_Ben_

February 2036 My name is Ben and I'm an addict to FM but only get my fix on the weekends at present! This lack of game time has significantly impacted my longer term plans; only ten years in to my first save when, usually, I'm nearing completion and moving elsewhere. My plans for my 'second save' are still there but may wait until FM23 with a shorter project coming if/when I ever achieve all I want to achieve with this save: in Russia or beyond. Pre-season, as has been since 22.4, has consisted of domestic games, which, sadly, don't really create much competition and only use is just to get some match fitness. I've been impressed with how my two new Argentines have settled, but need to consider that Zbrun was actually far more dangerous whilst playing on the left wing: Obviously, as someone who a) is new to the club, b) cannot speak the language and c) has no positional familiarity with a striker - this is slow start is to be somewhat expected. I will ensure that I slowly create those opportunities for him to come and perform well as a striker as that will both help with development but also keep morale high and develop positional familiarity more positively. --- Confirmation that the transfer window has closed, too: I moved a window earlier than intended, selling on Irala on to make a foreign player space for Da Silva's arrival in the summer. He'd not settled too well and being able to turn a £5.1m profit inside six months is a real positive from this deal. Overall, I'm happy with the squad that I've got and I've got a pretty steady plan ahead for those who will need replacing for a variety of reasons: Less than 18 months on current contract: The jury is still out on when Hovsepyan will sign permanently: it'd be a record deal and, to be fair, he's not developed too well this season. However, this appears to be due to unhappiness over a squad status I absolutely did not agree when creating the loan deal, which is annoying. The ceiling is the limit for this lad though, so I don't know whether trying to explore a loan extension would be able to buy me another year before he, perhaps, becomes financially out of my reach. Agkatsev is here because finding a non-foreign goalkeeper is pretty much impossible at the moment! He's not playing and I have no youth players ready to take over so it's kind of just ticking along. Vlahovic was only ever a two-year signing but, impressively, is barely regressing and is still strong. Protasov and Hreidarsson are okay but could both be allowed to see out their deals, if I'm able to recruit better. Neither are going to really bring me any money in so I'm happy to keep them on the books, given their really low weekly wage commitments. Hylnsson is a cult hero but, given that natural fitness, is likely to fall apart pretty quickly: especially when adding in his injury proneness. However, he's also not really a sellable asset these days and will always have a place in a squad managed by me! Aging players Keeping my older players on shorter contracts (as seen as they all appear on the above list) is a priority of mine, even if it does cost more in more regular re-negotiations. Lower quality players Both Volkaganov and Podymov are non-foreign and able squad members who, given their age, are unlikely to bring huge amounts of money. Therefore, it's realistic that they'd only be replaced should they become unhappy or the opportunity to considerably upgrade comes around. --- A lot of talk about those leaving, yet I have been blessed with an absolute golden generation: Ivan Miranchuk. Yury Orekhov. Timor Lukin. Artur Popov. Danila Magomedov. Artem Davydov. Nikita Perov. There is some absolute quality within this intake - many of whom could be in the first team in years to come. There is a nice balance of positions and roles but one thing worth noting is that I've had no players from other academies nor any with second nationalities this year.

Absolutely. Blows our own record out of the water and also usurps anything any other Russian clubs have done. It's all part of us being that party-pooper and showing that we're not just here to take part in the title race!

January (Part 2) 2036 With the exit of Barreto (who, as I said, has left with my best wishes following a great career), I also made the decision to move on another player: Farias had kind of become my fall guy - a player who was there as an extra bit didn't really do much yet got a lot of my personal blame. At 33, I knew his legs were going but he was the player who gave it his all whilst at Brighton in order for me to sign him - as I decided against Hannibal and went for the Argentine. Sadly, he's not quite lived up to the bill but I've got his £26k p/w wages off my books and a nice £1.6m, all of which is profit. I jumped the gun to make this move because I had been notified of this: My intention was to move, unopposed for Alejo after the transfer window had shut, but you know what they say about best laid plans! So, yeah... #WELCOMEALEJO Contract wise, he's earning less than Farias and half the amount of Barreto and, any release clause would see significant profit for us! I'm delighted that the constant watching of him, talking about him in the press and keeping tabs on his over the long term allowed me to swoop so easily. Yes, we paid nearly double the weekly wage that the scout report said, but it's well within my means. Two Argies out and two Argies in. Neither as good as Barreto but, on average, we have possibly made a little step up here...

Of course: I think their youth team might be a better decider here though? I know nothing about regional Russian names so please help!

Thanks both! Definitely going for realism but also really like how, as you say, Zbrun can be utilised in a number of positions to pose a specific threat, which, in turn, means I'll be paying much closer attention to the tactical stuff still.

I know! It's a bit of both, really. They splashed a bit of cash at the end of the window: Juan Jose Diaz looks decent but their squad is still old, with an average age of 28, and is still going to be part of a big turnover in the next couple of years.

January 2035 No games but the inevitable... Taking a leaf from the book of @SixPointer, I simply cannot reject an offer that is 552% of the fee I payed for the player who has repaid me with over 50 goals at more than a goal every other game. No way should this player, entering his peak, be stuck in Russia for a team that, actually, hasn't won anything of note, yet. I went in to see if I could turn his head back, but his demands were laughable, as they should be when Dortmund come calling. So where next? Well, back to the shortlist and I find this man who I added following an interesting scout report in the summer: Matias Conberse is a young lad currently plying his trade at Argentinos but is unhappy after their relegation to the second tier. On comparison with Barreto, he's remarkably similar but, obviously, not quite as good: yet far too good to be playing where he is right now. He's young, has a good personality and will not impact the non-Russian cap as he's effectively replacing another Argentine. With them being in the (unplayable) second tier, I'm unable to get a proper eye test for him but, statistically, he's interesting: I'm getting a sense of his trait of Dictating Tempo and the fact that he leads the top two tiers of Argentine football in times fouled that he's pretty good on the ball. I like that he can then use that and create chances and assists. I'd love to see how many are scored but, as I said, all I have to go by is this and, due to the fact it's only half a squad, it's not really realistic for this purpose so I must trust that these statistics have been created with some nod to attributes and playing style. Whilst not a goalscorer really, there's plenty of scope to mould that. Transfer listed at £2.1m will see me net a profit overall of more than £30m, allowing a player to follow a realistic career trajectory and allowing me to utilise statistical analysis to strategically recruit a replacement: perfect on all fronts!

December 2035 A relatively short month and one where we have seen Zenit essentially drop out of the running for the league. We go into the winter break with a three point lead over Lokomotiv, who we play first up. However, given our recent form post-break, I want to have a deeper look at my own mid-season schedule. Of course - the man who I sold to Zenit scoring his first goal for them. In the 90th minute. To salvage a draw. However, we can be proud of how far we've come as this is a game that I felt a little sad that we didn't take three points from - certainly not a feeling I'd have had a couple of seasons ago. We then followed up with an equally impressive win in Moscow to give us a pretty healthy lead over the aforementioned Zenit and the dangerous CSKA. A draw against Koln was pretty decent given that they're a very strong outfit and are currently in the new manager bounce phase after appointing Luuk de Jong. --- The above graphic is why I have loved building shortlists for the longer term. Alejo Zbrun was poor last year, registering three goals and five assists in 24(11) games and that performance is what put me off signing him back then. Yet, this season, he's got 4G/4A in 9(3) games (932 mins) and is in the top ten percent of all attacking players in the Argentinian top flight for Chances Created, Key Passes and Assists. Furthermore, his dribbling and goals are in the top quarter of the league, despite his playing time being split between a few different positions: Because he was already fully scouted, I was aware of a new deal so the form was just a reminder that he will cost me just £5.75m, even if I have to offer him a decent whack due to the extension clause Estudiantes have there. My plan, in an ideal world, is to complete this signing following the winter window (as you can't pre-arrange when meeting Release Clauses) in order to allow it to go through in the summer. But what it then does is clogs up an area of the team and adds to the growing problem of just eight non-Russian players, as seen here: An ideal swap would be to move Farias on as he's provided the least for us as a team but then I am concerned about a forward line that has two teenagers (Zbrun and Hovsepyan), who really aren't that experienced. Longer term, I see Samedov replacing Vlahovic but then that makes it feel even gamier - which teams run with a forward line made up of U21 players and the team in question is not part of a computer game?! I really like the idea of Vlahovic being a strong mentor (even if it'll have an impact on his Determination) as I have done with Hovsepyan this year. I also need to consider that Zbrun is not actual able to play as a striker, a F9, just yet so will need adaptation time. Does having four forwards: Vlahovic, Hovsepyan (who still hasn't quite convinced me, yet), Volkagonov and Zbrun work for a year when only one forward is used? Wherever we finish this season, we'll be fighting on at least two fronts and this depth is potentially necessary - especially when you consider the ability that they have to play in the AM strata, too. All in all, it's a really exciting future for the club and we're building a very formidable group of players with the ability to move for new players should others be sold. This ethos is my biggest recruiting achievement in FM to date, probably. --- Whilst I'm out shopping for potentially elite talents, I've also been using our scouting network to trial youngsters who will become part of the 2-Team and allow me to experiment and develop my own player development skills. I need to ensure that these players fit the criteria (and all do bar Gboho who was just a nice scout find at ASEC) due to their nationalities but may have been missed (with scouting still largely focused on professional leagues and not youth leagues) from the countries that they are based in. I don't know whether these players will even sign let alone develop, but I do also need to take into account of the board vision, below. Developing them and then, likely, selling them is part of the model that I want to utilise here. Whilst our owner backs us financially, there are really no negative sides to putting time and effort into youngsters, even if they aren't going to make it to the elite levels.

Really interesting move, Dan! The above quote speaks to me the most and, I think, breathes some extra life back into your save. Good luck on the new adventure.

So many great things to comment on here Matty but this is my favourite! I despise having players play for two teams in a season (and, right now, I cannot exactly fathom why) so I don't mix players between my 2-Team and my first team but this is such a simple way to track and then reward high performance and development. Keep it up! (and, by that, I mean it. You've made so many great starts to games in the past couple of FMs that I'm rooting for you to get some long term, sustained success!)

I think you absolutely deserve your move to Ajax and it's well within the realms of possibility, too. I actually quite like that aged tail end that you have: imagine youngsters from the famed academy working with Suarez, Blind, Hazard and Stuart Dallas?! I can't remember the answer to this but is Kristian Nokkvi Hlynsson still with the academy? He's gone on to become a revelation for me in Russia. Looking forward to the deep dive over the coming days before you get into the season.

I have been far too black and white with it in the past. You know that I'd probably turn down Messi or Mbappe if they were listed as inconsistent! However, I think that's the next step - I've now got solid recruitment built around statistical analysis as well as in-depth player development so I think the next thing is absolutely maximising player performance: through both the tactical approach and my own man management skills.

Absolutely! I'm more than ever into the removal of gaming things. Yes, da Silva is not the best at being consistent - but my question and investigative lead is how do I limit that factor? The same is to be said with his adaptability - how can I best help him adapt? Rather than just sign on solely attributes or solely stats. It'll be a sad day when he leaves but, in my next post, I'm going to look at some longer term planning with some players I'm even more excited about!

November 2035 Finally back into the land of FM-ing after what has turned into another week of the new normal - one where I'm too exhausted to look at any more emails or any more spreadsheets. However, given the busy-ness of my schedule, you couldn't really ask for a more complete and satisfying month that has seen us move to the top of the table and earn promotion to the Second Knockout round of the Europa League, bypassing the first due to our table topping performance. At player level, my third signing (after the far less remarkable Isaev and Pape Matar Sarr) Alex Barreto has just reached the fifty goal milestone. At any level, fifty goals in the top flight is strong, but, when you consider that this is coming from a 23-year old, new to the country, who underwent a thorough scouting report after really not producing the goods for River Plate and is not even a forward, it's even more astonishing. Our style of play relies on goals from the central midfielders and this man has not let us down, ever. He was somewhat usurped by a wonderful scoring performance from Hylnsson las year but has been Mr Consistent for us. It's no wonder I am now looking at serious interest from the likes of PSG, Arsenal and Dortmund. Whatever happens, he's the quickest to that landmark for me as a manager and will fondly be remembered for his time in Russia but I know that we are also in the strongest position to move on from any sale that may happen: Zherebyatjev has been a relevation and, whilst Krystian hasn't been in quite the form that I saw last season, at a goal contribution near enough every two games, I cannot complain. Five wins and five clean sheets. We've been rarely challenged in the league, just allowing nine shots against us in the whole time, but it's the winning that is important and, despite some heavy rotation and some slightly off finishing, we've done well. --- I've spoken very fondly of my previous record signing, Alex Barreto, but his crown will be passed to Airton da Silva - at least whilst I mull over the potential permanent deal for Hosvepyan. Whilst his report indicates two things of concern - I really want to dig into ways that I can a) manage his consistency (or lack of) in the short term and b) develop that. Even as a manager and a schematic, routine loving FM player, I can't always hide from these attributes because, as you can see from Airton, sometimes I'm simply blown away by their attributes, stats or what they could offer me. Here is a little comparison of my own players with previous target Yamakaw as well as Bakharov, who is likely to be relegated at Dinamo this year. I've tried to combine attributes and statistic in the view that I utilise in my scouting view as well as using figures gained from the league comparison (n.b. I can only see defenders in that so this does include full backs, hence the asterisk). It's clear that I have some really strong defenders, who are better, on paper and on the pitch than the other defenders in the league. I think that, as a team, we are lacking in the passing area - as we do want to look to make the most of opportunities to play out from the back. Whilst Yamakawa fits that better than da Silva, I am really impressed by the physical presence that the Corinthians man has, even though that's not a key metric (as it's hard to actually measure the impact of that in numerical terms in FM - although, IRL, things like progressive yards, sprints, top speeds etc would all be used). Looking at who could be replaced here - again, I'm in a difficult position. We're trying to upgrade rather than build and, given the ages of these players, it's probably Avramchuk that is the loser here, although I haven't been super impressed with Medvedev, yet. However, given the potential issues I will now face with registration, he may get a second chance. The above graph shows the months that my foreign players have left on their deal plus the age that they'll be at the end of it. I bring this up because of the fact that da Silva himself is non-EU and, as of right now, we have zero spare spots to register him. There is quite a straightforward approach that would look at moving Vlahovac or Farias on a year earlier with definite consideration for the latter, as he's underperformed most and been afforded the least game time. Another thought would be to look to the domestic market for a winger, given that they have been the worst performers, and move for someone like Smolnikov from Ufa, who I've been scouting for some time. Lastly, my thought may be to move Irala on for a significant profit. He's new and the only Paraguayan, so I get the whole adaptability phase, but he's somewhat underwhelmed this season and it'd mean Medvedev would move to Right Back. What that does do though, when compared with first choice Bentancor, is reduce, drastically, the ball playing ability of that role. Something needs to change to allow the integration of da Silva but I'll continue to mull over it for the coming months...

Congratulations on the cup win and really strong end to the season. What are your summer priorities in terms of ‘planned’ incomings and areas to develop?

One that I don't think we see enough of in FM... A few editions ago when I was playing in Belgium, I saw Lokeren taken over by a consortium, who, when the plug was pulled, let them freefall so far that they actually become an unplayable team, just ten years or so after winning the top flight. I'm not saying to this extreme but it'd be quite farfetched for Dinamo to replicate that relegation of 2006 in normal circumstances.

A rebuild job, and more... Their first team either houses players significantly weaker than mine or with one or two years left on their deals, meaning they're unlikely to command anywhere near the fee that can get this club saved. It's no wonder they are where they are: Here is the application that I, sadly, won't be going for. If this job had come up when I was in the second tier with Sochi, I'd have been all over it but we've surpassed that level and I'm not sure it's a realistic move to go from title challenger to what is likely going to be a second tier job with no players.

October 2035 We're really making some positive steps here at Krasnodar and I've really enjoyed the month, despite it being space out considerably due to a lack of playing time. A great win over Koln that does probably fall into the smash and grab category and, quite similarly to that, a good point away in Madrid against Getafe to keep us at the top of our Europa League group. Two quite poor league performances: dropped points against Amkar, who are bottom of the league and tired legs against Orenburg but that sandwiched a great win against Dinamo, who are really struggling with very few senior players left following their administration. --- I've identified a new target in Airton Da Silva as I look to move into the next stage of my squad building, which is really just fine tuning what I have. I need to be careful of foreign player restrictions as I've currently got all eight taken up but he's clearly the type of player to take the club forward, excelling with his ball playing ability from the back. The scout also managed to find Robson Yamakawa whilst out there and their comparison is interesting, given the price difference between the two. I want to make this kind of statistical signing, picking up one of the best ball recoverers in South America but also need to pay attention to my own youth development, which still requires more work. More detailed work into Da Silva to come when I'm not quite so tired!!

I was expecting them to be narrower but maybe the Hold Position is working for them and the slightly lower than usual (on forums anyway) mentality which stops them from trying to score all the time? Either way, it's breathed a bit of new life into my wide men who had really struggled to put together much constructive on-the-ball work until now. A little bit of both. We're at the point now where I need to be creative with my build up and want to have ball players who can bring the ball out and join the play. I particularly like a diagonal ball from the DLC to MRC and vice versa and there is no surprise to see me eying up a defender like Airton da Silva, who is just a creative monster. We do, however, sometimes fall into the trap of having a huge gap between the build up five and the running five ahead of them, but that is a deeper tactical and trait issue to resolve. By that I meant 'correct' footed! So a left footer at LB and right at RB. I find that it allows them a better body shape for cross field balls and opens up balls like that. Of course, Ivlev has used absolutely phenomenal vision to pick it out and it's a once in a blue moon ball. I'm getting there. I just want to find what works - and have had some success with using the different emotions (are they even called that?) such as Hands on Hips to try and get the best reaction from each player. It's not as black and white as that but I'm enjoying the deeper dive. I know! We're certainly closer to Zenit than we've ever been before but, as I said, are playing the long game knowing that they're due a total squad overhaul this summer and, normally, the AI manages to make a right mess of that. We'll be there to pounce...

September 2035 I'm really enjoying the depth here and, the outcomes as we progress through September and my 400th game in management, nearing the decade anniversary of me taking over at lowly Mashuk. I'm trying to make these really focussed on the areas I want to work on - namely tactics, player development, recruitment and man management. I have, however, gone a little overboard and written these as the month progresses so hopefully it makes sense chronologically. I can only apologise for the story though! In reaction to my previous post about wide men, I have spent the month working to adapt the shape within the confines of the match engine, still ensuring that we retain the ideology that I've set up for us. The new shape sees the wide players moved forward to the AM strata with the role of W(s). I have also asked them to Hold Position as they are still more space occupiers and decoy runners rather than true goal threats. It takes a really special type of player to fulfil this role and I don't think I'm quite there yet but I'm making strides. To combat what this does to the tactical engine, I've moved the mentality back to Balanced as it's really important that the begin in line with the MCs and create a bank of four in a compact shape. However, this then alters tempo and passing directness so I have put that up to Higher Tempo and Slightly More Direct Passing to ensure we still have that Vertical Tiki Taka (if you have to label the style!) Here you can see the early successes of that with a nice offensive shape and here you can see how my 2-Team took this change: even sweeter with Anji being my old club. To really dig into the positonal change, I've compared the Ural game (left) with the four games since: (You can see the lack of clarity in terms of team shape against Ural that began to develop as the month went on) The Rostov game (second left) provided the best shape but this is when we had most of the ball. There are some things I want to consider in terms of the gap between the defence and the offence but that needs further delving into. Anyway, here is how it impacted the results: A largely fantastic set of results, with some clear impacts of my move to get my wingers involved a little more. The month started with a steady win over Rostov, who gave us a lot more of the ball than we're used to before a tough tie away at Krylya. The attacking intent was on show against Partizan, even if their second goal did disappoint me. However, to recover from an early concession in the way we did was great to see. We comfortably beat Ufa before absolutely battering CSKA with this peach of a goal by Protasov. I have no idea how Ivlev spotted that pass but that's exactly why I convert midfielders to Inverted Wing Backs and like them to be right footed for the side they're on. To be so clinical, scoring four times from our five shots on target really sends them a message and demonstrates the ruthless counter attacking style that I'm advocating. We then finished the month by playing a completely rotated side against Nizhniy and I have no idea how we lost! A wonderful statistic here though, despite the shock result is that this was our first loss, in the league, to a team that isn't called Zenit for 715 days. Yet I can't help but feel that my rotation and keeping players fit for the bigger games has somewhat backfired here... ---- Again - I want to delve into that man management side of the game that I briefly spoke about with Iljas Zherebyatjev in the previous post and, again, I'm kind of live writing this post as I progress through the month... Now, gone are my days of min/maxing personalities through a broken tutoring system that, before they changed the age range, would yield a whole team of 20 year old M.Pros, but the research I did do still holds firm. I want to see how I can get the most out of each player at the club, whether that is through development or on field performance. To be able to work out why things are/aren't working, I've utilised a Carroll Diagram to get me started: Now - this, again, is not looking at specifics. I know what makes a good personality in terms of development because I studied datasets pretty closely over a couple of years, seeing how starting points, personalities, Determination levels etc impacted the growth of 15/16 year old kids. Instead, this broadly has split my squad up with me looking to develop/utilise Professional/Determined/Ambitious players because I know, most likely, that these are the ones who will develop the best and perform the best. There are questions as to whether ultra Loyal players would also fit in here but that's not something I am worrying myself with, as I have none. I have also used 'Fairly' as a cut off for these positive/neutral personalities. Here you can see what this looks like in terms of the squad. With that, I can start to learn what these things do. Clearly, Hovsepyan's volatility (shown in game as Temperament) means he's going to react negatively to that proverbial kick up the arse he might need and won't take on board any disciplining. Likewise, those Media Friendly players just don't give me enough of a clue as to how they'll react in any one situation - all I do know is that nothing is super low. I need to bare these things in mind for when I give them team talks and talk to them about their progression and their performances, which, as seen below, can be tracked: (I like this because it shows that they are interested but also it builds on that want of trust in me, the manager) Which then leads me to how I deal with these two (screenshots taken at the start of the month): Alexey is a key member of the team and the wonderkid centre back has done enough to earn a call up for the main Russian team. For context, he's a great trainer and his personality indicators suggest that got great Determination, good Professionalism and Pressure and is going to have, at best, a good Temperament. The latter there makes me consider the harshness that I can use in talking to him but the previous three suggest that I can be open and honest in discussing his performances and I should be able to motivate him. However - I look at his ratings and I struggle to see what he isn't doing too well. In terms of overall defensive duties - he's winning most of his headers, not needing to attempt tackles and making some interceptions. For me, however, as a ball player, I want more (some) dribbles and more key passes. With him being, hopefully, pretty responsive to my thoughts as well listing me as a favoured staff member, I think I can push on this and see what impact it has on his overall output as well as Average Rating. I am, however, absolutely aware that AR for defenders is based around clean sheets and you get a boost if you keep one, which we hadn't but, as my key defender, there surely has to be an emphasis on his job being to do this. Roman is also a key member of my playing squad and his personality states that he's quite determined and professional and will have no evidence of any poor temperament or controversy. Because of that, and the fact that he's an older player who has plenty of experience, means that I can, also, be quite hard and to the point with the interactions. Again - I have to question what I actually want him to do here. He should be the fulcrum between defence and attack - moving the ball progressively forward but also pre-empting attacks and winning it back. For me, despite our lack of defending, I think he's being a little lazy on his Interceptions and tackles. He's not a ball winner, per se, but is tasked with shutting teams out, which he hasn't done. I think, by looking back at some of the highlights, he is to blame (possibly with poor Positioning) for some of the through balls that we've conceded big chances from. My starting point is to look at individual feedback, both in game and then with interactions. In the Rostov game, I began using a little bit of a mixed approach to the teamtalks, using specific individuals rather than the positional units. I feel that there are already things to learn here: Djioev, clearly using the annoyance to fuel his Ambition, then was encouraged and looked happier from it. Also the praise for a Professional, such as Avramchuk, was well received, as you'd expect. I feel like there is plenty more to come from this idea and one that I intend to share my experiences of.

I completely underestimated Feyenoord, sadly! However, Europa League success could be a little easier so we'll see where that goes. I'm not necessarily unhappy with his shooting, just wish it was as accurate as it was last year. I'm having a little look at the rest of the shape and working from there!

August 2035 A frustrating first month 'proper' of the season, which has delivered quite the shock early season table. Coupled with a poor start and the entry to administration, Dinamo Moscow, complete with just one first team keeper, a 16-year old, frequent the bottom half but I wonder if a ten point penalty will be applied to them at any point, making things much worse. Orenburg and Alania have started well whereas Ural and, probably, Zenit would consider their starts disappointing. We're unbeaten in the league, which is just about the only bonus I can find for the tumultuous period of time. We were not good against Zenit. Conceding a penalty inside three minutes against the biggest team in the country was not in my game plan and, to be fair, they controlled the game. It was a long shot from the gritty Superkubok display and more like the Kubok final, just with one way traffic. A point though is important as is the goal as, given the hopefully small margins, it gives us a much better chance to get a better outcome in the home tie. A decent couple of wins over the Moscow teams before a pretty annoying draw against Ural, who took their only great chance, from a corner. I really need to sit down and work through routines - and I'm at the point where they'll have to be micromanaged. I will need to run different routines depending on who is playing where, as Bentancor, for example, is a full back who is good in the air where Irala, is less so. Work to be done there. We were shocking in both ties against Feyenoord in a game where I absolutely underestimated the difficulty of our opponents. Yet, even with saying that, we'd have struggled in both legs against an U9 team as we were absolutely toothless. The home leg, in Parken, Copenhagen, saw us roar into a two goal lead as controlled the xG and had pretty much all of the momentum. However, the positioning of their Wide Midfielder caused a lot of issues as he was pretty much playing as a striker. I got all my decisions wrong with how to deal with it and, within five minutes they'd turned the tie on it's head: the first from an overloaded counter and the second from some poor positioning. I was dejected but kept pushing on until a missed header saw them secure the tie late on. Really poor play and an awful lot for us to work on - however, as I've alluded to several times and something that I've been seeing a lot of due to being a Villa fan and seeing Gerrard's start at the club - "A manager must work at getting the best out of the players he puts on the pitch" (or words to that effect that are being used to say that he can't just splash £400m this summer to make his squad). From that - I see that I need to work on what is there: Magomedov, Medvedev, Skylar and Iroala are all new entries to the defensive roster and, as such, I have to give them time to settle, learn our style and then perform. (Medvedev, Iraola and Skylar positional familiarity) What gets me here is that Skylar, right, is completely awkward playing as a Right Back with the IWB role - despite playing that role for at least two years in the 2-Team. However, just from the screenshots, you can see that he's to blame for at least two of the Feyenoord goals. Surely there is a link here? I purposely added this tile into my skin on the player profile to track this kind of thing but have let it completely pass me by. Never the less, we qualify for the group stage of the Europa League and will look to achieve some good success again here. --- Iljas is really becoming a superstar but I'm digging into some little things with him. He's not in great form - 2 goals in 5(3) appearances but those two goals have come from 3.37 xG, nearly double the amount of the next highest (Barreto with 1.8 and 2 goals). I took a risk and discussed this in terms of saying his scoring was good enough in his recent games, worried that an overall AR of 7.10 in that time would cause an uproar, however it did not. He took it on board and I will look to see if that changes anything. My big problem with he, Hylnsson and Barreto is that the third man run with the False Nine allows them to be through on goal but they largely shoot from distance. Obviously. if our build up has stalled and they get men back behind our counter, he's prone to shooting from the edge of the area but it is the former that is a concern for me: (Iljas' shot map from the last five games, excluding the away tie at Feyenoord where he didn't register a shot) As you can see - lots of shots from outside the area but then also quite a lot of really wasteful stuff from inside of it. I'll keep working with him, praising good stuff but also utilising his professional personality to be honest with him when he's not good enough, hoping that he'll be a catalyst in the team really clicking as we move deeper into the season. However, this out of form issue needs resolving elsewhere, too: I'm really struggling to get the most from my wide men and they are regularly the worst performers and this is no different with Hreidarsson and Djieov right now, with the latter having his head turned by Feyenoord, of all clubs, because they're a Champions League level team, and we aren't! Hovsepyan is annoyed that he's not first choice but I cannot amend the loan deal which didn't even say that anyway - so I'm expecting the poor form considering the link with morale. Farias and Medvedev still need to adapt to our style but Roganov and Kolosov are experienced, important players and I really need to look at how to sort our their early season slumps. Expect a deep dive on that next month!

I was coming to comment on last month with the idea that I still think there must be a link to Concentration and Decisions, particularly under fatigue. However, you seem to have worked through that, which is great. Your tactical shape is remarkably similar to my Christmas Matryoshka but I then love how an AM can create such a different style to my two SS. I also employ a flat three in the mid with 2xCAR and 1xCM(d). It's certainly a lovely way to overload the centre but have really struggled, and maybe you'll also have this, with getting good ratings for wide players in the midfield strata. Baturina has had a great month, too! Looks like Feyenoord's game in hand is against Almere but there looks to be a good chase on for second, definitely! Keep it up.

I have no reason to fear them. We're on a par with the Eredivisie I'd say and they don't really have anyone that has caught my eye. They were soundly beaten by Chelsea in a friendly and played a very vanilla 4-4-2 with little or no flair or running between the lines. I think I can exploit their rigidity between the lines, too. I can't! They signed our fourth choice striker and stuck him in their 2-team! What this does mean is that the summer will be big for them with an aging squad, most of whom are out of contract: There's a lovely rebuild job there but, for me, it could be the last season where this iteration of Zenit is around. They've got some strong younger players but these players get a lot of minutes and won't be around forever. As I've said before - it's a long game but we might be nearing a crossroads...

July 2035 Like buses! Two cup wins in a matter of months. Just like the Kubok Rossii, the Superkubok title is the first for the club and we are really starting to become a problem for Zenit. Unlike the cup final, this was not a classic. More of a case of a resolute defensive display creating some strong chances. Granted, our xG was skewed given a penalty neatly tucked away by Nokkvi but it was a strong defensive show. When it went to penalties, I had no concerns, given that I've got little to no experience and, off that, fear, of shootouts. However, a win is a win is a win! We then followed that up with a straightforward win over Alania to kick off the season. --- Quite a tough draw on our first foray into the Champions League but I'm heading to watch them a couple of times to get together a plan. The bonus is they're still in pre-season so we should have the benefit in sharpness, if nothing else. --- {N.B. I hate that I have to give up control of my 2-Team to see this screen like this) I am getting a good handle on the youth at the club, using the Progress feature to monitor their development - warning them if they have two consecutive months with no progress. As of right now, this has had just one negative comeback and has had a pretty good comeback in terms of progress in the following months. I have nothing solid in terms of how this works but I do like it! I've got a really good crop of young players now and want to think slightly outside the box on ways of giving them chances to develop really well. To assist in the development of these, I've utilised a FM Training Planner that I downloaded some time ago from this forum. This works by calculating the 'amount' of work put into each area. I'm not concerned about the numbers that it's creating but far more concerned about the amount of work going into each area. You can find the raw data below: Attack Defence Goalkeeper It's well documented that I want to use a tactical periodisation kind of model and, as such, look to build up intensity before tapering off ready for match day. I've tried to keep that, with the players working on specifics for that area up to a 'big' day involving some match prep, which is far more important for me given that they're playing in a modelled league rather than just a youth competition. I'm also adding a lot of physical training, which, of course, might fall on it's face. The only physical attribute within my DNA is Natural Fitness and that is only trained during Endurance but, the type of game I play can only be benefited by quick and strong players so I want to take advantage whilst the players are in their prime age to make accelerated development. Whether three sessions is too much, time will tell. However, looking at three schedules, Decisions and Work Rate are certainly attributes worked hard but I do need to look at First Touch as it doesn't get much training, particularly for defenders. I think that the most important option is the inclusion of the GK week. This is not to give specific time to my goalkeepers, instead, to both reduce intensity for my outfield players once every three weeks (given the hardness of the quite physical schedules) but also because it allows them time to work on their own Individual roles - which I put a lot of time into working through. For numerical reference - during the other two weeks, the attacking unit gets 1.3 and 1.2 'amounts' of focus, but this rises to 1.7 during the third week. I have no idea whether this will have any impact. The first two are just slightly tweaked from those that I used to use so it's more on the third one, specifically the time for individual development for my outfield players, that interests me the most. I'd like to run a longer cycle where I go Att/Def/Att/Def/GK - but, again, time will tell on that.