-foreign number two. Arman Hovsepyan, who agreed to make his loan deal permanent following Sparta's relegation, will officially become ours on the 1st July. There's not much more left to do over the summer months now, particularly with recruitment, so it's time to hit pre-season!

That's a great point! I just worry about the reputation of the players. However, next time it comes around, I'll attempt to pick up a Belarussian team and then sign a few young South Americans and ship them off there...

(Early) June 2036 Another victory! We're absolutely on a level playing field, if not better, with Zenit now. We matched them throughout the game, taking an early lead through Oded Maman before Dusan Vlahovic, in what is his last ever professional game, doubled our lead. A late concession and a nervy bit of stopping time ensued but that doubles our tally of Kubok Rossii's! --- It's been a great overall season for as we lead every metric that suits our players and playing style. However, the xG table shows that, in fact, the league should have been a lot closer than it actually was, with us only finishing one xPts ahead of Zenit. We've been a little luckier than expected and they've been significantly unluckier than expected, so that is something to watch for next year. The league will, however, be without Daryl Dike, who's statistics for CSKA are phenomenal but also without the retiring David Turnbull, who's statistical output fell off a cliff this year; it'll be interesting to see whether they can replace him. I'm delighted with the team output, as I obviously would as we record a domestic treble! I won't share the overall statistics for the team; instead, I will dig into the attacking outputs as that's the part of the team that will be most decimated this summer with Vlahovic's retirement, Hreidarsson's intent to leave and significant interest in Oded Maman. Here is a spreadsheet that ranks, numerically rather than percentile, key advanced outputs across the other attacking players in the league: It shows some really interesting things really! Viktor Mar Hreidarsson had a really strong season, although these metrics are skewed by the significant number of shorter performances - but that, in itself, is an area where I need quality to be able to come off the bench and change the game. However, I will stay true to my morals (and in game promises) and allow him to move on as he wants to be considered a key player and, at his age, with his wage demands - that can't happen. Vitali Volkagonov is coming off the back of his worst scoring season, yet is actually pretty creative and unlucky, if you look at his xG differential. If I can ensure that he's got his shooting boots on at all times, I really think he can fill the void (not a creative void, per se) that Vlahovic will leave behind. Debut half seasons for Conberse and Zbrun were hugely promising and the latter, if he can work on his shooting accuracy (currently training as a P(a) with Shooting focus), will do really well. It's also interesting to look at Hosvepyan, who, as I identified, is the opposite and needs to learn to be a creator. With Vlahovic moving on, I feel it's a great time to amend the mentoring setup: Which could allow Hovsepyan to end up with the following traits (bold are exisiting traits): Moves into Channels Tries Killer Balls Often Knocks Ball Past Opponent Cuts inside from Left Wing Argues with Officials Tries First Time Shots Again, his training is also looking at a specific area, like Zbrun's - this time his creative outlet. --- I like this little end of season report, too: I think that the addition of Da Silva, a really pacey centre back, will assist with the goal concessions and I am in the process of recruiting a better backup keeper: Kudravets, who I brought to Ural. We go into next season without my youth coach Ezequiel Ponce, who has moved on to manage in Italy. I was paying close attention to how his attributes were developing as his coaching courses completed but I've got to be honest and say that he's still very average!

Thanks! We do indeed. I've sent a couple of players to second tier Akhmat and have Chertanovo their because of their infamous reputation within the game at having to produce their own newgens. I can't send players there (as is their rules) but have Kransodar-2 at this level anyway. I've also got the Bulgarian and Romanian teams to assist with youth development but they haven't done so, yet, and have just struck a merchandise deal with Guahgzhou, so excited to see where that goes!

I've been having a play this evening with a thought in my head that this is all quite nice for recruiting individuals, but what about looking at leagues or teams for top players. I might want to have a look at teams who have been relegated and see if they have any standout players, for example. So I have made this: It's collating their advanced metrics and then ranking them, not percentile this time, out of those in the same data set - in this case, the league. Lots of work to be done here including adding the top three from the league so you could, in theory, input a whole league's worth of players and unpick an analyst report from there. Is this the kind of thing that would be usable for people? EDIT: Here is what a 'league table' of advanced stats might look like...

Thanks Dan! It was all going smoothly until this: ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! On the Volkaganov deal! A trio of Vitali, Zbrun and Hovsepyan is still absolutely strong enough for this league and is quite nice in terms of that F9 player I'm after as I certainly wouldn't class Dusan as a natural in that kind of role. --- Elsewhere, it's certainly a goal that I've been working to achieve and fits the recruitment model I have in place. In terms of replacements - I guess the first area to look at is sorting by age: Agkatsev is being replaced this summer as I'm moving for an old keeper that I brought to Ural with me: but more on that as the summer progresses. Hreidarsson is likely to be replaced by Koroma or Sahin, who I profiled earlier but are still waiting on final reports before stepping up the moves. Then I'm only really looking at Hylnsson, below: At 32, he's still performing really well but I'm really conscious of the combo of average Determination and relatively poor Natural Fitness built upon a not overly physical frame. My four midfielders cover the most ground in the team and such a physical role isn't suited to a player without the pre-requisite physical ability. He's, potentially, a player who could move back to a DM role - particularly against those teams who sit deeper and need 'unlocking' more but he's not got great positioning and his size makes him less than ideal. He's got another year left on his deal but his status, as a foreign player makes him a highly valuable asset, which I'd rather I didn't waste on a backup player. I have, obviously, got pretty huge budgets and could definitely enter the market for an established age player to compliment Iljas Zherebyatjev (26), Matias Conberse (19) and Mamuka Sakheishvili (19). Again - that player in his prime, hitting those KPIs that I am after from an appropriate level league would be an ideal player here. Food for thought for me, definitely!

May 2036 Full RPL Table. FNL Table. Russian Second Division - Group 1 Table. In the words of my data analyst: 'Unexpected bonus' - this time actually being able to sit and play a bit more over the dull Sunday afternoon meaning I can get an update out during the working week. We did it! In the end, it was actually Zenit that did it for us, holding Lokomotiv to a draw and creating an insurmountable gap - trust them to ruin the glory of us actually winning it with our own performance! Europe was hard and Newcastle are a great team: on course for top 4 again in the Premier League, so I cannot be too despondent. What it will do to our nations co-efficients will be useful though. We are also, just about, through to a third successive Kubok Rossii, against, yet again, Zenit - with us tied one apiece for titles under my reign. We kicked off with a pretty good performance in Vienna against Newcastle - possibly being a little unlikely to end without scoring. Those worries soon dissipated, as we hammered Orenburg thanks to Kristian, who opened his tally with the goal from the gif above. At St James, we were very timid and my game plan of hitting them on the counter after an early onslaught didn't really work. They absolutely deserved it over two legs but it's not an issue. We just above beat Ural, albeit on penalties, after two horrendous mistakes for them gifted us goals. My old forward Petrenko bullied us though and that is a concern for me! Three pretty straightforward ties against the bottom three signed off the month and season: relegating Dinamo in the process! If you look at the FNL table, you'll also see that Sochi have gone down, meaning the the third tier, where my 2-Team players has Rotor, Sochi and Anji in next season: a really good place for my youngsters to learn! ---- Just thinking ahead to my striking options for next year and, despite the want for positional fluidity, as shown in the Venn diagrams I have made in the past, think I am settled on these three: The first look is at age, which does worry me. Dusan has another year left on his deal and will be replaced at the end of it. That was always my intention due to his wage demands and age and I think, in all honesty, that's only not going to change if he scores 20+ next year, which is unlikely, given his role will be more of a rotational option. It gives me a year to recruit someone and, given the age of the other two, this player must be in their prime. By this time next year, I will have two 20-year olds, one - Zbrun - with 1.5 full seasons in Russia and half a season in Argentina and another who should have made nearly 50 appearances for us. That does make me feel better but I've got to be aware that there may well be some pretty serious rotation as these players grow into their professional careers and that this is largely unheard of in real life. In terms of markets, I'm not too sure if I could put my finger on a place where Russia exploits (as Holland, well, Ajax, does well in Scandinavia, for example) but I think I should be looking at stronger players from those leagues around us: Turkey, Austria, Portugal, Holland and Belgium. We're not big enough to be taking top, important players from the likes of La Liga or Ligue Une so this is probably a realistic approach for me. I could, obviously, go for a South American, given the fact that Vlahovic will be departing a non-Russian spot himself. For the players I want - I use a F9(s) across all of the tactics but, realistically, want a player capable of doing it all and being very well rounded. When I take a deeper dive into Zbrun's performance, I can see that he is wonderful creatively and takes shots, but is just not (yet) the most natural finishing. Therefore, I'm going to look at adding a trait (Places Shots) to his game and work with him to develop that area of his game. Now, Arman Hovsepyan. Clearly a man of much talent but a personality that makes him very hard to deal with him. I have, however, decided that, due to their relegation (and a clause in his contract), that I will push through with the transfer. I had originally agreed a fee of £10.75m, a club record, which, probably, would not have been triggered but I can make £4m work in my head. Another reason to make it permanent is when looking at his performance, you'll see there is one gaping hole - his playmaking ability. With him being on loan, I can't work with traits to develop that part of him and hope that he can be a little more creative. I am aware that he's played more cup ties and in easier games which will probably see a natural decrease in his scoring output, but that was part of his development plan and is totally acceptable. This means that I will be accepting an offer from CSKA and allowing the Volkagonov sale. He was a loyal servant but a pretty poor season and lots of new talent coming through has allowed this to happen. We did play with four players this season and one sale will see me at three, but I do have Djioev, who can fill in (although not a F9 by any stretch) and the promising Samedov in my 2-Team.

Thank you so much to everyone who has liked this and offered some feedback! I'm going to keep working on things and am really open to ideas for what else could be done with the data we have at hand! ---- Not sure, sorry! I may have been too simple with it, using a formula I found on the internet that balances the possession back to that 50/50 to create that possession adjusted metric. "50%/TEAM POSSESSION x Defensive Actions." As for the team possession - it's manually inputted once and then an Index formula: Matches it with the team name (which is why it appears on the defensive metrics and not offensive metrics), which shows up in my raw data, like so: I've used macros, a long time ago, but do want to go back in - if only to just replace the '-' with '0' although I do use the IFERROR(A1-A2,"0") for example, which would just show a 0 if there was an invalid string or text in either A1 or A2. I think macros are the next step, for me in this creation. I just have a private twitter and peruse the #FM22 hashtag from time to time! Sorry. I 100% agree with this. I know that the Hub is in it's infancy but, like you, expected a bit more. I was even able to create these scatter plots last year with a custom skin, so it's not moved on a lot. However, FM tends to be like this as it embeds new features over the course of years. I live in hope. When you've still got things like this: A wealth of stats just not been exported or this: Several buttons to click through to see progressive passes (a stat that has become more important of late) but is not accessible easily or readily available for more than just your team, your idea is somewhat of a pipedream: sadly! I saw this but, as you say, saw midfielders rating 7.5 over 20 games but running 4km per game just because the Belgian league isn't modelled. A real shame as I like the idea of defensive actions per metre ran or vice versa! You can just about see that in team metrics - but, again, it's just scorelines and not a lot more. Certainly an area that I would love to explore but it's never a possibility on the scale I want - where I sometimes compare European top flight forwards under 21 - which is a massive criteria range! I've done this in the past. Here is a graph I made at the start of my save: But it's super time consuming as you have to collate all the info for team losses of possession and opponents losses in opposition halves etc. Definitely a doable metric and a really useful one!

His blog, and Twitter, is of huge inspiration to me so I'm sure he'll see some links to how he creates his overview stats!

Thanks for the feedback, Shrew! I will attest to saying that a lot of the stats, for attackers, have come through from what you had created. NpxG/shot is there, although there seems to be a bit of an issue with the formula at present so I'm looking at that. I have that percentage but I've just re-worked the pie charts to make it clearer: Here, you can see that CSKA Moscow rely heavily on Daryl Dike as he's scored 57% of the goals that have been scored whilst he is on the pitch and assisted 3% of them, giving him a total involvement of 60%.

Thanks! It's been some season for us. I don't ever see this being a Luzern type save where I won seven top flight titles in a row, simply due to the time it's taken me to complete the seasons but we could be building something dynastical.

I posted the above in the GD forum - would appreciate any feedback from anyone who utilises statistics in FM - @Shrewnaldo, @SixPointer, @danielgear,@MattyLewis11 and anyone else I've missed!

Hi all, I have a dream that FM becomes even more of a spreadsheet in future and allows access to all of the data that it collects. However, rather than turning this into a rant about that, I'd like to ask for some suggestions or feedback. I've been building some stuff over the past months in Excel that try to mirror what you might see on Twitter, or elsewhere, about statistical analysis for real life players. I have created a few different views with what I can easily export (caveat is that one screen does require input of team possession, goals conceded and the number of rounds played in the league). I'm at a point now where I'm using these in my game and reasonably happy with what I've created but I'd like to get some feedback on what is missing and what else I can do with the numbers I have collated. At some point, I do plan to release this along with the custom views for the data collection, but that won't be until I've ironed it all out and am happy with it (even though it's still pretty basic!). Before anyone asks, this is all automated and I only copy and paste the raw data onto an Excel sheet before selecting (or typing) the name of the players involved. ---- Overall View: This compares their per/90 outputs with whoever else's data I have collated - in this case, all wingers from the Turkish Super Lig. It then also adds the team performance to it. I like to screenshot pictures of their face, badge, nationality and positional abilities to add in here, also. Comparative View: Builds on this, adding another player into it to create a comparison. Advanced Attacking Stats: Really pushes the depth of what I can create using the numbers I have to create the fullest picture of a player in their attacking sense. Advanced Defensive Stats: A similar view for defensive players. --- Any feedback would be hugely appreciated! I hope that this is the kind of thing somebody might find useful! It's certainly allowed me to express my love of data alongside the way I play FM.

(Early) May 2036 A break from the normal to highlight a couple of things before the real world hits me again after a few days of free time. Both happen to be about my mercurial gem Kristian Nokkvi Hylnsson. The first is a clip from our first match of May, against Orenburg: I just love the interchanging between the F9, W(s) and CM(a) here, which allowed Kristian to get in and, as you'd expect, finish beautifully. I've worked so hard to create a tactic that allows direct football but builds itself around key passes through space creation and incisive football as well as recruiting and developing the right, realistic, type of players for the roles - so to see it work in all it's beauty is just a great achievement for me - a man who, historically, has always shied away from the tactical side of the game. The second image is an area that I do have to admit is (and always has been) in my wheelhouse... I think that FM does a phenomenal job of collating stats but it just doesn't collate enough, or, to be honest, do enough with them. I dream of an FM23 that allows customisable columns in which calculations can happen (e.g. xG divided by minutes to create xG/90 - although that is in the game, somewhere) but, realistically, it won't happen. So I've built this little dashboard that can sit alongside my overall recruitment one (as seen above) that takes a deeper dive into the attacking metrics. In future, I'll dig into something that fits in with the defensive metrics but, at this point, I'm deep into recruiting wingers so went with that. I think collation of stats is all well and good but where the real money is made is being able to interpret them and then act upon them. Before I put this together, I was actually lamenting Krystian's lack of goalscoring output but, looking at the percentile ranks of all attacking players in the Russian Premier League with over 1000 minutes, I can safely say that he's still one of the best. I think that it largely comes from the fact I have had to limit the number of minutes that my 32 year old, slightly injury prone number 10 gets, which makes his eight goals and nine assists look like a drop from the mammoth thirty-two involvements last year. I like that it kind of asks me a lot of questions or makes me pose a lot of scenarios. Here are just a few that I have thought of: He doesn't shoot much, yet is incredibly accurate when he does. I could maybe utilise some kind of PI to ask him to shoot more often or to develop a trait - although that's unlikely given his age. He's currently riding the crest of a wave, once again, massively outscoring his xG. I have to be prepared for a dip in form at some point. He doesn't pass much but that's just our style and none of our midfielders complete too many passes of the ball. He's still instrumental to the team! Obviously, this is quite easy when he's such a good player but looking at the likes of Volkagonov, who's been poor this season (or, actually, just quite unlucky), you can see quite clearly what he needs to do!

April 2036 A hugely important month for us as we put ourselves on the brink of our first title and claim another scalp in Europe. However, there is, for me, a sense of tactical pride as I've really spent time looking at the opposition and, in particular, utilising opposition instructions that really work alongside our tactical identity. The Krylya game, for example, saw their players rate terribly, but that is (in my eyes) largely because I saw their use of wingers and a Target Forward, so identified specifics: setting their 'Very Weak' left footed right winger inside and tackling him really hard given his lack of Bravery. We then chose to trigger press a CM with poor composure, allowing us to win the ball back several times before their attacks got started and, as a team, showed their players inside, restricting their target man to exactly 0.0xG post this change. He was hauled off and I actually did a little celebration! We matched those against Gladbach but, somehow, pretty much every player was strong with both feet, not lacking bravery or composure and their midfield was far faster than mine. However, the little things, like tight marking their playmaker, who was a little slower, trigger pressing their underperforming full back, on a yellow card from early on and utilising tight marking on their two forwards really helped. For me - these are little wins and, even though I imagine that they are done across the board without even consideration by many FM players, I'd never delved this deep tactically before. I've even altered my set plays, mid game, to avoid tall defensive players - that is, honestly, a first, and I love it! The result... A tough tie but we've made it this far! I have been incredibly impressed with the way that Conberse has settled in. Back in 2033, I brought in Alex Barreto in a similar kind of deal. Whilst Matias' goal contributions have been slightly lower than the now-Bundesliga midfielder Barreto's, you can see a very big similarity in terms of how they've rated. I spent a lot of time working through the signing of Alex, weighing up pros and cons that really set a precedent for my recruitment in this save (and now, probably, FM for ever more!) and I think that the signing of Conberse, following in those same steps, is a huge positive for us. It also shows that this type of statistical based recruitment can work for younger players, or players at a lower level (if I then apply the eye test, too) as well as those who are established in age or in high reputation divisions. --- Onto the talent acquisition.... I was looking for a winger to potentially replace Hreidarsson with a simple metric of dribbles per game (I've found myself more and more resorting to the Player Search screen but within the limits I want to set as the scouted screen, and scouting in general, still doesn't quite feel right in terms of number of players found) and came across an area where I have prospered before, the Eredivisie. Ibrahim Koroma is not scouted and, as such, this will only look at his statistical performances. From this panel, I can ascertain the following: Peak age International experience and any tournament (AFCON) would not directly impact our season due to the timing of it Versatile Good personality Not playing at a big club Potentially undervalued given current market value and previous cost Concerns around total appearances given his age I then had a look at his form: This doesn't look great. Three goal involvements and an average rating below 7.00 is not pulling up any trees nor attracting visiting scouts. However, I think there is a little more to it and the context behind it is strong. The Eredivisie is of similar quality to our league, as shown by Feyenoord's performances against us this season and his dribbling stat really does shine through - for comparison: Protosov: 4.50, Djioev: 3.48, Maman: 3.03, Hreidarsson: 1.94. But, when you look at the Eredivise table, you can also see why these are his performance metrics - Emmen are not a strong team and aren't doing well. They're scoring less than they create but they don't really shoot much either. Their conversion rate of chances is certainly not helping the lines of Koroma, the creators to record decent stats here. There is certainly a good reason behind the poor output from him and certainly a reason to think that he may be undervalued at this stage. What I then decided to do was to compare him to all the wingers playing in the top flight of the top 20 European countries and having appeared for over 1000 minutes this season, to see what I could find. The results were pleasing: What is the job of a winger? To progress the ball and to cross it in. Ibrahim does pretty well with that! With his ability to play as a defender too, he brings the unexpected bonuses of having decent defensive and aerial prowess, which is good for me in the supporting wingers that I utilise. I then took this back to compare him with all Eredivisie wingers with over 1000 minutes and was even more pleased: Inside the top 4% for dribbles per game Inside the top 6% for crosses completed per game Inside the top 15% for key passes per game In the top quarter for chances created per game (which is amazing considering the overall team output here) xG is in the 58th percentile - he's only scored twice but that isn't too bad for wingers here. The next job is obviously to make sure that the attributes match the stats. However, to play, regularly, at this level, there should be no huge surprises (and, even without a scout report, I can see some of his attributes and they don't worry me) and ensure that there are no massive red flags. For a player at this peak age, I think I need to be more careful around consistency, big matches, adaptability etc because they have less of that development phase. I'll make sure I watch two or three games (or at least the highlights) before the end of the season and maybe, just maybe, he could be the next Zherabyatjev in terms of a hidden gem! And...if you want to talk about hidden gems, how about bringing Hayri Sahin into this! He was a player who popped up in my searching for Koroma but, when compared against all Turkish Super Lig clubs, he's done insanely well! The national team is pretty deep on the wins and he plays for a smaller team but those are some wonderful metrics. If interest in Maman does come to fruition, he'll almost certainly be eyed up for a replacement - again, providing the complete unveiling of attributes doesn't indicate any nasty surprises.

I want to have a better look at the backroom staff, in case they influence him too. The best news, however, is that he's just signed a new deal which gives him a tiny relegation release clause (£4m) and, right now, Sparta are in the drop zone. It may turn into a permanent deal just to play with how I'll get the best from him. I don't think you can do negative gestures with positive talks? There is certainly some scope for investigating...

Absolutely that! Take this: Came off the bench, played well, scored but, when individually praised - he then decided that this would demotivate him. It'll be a tough job to get him around to what I want, but, if I can do it and create a player who's attitude matches his ability - then I'll certainly have won!

Ahh, Arman! I've been digging really deep into the background of this player as I look to form my opinion... Attribute wise, he's really strong at the moment and is growing into the type of player that I really want at the club - fitting in with my own DNA (First Touch, Decisions, Determination, Work Rate and Natural Fitness) but there is a lot more to him than that, which is why I think the loan before buy was the perfect option. With where I am at in terms of recruitment, I want to recruit the best players I can both attribute wise and personality wise but also have the ability to manage those who may not be quite as suited. I think this is where I'm struggling with Arman. His hidden attributes give him these: Fairly Determined is quite straight forward as you can see his Determination but Volatile indicates a very poor temperament. His personality would be considered Temperamental if his Professionalism was below average, so that is a good sign. Media Friendly just tells me that nothing else is particularly high or low. This is not an uncommon thing or an uncommon personality set: it's just how I then manage that. There are further clues here: He can't connect with the highly professional Zherebyatjev, which would indicate that he doesn't have much professionalism. He's also unhappy at training, despite it covering, literally, the basic attributes he needs to develop. I have also got an indication that he's not got good Pressure or Big Matches, even though none of them are low enough to show on his report. The screenshot below is of the game against Ufa, a relatively easy tie. He was 'Nervous' at the start but I was able to calm him with my teamtalk. However, as the first half went on, he flittered between Nervous and Apprehensive. After a pretty abject 45, I pulled him off. You could blame some of that on his poor familiarity with the role, which, in itself is a bit stupid as that is the only place he's trained to play all year. Although, as a less-pro member of the team, maybe his attitude towards training is slowing that? That kind of return and lack of involvement could be due to the fact he's orange for consistency - 'Needs to work on becoming more consistent to develop further.' However, in my opinion - to develop that consistency, I think he would need targeted discussions which could then be rewarded with positive praise when they are achieved. I therefore told him that I want him to be getting in better positions to score or to assist because I was disappointed with his performance. I used that because his analysis showed me a complete lack of touches in the area (which I can partially accept for a F9) but then just one progressive pass in the opponents half (despite Passing: 14, Vision: 12, Decisions: 15). He was up in arms about it and told me that he completed disagreed: again, a nod to his lack of professionalism. I think I can coach this out him. Lots of praise is normally my way forward but he's not consistent enough to hit that. Therefore, I'd go for some targeted criticism, but, this time, he's not professional enough to take it. He's in a mentoring group with Vlahovic, who has great Pressure and Professionalism but, as of now, I've not been told of any development despite that significant impact. --- There's lots more to do before I make that final decision. In my eyes, another year of loan would be ideal - but I'd be looking at fees, before a permanent signing, that would be nearing a transfer record. He could be worth it but I do feel like, right now, there is something blocking him from becoming truly top class!

If I wasn't so riddled by tight foreign player restrictions and, to be fair, a dismal showing from AI clubs developing Russians, I'd just be signing 24+ year olds, who are undervalued. To me, that is probably on a par with finding that Cuban (insert any other tiny footballing nation) newgen and developing them! It's Igor Sabitov. He's clearly going to be great because, even with Dinamo in administration, it was going to take a huge sum to sign him. I had a brief look and was swayed by the fact he is Russian, but felt there were better options elsehwere.

Who is your Volante? I can envisage a player with good teamwork and decisions as well as the ability to dribble but the trait of tries long balls/switches play being insane at either progressing the ball or laying your IF(a) in. Certainly a shape with a lot of transitional threat. Really excited to see how the first three months have gone.

March 2036 Another long, draw out month but possible the most important month in the history of Krasnodar and my own job. We are edging closer to our first ever top flight title and an absolutely enthralling 210 minutes of football against Milan gave us our biggest scalp ever as we move on to face Gladbach in the quarter finals. We kicked off the two games that would largely decide our fate with two wins. A strong performance over Lokomotiv saw us romp to victory and we recorded a well deserved win over CKSA; demonstrating the full effect of our attacking shape for Zbrun's late, debut goal. I gave the backups a run out in the cup and Arman took advantage, netting four times in an easy win. With Milan side sitting a lowly 15th in Serie A, I'd be looking at this as a serious and realistic job option (although my FM23 does intend to have a stop back in my favourite FM country!) but it appears Daniel Farke is under no pressure, yet. Looking back at their managers, it's really interesting to see Gogniev, the ex Zenit boss, do a terrible job (14W,10D, 9L) but it appears Zizou, even with an ok record (13W, 5D, 5L), was afforded less time. What I'm really not good at is adapting my shape and style on the fly against the opposition: however, I learnt that they just do not press so I'd expect a fair bit of possession for my defenders, which, in turn, meant I needed to pick the most creative. We were wonderful and, for the neutral, the game was wonderful, too. A fully deserved win in Milan and a great performance, which, for me, is most pleasing - as it was built around what I expected and what I expected, I saw. With a 72 hour turnaround and a 4,500km flight from Milan to Yekaterinburg, I was expecting some tired legs and that is exactly what I got. It's the first time in a long time we have been out-xGed, but this was to the ratio of 3:1, which must be a first. Two set piece goals earned us the win but it was far from comfortable as many of my ex-players nearly came back to haunt me. It was the above moment, Volkagonov's first goal in thirteen hours, in the 115th minute that sent me into elation and then saw the most defensive five minutes I've ever had! We battled really hard against Milan, making adjustments based on what I'd seen in the first leg. Pulling the game back to 2-2 in the 67th minute gave me real hope but a late goal from Milan saw it go to extra time. However, with me making my three changes in attacking areas, I had fresh wingers against their super tired defenders, which I tried to take advantage of, staying on the front foot. Veteran Ozan Kabak was beaten for pace and, as they say, the rest is history! We then wrapped up the month with a solid win over Rostov, cementing our lead at six points with eight games to play. However, our run in is as follows: Ufa (A) - 11th Sovetov (H) - 9th Spartak (H) - 5th Perm (H) - 15th Nizhniy (A) - 10th Orenburg (A) - 6th Dinamo (H) - 14th Rubin (A) - 12th We could, literally, take 24 points from that... --- For the first time, we are recognised here! In years to come, hopefully, we'll have academy graduates...

I actually want to achieve somewhat of the opposite. There is no realism in a team of 20 year olds and I think FM are making progress with removing their bias towards young players' performances. I want to bring in younger players to develop and sell, as per the board's requests, but also want experienced heads who have been there and done it. Whether due to the war or otherwise, it appears that Russian sport has fallen out of view, for me at least, so it's lovely to hear these real life updates! There are some really great players there and I'm excited to see how I can progress them. In their first game in the 2-team, they did this against my old club, Mashuk: Orekhov scored twice and got four assists in what can only be considered to be the dream first competitive game!

Whilst that outlay, at first, looks horrific - you’ve turned a profit and created a team that, on paper, should dominate that league. Your signings are well thought out, realistic and I know that you’ll be able to work well with them. As you said, that Kana deal is the interesting one for me - as my own version hasn’t arrived yet. Will love to see how you treat him to manage him the best. How is it feeling? I’m all for a slow rebuild but one of this magnitude was needed although, from past experience, it does sometimes change the thoughts and plans for the longer term.