keeper#1

Tuesday at 23:10

End of 2025-26 Season Update - A Season Lost

The only positive that I can take from this season is we had more wins than losses and a positive goal difference. Other than that, I can say it was a season lost. We finished 12th while having an expected finish of 5th which would be on par with last season. I threw everything that I could at solving the problem. We changed formations, we brought in new players, we pressed, we backed off. We did everything that I could think of to get us out of the funk but we couldn't do it. Nothing worked. Our biggest problem was conceding late goals. I'm going to chalk that up to our youth. I could also say...."at least we didn't get relegated like West Brom." Just a slog of a season.

Absolutely no consistency. The only thing that we could string together were draws. The best match we played in the second half of the season was against Stoke. Our worst match has to be a week later against Hull where we tied late in the second half only to concede a late goal to lose the match.

I've got a lot of work to do this offseason. Our best player was Yannick Eduardo who is at the club on a loan. Everyone else on the club put up inconsistent efforts. I'm not going to put all of blame on them. I'm at fault as well. I did not do a good enough job in the offseason and bringing in the right players to help the club. I rushed to judgement with some of the signings while overestimating the abilities of some players which caused more panic buying over the winter. This played some role in our inconsistency too. I never found 11 players that I could rely on and build a system around the strengths of those 11 players. It's going to be a long summer of evaluating who has a future at the club. Which players we can build around and which players need to be sold so we can bring better players and build the club up. We have some players in the prime of the career who could be sold and used to bring in similarly skilled but younger players. A big summer is ahead.

The club has a laundry list of weaknesses.

I'm going to need to sell some to buy as well. I don't think a four million pound transfer budget is going to fit all of our summer needs.

Tuesday at 18:14

Sounds very similar to my season at Birmingham. Just not good enough to contend.

May 27

I've watched some of the Canadian Premier League matches on TV. The quality of play is shockingly poor. My vote is for Atletico Ottawa because it has ties to Europe and it's closest team to where I live.

May 26

2025-26 Mid-Season Update

Life and work have gotten in the way of more frequent updates but we have reached the halfway point so I feel the need to put out an update.

I've gotten to manage a lot of matches this season only to watch to watch us find a new way to draw a match. We have almost as many draws (12) as we do wins and losses (13) in the first 25 matches.

It doesn't matter the opposition. It doesn't matter the formation we use or the opposition's formation, we find a way to draw. Play well defensively - offense doesn't show up. Offense plays well - the defense and goalkeeper find a way to give up just as many. It's been a hard slog of matches.

But we've played a lot of matches so I've a good chance to get our youngsters some matches and time on the field to aid in their development. I can't call this a lost season....yet. It has been good for the growth of the kids which will only help us down the road. But doing a deeper dive into the individual stats, I've found that the problem may lie in one place....the goalkeeper. Bailey Peacock-Ferrell put in a solid end of last season when he had to step into the starting job when Koen Casteels went down with an injury. He played well enough that I thought we could perform at a similar level to last season when I got a big money offer for Casteels. However, that has not been the case. Peacock-Ferrell is costing us matches.

The two things that stick out are an actual save percentage (73%) compared to expected save percentage of 84%. That's not good. He is allowing more goals per 90 than expected while having a goal against average of 1.12. If we have just an average goalkeeper, we turn some of those draws into wins and move up in the standings. Another player who has underperformed his center back Mattia Bani.

Bani has been below average across all the defensive categories. He is also reaching the point where he could be losing some of his playing time. I feel like we have a solid defensive setup so at this point, I think it's a subset of players not the system causing our poor defensive play. Need to do some retooling during the January transfer window to see if I can make the right signings and make a solid push for a playoff place.

May 21

Not a bad profit for player brought in on a free.

May 21

I toyed with doing something similar earlier in this FM cycle. It was a lot fun. Good luck and I'll be following along.

May 17

2024-25 Season Review

Lack of time to post regular updates led to lump everything about the 2024-25 season in one giant post. On the field, it was a very good season for Birmingham as we start to put the pieces into place for a solid promotion run.

I will not be disappointed with a 6th place finish. We got into the playoffs which I was not expecting this season - I was expecting a season where we finished somewhere in the middle of the table (12th to 16th place range). We never had to worry about the threat of relegation. We flirted with the automatic promotion slots. We slipped up a little bit toward the end of season and a bit of an injury crisis at the goalkeeper and center forward positions to prevent us from pushing into the top four places. This was a really solid season for us and one which we can, hopefully, use to as fuel to make a stronger run at the automatic promotion places in the next couple of seasons.

We had a solid showing against Hull in the playoff semifinals. We needed to field out backup goalkeeper and Northern Ireland international Bradley Peacock-Farrell. Farrell has been a solid deputy for us this season. He did a great job when Koen Casteels went down with injuries during the season and he was the backbone of our cup replays against both Leicester and Everton. We drew with Hull 1-1 on our home ground. Hull came out strong in the first half of the second leg and held a 2-0 lead going into halftime. We threw everything that we could at the Hull defense but could only muster one goal and fell to Hull 2-1 and 3-2 on aggregate.

We did a great job of spreading the goalscoring around the attacking players but our primary weakness was finding a second center forward behind Jamie Donley. Donley led the squad with 16 goals in all competitions which is a good number but we had no depth behind him. Tyler Roberts scored five goals and youngster Bria Bateman scored only one. Their output was matched by winter signing Alan Sonora who had six goals after signing with the club in January. When Donley was tired or injured, our offense was in trouble. We had no focal point for our attack. We had to hope for something special by one of our wing forwards or central midfielders. Strengthening the attack is something that I need to focus on in the off-season.

I spent most of the season working on a solution to our "rest defense." In the first part of the season, we were scoring goals for fun but more often than not allowing just as many goals. Players were pressing all over the place and, as a result, getting pulled out of position. I switched things up from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3. My first run at the 4-3-3 was still leaving us without a solid shape at the back as players still wanted to press or freelance on defense. As the season wore on, I tweaked the roles just enough to give us a solid shape at the back and our defense vastly improved. All that said, we need another true center back to solidify things in the middle. I went with Krystian Bielik as a Libero for most of the season even though he is a natural defensive midfielder. He ranks toward the bottom of the league in tackles won as a center back but the same percentage would rank him as one of the best defensive midfielders in the league. Mattia Bani and Dion Sanderson are both good options at the other center-back position. I would like another solid presence back there to move Bielik into the defensive midfield position. The right side of the back line is set with Ethan Laird and Mo Farah on the right. The left side could use an upgrade from our current options.

Transfer Wheelings and Dealings

What fueled our rise from 18th place last season to sixth place this season? A solid batch of signings. All of these signings did exactly what was expected of them throughout the season. And none of them cost the club a dime in a transfer fees. The biggest "disappointment" came during the winter when Shakthar recalled Kevin Kelsy from loan. That made our depth at center forward even more glaring in retrospect. I thought Roberts and Bateman could do the job but I was proven wrong. The biggest transfer out of the club was right winger/forward George Hall who left the club for Burnley on 10.75M with the potential to rise to 12.5M transfer fee. We've already cashed in the games played clause. Nobody else in the transfers out was a big loss to the first team as they were all youngsters gaining first team experience or senior/reserve team players who are blocking the player pathway for a hot academy prospect.

Class of 2024

Four players made up the Birmingham Academy Class of 2024:

RB Mo Farah (age 16) - future first teamer and should get his first cap for the Somalia National Team next season if England doesn't cap tie him soon

CF Bria Bateman (age 18) - likely rotational option for us going forward

RW/RF Romelle Donovan (age 18) - another future first teamers potentially as soon as the upcoming 2025-26 season. Already capped to the England U19 squad

CB Godfred Boakye (age 18) - a future rotational piece at either the center back or defensive midfield positions - also capped with the England U19 squad

May 12

Bargain hunting is going to be the name of the game for a couple of seasons. The sellable assets need time to develop and the club is bleeding almost a million pounds per month somehow even with a reduced wage bill. Free transfers, loans, and youth academy promotions is the way right now.

May 11

Season 2 Update 1 - Summer Transfer Window

The summer transfer window was a busy window. We brought in seven new players all on frees. We completely turned over our goalkeeper room with three brand new goalkeepers. Koen Casteels will be the number one after spending the last decade playing for Wolfsburg. The battle will be for his deputy. Arthur Okonkno, from the Arsenal youth academy, and Bailey Peacock-Farrell, from Burnley, are the combatants. They could very well split time as the back-up. With the goalkeeper position situated, we added Mattia Bani. Bani is a solid ball-playing center back in his prime. He gives us a great option to bring the ball out of the defense in both a two or three center back defense. Defensive midfielder Goran Cautic was a free transfer that was arranged before I got to the club. Cautic is on the older side but still will have some usefulness for us in a rotational role. We lost left back Emmanuel Longeio to Aberdeen. In his place, we brought in Souleyman Doumbia who was looking for work and we could offer him the playing time that he was looking for. Kevin Kelsy, a target man center forward from Shakhtar, comes in on a season-long loan to help shore up our attack.

Three kids come up from the Birmingham academy. Mohamed Farah joins the senior team at just 16 years old and will provide the club with a high-ceiling depth option at the position. Also along the right side of the formation, 17 year old Romelle Donovan will split time with recent academy graduate George Hall at the right wing/forward position. Godfred Boskye is a good young depth option at the center back and defensive midfielder position.

These 11 players represent almost half of the 2024-25 senior team roster so we have had quite the turnover with the squad over the summer.

May 5

Quick End of Season Update

The good news is Birmingham did the job losing just two matches in the final eight as they surged away from the relegation fight. Park Seung-Ho led the charge with four goals. The bad news is our defense struggled to keep a clean sheet. Just one clean sheet in the eight matches and Huddersfield completely blew our doors off in a 4-1 match.

Huddersfield did have a lot to play for when we faced in the second to last match of the season. It could be argued that their 4-1 victory was what enabled them to stay up in the Championship. Rotherham, Sheffield Wednesday and Millwall fall into League One. Leicester and Norwich will automatically go into the Championship while Ipswich, Southampton, Middlesbrough, and Leeds will battle for the final promotion place. We know Derby and Lincoln will join Birmingham in the Championship from League One next season. Sheffield United has already been relegated from the Premier League and four teams (West Ham - 16th, Everton - 17th, Bournemouth - 18th, and Luton - 19th) are battling for the last two slots.

I don't expect many of the names on this year's roster on the squad next season so I'm not going to go very in-depth here.

May 5

Thanks for all of the kind words about starting this save. I was able to finish the season before I left on holiday. I couldn't get the post done in time before I left though. Didn't bring the laptop with me since this trip was with the missus and she would not look kindly to me playing FM while cruising through the south eastern Caribbean (St. Kitts, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia and Barbados). She might have left at the airport in Puerto Rico.

Next step is to get the end of season post up and starting working on improving the club.

On 29/04/2024 at 02:47, karanhsingh said:

And here I thought it was because of Tom Brady! Good luck with this mate

I did go to Michigan at the same time as Tom Brady - I was senior and he was freshman so it's unlikely that our paths would have crossed.

April 25

Taking some inspiration from @danielgear and his QPR save, I've taken on a similar project but with a different club....Birmingham. This save starts on 29 March 2024 so there are just eight matches remaining in the season with Birmingham in 20th place just two points above the drop zone Why Birmingham?

The club is struggling to perform in all phases on the pitch - they are averaging barely a goal per match (39 goals in 38 matches), they have allowed the second most goals thus far (55 goals in those 38 matches), and team discipline is awful (60 yellow card and three red cards to date)
The club has no sense of budgeting and have pissed away all of the money that they made on the sale of Jude Bellingham to Dortmund. The club currently sits 9M in the red. The wage structure is awful. The club has a turnover of just over 12M but are spending over 19M on wages. The wage budget has been completely disregarded as Birmingham is spending 4M over the wage budget. Even the wage budget is an overspend of the club's turnover.
The only positive at the club is the club's academy which continues to churn out potential star after potential star. The two stars that the club is going to need to build around and likely sell for a profit are 17-year old Romelle Donovan and I have my own 15-year old to add into the mix @danielgear and @_Ben_ in right back Mo Farah.

Early Squad Impressions

At first glance, the squad is old and on overpriced contracts. Taking a deeper look into the contract situation, I've already found some players whose contract expires in June and are no longer producing in line with the wages the club is paying them.

CF Lukas Jutkiewicz - a 35 year old center forward who has played in just one match for us this season, as a sub, but is pulling 780K in an annual salary
GK Neil Etheridge - a 34 year old goalkeeper who has played in seven matches while pulling in 1.092M in salary this season
GK John Ruddy - a 37 year old goalkeeper who has been our starter this season while earning 480K in salary
CB Marc Roberts - a 33 year old center back who has played in six matches but earns 520k in salary

I'll need to bring in a new goalkeeper so I won't be lopping all of this money off the wage bill but these four players earn 2.872M in salary and only one of them is a starter.

A player whose contract is up in June and I would like to keep but not at his current salary is midfielder Ivan Sunjic. Sunjic a solid rotational piece for us and is only 27 years old but he makes a whopping 884k this season. I'd like to negotiate a lower salary for someone is more a rotational option than a player to build the team around.

I have four players who have contracts that expire at the end of the 2024-25 season who aren't playing a lot so I could use the combination of salary relief and transfer fees to help the bank balance.

DM Callum Connelly - a 26 year old defensive midfielder has played in nine matches this season while making 374k.
CF Simone Zaza - a 32 year old center forward who has played in 18 matches all off the bench and makes 311k.
CM Greg Docherty - 27 year old midfielder has only seen game action in three matches this season while making 308k.
CM Juninho Bacuna - probably the most valuable asset of the four - played in 27 matches scoring four goals and making 520k.

Remaining Schedule

Next post will hopefully be tonight or tomorrow AM. If not, it won't be coming until after I return from a workcation in Caribbean.

April 20

Well done, sir!

April 15

2029-30 Season Review - Save From Relegation: It's Demo Day!

It was a long slog through the winter and into the spring but Union Berlin was saved from relegation with two matches remaining in the season. But it wasn't because we were winning matches with style and grace. We were grinding out draws. After we beat Dortmund 3-2 in early February, we only won two of our last fourteen matches. We had five draws in those matches to earn 11 points in the run-in to the finish. Not exactly great football but other clubs went even worse than us so we bobbed our heads above water to earn another season of Bundesliga football. So what's next? Blowing the whole thing up and starting from scratch. Most of the roster isn't cut out for Bundesliga. Heck, most of the roster isn't cut out for 2.Bundesliga football. I need to spend the summer selling what assets that I can, letting bad contracts expire, and finding younger players with upside come into the club.

Here's how the three players that I did bring in over the winter fared:

GK Adam Filip: Did solid work in net for a 21-year old kid thrust into the starting job probably a little before he was ready for it - He had a high GAA of 1.52 but kept five clean sheets which shows me that he can handle the lower teams in the league but struggles, like the rest of the team, when facing stronger competition. Definitely a player to keep around for future seasons

RB Marco Gardsvoll: Another player thrust into a starting role before they were ready and did a good job of holding down the position - He didn't turn the ball over (92% pass completion rate), he won the ball at a rate that is one of the best in the league (84%) but he's weak in the air with a 33% headers won rate..

DM Jan-Phillip Engemann - Engemann is the player who had the toughest adjustment probably because it had the hardest role to fit into. The defensive midfielder has to get the offense started but make sure he is back in position to help the defense. It's a tough ask for a seasoned veteran. It's even tougher for a 20-year old who isn't quite ready for the job. He needs work all around his game. Tackling (72%), pass completion (89%), and getting involved in the offense (0 goals and 1 assist)

Youth Intake

A decent intake for the club. We got a top line forward and another forward who could help the club in a rotational role. We also got a midfielder who can also us going forward. Not a lot of help on the defensive side of the ball though.

CF Aymar Kalonji 30A

CF Petr Dvorak 30B

CM Bilal Dogan 30C

CF Gerhard Schaller 30D

RW Gabriel Pascher 30E

April 14

Goalkeepers and defenders are always undervalued assets in the transfer market unless they are world class players.

April 14

February 2030 - Early Days In Berlin

It's early days for me in Berlin and I've been looking for ways to clear some of the deadwood. A massive deadwood clearing will take place over the summer when a bunch of contracts expire. Right now, it's been taking offers for any players that other clubs find "valuable" and then replacing them with younger players. Will these new players have really long term futures at the club? Maybe. Maybe not. So, I was on the lookout for cheaper talent that I could potentially flip in a season or two once we become more settled and I'm not in a scramble mode to find players to save us from relegation this season. It's an improvement over the aging talent that the club has been relying on to save the club from relegation over the last couple of seasons.

As I like to do, I work back to front when it comes to building the team. I'm an ex-goalie and the advanced stats have shown that it's easier to gain points around the margins on the defensive side than on the offensive side. A team can play defensive and earn a 0-0 draw easier than putting their foot on the gas and getting a 3-3 draw. We were going to lose our right back, Josep Jurnanovic, on a free at the end of the season by Dinamo Zagreb wanted to bring him home earlier than that. So, I needed to find a new starting right back before I attacked the spine of the team. I found a good enough 19-year old right back in Denmark at FC Nordsaelland in Marco Gardovoli. He is able to do the job on a weekly basis. He's not an ideal solution but he's an ideal short-term solution that can be flipped for a better long-term option as I get the scouting operation up and running. The biggest need that the club has is in net. Our starting goalie is listed as "Good 3.Liga." That's not a good thing for a club fighting against relegation. A trip through the Czechia U21 roster unearthed Adam Filip. Filip is a player who has a high ceiling but needs the time in net to fully develop and he's an improvement over my starting goalkeeper. A no-brainer type of deal. Jan-Philipp Engmann is a young German defensive midfielder who has time with the German U21 team. A player brought in after Shakthar took Andras Schafer off of our hands. Engmann is probably not quite ready for first team Bundesliga football but he can develop into a player, in my opinion, that will be a Bundesliga defensive midfielder.

In a relegation fight, I went back to what I know best the 4-3-3 DM wide. We had a rough start before we ground out three draws which didn't help us in the standings but didn't hurt us either. After the Christmas break, we came out flying with an undefeated January and rode that momentum into an upset of Dortmund before, in classic fashion, we lose to last place Dresden in the very next game.

April 12

New City - Different Club - Same Theme

Every season, I have club sniffing around for my services as their new manager. Most of the offers (Leece, Santa Clara) are quickly blown off. The bigger 2.Bundesliga clubs (Schalke, Stuttgart, etc) never have any interest in my services when their job become available. But one interview request caught my eye - 1. FC Union Berlin. They are struggling in the Bundesliga this season down in 17th place. They are club from the East Berlin side of the city so they played behind the Iron Curtain as well. I took the interview and they responded a day later asking if I wanted to make any changes in the backroom. I negotiated to bring my Head of Youth Development and coach Miroslav Klose with me to Berlin.

The club is barely hanging on to a Bundesliga place. They finished in 15th place, last season, on 30 points to avoid even the relegation playout matches. They are on a similar path this season. The club has given me a wage budget which is three times larger than my wage budget at Magdeburg. But the club have found a way to almost 80k over that budget. Why? Let's take a look at the roster.

A first team roster that is 42!!!!!! players (45 if you count the three players out on loan) "strong." The club does not have a reserve team so anybody that is promoted from the U19 team is dumped into the first team and then, it looks like, nothing happens with them. They just rot on the bench. There's no real youth development. The roster is full of players who are past their prime and falling from their peak but at the same time they are blocking the development path of the young players below. To me, it looks like a US team that is trying to piece together one or two more playoff runs from an aging roster when they should be blowing up the team and letting the kids develop. This team is trying to string together seasons that just save them from relegation but the youth development is stunted. I'm going to need to sell off some of the remaining assets, see if I can find some aging players to take a lump sum payment to leave the club, and bring in some kids with upside that I can develop into a team on more stable footing. In short - this roster is a mess.

The finances are a mess too. I'm not sure that I am going to be able to offer aging players "gardening duty" money to just leave the club. The club doesn't have any money to offer them because of their bloated salaries. This is going to be a fun multi-year rebuild.

Looking like a very top heavy youth intake will be coming in. I'd like a goalkeeper but they take too long to develop. A striker or two would be a nice boost for the club.

April 11

2029-30 Season - Part 1

I tried to stress quality over quantity in this summer window. I need players who can unlock a game with a goal or an threaded ball leading to a goal. Game changers. We lost a big game changer in the window as RW Tomas Castro Ponce left for Getafe for 4.1M with clauses to take the transfer up to 5.2M. Ponce led the team with ten assists last season. Ponce was a great piece of business for the club as we brought him in on a free right before the start of the 2028-29 season. Pure profit for the club. Coming in on the right side as Ponce's replacement is Gaston Hernandez who joins us from Uruguay. Hernandez is a pacy winger who can hopefully replicate Ponce's assist output this season. Also at the wing position, experienced left winger Myron van Brederode comes to the club after he was let go by Luton Town. He will be the new starting left winger to match new right winger Hernandez. In the middle, Mounir Saadi, who has scored 25 goals over the last two seasons for Bielefeld, comes to the club to give us some more goalscoring punch at the top of the formation. Three more players join the senior club as well but they all except to help the club, this season, in a reserve role: Joaquin Tipaldi at center back, Alexsander Bobek in goal, and Jannes Schulz at both wing positions.

We've had some inconsistent play as I adjust to the new talent coming into the club and the new players adjusting to their new club. So far, we've been solid at home and poor on the road. This puts us right in the middle of the table but we aren't that far from the top. The xG stats say we should be higher up the table as our goalscoring is behind our xG pace. Another positive is we have a net positive xG so we are in every match. We just need to ways to win those matches. I also think we lead the league in "goals overturned by VAR." I feel like, at least, once per match; we have a goal overturned by VAR. Our penalty taking has also been **** poor (0 for 3) which has already cost us some points.

The high point of the season, thus far, has been the 1-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the DfB-Pokal. I would say that it will be another trophy-less season for Bayer Neverkusen but they won the 2029 Bundesliga. Finished on points with Bayern Munich but won the title because of superior goal differential (+50 to +41) to claim their first Bundesliga title.

April 7

19 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

I really like this realism element! He's not too bad but, at the end of the day, most managers these days do not have 100% say in who comes through the doors!

My experience of the 2.Liga tells me it's not an easy place to get out of - so that's a promising season for you. How did Sanchez fair?

What are your plans for the summer? A big rebuild or just small steps?

Sanchez did well for an 18-year old playing at this level.

The plan is to take some small steps in the transfer market. Continue to cull the 3.Liga players from the rosters either through contract expiry or transfer outs and replace them with some talented youngsters I had out on loan last season. Hopefully, that's enough to improve us from 5th to 2nd and automatic promotion.

April 6

11 minutes ago, Vakama2619 said:

How have Nurnberg gotten on since you left?

13th in 2026-27

10th in 2027-28

5th in 2028-29

During the 2026-27 season, they sold off all the talent that I brought into the club and it's taken them two seasons to rebuild into a club playing for a European slot.

April 6

2028-29 Season Review

We were close but not close enough to make the playoffs or win relegation this season. We struggled offensively against the top teams in the league. They were very good at cutting off the midfield service to our attacking line. This, in turn, put more pressure on our defensive line while, based on the stats, was one of the best defensive units in the 2.Bundesliga this season just could not handle the constant pressure. This led to three 0-1 losses along with a pair of 0-2 losses. We don't need to turn all of these losses into wins. Heck, even if we turn just a couple of them into wins that's six points, we finish on 61 points and finish in a three-way tie for the league title.

As the stats show, the defense is ahead of the offense at present. We are above average in just about every defensive category. On the offensive side, we are below average to average at best. In a way, this makes sense. I've been a lot of focus on improving the defense because I felt this is where we were lacking. Over the course of the season, it appears that there are problems which need to be addressed on the offensive side of the ball as well. We have one true goalscorer in Franco Pastrana, who led the team with 14 goals. However, 13 of those 14 goals came in the first half of the season. He couldn't find the net in the second half of the season. The second center forward option, Panagiotis Langditis, had a similar problem. Only four goals all season and barely over one shot per 90 minutes. Not a lot of output from the center forwards. Service came from one source as well, Tomas Castro Ponce, who led the team with ten assists. His problem was staying healthy. He was in and out of the lineup with nagging injuries. He never had time to gel with the team and gain that sense of where his teammates would be and when they would be there. Konrad Matysiak tried his best to fill his hole left by Ponce but Matysiak was just as interested in scoring goals as he was in creating goalscoring chances for others in the attacking phase. Next season, I hope that Ponce and Matysiak can be in the lineup at the same time and I use their strengths to improve the offense.

The defense is in fine shape anchored by Terry Yegbe and winter signing Mladen Cvjetinovic in the middle. Dylan Gorosetto outplayed new signing Ezequiel Cannavo on the right side while winter signing Tomas Sanchez gave us a different look on the left side if Andres Borset was struggling to find the right pass. Overall, I'm happy with the defense and hope that no one comes after these players in the summer signing window.

Season Stats

Average Possession: 60% (1st - down from 64% in the first half of the season)

xG: 38.29 (13th - 19.58 in the second half of the season and +0.87 from the first half of the season)

xG/shot: 298 total shots for the season (168 second half of the season shots - +38 from the first half) 0.128 xG/shot

Pass Completion: 90% (1st)

Chances Created: 95 (8th - +5 from the first half of the season when we created 45 first half chances - improving but not showing on the scoresheet)

Conversion Rate: 15% (2nd - down from 20% in the first half of the season)

Final Third Passes/Game: 76 (1st - just dicking around with the ball in the final third and not creating)

Tackles Won: 78% (3rd)

xGA: 38.23 (4th - 18.72 xGA in the second half of the season down 0.79 from the first half of the season)

xGA/Shot: 288 shots allowed (1st - down two from the first half of the season) 0.133 xGA/shot

Net xG: +0.06

OPPDA: 4.67 (17th)

Headers Won: 46% (13th - still showing improvement in this area)

Backline Height Average: 39.06 yards (1st)

April 5

Yeah, it was copy and pasted from a site. What does the Statman skin say? I thought @_Ben_ put those hidden ratings in the skin but hiding behind a button.

April 5

1 hour ago, Shrewnaldo said:

I forget what exactly Fickle implies but isn't it just low Loyalty? Does it also imply low Professionalism? Because apart from that Sulley looks like a banger.

Fickle (Newgen Players Only)
• Ambition = 15 - 20
• Determination = 1 - 14
• Loyalty = 1 - 14
• Professionalism = 1 - 14

April 4

2029 Youth Candidates

Looks like my new Head of Youth Development has done his work this year with this class. One elite talent (my first while at Magdeburg) and six top talents bring a good depth to this class. Not sure if the good talents will have what it takes to stick around beyond their trial period or even sign a professional contract with the club. But I like what I seeing on the surface with this group.

It's a big class too. Two players larger than a typical youth class. But the personalities rear their ugly head again. Three of the top four players have unambitious personalities and another top talent has a low determination personality. Not sure what is causing the poor personalities to populate every class but it's getting annoying to see good players only to have poor personalities.

Nino Agger 29A (Personality: Unambitious; Media Handling: Media-Friendly): Agger is a dynamic left-winger who can, with some physical training, be a very pacy player on the left flank. He has good dribbling and passing skills as well. He does have a lot of work to do on the mental side of his game. I will need to find a good mentor for him and get rid of the terrible unambitious personality. If he truly wants to be a great players, he is going to have put in the work to be a great player. Someone who will kick him in the butt and push him to be better.

Maximilian Harant 29B (Personality: Fairly Professional; Media Handling: Level-Headed): Harant has the making to be a potential starting right-back for us in the future. He has speed down the flank. He has the ability to be a solid tackler. He has the decision-making ability to know when to make the right tackle and when to back off. He knows the game for a 16-year old. He will need to work on the aerial part of his game as that is his current weak spot. I really like what I see from Harant right now.

Mathias Schossler 29C (Personality: Unambitious; Media Handling: Level-Headed): Another right back in Mathias Schossler and he is already a step behind Harant is just about every aspect of the game. I will need to see how willing he is to learn a new position so he can get on the field as well. Like Agger, I will need to find a strong set personalities to mentor him and give him the kick in the pants needed to work on his game so he can become a better player.

Milan Petrovic 29D (Personality: Unambitious; Media Handling: Unflappable): The dual German-Serbian national Petrovic has the potential to be a good right winger for us but like Agger and Schossler, it is up to him as to whether he wants to tap into that potential or not. He is very much like Agger except on the right side of the formation. He has a lot of holes in the mental side of his game. My senior players are really going to need to work hard with Agger, Schossler, and Petrovic to up their games and push them to become better players.

Meiko Queckenstedt 29E (Personality: Fairly Professional; Media Handling: Level-Headed): We have the makings of a very solid central midfielder in Queckenstedt. He is already a very smart player. He is a decent passer and possesses a good first touch. Looking at his body type, he appears more suited to be a player going forward on attack than a defender. He needs to work on his strength which should come with age and body development but, right now, he is a very weak player.

Noah Gartner 29F (Personality: Resolute; Media Handling: Reserved): Gartner has the potential to be a great defensive midfielder for us. He has potential to be an elite tackler and break up opposition attacks before they can even get started. He has all the skills to be a potential starting holding midfielder for us. His offensive skills are below average but his passing and "recycling possession" skills are above average. I can work with a player like that and hopefully he turns into the player that I envision he could be.

Peter Franzel 29G (Personality: Low Determination; Media Handling: Level-Headed): Franzel has the potential to be a great player for us on the right-side of the defense or as another holding midfield option. The only thing that stands in Franzel's way is Franzel. He has the ability to be a good player for us. His determination could be a big hinderance to reaching his full potential. If that improves, even a little bit, he could reach that potential. If it doesn't, then who knows. Definitely a player who needs constant watching.

April 3

Completely Blind Signing

Fortuna Dusseldorf came in on the January Deadline Day and scooped up left-back Cameron Burdett for his 1.3M release clause. Not a terrible loss for me. He was griping about playing time and then not performing when I gave him playing time. But, I was not pleased with the left-backs that my scouts had written reports on. I went to my Director of Football, who loves Argentinian players, and gave me the name Tomas Sanchez playing for Aldosivi in the second tier of Argentinian footballing pyramid. I took blind trust in my DoF. This was the only scouting report the club had on Sanchez. Next, I made it public about the club's interest in the player solely so I could see what the market was looking at for selling price on Sanchez. 1.1M is a bit high in my opinion but it still meant I would turn a profit on the sales of Burdett and the purchase of Sanchez so I pulled the trigger at 1.1M as the initial offer (550k upfront and another 550k over the next three years). Aldosivi accepted the offer and I had a new 18-year old left back from Argentina at the club who has a very high ceiling.

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