FM_Ghost

1.1 | SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1 Welcome to the fourth post of the save. Having taken a deep dive into The Club, The Squad, The Tactic and Preseason, it is now finally time to kick off the PKO Ekstraklasa league season. If you missed any of the previous posts, you can read all of them here. We start the season predicted to finish in 4th spot, behind Lech Poznan, Legia Warsaw, and Rakow Czestochowa. This confirmed to me that challenging for the title this year will be a tough task and was further highlighted when I checked the wage bills per club in the league, and notably, those two aforementioned heavyweights pay substantially more than the rest of the league. Talk about flexing your financial muscle. DAWN OF A NEW ERA And so it begins… A home game versus the newly promoted Widzew Lodz. Rather disappointingly, only 10,297 attended our first game of the season but the result was anything but. We took an early lead thanks to a header from inside the six-yard box from Luka Zahovic from a Pontus Almqvist freekick. The lead didn’t last long, and we were quickly 2-1 down thanks to a quick counter by Widzew Lodz to equalise and took the lead after an error from goalkeeper Stipica. Starting out on the right wing, Almqvist proved a threat out wide curling a shot nicely into the top left corner to level it up 2-2, and Benedikt Zech put us back in the lead after a 38-minute header from a right-side corner. Kamil Grosicki capped the win off with a goal soon after halftime finishing off a cutback to close range from Almqvist having combined nicely with right wingback and countryman Wahlqvist. Not surprising that Pontus Almqvist picked up MOTM with a rating of 9.9 after a goal and 3 assists. THE REMAINDER OF THE MONTH (JULY) Hot off the heels of a win in the league, the second qualifying round of Europa Conference League quickly came about. This time we would face Cypriot club, APOEL with the first leg a home tie. The away team got off to a flying start when their target forward Giorgi Kvilitaia lost his man to score an easy header within the first 2 minutes. We managed to equalise quickly after through Vahan Bichakchyan, who also had a penalty chance saved in the 11th minute. We couldn’t make the pressure pay and we walked away with a sober 1-1 draw. MOTM: Vahan Bichakchyan, 7.4 (1.23 xG) -- Two goals either side of halftime from veteran winger Kamil Grosicki put us in a good position when league action returned with an away game versus Slask Wroclaw. Our opponents did manage to score in the 80th minute but it proved only a consolation. Happily, Damian Dabrowski returned to action from the bench to start his recovery after missing since early in preseason. MOTM: Kamil Grosicki, 8.0 (2 Goals) -- A resounding 3-0 win vs APOEL followed which saw us secure entry into the 3rd qualifying round. A slightly rotated and mixed team was needed for the tie with Dabrowski starting his first game of the season, while Almqvist took the starting striker berth and Bichakchyan playing out wide right. The changes proved successful when Almqvist put us in the lead after 2 minutes followed by a Vahan volley in the 5th minute. Grosicki continued his goalscoring form with a close-range header to make it 3-0 in the 61st minute. MOTM: Kamil Grosicki, 8.4 (1 Goal) -- A brace from striker Luka Zahovic ensured us a comfortable 4-0 victory over Jagiellonia Bialystok, enabling us to climb above Legia Warszawa and Lech Poznan to top spot in the league by the end of the month. Grosicki opened the scoring with a cooly-slotted penalty in the 18th minute but would have to be forced off early in the second half with an ankle injury. Three quick goals between halftime and the 60th minute (Zahovic 48’, Almqvist 52’ and Zahovic 60’) put the game to bed. MOTM: Pontus Almqvist, 8.8 (1 Goal and 2 Assists) -- AUGUST 2023 A solid start to life at Pogon Szczecin with 4 wins and a draw in our first 5 games during July. Unbeaten in the league, we started the month of August at the top of the table as well as setting up the 3rd qualifying round in the Europa Conference League against Icelandic side Knattspyrnudeild KR. The standout fixture in August is direct rival Rakow Czestochowa which should prove the biggest test in the league season to date. A need for a bit of rotation seemed to impact the team’s rhythm as we started slowly in the game which was a change from our previous games where we generally started off strong and pressurised the opponent from the get-go. Fortunately, we weren’t punished during the first 20 or so minutes as we began to build more and more of a threat resulting in Sebastian Kowalczyk getting his first goal of the season in the 30th minute. Mariusz Fornalczyk completed the scoring when he pressed Knattspyrnudeild KR’s centre-back into a mistake and executed a deft chip over the goalkeeper’s head. Nice to see our high press working in action. The clean sheet was secured but not without any scares especially deep in injury time when Stipica put gloves to a close-range header. Almqvist was substituted early in the second half with an ankle issue and will miss 3 weeks of the season. MOTM: Mariusz Fornalczyk, 7.8 (1 Goal) -- Attention turned back to the league with an away game to Warta Poznan, who according to the analyst plays a 5-2-2-1 (DMs with wingers) with a Park-The-Bus style so my feeling going into the game was it could turn out to be a grind. It certainly was, and we weren’t helped by the pouring rain on the day. It was not a fluid display by any means, and we struggled to get our passing game going. Within the first 10 minutes, I was noticing that the opponent left large spaces in the centre of midfield, so I toggled “Focus Play Through the Middle” which immediately paid dividends when Wahlqvist cut inside from right back and a long-range shot with his left foot snuck inside the right post. That was the only goal and pretty much the only action to comment on. Even though our shot tally was impressive, the quality of which was in short supply. MOTM: Dante Stipica, 7.4 -- A 1-1 draw in the second leg of the Conference League 3rd round qualifying was next and was enough to push us through to the next round after a good win at home a week before. An early goal did get my heart racing that bit faster, but we managed to compose ourselves and almost immediately began to control the game thereafter. A goal by Zahovic maintained our unbeaten streak as we secured a 4th round-qualifying tie with AZ Alkmaar, who was sitting second in Eredivise. MOTM: Luka Zahovic, 7.2 (1 Goal) -- An amazingly one-sided affair versus Wisla Plock, where the 2-0 scoreline was flattering to the visitors. By the 25th minute, we had hit the post three times and had a goal disallowed for offside. The goals eventually came in the second half thanks to a Malec power header from close range which was quickly backed up by a goal by Luka Zahovic after a neat ball over the top by Stanislaw Wawrzynowicz – a player that has actually been very capable since I plucked him out of the 2nd Team while Dabrowski was recovering from his injury. MOTM: Stanislaw Wawrzynowicz, 8.3 (20 Progressive Passes) -- AZ Alkmaar, who at this time were table toppers in Eredivise, will definitely be the more frustrated to have heard the final whistle in this game, while we wiped our brows in relief. We lined up in our more ‘cautious’ formation and play style which was executed to an absolute tee limiting the opponent to only a handful of half chances. I was impressed that we showed such discipline and were able to hold AZ to a 0-0 draw after being under constant pressure throughout the game. MOTM: Benedikt Zech, 7.5 The ‘heroic’ draw was met by despair as news that Dante Stipica pulled his knee ligaments while kicking a ball and would miss the next 3 weeks. Untimely news as we headed to Rakow Czestochowa in our next league game and knowing he would miss the AZ return leg too. -- We had Rakow against the ropes from as early as the first minute when Zahovic dropped deep to collect the ball ‘in the hole’ and played a delightful ball over the top for the inverting run of Almqvist who finished calmly. Another injury setback to Kamil Grosicki who broke his foot in the 6th minute attempting a tackle on the opposing Stratos Svarnas. The home side equalised in the 60th minute and by all accounts were likely to find the winner as I did not manage this game very well at all by my own admission. However, we held on and got extremely lucky in the 90th minute when Michal Kucharczyk slotted a penalty in the bottom right corner. Another feeling of relief. -- And so onto the home leg of the Europa Conference League 4th Round Qualifying which was eagerly awaited following the 0-0 draw away. Of course, without our number 1 goalkeeper, Bartosz Klebaniuk stepped in having started the previous league game too. Maybe to everyone’s surprise, the match was a tightly contested affair that actually saw Pogon Szczecin create plenty more than the Dutch side. We particularly came to life after going 1-0 down early in the second half, which we managed to neutralise quite soon after through a screamer of a long shot by Vahan Bichakchyan. Despite the chances created, we couldn’t break the deadlock and never looked under threat at the other end, so the match went penalties. Although we began brightly saving AZ’s first penalty, crucial misses by Stolarski (5th penalty) and Wawrzynowicsz (10th penalty) meant defeat in the cruellest way. -- After the heartache of missing out on Europa Conference League Group Stage by the finest margins, a comfortable league victory was very welcome. A top performance by Zahovic who bagged a brace was sweetened by Kostorz in the 90th minute. A solid win to wrap up the month which has seen us yet to taste anything other than a win in the league. -- FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS? In Football Manager, like anything in life really, it is necessary to sometimes distil outcomes as being a case of luck or skill (good decisions). With a total of 15 competitive games played this season already, we sit in a promising spot in the league (100% win rate) and marginally losing out on Europa Conference League qualification through penalties. I was thus eager to cast a cursory eye over some data to see where I can attribute this form to. Based on the eye test, our attack looks fluid and dangerous with a threat coming from all points of our attacking quartet. So, my focus is really on the defence, and although it is somewhat a small sample size, we should be able to pull out some notable insights. The attacking and defending polygons further reiterate what I have been seeing on the pitch. Happily, our attack stats are all in the upper bounds against the league’s participants. We are outperforming well above our xG which generally isn’t sustainable so something to bear in mind, but for now, I don’t feel the need to make any changes. Looking at our defence, we look to be a bit passive however we are dominating matches and possession so the need for defensive actions is limited. I also like to look at the Pitch Tilt graph which shows we are getting more passes in the opposition final third vs final third passes against. So, we are showing a strong level of domination and ability to handle the opposition threat. Looking more closely at the types of goals conceded and assist types against, it tells somewhat a different story. It is clear that the path of least resistance for the opposition is the middle channel. Looking at the goals against, almost all (9/11) have come within the box and directly in-front of goal. 4 assists have come from wide, which put together may mean that we are conceding space during defending corners – so something to note when watching games. However, the clearest explanation to me is that we are giving far too much space to players just outside our box who are able to play through balls in behind our defensive line. Although the Pitch Tilt graph says we don’t give away many final third passes, when we do, they are often in critical areas with lots of space. This points towards our Defensive Midfielders either not being in the correct positions or being too passive in their closing down of the opposition – either way, not offering enough of a shield which our tactic relies heavily on. Noting all of this, it is a balance between making changes and tweaking too much so as to deviate from our desired style of play. For now, I am hesitant to change our defensive line height or pressing intensity. Additionally, a source of adding extra defensive cover in the middle would be to drop or change the role of my Attacking Midfield – again something I don’t want to engage with at this stage. So, what do I do? My solution, for now, is to change the right-sided Defensive Midfielder from a BWM(De) to a DM(De). Essentially, the BWM role looks to hunt for the ball when out of possession which may be resulting in the player vacating his position while aggressively looking to win the ball. Making this change, I am hoping that the player is a bit more disciplined in his positioning and thus providing protection against those channel balls. Let’s see how this change will go as we go into September facing the prospects of Lech Poznan at home followed by an away game versus rivals Cracovia. Make sure to follow all the action! Do widzenia.

Great intro. Looking forward to the save!

0.3 | INTRODUCTION - PLAYER ASSESSMENT & PRESEASON Welcome to post number 3 of the series, which is an extension of the introduction to Pogon Szczecin. In this post, I take a deeper dive into the squad and assess what we have to work with going into the season. As mentioned in previous posts, we start with the transfer window closed, so it’s much more a case of getting to know the players well and taking the extra effort to formulate a strong opinion of the players at hand. If you missed any previous posts, feel free to access them here. With that said, lets dive in. THE SQUAD I found this visual when reading the brilliant FM Stag and his series with Vedelem, and FM Steinkelsson's save with Villarreal, and thought it was an excellent way to just assess where my players lay in terms of attacking and defending. Attacking Values – Dribbling, Finishing, First Touch, Passing, Technique, Composure, Decisions, Flair, Off the Ball, Vision, Agility, Balance Defending Values – Heading, Marking, Tackling, Aggression, Anticipation, Bravery, Concentration, Positioning, Jumping, Strength BY POSITION GOALKEEPER – Dante Stipica is a top-notch goalkeeper for this level. Besides his obvious flaws in Kicking and Throwing, his Command of the Area, Reflexes, Agility and Handling are standout. He excels in most areas when compared to his league peers. Stipica will be backed up by 20 year-old Bartosz Klebaniuk, who has decent potential and is even more Eccentric (18) than Stipica. Bartosz will need to work on some mentals (such as Concentration, Decisions) and Rushing Out before becoming a real challenger for the number 1 spot. CENTREBACKS – Kostas Triantafyllopoulos is visibly the Club’s best defender but doesn’t seem to offer much going forward. Kostas is the archetype no-nonsense central defender, excelling in Aggression, Strength, Bravery and Tackling, but lacks Pace and Acceleration. Benedikt Zech and Danijel Loncar are seemingly more balanced than Kostas and are probably more suited to a higher line of defence with higher Pace and Acceleration. Zech has the best Positioning of the three. I am not expecting much from Mariusz Malec unless a serious injury crisis hits. WINGBACKS – Linus Walqvist is the standout option at right wingback and he seems to be a decently balanced player. His backup, Pawel Storlarski, doesn’t stand out in many areas but will provide an ok option if Walqvist is injured or needs a rest but won’t compete directly for a starting spot if Walqvist is available. Left wingback seems to be a bit more of a competitive position. Leo Koutris will be the starting option but he will be under pressure from 21-year-old Leo Borges, who also has 5-star potential so I will look to give him a chance where possible. DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS – Damian Dabrowski (captain) is the most solid option in midfield and will likely be the heartbeat in the centre of the park, paired with either Mateusz Legowski (19) or Kacper Smolinski (21), as Rafal Kurzawa is injured between 2 to 4 months. At this stage, I am indifferent between the two options (maybe slightly favouring Smolinski given his higher DNA score), and will likely come down to performance in the preseason as to which will get the nod come the start of the season. If worst comes to worst, we always have 43-year-old veteran Bartosz Lawa, lurking in the 2nd team. ATTACKERS – I am lumping in Attacking Midfield, Wingers and Strikers into one category as I would expect a sharing of goalscoring and creative responsibility to come from an attacking four and not rely on 1 or 2 players. As such, the four attacking positions should come from the six most attacking players – those in the top left quadrant of the Attacking vs Defending matrix. I will exclude Alexander Gorgon for now as he is injured for 4-6 months with a damaged cruciate ligament. Vahan Bichakhchyan is the team’s only natural attacking midfield, as well as being the best finisher at the Club. For this reason, I will be trying to get him into the box as much as possible, playing him as a Shadow Striker on attack. For the Left-Wing spot, Grosicki takes it in terms of ability, but Sebastian Kowalczyk’s mentals are absolutely insane. They both ‘Cut Inside From Left Wing’ so I will let them fight it out for the starting spot. Pontus Almqvist, the 22-year-old striker on loan from Rostov, is a decent player for this level although his Finishing (11) is leaving me a bit unconvinced. He is left-footed and can play Right-Wing (something pointed out by my assistant too who says he can be a star player in such a role), so I am leaning towards giving him that starting birth and seeing if he can be a lethal weapon out wide. Additionally, he will no doubt be a capable backup to Luka Zahovic (26) who will be our starting striker. Playing second fiddle to the attackers mentioned above is Mariusz Fornalczyk (19) who has decent potential and Michal Kucharczyk (31) who is more of a defensive option out wide. Kacper Kostorz (22) is not likely to feature much as things stand. I have highlighted the Reserve Squad and Youth Squad players who have at least 3-star potential. None seem to stand out as immediate options for the First Team, but there is definitely a couple of notable players in the groups – let’s see if any can break through within the next few seasons. We will also look to utilise the loan market to get these players some game time at a club of comparable standing or the transfer market in order to raise some funds. PRESEASON A quick look at our preseason results and green across the board. Granted the level of opposition wasn’t particularly as strong as I first thought – other than Holy Cross Crusaders who I used as a morale boost, I arranged friendlies with clubs of similar reputation. Some concern hit me when Damian Dabrowski, our captain and midfield general, pulled up injured in the 28th minute of the Malmo game. He would miss the rest of the preseason and will be touch and go for the start of the domestic season. However, a pleasing surprise is the form of Kacper Smolinski who stepped in with 1 goal, 2 assists and an average rating of 7.57 during the preseason fixtures. Another notable impression left from preseason is the performance of Vahan Bichakhchyan who really proved his worth as a goalscoring threat from the AM position. He will most definitely be a crucial cog in the wheel going forward. Overall, though, preseason has been reasonably successful in achieving tactical familiarity across the squad and building up players’ fitness. There were also no immediate concerns I had around the tactic, however, I am a bit nervous that this has not been stress tested against stronger oppositions so it will be necessary to cast a critical eye over it once the season is in full flow. EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE (1st Round Qualifying) Naturally, I would’ve played a few more friendly games than the 4/5 games we did in the preseason, but we had the ‘inconvenience’ of 1st round qualifying of the Europa Conference League. So, I kicked off my competitive reign against B36 Torshavn, a semi-professional team from Faroe Island. Thankfully we managed to avoid any embarrassment winning 3-0 at home and 2-0 away for an aggregate victory of 5-0. In both legs, we put the opponent under constant pressure and sets us up for a 2nd Round tie vs APOEL. I took the opportunity to sandwich one more friendly in between the Europe CL games, playing out a 5-2 victory over Juventus Next Gen side giving a runout to some of the squad players before the start of the season. There was one massive black mark against our season preparations and that was a torn thigh muscle to our starting left wingback, Leonardo Koutris who will now be missing for a 3-months. We did mention Leo Borges as an able deputy, so he will need to hit the season running sooner than expected. And with that, we draw a curtain on analysing the squad and playing out the preseason. The remainder of July sees us playing three domestic league games and the second-round tie in the Europa Conference League. Make sure to follow me on Twitter, @fm_ghost to keep up to date with future releases. Do widzenia.

0.2 | INTRODUCTION - THE GAME MODEL & CLUB DNA Welcome to the second blog post for the save with Pogon Szczecin where we will look to dominate on the field and in turn dominate Poland’s domestic game. Catch up on the history of the Club, an introduction to the Club philosophy and the objectives set out for the save in my first blog post, here. In this post, I will delve deeper into details of how I aim to implement the Club’s philosophy through its Game Model and implement a Club DNA in the process. With that said, let’s have a look at the suggested shape and starting XI given by the assistant manager. THE SHAPE This is just for me to get a sense of what shape is seen as being best for the current crop of players and it seems to correspond to Dariusz Adamczuk’s (our Director of Football introduced in the previous post) favourite formation. In addition, having done some research myself, Pogon Szczecin are most commonly set up in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1 shape so we will develop the Game Model around this shape, to begin with, and tweak if need be as we go further into the save. The next post will give a more detailed analysis of my squad. I am a disciple of the 4-2-3-1 shape with the ‘box’ that is created between the CBs and DMs in a double pivot providing a solid base to work from which allows the wingbacks to get high up the pitch to support the inverted wingers and striker. The AM will generally have positional freedom, either dropping off to collect the ball in order to carve the opponent’s defence with a splitting pass or intricate dribble, or pushing alongside the striker to form a two-pronged attack. Additionally, with the intention of playing a high-pressing game, the ‘number 10’ can push alongside the striker to form a 4-4-2 shape in defence. In some situations, where we are looking to be a bit more cautious in our play, keep possession or defend a lead, the team will resort to a 4-1-4-1 shape dropping the wingers into the midfield strata and having a ‘screen’ or ‘shield’ in front of the back four. Roles are set to change as we go deeper into analysing the individual players in the squad. TEAM INSTRUCTIONS As the Pogon Szczecin game model was created by the Club five years ago, I’m not particularly starting from ground zero and I would expect the current crop of players to be somewhat familiar with a relatively intensive set of instructions. However, we will see how it goes to begin with and assess if we need to reign in a few of the instructions. It’s all about evolution. OUT OF POSSESSION – The Club speak of intensive pressing, high up the field, to force the opposition into errors. Therefore, we have opted to play High Press and Higher Defensive Line to compress the pitch in the opposition’s half and press Much More Often to maintain constant pressure on the ball carrier, effectively shutting down their options. Having a look at the Comparison tab, the defenders in the team have the league’s best Tacking and above-average Pace and Acceleration, however, lack Positioning. This is concerning as I would rather the defenders be in the right place and anticipate danger rather than makeup for this deficiency through pace and last-ditch tackles. We will need to monitor if we get caught out with balls over the top and tweak the defensive line accordingly. IN POSSESSION – One of the expectations from the Board and Supporters is to play possession-based, attacking football. As such, we want the players to be able to keep possession when they have it (Shorter Passing) but to also use the ball in a quick and dangerous manner thus having a Higher Tempo. What is clear is that our strikers have Pace and Acceleration. This has tempted me to Pass into Space to exploit through balls in the channels. What is majorly concerning is the lack of Off the Ball and Finishing. I am normally one to want to toggle ‘Work into Box’, but with above-average Long Shots, I wanted to let this play out but if the attackers are just shooting wildly, I will engage a more intentional approach. IN TRANSITION – Nothing complicated here. When we lose the ball, we will Counter Press intently and once it’s regained, we will look to utilise that pace and Counter quickly. ___ ESTABLISHING A DNA To properly implement a playing style, the Club culture needs to be aligned across the players, staff, and fans. In Football Manager, these aspects come through player attributes, personalities, club vision and supporter expectations. ATTRIBUTES The way I have chosen to establish DNA among players is through attributes, specifically in identifying mental and physical requirements that all players should possess which will allow them to always perform at their best. These attributes will help us maintain the high intensity and consistency we will need throughout the season. The priority would be, over time, that the squad is constructed with naturally fit players combined with a strong work ethic and high football intelligence. PHYSICAL – Stamina, Natural Fitness WORK ETHIC – Determination, Teamwork, Work Rate FOOTBALL INTELLIGENCE – Anticipation, Composure, Decisions The DNA will be scored and tracked with a preference for players that are strong overall, with the caveat that younger players will need a degree of leniency. Additional considerations will be on POSITIONING (for defensive players) and OFF THE BALL (for offensive players), and a combination of the two for support players. Overall, I am fairly happy with the state of the squad’s DNA and it is warming to see that our overall DNA is better than the league average, especially in the area of ‘Work Ethic’. Natural Fitness is the only attribute that is below the league average. PERSONALITIES Meshing together a group of positive and strong personalities is critical and will influence aspects such as team morale, cohesion, training and ultimately performance on the pitch. Additionally, eliminating the ‘bad apples’ potentially maintains a strong cohesion within the group. Although there are no preferences for which personalities are, obvious ones such as Model Citizen, Resolute and Professional are desired. However, weeding out the negative personalities is more important, especially ones that indicate a low component of the DNA – Unambitious and Temperamental, for example. CLUB VISION We have already spoken through the Club’s expectations and vision. Although not explicitly stated, I will put a big focus on the youth and wanting to play attacking, high-octane brand of football, in alignment with the Game Model, described earlier in this piece. Ideally, the same system will be implemented across all age groups to allow easier transitions to the first team (role familiarity). STAFF A club’s DNA will fall apart if there isn’t alignment across the whole organisation. This includes the staff. Again, personality is a huge factor as determined and ambitious members will push high standards of work, from the training pitch to the medical team. It is important that not only their personality is good, but tactical familiarity and style of play should also be aligned with the desired club DNA. Should the job not require this, the best in class will be hired (such as medical staff etc). Normally I identify the following key personnel early on: Director of Football (DoF) Assistant Manager Head of Youth Development (HoYD) Luckily, in the case of Pogon Szczecin, Dariusz Adamczuk doubles as both the DoF and HoYD. We already know from earlier that Dariusz was instrumental in the formation of the Game Model at the Club and therefore I have no reason to want to get rid at this stage. His job is safe… for now. Ideally, when I start a new save, my first port of call is to sack the assistant manager on the first day, regardless of who it is and bring in my own choice as generally, that’s what happens in real life. However, having looked at the current staff at Pogon Szczecin and having evaluated some external candidates, I have chosen to stick with the current Assistant Manager, Vitor Gazimba. The Portuguese ticks a lot of boxes for me – high determination, tactical familiarity, good judging ability, sufficient tactical knowledge and motivating. He is media-friendly (can handle all the media jobs, thanks). He is also no slouch of a coach for this level and can assist us in numerous areas of coaching. Happy days. At the start of the save, the staff looked quite light with numerous positions available to be filled and were relatively mid-tiered compared to the rest of the league. Staffing takes some time but done correctly and methodically can give decent results, as seen below. I have kept most staff that were already in, released those that were really not necessary or costly and recruited according to our core principles without breaking the bank. I am fairly chuffed with this progress and looking forward to further imprinting my philosophy within the walls of the training ground. That’s where we will leave this post. Thank you for taking the time to read the second part of this introduction. With our tactic framework in place and the Club DNA set, we take a deep dive into the players we have at our disposal as well as assess our preseason in the next post. Don’t miss out! Follow me on Twitter, @fm_ghost so you keep up to date. Do widzenia.

Have edited the first post to include the detailed blog. Going forward, I am thinking of posting the full blogs during the introduction to the save (2 more posts lined up) and thereafter the updates to the season will be linked to the website. Thank you and enjoy.

0.1 | INTRODUCTION - THE CLUB Welcome to the first ever Football Manager save of the blog. I truly hope you will enjoy the journey. When it came to planning for this save, there were a few prerequisites, and Pogon Szczecin met all of them: The Club does not play in a Top 10 league – obviously, the Polish Ekstraklasa is a minnow in European football (ranked 31st in FM), and as I have no knowledge of the league makes it even better. Within the league, the Club is not a dominant force but is seemingly on an upward trajectory – Pogon Szczecin’s highest finish has been 2nd in the league (‘86/’87 and ‘00/’01) and finished 3rd in the past two seasons. The Club has a clear playing style and identity – the club has undertaken the creation of a uniform and systematized playing philosophy and game model over the past five years. This will be covered more extensively later in this post and in future posts regarding tactics. A club that I can develop an emotional attachment to – probably the most restrictive of the criteria, but being of Polish descent, it’s easy now to see why Pogon Szczecin is appealing. SO, WHO IS POGON SZCZECIN? The club was founded in 1948 by Poles who had been transferred west from Lwow (now Lviv, Ukraine) following the annexation of Poland’s eastern territories in 1945. Previous supporters of Pogon Lwow, the Club’s founders maintained the colours of navy blue and maroon as a tribute to their pre-war team. The team, nicknamed Portowcy or ‘The Dockers’, achieved promotion to the top-flight of Poland in 1958 under then-founder and coach Florian Krygier, whom the stadium will later be named after. The two decades to follow saw the club become a bit of a yo-yo, getting relegated and promoted again, lacking any real success through that period. Mural commemorating Florian Krygier - founder, and former coach (source: club website) The 1980s proved to be a bit more successful achieving back-to-back Polish Cup final appearances (‘80/’81 and ‘81/’82) but failed to win either. In 1984, managed by Eugeniusz Ksol and led by legendary striker Marek Lesniak, the Club defied the odds by not only avoiding relegation which they were favourites for but finished the season in third place in the Ekstraklasa and qualifying for the UEFA Cup for the first time in its history. Unfortunately, the Club met a star-studded FC Koln side in the first qualifying round and lost 3-1 on aggregate. The Club had a second shot at qualifying for Europe during the 1987/88 season but again failed at the first hurdle going down 4-2 to Italian side Hellas Verona. The 1990s proved to be nothing more than uneventful with the Club maintaining a mid-tier position in the top division and no successes in the Polish Cup. However, at the turn of the century and on the brink of bankruptcy, things turned turbulent when the Club was relegated to the 4th division because of ownership changes and the registration of a new company was made in 2007/08. Interestingly, halfway through the 2005/06 season, after performing reasonably well using local players, the then-owner Antoni Ptak scraped the entire squad in favour of only Brazilian Nationals making Pogon the “most Brazilian team outside Brazil”. Clearly, the experiment failed. During the 2011/12 season, the Club navigated its way back to the top division in Poland after finishing runner-up in the Polish First Division. Since then, they have maintained top division status whilst promoting numerous youth players who have gone on to play for the Polish national team and have been picked up by teams in stronger leagues, most recently Kacper Kozlowski who transferred to Brighton and Hove Albion FC in 2021/22. The Club crest contains a crowned griffin taken from the city of Szczecin’s coat of arms. The Club mascot is a red-crowned griffin named Gryfus. Gryfus, the club mascot and fan favourite. CLUB VISION Much of the next section is in reference to the “Training Model” described on the club’s website (https://akademia.pogonszczecin.pl/model-szkolenia/). | “We want to dominate on the pitch, play effective football, but also be attractive to the eye” – Maksymilian Rogalski (youth coach). | The philosophy implemented by Pogon Szczecin has been in place for the past 5 years, which took over a year to create and housed in a several hundred-page document which is labelled a ‘club secret’. Key to this development has been Dariusz Adamczuk, the Head of Youth Development and Director of Football. Someone, I will lean on his skill and experience when it comes to recruiting and negotiating with players. | “Each phase of the game was discussed with the coaches, so it was easier for us to implement this model. Everyone felt part of this project. We drank a lot of coffee, had a lot of conversations, but it was worth it.” – Dariusz Adamczuk | The club breaks down each phase of play with a clear identity and game model that they want all players, be it the first team or the differing youth teams, to prepare players to play at the highest level. Defence – implement a high press where players are active in defence trying to force errors in opponents and picking up the ball in high zones. Transition (defence to attack) – quick counter-attack utilising pace, speed, and accuracy. Attack – Domination of the game and control of the field. The build-up is from their own goal, quick exchanges of the ball with short passes, positional flexibility, and variability in the pace of play. Transition (attack to defence) – players are in active positions and immediately try to close passing lines and regain possession of the ball. Emphasis on active play, balancing attacking players with protection. In Football Manager, the board and supporters are in adherence to this philosophy of playing possession-based, attacking football, with a preference (supporters) to develop players using the youth system – do I dare bring in a Brazilian wonderkid? The website also speaks in-depth about wanting to rebuild the Pogon Szczecin brand through close cooperation with partner clubs. A network of several selected clubs was created with the aim of building a network of 8-10 centers, recreating many of the European models. In FM, the club is affiliated with 4 clubs which I won’t go into detail about, but it is good to see that is somewhat reflected in the game and something further in the journey. STADIUM AND FACILITIES I am excited by the prospect of being the manager to lead the team into a newly renovated Florian Krygier Stadium, increasing its capacity from 18,027 seats to 21,163 seats in 2022 with the option of expanding further to approximately 25,000 seats. The facilities for Pogon Szczecin will be crucial in implementing the club’s vision and identity and I will look to push the board into improving these even more as we go on. For the club to be competitive in Europe, its facilities and recruitment will need to be at least an excellent rating. CLUB FINANCES A quick look at our finances. The Club has a balance of just over £3.4m and is debt-free with a projected balance of £5.4m in two years’ time. This does not seem like a lot to start with. With a projected transfer budget of approximately £1.0m by 2025 it is mission-critical that we are smart with our money and begin to produce quality youngsters sooner rather than later. THE MANAGER Pogon Szczecin has enlisted the services of former Poland striker, Euzebiusz ‘Ebi’ Smolarek (41). The 47-capped national hero scored 19 times for his country (10th all-time scorer), in a playing career spanning 13 years, that included spells at clubs such as Feyenoord, Borussia Dortmund, Racing Santander, Bolton Wanderers, among others, totalling 279 club-career appearances. The Club has poached Ebi from Feyenoord where he has been a youth coach since 2014 highlighting his experience in working with youngsters, tactical nous, determination, and motivation as key attributes in his appointment. CLUB EXPECTATIONS To wrap up, a look at the board and supporter expectations for the first couple of seasons. It would seem that the board are willing to give us the grace of a year (finish in the top half) before really putting the pressure on winning the title year after year. No pressure then. The supporters are a bit more ambitious with their targets for this season in that we are required to beat rivals Cracovia, which should in turn mean that we challenge for the Ekstraklasa title. The first transfer window is disabled, for realism, so the next few posts will continue our analysis of Pogon Szczecin by going through the squad, the tactics and playing through pre-season. Do widzenia. ___ Thank you for taking the time to read this post and I truly hope you will come along the journey as we push forward. For future updates, I will post the links to the blog website so please follow the thread and follow me on Twitter @fm_ghost. https://www.fmghost.net/pogon-1/ ___