Vlach

Ostbahn XI Ostbahn XI is a club is the 4th tier of Austria, located in the 11th district of Vienna (Simmering), nearby a railway track going towards the east (originally towards the east of the Habsburg empire, especially Hungary). Therefor the name: Ostbahn = east-railway; XI for the district. It was always my desire to manage this club in FM. Its the club where I grew up close by, went there a few times watching games as a kid in the 70s with my grandfather before he died, and where some classmates later played. And watched as teenager unforgettable concerts staged on the playing field. Now I am living almost 1000kms away, but to this day Ostbahn XI is for me the epitome of a small football club. And full of memories of places nearby. Only the first team gets promoted into the Regionalliga, there the first team gets promoted to the 2nd Austrian League. It will be a tough way up. Long term goals: 1) Become best club of Simmering 2) Go up into premier division 3) Become best club of Vienna 4) Become best club of austria 5) Succeed in Europe ( and additional wish: help built nation of Austria to a level where it might reach an international final) Home ----------------- Technical information: Since there is no editor and no costume league files for FM24 is loaded and holidayed a game in fm23 with an Austria-File until June 2026. Waited until Ostbahn XI got promoted, This I then imported into FM24. I can only hope thats within the rules of the challenge. ------------------ Besides that I want to thank Cleon / "View from the Touchline* for my copy of FM24, which i won in a contest from them on Twitter. ----------------- First i will need some staff, there are no coaches or assistants, just a scout and a physio. At least the financial situation is ok, therefor I should be able to hire some folks. Also most of the players are amateurs, i will try to sign them part-time, in the hope that the training helps. Even the part-timers have only one-year contracts, and seem reluctant to do extensions. The team itself - it should be strong enough to not get relegated. In fact comparing with some other teams of the league this squad should be able to reach a top half finish easily ... but there are no backups for some positions ... two/three or more long-term injuries could become disastrous. No u18 players are in the u18 team. -------------- Best players are probably: Goal - Christoph Feleki All our three goalkeepers are roughly the same atm - will see how this turns out Defense - Julian Buchta Should become the cornerstone of our defense hopefully Midfield - Mateo Zetic quite fast, and its claimed he has great potential. Attack - Alexander Eder Good striker attributes for the league - i hope he will live up to them As tactic for the start i will choose a quite basic 4-2-3-1, because i feet it fits the available players best. Additionally i will try as an alternative a 3-5-2, because in general we seem to lack options at the fullback positions and might use some of the wingers as wingbacks. With that few players i will anyway try to retrain some to cover for injuries.

FC United Season 8 - 2031/32 We stayed for a long time quite safely in the middle of the league. Some good results, some bad results. Some experiments with different young keepers - no one really good, but two of them turned out to be decent enough. Then i got fed up a bit with the number of goals we generally conceded - our attack was most of the times ok, the midfield medioce but sufficient ... just the defense in general was too leaky. After New Year I decided to try some more possession based football, in order to have more possession and giving the opposition less chances - after some iterations it started to work fine and suddenly, we rarely lost, most of the time drew or won our games. And all of a sudden we were just two points behind the third place, 5 games to play. The rest is history ... we managed to grab somehow the third place and got promoted. No idea how we will survive next season ... Owen-Bird 23B is still here, he did not leave the club after his contract ran out. And Johnson 28C wants to leave as well - both for the same reasons, the squad is not good enough for them ... well as long as no club wants them they are going nowhere. But we have a new good striker in Singleton 30E - not exceptional, but he scores regularly Competitions Lineup Records Finances Youth Candidates Not an intake as good as the last two years - but i cant possible expect that. Even no one i especially like there. Makes it easier for me to not sign quite some players from this intake, dont want to clutter the u18/u21 Youth Team The U18 won its league, again. Division 3 was too easy for them. https://dsc.cloud/838fd5/Screen-Shot-2023-09-20-16-34-51.58.png They even won the double! I guess the pipeline of future talent is flowing ok right now.

FC United Season 7- 2030/31 First news of the new season was: the stadium will be expanded by 1500 seats And the club plans as well to expand the youth level from 4 to 3. Nice! I managed to convice our goalkeeper Lavercomb to add one more year to his career. Hopefully this year is what our young goalkeepers need. The season itself was unspectacular. Early outs in the cups, many draws in the league. But never in real danger to get relegated. Not really settling down on a set of tactics, much experimenting - not sure if going for counter is better than trying to play more forward here for us. The finances don't look good at all - from the beginning I was not sure if the expansion of the stadium was a good idea, and now I can only hope that this will not cause big problems soon. Sad news at the end: our best striker Owen-Bird 26B will leave us. I was not able to convince him to sign a new contract. And Lavercombe as well, our GK for the last 7 years. And Grifiths, captain and main force in the central midfield . It will be a transitional year, where i can only hope that a young goalkeeper and a young striker will step up. But some other youngsters are luckily after this year on the verge of becoming star players for us. Most notably: Johnson 27C Dosso 27G Competitions Lineup Records Finances Youth Candidates Amazing intake in terms of possible talent again, but not as good personality-wise as the 2030 one. Anyway a very good sign for the future, especially since this time many promising defenders and goalkeepers. I like especially Akpala 31H and Ochoa 31G - Sadly low determination Still no chance to get a better HOYD btw. Probably have to wait until I am in a higher league Youth Team The U18 won its league, again. But this time it was close. They are a league higher up now

FC United Season 6- 2029/30 Something unexpected happened at the start of the season: the board decided to go professional. I am happy about it because that finally means better training options, but am as well unsure if we can afford that. Additionally they started to upgrade our academy level after i asked them for it ... did not expect those two things to happen. Quite early we lost in the cups, and thanks to some promising youngsters i was able to rotate the squad a bit in order to avoid the tiredness of the last seasons. (Probably the better training due to becoming professional helped as well) And especially at the end of the season we really needed everyone to be fit, since we were in the midst of a four-club battle for the title (with Altrincham, Dag&Red and Bath). It all came down to the last round ... and then the shock: Lavercombe was with us from the beginning, he is just 33. Probably he announced it earlier and i missed the message. I was hoping for a few more years of him. I asked him to reconsider.My keeper situation is like this - it will be a tough next season... But nevertheless we had our last game to play, and preferably to win. Two points ahaead of Dag&Red, but much worse in goal difference ... we needed a win against Kings Lynn. And we won! Next year its League Two! Many "old" players left us anyway, most notably those which helped us into promotion and were regulars for the past years, most notably Brayden Shaw who scored many important goals Competitions Lineup Accolades (no idea why i sometimes am getting no season review at the end) Finances Youth Candidates Amazing intake in terms of possible elite talent. also not too many "bad" personalities. This intake might form the core of our team for years in some seasons i hope. Still no chance to get a better HOYD btw. Probably have to wait until I am in a higher league Youth Team The U21 won its league, again.

FC United Season 5- 2028/29 It was a season of ups and downs ... and one big success: Winning the FA Cup I had never in my cards - but when I saw in the quarterfinals that the best three teams of the National were out I considered it possible for us, and went for it by resting important players in league games before the cup matches. Luckily it worked out In the league made it into the playoffs - barely but we did. Despite many tactic experiments, where i settled for now in the end with a 4-3-3, since i have now one really good and several ok wingers.. We won in the playoffs the first round, but lost in the second against Bath - with many tired players again. But Bath was obviously stronger anyway. At least at the end of the regular season I had the tiredness problem a bit better under control. And we clearly do have a star now - the one regen which immedeatly caught my eye: Owen-Bird 26B He closes my problem on the right flank nicely, and can act as well as a decent striker. Sad part of the story: he wants to leave because our team is too weak for him 😞 Two years more of contract ... And: After what felt like 100 request the board at least agreed to have an u21 team. Gives me some room to maneuvre players and test them longer before they are stuck or released in the main squad. After the cup win I was also able to convince them to improve the youth recruitment. Indeed a good season finale for us also in this regard. Competitions Lineup Accolades Finances Youth Candidates Better personalities and imho more talent this time. Especially happy about some players which are or might be retrained as wingers. Having high hopes about Allan 29B and Rooney 29C Still no chance to get a better HOYD btw. Probably have to wait until I am in a higher league Youth Team The U21 on its league, again. Wonder if its possible to go into a higher youth league?

Sure, although i do not consider myself as a particularly good tactician. And since i consider it very unlikely, at least for the next two seasons, to gain promotion, I plan to test and work on several tactics - in order to have them ready when the team seems ready The 4-2-2-2, as well as the narrow 4-3-3 I am using simply because my wingers were and are rubbish. I got two to three good strikers, several mediocre central midfielders, two good fullbacks and one good CB right now. On the wings the options are either too slow or technically bad, or both. Or too young. Therefore, I concentrate on tactics with many central players. A bit an extrem version of this is the 4-2-2-2 - sadly very intense with much pressing; otherwise, the central midfielders and attackers do not always join the defense needed on the flanks. For more risk, I change the AM to SS, for more safety the attacking VOL to defend. Worked well for half of last season, then slowly broke apart it seemed. The narrow 4-3-3 is quite basic - but if the strikers are ok-ish it performs often really well for me. When I want to hold the lead or against strong opponents, I change the PF to support and the DM to defend. For more attack one of the CMs becomes an attacking MEZ. Does really need strikers who work a lot upfront. And this is a shape i would like to experiment this season with - at least as long as I am not in relegation territory 😉 Or i retrain some strikers to be IF wingers and try again with a 4-2-3-1 or wide 4-3-3. Just want to experiment for the next years until my youngster are hopefully ready to go for promotion. And doing nothing special about the finances ... but I guess it helps if one survives the first rounds of the cups.

At my place. I expected much media turmoil etc. because of the history . Nothing - sure some media because they are a premiership club, but nothing special. I checked then, and they are not rivals in the game.

FC United Season 4 - 2027/28 In general, a fantastic season for us. At the end of the season we caught a bad slump, mostly caused by tired players - the "old" ones can't go on a whole season, and the young ones mostly are still too weak and too young to provide constant backup. We made the playoffs, but had no chance there. Since old players are leaving us again, and the young ones are mostly not ready, i guess next season will be much tougher. We had much luck this one, i doubt that will repeat - especially since i mostly lack good players in defense. Competitions Lineup Accolades Finances Youth Candidates Again, not happy with the personalities. Also, the attributes don't strike me as particularly good, for example, the biggest talent: The problem is: so far, I am unable to attract a better HOYD then the one I got. and the Chairman doesn't want to expand the youth recruitment. Will have to wait and see. Youth Team Won its league. At least hope there

FC United Season 3- 2026/27 We started well into the season, with mixed results. And that continued throughout, sometimes the surprise win against a title contender, sometimes the loss against a relegation candidate. Some expected results, some utter surprises. Some short slumps, some short winning streaks. But overall a satisfying season, we were never in real danger of relegation, but also had never a chance to go for playoff places. In the end the 13th place was a real success, i can only hope we continue to stay in the middle of the table for the next years. At the end of the season, players now start to leave - either into retirement or because they want a new challenge. No one who will be terribly missed (i hope), but the squad i inherited is slowly decreasing in numbers now. Quite soon the first youngster will have to play regularly in the main squad - crucial seasons where I only can hope that we will be able to survive that until we got a constant pipeline of talent. Competitions Lineup Accolades Finance Transfers Youth Intake Some better personalitites this time - i changed the HOYD last season and that might help now. Youth Team The youth team won its league Summary

Thank you. Basically my tactical approach is simple. My standard tactic right now (and it was already in season one after experiments and half of season 2) is a narrow 4-3-3 DM. Simply because i have 4-5 good strikers atm, and because its a counter tactic and sometimes acting like kick-and-rush, which helps when playing against technical strong teams (most are better there imho then we are) and fits imho good in lower leagues. Then i got a flat 4-4-2 with DMs and a 4-2-3-1 DM as alternatives. Using those tactics is depending on the oppositions scouting reports. The last game i played for example was against a side where the scouts said they are very vulnerable to crosses and they have weaknesses at the fullback-positions - therefor i started with the 4-2-3-1 to exploit that (and won). The 4-4-2 I usually use when going against three central defenders, or last season against all opposition tactics with strong wingers to give us more stability on the flanks (doesnt work that well this season so far after promotion). The 4-2-31 is also used when the opposition doesnt use a DM. Since i usually just simulate (instant result) the games (and only watch them when its an important one) thats basically all I am doing about tactics.

FC United Season 2- 2025/26 Last season already surprised me. This season was nothing short of amazing. We started very well, and besides two short bad slumps we stayed impressive and extremely hard to beat throughout the whole season. Probably a combination of many players in their prime years, much better coaching staff then the other teams, great cohesion and good morale and not many injuries. Also the opponents seemed to be not as strong as last year. And we often had much, much luck. I did not care much about losing quite early compared to last season in the cups - my full concentration was on the league because there was this window of opportunity opening. We used sometimed during the season member of our youth team - most of the times they were good, sometimes pleasant surprises. But They are still far from playing regular. In the youth league they are performing above expectations and won the competition. I even persuaded the club to raise our youth level - not sure if thats worth it although. Best XI Stats Transfers Goals for the next season have to be to survive and not get relegated, and to get the best staff possible now that our reputation has risen, and a bit more money is on its way. Its also time to start to let the youth play more often Youth Candidates I think with OwenB-ird 26B i got a real gem here for those lower leagues. Again not happy with the personalities, will search for new HOYD. Signed 9. Owen Bird 26B

FC United Season 1 - 2024/25 It all was much easier than I initially feared - the team started to perform well after some tactical adventures, and went on some winning streaks with a narrow 4-3-3. The league in general seemed quite homogenous to me. Our greatest weakness was the slow and aging central defense - generally our side is not among the fastest. But overall, with some luck, we managed to reach the 5th place in the league and therefor the playoffs. There we lost in the first round against Hereford - a team against which we lost all our games before - Hereford even later got promoted. Not great, but I was delighted with the season anyway. The FA Trophy was a success as well, we reached the semifinal, where the opponent Spennymoor was clearly two classes better than our team. Youth Candidates I like the alleged talent, but i don't like most of the personalities. Signing most anyway for 1 year, in order to get a youth team.

FC United Trying this challenge again, with FC United Manchester in the National League North. Obviously, first goal is to survive the first years without any reserves or many youth players and then hope for some nice intakes sooner or later. The Squad:

Season 2027/28 It was a weird season. We started very bad, and i feared that the drop will come this year. But then some tactic-changes helped a lot, and we slowly climbed out of the relegation zone, had even success for the first time in the cup and reaches with much luck the semi-final. In the end it proved to be a very succesfull year, with a very good .... place. The mixture of old and new players works fine most of the matches, while we still haven't got decent young players for every position. Long way to go still, but right now it seems like we are generally on the right track - against the top 10 teams we lose, against all the others we have a chance to draw or even win, and against the relegation candidates we are usually winning. League Lineup Finances Supporters Best Forward Youngster - Tarchi 25C Best Midfield Youngster - Scibilia 24H Best Defense Youngster - Segre 26B Youth Intake Well, the last one seemed better to me, more elite talents and better personalities.

Season 2026/27 The first half of the season went very well - we stayed in the middle of the league, with quite a comfortable distance to the relegation places. During the winter break happened what had to happen: our goalkeeper Salah left us for Panathinaikos - at least i will get 50% of the next sale. I just hoped that our good first half will be enough to secure remaining in the Serie A this year, and at the same time giving our young goalkeepers match experience so that they may progress faster now that we need them to step up. and that worked out in the end. We for sure lost quality in goalkeeping, but its not extremly bad. In the end we survived quite onfortably on the 14th place. More and more original players are retiring now, next season probably half the spots will be taken already by the youngsters. We will see how that turns out. League Lineup Supporters Finances Transfers Overview Youth Intake Very good intake with 5 elite talents. Happy as well that there are some strikers and fullbacks, which I will need soon most probably. Signed as usual those with highest talent and good / ok personality