mannojunior

I’ll get an update up soon but I’ve had three board meetings but nothing tactically is working. Just can’t get my midfield to function.

It’s all gone badly wrong 🙈

Voetbal - Bergkamp Edition September 2022 Results Almost another perfect month for us. Things are starting to take shape for us now, although there is a recurring theme in that we appear shaky when trying to hold on to a lead. A 1-0 over Wallwijk wasn't entirely convincing to start the month. We then picked up three points in the Europa League with a win over Hungary's Ferencvaros with goals from Rasumussen and Berghuis. Our first big test came against Feynoord at home and it took a 86th minute winner from Conceicao to give us all three points. A win is exactly what we wanted but it's another narrow victory which does concern me. Back to Europa League action and I fielded a rotated side away at Qarabag and we comfortably dispatched of them 3-0 with a hat-trick from Brobbey who has had to wait patiently for his chance. Defeat finally struck at home to FC Twente who were sat second at the time. This result really infuriated me as we were 2-0 up within 31 minutes and in cruise control, only to **** it up with 5 minutes to go. A game we dominated and should have won but sometimes that is life. A win would have put a nice gap between us and FC Twente but unfortunately that didn't happen. We got back to winning ways a couple of weeks later as we travelled to AZ. It wasn't plain sailing and we had to call on an 87th minute winner from Steven Bergwijn to pick up all three points. It was nice to see Bergwijn get on the score sheet as he has really struggled in this system so far and he may be one of the first out of the door at this rate. Eredivisie Table That loss against FC Twente is really annoying me as we'd be sat comfortably at the top of the Eredivisie. Instead, we are likely to be one point behind Twente once they play their game in hand. Feyenoord look slightly off the pace in their title defence and PSV also haven't had the best start. Still, there is a long way to go and I don't think we can draw any conclusions just yet. Europa League Group Stage A solid start in Europe. I'd have been disappointed with anything less than 6 points from the opening two games. If we are to be tested I think it will come in the next two games as we have a double header against the Greek side Panathinaikos. Player Performance Another very good month for the club, especially with key players missing through injuries. I think we would have put in some more assured performances if we'd had a full selection of players but again, that's football. It's safe to say our biggest miss is Kudus who plays such an important role in the number 10. Rulli and Chermiti are now back from injury. Rulli will go straight back into the side and Chermiti will be phased back in, depending on how Brobbey performs. I'm not a huge fan of Brobbey and I definitely think Chermiti will be better but I have two very decent strikers at my disposal which I can't complain about. We now are without Berhuis, Kudus and Klaassen, although Klaassen will be back soon and hopefully Kudus in a week or so. Having played two months of the season, I think the biggest area of concern is our wingers. Bergwijn has really struggled out on the right and Daramy hasn't covered himself in glory either. I'm well aware that the winger support role is not really the role he will be most natural in but the philosophy we have set out requires an out and out winger. On current judgement, it may well be that Bergwijn is shipped out as soon as possible to fund a move for a more natural winger. On the left I don't have so much of an issue as Conceicao has performed relatively well and I've be using the Danish 19 year old, Christian Rasmussen as his understudy and both have performed well. September was a more difficult month to nail down a player of the month but I've decided to give it to Nat Phillips who has performed consistently well at the back and has also managed to score a couple of goals in the process. I've been really impressed with how he has settled in to that back line.

W We are cursed. Media now citing that we are in an 'injury crisis'.

Leonardo looks class for you! What sort of figure would you accept for him?

The FM Gods appear to be against us. That's now Rulli out for another 3 weeks, Chermitti out for 3 weeks and Berghuis for 5 weeks. We've got adequate cover but that's three first choice players out of contention for the rest of the month.

Voetbal - Bergkamp Edition August 2022 Results The perfect month. 6 games in August and 6 victories for us. We've yet to be troubled in the Eredivisie, although I am slightly concerned that we have only kept one clean sheet in 4 in the league and 1 clean sheet in 6 in all competitions. It's safe to say that the new boys are settling in well. Chermiti has made the striker position his own with superstar Kudus claiming the number 10 role in behind. It looks like Nat Phillips will contribute goals from set pieces which is always promising to see. A nice even spread of goals with Basic scoring a couple showing the our midfielders will get forward and score goals when the space opens up. If I'm being picky, I would have liked to have amassed a bigger scoreline against Aberdeen, especially in the first leg where they only had 10 men for the majority of the match. The aggregate victory does put us through the group stage of the Europa League where we will face... I'll agree with the media on this one. I think we have been given an easy group on paper. I don't see us having too much trouble qualifying for the knockout stages and it will be good to have a deep European run. League Table This is how things stand with 4 games played. I don't think we can draw any conclusions just yet. We've had an easy set of fixtures to open up the season and I'll reserve judgement until we play Feyenoord and PSV later on. Player of the month There was only one man who was going to claim player of the month for August. Our bright star playing in the important number 10 position. Kudus has scored 5 goals in 6 and has assisted 4 in 6. I think arguably the number 10 position is the most important in our system. I have instructed Kudus to be more creative and roam from his position so he can find pockets of space to cause a nuisance. He's been on fire so far this season and he is only going to get better.

Voetbal - Bergkamp Edition An unspectacular start to the season. 3 points is 3 points at the end of the day but I would have preferred a bigger scoreline. Kudus and Rensch the scorers but sadly no clean sheet.

Voetbal - Bergkamp Edition Transfer Window It's been a fairly busy transfer window. There have been no departures since taking over while I use the first half of the season to assess the squad and their fit for the system. The club gave me a budget of £30 million to spend and I thought it would be worth spending it to try and get the squad to where I want it to be. Let's have a look at what Dennis decided to do in his first transfer window. Central defence was the first area of concern and I think the area that will still need an upgrade going forward. First through the door was Nat Phillips who joins us from Liverpool for a fee of £5 million. We then spent big on Josip Sutalo from Dinamo who joins for £18.5 million and he is comfortably our biggest outlay of the window. I then managed to bring Gbamin in on loan for the season after seeing that he was available. He can also cover in the DM role so it was a bit of a no brainer for me. I was hoping to get some slightly quicker centre backs in but there really wasn't a lot available in the market in our price range but I am still happy with what we've got. I then needed to address the DM position and although it wasn't my first choice, we did manage to sign Renato Tapia from Vigo for a reasonable fee of £6.5 million. He's a solid player who can fulfil the Anchor role well and I think he will do well for us. Central midfield wasn't really an area I was looking to strengthen but when Toma Basic became available for £2.5 million I just couldn't turn it down. We now have a very strong central midfield unit which will only help us moving forward. Finally I decided to add another body up front in the form of Youssef Chermiti who joins on an initial loan from Sporting. We also have an optional future fee set at £3.3 million if we want to make the deal permanent next summer. The Tactic I'll be honest, I have no idea how this is going to go in FM but I'm determined to give it a try. We are going to focus on a high press with an emphasis on getting the ball out to our wingers who will then be encouraged to cross rather than cut inside. I am hoping that with a pressing forward this will free up the space for Kudus playing in the 10 to receive the ball in lots of space.

Cheers mate! I had a long wait at the airport yesterday so got inspiration from reading the book. No idea how it’ll go!

Voetbal - Bergkamp Edition An Introduction I must pay homage to Michael Cox and his book, Zonal Marking, which has given me the idea for this save. In his book, he focusses on the dominant Dutch era between 1992-1996 where Cruyff and Van Gaal introduced their tactical philosophies. The book discusses how the likes of Cruyff and Van Gaal differed in their styles and how the Dutch produced 'Total Football'. If you haven't read the book, I suggest picking up a copy as it is a great read. The Dominant Dutch Philosophy During the dominant Dutch era, pressing was on of the key attributes of tactical systems. It needed a high defensive line and for the banks to have minimal space between them. Forwards needed to press early and hassle defenders in the build up. Keepers needed to be good with their feet and they needed to be footballers. Traditional goalkeepers were not favoured. Wingers were key, they needed to be quick, confident in one on one situations and they needed to be good crossers of the ball. If the wingers came into traffic they needed to turn inside and switch the play. They were not instructed to cut inside in the way an inside forward would, they were traditional wingers. One of the most important components was the number 10 or the shadow striker. The idea was that wingers would occupy full backs and a busy centre forward would occupy the central defenders leaving huge space for the number 10 to operate. The number 10 would often have the highest goal tally in the team whilst also offering a huge creative output. The most notable number 10 was Dennis Bergkamp who made the shadow striker role his own whilst he was Ajax, scoring 103 goals in 185 appearances. And that leads us onto the next section. The Manager So the save needs a manager and that man is Dennis Bergkamp. Dennis features regularly in the book and was key in the shadow striker role which is debatably the most important role in the Dutch tactical approach. I've therefore decided to instil Dennis Bergkamp as the manager in this save as I thought it was only fitting for him to lead the resurgence of Dutch football. Aim of the Save If you hadn't guessed, Dennis will start his career at Ajax, looking to bring back the dominant Dutch philosophy initially in the Netherlands. Dominate domestically Use a Total Football philosophy Bring Dutch football back to the top of world football Maintain the Ajax approach of selling and reinvesting in younger players Naturally time will run its course at Ajax and once this happens I will look to move to a different country and attempt to use the Total Football style to dominate that country. However, step number one is to do that in the country where the philosophy started.

Delighted to have got both in and they both look more than good enough for Serie C. I'm just cautious about changing the system given our success last season/

The Amalfi Dream - 2023/2024 Pre-Season 2023/2024 Kits Introducing our new kits for the 2023/2024 season. Pre-Season Results A mixed pre-season in all honest. I arranged some bigger fixtures to bring in a bit of cash but also a few easier games to try and get some confidence in our new shape. I'm yet to be convinced that the new shape works but we will see what the League season brings. Transfers Another busy transfer window for us. I am delighted to be able to bring back Lorenzo Conte and Nicolo Amadori to the club as they both re-join on season long loans. A lot of players left the clubs on a free transfer but the transfer history appears to be bugged at the moment. I was a bit more careful with my recruitment this summer but I was restricted by a rather small budget and therefore many of my first options were drawn to other clubs by more money. You'll see below that I am excited to see how our new central defender Maxime Awoudja fairs as he joins having been released by Stuttgart. I am also really excited to welcome Matteo Casarotto to the club as he looks like a great talent up front. Initial Shape Following a productive pre-season I've settled on the below to start the season. I am sure things will chop and change as the season progresses but this is how I'm going to setup for now.

The Amalfi Dream - End of 2022/2023 Season If I'm honest, I wasn't even aware that we were in the process of expanding the stadium but this is not great news, especially as we will want to be climbing the leagues soon. Although for now, I think a capacity of 3,600 is more than enough in Serie C. Player of the Year Nicolo Amadori wins player of the year and fans player of the year for us and you can see why. 11 goals and 10 assists in the league campaign playing in a front three is a solid return. The young Italian is only 18 and it would be great if we are able to bring him back to the club next season for another year. Tactical Shape We've had a fantastic season, there is no doubt about that. However, the football was not always pretty and we did struggle to control games, especially with possession. That's not really something to be shocked about when we played two defensive midfielders and our instructions were to play more direct and hit long balls at a high tempo. The objective was to find our strikers and hope they could bring the ball down and play eachother in. They did that superbly. I feel our wingbacks were an area of concern as they were given the freedom to act as wingers but we really didn't see a high return of assists and their defending was questionable at times. I've therefore decided to change the shape slightly ahead of next season. It's going to be a risk changing from a tactic that served us well last year but I want more control in the midfield and I feel that if we bring wingers into play we may be able to score even more goals with two tall strikers up top. I am going to recruit players this summer that can fit this tactic but also players that will slot into last seasons tactic just as well as we may end up going back to it if things don't work out. For now, it's time to get to work with recruitment.

Absolutely! A great season to build on and hopefully I can recruit well over the summer.

Can’t complain! Need to have a think about tactics for next season to try and shore up our defence and have more possession.

The Amalfi Dream - April 2023 The play-off dream is killed at the first hurdle. A tough one to take, especially given we conceded a 90th minute goal to lose the game. On the whole, we weren't good enough on the day to win and I take that on the chin. We were dealt a rough blow as we had to play without Lorenzo Conte who was out injured as well as Cianci who has been a rock at the back due to injury. It's time for the players to have a short break whilst I sort the squad out for next season and we go again! #ForzaSorrento

Very happy with that achievement! In my head I’ve given myself 3 seasons to get out of this league. Our budget is so small and I’m going to need to upgrade a lot of players in the summer. I don’t have much hope for the play-offs but we shall see.

The Amalfi Dream - April 2023 Results A mixed bag as expected. A draw away at Messina was not great considering they were 15th in the table but we actually played really poorly so getting a point was better than nothing. The expected defeats against Benevento and Crotone and we got to see Crotone crowned champions in front of their own fans as they thumped us 3-0. We then put in a very pleasing performance over 6th placed Taranto and came away with a 2-1 victory with Thiam finally breaking his goalscoring duck. Table We've done it! Our first season and a first season in the division and we finish in a play-off place. Very happy to have finished the season in 9th given the squad we have at our disposal. Time to attack the play-offs, starting with the First Round in a few days time against... Player Spotlight Del Sorbo is one of the few players that were at the club when I took over and actually remain at the club. At the start of the season he was playing second fiddle to Narduzzo but halfway through the season I decided to switch things up and give the young Italian a chance and he has taken the opportunity and he's been ever present in between the sticks since then!

The Amalfi Dream - March 2023 Results What a month. I said at the end of February that we really had to take full advantage of the fixtures in March due to the teams we face in April and boy did we do that. A 4-0 demolishing of Picerno was followed up with a 3-0 win at home to Monopoli. We then ground out a 1-0 win over Brindisi in a game that was devoid of any real quality but we were able to get the job done in a professional manner. That made it three games in a row without conceding. That is something special for us considering how leaky our defence has been all season. I think this is in part helped by me finally settling on a back three of Obissa, Cianci and Sakho. We then finished the month with a 2-2 draw at home to Virtus Francavilla. A point hapilly taken as we were certainly not at our best on the day. What a month of the 17 year old Lorenzo Conte who scores 5 goals in 4 games. He is a future star and the fans are already asking us to bring him back next season. Table 4 games of the season remain and this is how the table looks. We have a 6 point cushion in the play-off block but we do face Crotone, Benevento and Taranto in the final 4 games. I am confident that we can maintain our position and given the work we've put in this season I would be gutted if we missed out on a play-off place. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect to go up this season but I feel we deserve a play-off place for our performances. Player Spotlight This lad is quite special. He takes his tally to 7 goals in 12 starts in the League. His attributes are perfect in all the right areas when you are looking for a Target Forward and he is only 17. I am trying not to get too attached as I don't think we will be able to hold on to him for another season although I will certainly try and loan him back!

The Amalfi Dream - February 2023 Results A really frustrating month, especially considering how good we were in January. A poor home defeat to Monterosi was followed up with a resounding victory over fierce rivals Juve Stabia. Back down to earth with a 3-0 humbling away to Foggia in front of an 8,000 strong crowd. We then picked up 4 points out of 6 in games over Cerignola and Avellino and in all honesty we should have beaten Cerignola. The final game of the month was at home to 4th placed Catania and we did not deserve to lose 3-1. We created so many chances but just couldn't put them away in the second half. A scoreline that very much flatters Catania. Not the month we were looking for as we look to book a playoff spot. An impressive month nonetheless for Nicolo Amadori in front of goal. League Table Disappointingly we drop out of the playoff spots and into 11th come the end of the month. It is all very tight in and around the pack hunting for the playoffs so all is not lost and a lot to play for as we go into the final two months of the season. March is going to be a key month for us as we have an incredibly difficult run of fixtures in April to end the season so we need to take full advantage of our March fixtures. News Some good news. The board approached me with an offer to extend my contract by two years and I accepted the offer with no hesitations. Time to get to work.

Cheers mate! Will be a tough ask before FM24

I was frustrated at the inconsistency to start with and then I realised just what we are trying to compete with in this Division. I’m using this season as a bedding in period and then hopefully we can move upwards from there!

The Amalfi Dream - February 2023 update Results I think I may have underestimated the challenge I have on my hands here at Sorrento. The pre-season preview had us rock bottom with odds of 250-1 to win the league and odds on favourites to be relegated back to Serie D. I knew that we had a good direction with the tactic we are employing but the key was the recruitment. I think an honest assessment is that the recruitment was okay but there were certainly areas I got it wrong. It was clear early on that the signings to play in both central midfield roles were poor and I used January to rectify that. I think it may be a mixture of the roles being employed and lack of tactical nous from the individuals but I did reshuffle the midfield eventually. Results have been inconsistent to say the least. We started off fairly well and found ourselves firmly in the playoff block and then a horrendous end of November and whole of December saw us take a huge step backwards. It was at this point that I decided to tweak the tactic slightly, opting to go more direct and operate a counter press and it seemed to do the trick. This was along with a flurry of incomings in the form of Lorenzo Conte, Ryan Sabry and a couple of new recruits into the midfield. January was superb, an unbeaten month for us. We certainly put December to bed and put some more points on the board and it was great to see Lorenzo Conte hit the ground running and Issa Ouro return to form. Competitions So with three months of the season left this is how things stand. Starting with the Serie C Cup, I had no real aims for this and the board didn't even expect us to win a game in the competition. We exceeded expectations with a second round exit having picked up a win against Brindisi in October. We were then knocked out by Pro Vercelli in the next round. The League is a real contrast. You've got Crotone and Benevento who are far too good for this division and their class shows. We didn't even lay a glove on either of them in both games. In terms of position, we can consider ourselves very happy with 7th place so far. There is a long way to go and I think the ultimate aim now has to be to stay in the playoff block. I don't have any expectations on going up this season as this appears to be a very long term project. We are operating off very little money and have next to no influence in the transfer market so we are going to have to do it the hard way. Player Stats It's safe to say that our front line has been the driving force in getting us into the position we are in. Issa Ouro, the 20 year old from Togo leads the way in terms of goals scored with 11 goals in 19 starts in the League. I am also eager to see how many Lorenzo Conte can bag after he joined us on loan from Sampdoria in January.

The Amalfi Dream Pre-Season 2022/2023 It was always going to be a very busy window and it has taken me far longer than I had planned to build a squad ahead of the opening league fixture. I have utilised all of the wage budget available to me so the only possible incomings from here will be loan signings but the quality of such loan players that are available isn't the greatest. We've had a big clear out and most of the squad have left with those remaining either worthy of a place in the squad or who I simply could not shift. I spoke in my previous post about the sort of players I would be targeting and I think I've done a decent job but I'm not quite sure how it will all pan out. We are quite stretched and I don't as much depth as I would like but we are in Serie C so that is to be expected. Overall I am happy with the players we have managed to bring in and I think they add real quality. I am disappointed that I've not been able to get the depth I wanted but finances are tight and we have several youth players that can fill gaps for us. Below are a few of the new recruits. Davide Narduzzo arrives as our new number one between the sticks. There were a lot of keepers available and I've decided to take a punt on Davide as I think he is a solid all-round keeper at this level. Di Sabatino arrives to fill one of the central defender births and I think he can become a very good central defender at this level. Kenan Handzic arrives to play in central midfield and I am excited to see what the defensive midfielder can bring to the table with a solid set of attributes. Nicolo Amadori joins us on a season long loan from Cesena and I think he fits the mould up front but I am always hesitant with young strikers in the lower leagues so we will see how this all pans out. I wasn't paying too much attention to pre-season results as for the most part I was still forming a squad but positive to see some wins towards the back end of pre-season. Below is how we will shape up going into the start of the Serie C season.