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'Lessons in Calcio' - Crouchy, Facci Sognare!


crouchaldinho

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Sad to leave a place like that :(

It's always a bit difficult, especially as I quite like playing 'small club to big club' type games, and I can get quite attached to my clubs. However, I wanted to be a bit more impulsive and make good career decisions in this save. It seemed like a bit of a risk but I felt that I could at least get a job at the same level and hopefully with a bigger club. In a way, that's what I've done, but Perugia are a much bigger club. It remains to be seen just how much potential is there but I imagine there will be much more than if I had stayed with Mezzocorona.

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Perugia is supposed to be a beautiful city, although I've never been. To be fair, of the handful of Italian cities I have been to, they were all beautiful to some extent.

It's a good club you've joined. Sad to see how far they've slipped down the leagues. I'm sure you're the man to revive them, though. They first came to my attention when Jay Bothroyd signed for them all those years ago!

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Thanks one and all for the comments! :thup:

Life at Perugia has not started well. I'm one of those managers who immediately introduces all of his footballing principles and philosophies when joining a club, even though I know that changing everything at once may cause a difficult initial bedding in period. Is anyone else like that? It's not very practical and I'm afraid that the beginnings at Perugia are not quite the success story I would have hoped to tell! But there is still plenty of time to turn things around and I will stay true to my footballing principles because I'm sure we can turn things around!

Anyway, I met an Italian football fan at the football yesterday at St. Albans City v Weymouth. Almost an Italian version of myself, in fact! Whilst he was drooling over the prospect of watching English Non-League football at its very best at Clarence Park, I was talking to him and asking endless questions about Serie C, D and below (basically, the Italian equivalent of 'Non-League')! :D

He was an awesome guy. A Cremonese fan and said to me that he wants to bring me a scarf and shirt next time he comes to St. Albans so that I will support his team. :D I told him that he has to make St. Albans City his English team! I did want to tell him that I once took his beloved Cremonese to Serie A and that I won the Scudetto with them on CM03/04 with Milan Baros and Toledo up front, but I thought it best not to admit just how much of a nerd I am to a total stranger. :o

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I change everything but adapt to fit the system, for example at Zenit I have 2 wingers (one each side luckily!) so I adapted my 4-4-2 flat to a 4-4-2 narrow diamond but kept my high passing % and possession but changed how we managed it.

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I'm not just talking about tactics. I'm actually fairly flexible and will play one of my preferred formations (whichever suits the squad) which tends to be 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1 and 4-2-3-1 deep. I'll even make 'under the hood' changes to creative freedom etc. to specialise a tactic to a certain starting XI but I guess at the same time I definitely do have in mind certain fixed roles that I like to have in my teams. But anyway, it's more to do with the fact that I like to build a team with certain strong personality types, use certain team talks which work well with these kinds of players, and that I like to immediately find players to play in certain roles. So I guess what I have in mind when I talk about the initial difficult bedding in period is the fact that I tend to make big changes when I move to a club immediately in all senses.

I will ruthlessly release players who don't fit my plans, try to sign players who have the right personality types for my philosophy, try to sign players to fit into preferred roles that I have in mind and so on and so forth. So the team gelling always takes a beating and I find things difficult initially. Perhaps a calmer and less demanding manager might join a club and slowly introduce his new ideas rather than storming in and changing everything at once like I do! :D But I like to get my philosophy in place quickly and I tend to believe that if I have the time, I will be successful with my methods. The trouble is when I don't have time, like in my first job at A.C. Giacomense and also like here in Perugia. I tend to need a full pre-season under my belt and a full season for my team to reach their potential.

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I tend to base my initial approach around the best 2 or 3 players at the club and what will bring the best out of them. Unless it's spectacularly successful I'll usually look to mould things in the direction of one of my preferred systems over time, though. Having not really played a journeyman game before I thought about it a lot before I started and decided that would be generally what I'd do. The more ropey periods of my career generally coincide with trying to change too much too soon (first couple of years at Santos), or shoehorning players who aren't particularly suited to it into a system I had preconceptions about using (Arsenal). Where things have gone best (Werder and Newcastle) I've generally picked up a side with 2 or 3 excellent players who are a bit down on their luck, steadied the ship using a similar system to the previous manager, before implementing my own tactical approach over a summer, whilst blending the squad over to the new way relatively smoothly.

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I cannot honestly believe that the 'HT ratings getting wiped bug' from FM10 is still in FM12! :mad:

Another thing annoying me lately is the fact that 'pleased' on team talks doesn't actually mean 'pleased' on FM12. It means 'delighted'. :rolleyes: I've got used to it now but it still annoys me when I see it.

And another thing while we're at it: when the assistant manager advises me on my team talks by saying 'I think we should try and encourage the team', I get annoyed. Surely it should be 'try TO encourage the team'! I obviously have an illiterate assistant manager. Then again, he is Italian, so I should probably be impressed at the standard of his English! :D

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Cracking move to Perugia.

Thanks!

It wasn't working out to well at first but I'm hoping we've turned a corner. Honestly though, for a while I was wondering if this was going to be a huge mistake setting my career back several years! You'll see when I do an end of season update! :D

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I would be really grateful if someone could tell me how the tutoring system works on FM12 and why I can't tutor one of my players. :(

I have a promising looking 20-year-old who needs tutoring but the option is greyed out. When I hover over the option, it says that he isn't old enough. Yet, I have the option to tutor a 19-year-old, so this can't be right!

I was talking with Flamers and he was suggesting that it could be the player's reputation. He could well be right as this player is a key player for the team and probably the most promising player in terms of potential in the whole squad.

It'll be a shame if I can't tutor him as he badly needs it. Right now, he doesn't match my expectations in terms of what I expect of my players and their personalities!

Any help or advice appreciated. :)

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So, having looked at several players, it seems that he isn't appearing in any of their lists. So I assume his rep means he cannot be tutored being a key player in the squad. That sucks if true.

Is it the same as the old days when players can only tutor other players in their playing positions? Are there any rules I should be aware of?

I checked a few players but he isn't there in their lists of players that they can tutor. :(

What a crappy system! :mad:

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It might be because he's listed as a "Key Player" or because his reputation is higher than the players you're trying to tutor him with in that case. Try relisting him as a hot prospect or something and see if you can do it then. If not then it's the reputation thing. Other than that it's the old rule of same position.

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The position thing confuses me because I got Michael Ballack to tutor Wickham on my Sunderland save.

Yeah it's sometimes weird. Occasionally you won't be able to tutor an MC with an MC but you can with a DL for no apparent reason (for example).

Okay, I'll try that out and see if it helps. :)

Good luck!

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Do the various options for tutoring actually mean anything different on this version of FM?

One was about mentoring him off the pitch and the other maybe about helping him with his game. On the old FMs, they didn't actually mean anything and all the options did the same thing. Is that the same for FM12?

I actually found a guy who would tutor the player but he refused to do so as he said that they didn't get on. :mad: Nobody else will tutor him!

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Do the various options for tutoring actually mean anything different on this version of FM?

One was about mentoring him off the pitch and the other maybe about helping him with his game. On the old FMs, they didn't actually mean anything and all the options did the same thing. Is that the same for FM12?

I actually found a guy who would tutor the player but he refused to do so as he said that they didn't get on. :mad: Nobody else will tutor him!

Mentoring off the pitch is to do with mental coaching. On the pitch is positional and physical coaching.

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Grrrr, I hate the addition of agents in this game. In general, I'm never that keen on fiddling with the contracts etc.

What do people feel about this in terms of realism? Should you be able to hand this responsibility over to your board or chairman or something? Or delegate staff to take care of it?

I was watching an interview with Harry Redknapp some time ago and he suggested that he didn't have a clue what some of his players were earning. He said it was all done by the chairman.

I honestly imagine most managers don't get involved in this level of detail. I imagine they have knowledge of a budget and idea of which players fit into which bracket but other than that......

I would like to be able to hand discussions over to the chairman or a member of the board or whatever but also to be able to say 'this play is a key player and will fit into the top bracket in terms of wages'. I tell them the value of the player, they do the negotiations, and I just have an idea of how the budget is doing. I feel like that would be quite a realistic way of doing things.

Sure, my manager loves to get a bargain and sign up cheap unwanted players to make them into a success. But he also definitely isn't an accountant and he basically just wants to sign up some players and then get on with the football coaching/tactics/strategy bit, which is the bit that he is good at! :D

What do you FMCUers think?

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Crouchy's 'Lessons in Calcio' Journeyman Save - Project 3: A.C. Perugia Calcio (Season One at Renato Curi 2015/16)

Ac_perugia.png

Click here for post 248 which shows the situation we were in when I joined the club in November.

Below, I'm posting up an image of the results we recorded after I joined the club as manager. I'll talk you through the results and my thoughts as we tackled the job of turning the club around and avoiding relegation! [by the way, the results below will just be league results and I'll do a separate post about any cup ties we were involved under the screenshots section.]

Perugia2015-16results.jpg

To say that I got off to a rough start at Perugia would be an understatement. I honestly felt like this was the biggest mistake of my career at first. I felt that maybe this job would set my career back years and that I'd end up unemployed and then back in Serie C2 with some tiny club trying to build up my destroyed reputation once again!

What I have written above is no exaggeration, honestly, and you'll see that when you look at our first result which was a 5-1 defeat away to Andria BAT. We picked up just two points from my first four games in charge and went into the winter break in terrible form with me worrying whether or not I could turn this total mess around. At this point, I think we were in 15th place and firmly entrenched in a relegation zone battle!

After the winter break, the poor form continued, and it took me until the end of January to record a first win at my new club. Prior to this, we went as low as 17th place in the table, one from bottom, and I felt extremely worried at this point. By then, we had gone six games in the league without a win. However, beating Barletta 4-0 at home felt fantastic and then we managed to go away to Fogligno and record a 1-0 victory as well. I wondered if we had turned the corner.

Two straight defeats removed that optimism as we entered February. Going up against the then top of the table Cuneo was something I was dreading but then, out of the blue, we recorded an amazing 5-2 victory. This is when I started to believe again.

We put together a nice little run of games in which we recorded 14 points in 6 games. Life felt good again but disaster was just around the corner. As you guys know, the relegation playout zone coupled with the smaller number of teams keeps the lower leagues very interesting in Italy right up until the final day. Without question, I wanted to avoid the danger that those playouts might bring!

In April, we couldn't buy a win. we lost two and drew two, to make a really anxiety provoking end to the season. With two games to go, we would have to play mid-table Ternana at home and fellow relegation battlers Aversa Normanna away. I honestly felt that we should beat Ternana and thus secure a safe position in the table but it didn't work out like that. We fell to a poor 1-0 defeat at home and went into the last game knowing that it would seal our fate.

To make matters worse, and to add to the tension, it turned out that we would have to beat Aversa Normanna away from home in order to escape the relegation playouts and secure safety for the club. The league position is sorted by results against other teams on its secondary basis (i.e. if points are level) rather than goal difference. Therefore, a win over Aversa Normanna would put us both level on points but we would finish above them thanks to having better results against them this season (the home game between us was a draw).

Having not managed to win for six games, and having a particularly poor away record, I wasn't feeling too confident and was preparing myself mentally for the challenge of the relegation playouts. However, even missing our best striker due to injury, we managed to secure the victory we needed and therefore secured safety for the club! We had done it by the skin of our teeth. C1 level football was secured for the club and I would have the chance to rebuild over the summer in order to put us into much better shape for next season! It was an absolutely massive moment in my still young career!

Screenshots:

League Table

League Positions Graph

I took over after 13 games. As you can see from above, I got off to a terrible start at Perugia, guiding them down to the low of 17th place! We picked up towards the end of the season and went as high as 11th but had a late scare when we fell back into the playout places towards the very end of the campaign. Luckily, we escaped by the skin of our teeth!

Italian Cup - We were knocked out in the 1st qualifying round before I even joined the club.

Serie C Cup - This was an interesting side show. The previous manager had set us up nicely in the group stages. I went on to take us through to the semi finals where we were beaten by Catanazaro over two legs. I've not included screenshots as it was only three games. Also, to be honest, I treated this competition without any respect and played weakened teams as safety in the league was

always the priority!

Transfers - Only the transfers from November 2016 were made by me. As you can see, I let a number of players go in order to free up wages. I intended to operate with quite a small squad really but wanted to improve the quality of the first team. You'll see that I went after ex-Mezzocorona players. My favourite Brazilian forward, Wilker, was on a free and eager to join up with me. As was Lusito Campisi! Mattei Beretti, Christian Bianchi and Moussa Diarra were also ex-Mezzocorona. They were not signed as first teamers but as backups to add depth as I knew that they had what it takes to battle for the club in terms of their personalities.

Squad Statistics

Key players:

Wilker - I knew that I could rely on this guy to put the ball in the back of the net. He did the business for us and we suffered towards the end of the season when he was missing due to injury.

Girolamo Cortese - An exciting prospect. The ex-Juventus midfield playmaker was superb for us. I need to get him some tutoring time, however, as he doesn't match with my player template in terms of attitude and personality. May end up not being part of my plans if I cannot secure him a tutor for his development.

Tommaso Valetti - The club captain could be relied upon to put in a decent shift and he scored and set up some crucial goals for us.

Serge Nyuiadzi - The Togo forward proved to be a good partner for Wilker and scored a few cracking goals for us.

This was the team of the year:

PerugiaHistory_BestEleven.jpg

Career Overview:

Season    Team			League                   Position    Achievements/outcomes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/12   A.C. Giacomense	Serie C2/A	         18th        (Took over after 18 games) Relegated
2012/13   A.C. Mezzocorona	Serie C2/B	         9th         
2013/14   A.C. Mezzocorona	Serie C2/B	         2nd         Promoted!
2014/15   A.C. Mezzocorona	Serie C1/A	         8th         Overachievers!
2015/16   A.C. Perugia Calcio	Serie C1/B	         13th        (Took over after 13 games)

Next Season:

Time to rebuild this squad over the summer. I want to build a team in my usual mould, full of professional, ambitious and determined players. I'll be looking to improve virtually every position. There will be some big changes, I can tell you that for sure, as I aim to overhaul the team and put out a side capable of doing great things in the future!

My A.C. Giacomense Record (2011 - 2012 [133 days]):


P 	W 	D 	L 	F	A	Win % 		Competitions Won / Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19	5	7	7	17	23	26%		None

My A.C. Mezzocorona Record (2012 - 2015 [1085 days]):

P 	W 	D 	L 	F	A	Win % 		Competitions Won / Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
143	57	43	43	179	153	39%		Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Girone B Runners-up

My A.C. Perugia Calcio Record (2015 - Present [219 days]):

P 	W 	D 	L 	F	A	Win % 		Competitions Won / Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24	9	6	9	30 	30	37%		None

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Project 3 - Season Two at A.C. Perugia Calcio - Season 2016/17 Preview

Ac_perugia.png

With thanks to SnakeXe for the format for this post, which I have pretty much shamelessly copied!

Board Expectations:

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Girone B - Mid-table finish

Coppa Italia Lega Pro - Get to Second Round

My Expectations:

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Girone B - Top half finish and possibly outside challenge for a play-off spot

Coppa Italia Lega Pro - I normally treat this like a pre-season competition so will try to do the minimum required and focus on the league

Budgets:

Transfer - £0

Wages - £19,000/week (£19,800/week currently)

Balance: -£1,300,000 (club have been in trouble for a while and it's getting worse)

Squad: I've made some huge changes to the squad, as I said I would, rebuilding it to match with my footballing principles. We've got a young team full of strong personality types and I hope that this will help us throughout the season. Due to a restrictive wage budget, I spent the wage budget on younger players with potential. We're going to be a work in progress this season but these youngsters have great potential and I hope that we'll be a force to be reckoned with in the seasons to come as they mature.

Key Men:

Girolamo Cortese - Midfield playmaker with excellent potential who I'll be hoping can do a good job for us in the middle of the park. I've finally got some tutoring him from our captain, no less, who is a model professional, so I'm really hopeful for this player and his development over the next season.

Matteo Solini - A strong defender, good in the air and strong. I think he'll be an asset for us this season and he is also young with good potential for the future.

Serge Nyuiadzi - Could be an important player for us and I'm hoping that he'll strike up a fine partnership with Wilker.

Wilker - Our top scorer last season. We'll once again be relying on him to knock in the goals.

Tactical approach:

ACPerugiaCalcioTactics_Overview.jpg

Again, we'll be going with 4-4-2 and not much has changed tactically from last season. We'll be looking for Cortese to dictate play in the middle and for Nyuiadzi to support Wilker up front with the Brazilian our main outlet for scoring goals.

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I've also got a couple of local youth players who have potential and could make the grade. I've brought them into the first team squad and I'll use them a little this season. Both will get an opportunity and I'm hopeful that the experience might be fruitful for both of them. Getting some good youth through would be a big help given the financial difficulties that the club is experiencing whilst playing at this level.

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What do you mean? At the start of the game or going into the new season in the game? I assume you mean in my save.

In the game, we're currently in Lega Pro Prima Divisione Girone B (Serie C1/B). We'd need to be promoted to Serie B and then promoted again to get to Serie A.

Yep, that's what I meant. Reckon you can do it?

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*Blatant plug coming up*

So I've decided to follow in the footsteps of Flamers by posting my first ever YouTube video today! It is a Minecraft video and as I know that there are a few in here who play the game, I thought it wouldn't be frowned upon if I do a bit of self-promotion!

For my first Minecraft video, I decided to take on Etho's Companions Speed Challenge!

Here is the link if anyone is interested - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGFne2kYtvU

Maybe you love Minecraft, maybe you're just curious, or perhaps you've always wondered what I sound like. Well here's your chance guys. :D

Anyway, more to the point, I officially lay down a challenge to Flamers, in particular, but also to anyone else who plays Minecraft to beat this time! I hope maybe some of you guys might try the challenge and post a video on YouTube so I can see how you get on. :)

*blatant plug over*

:p

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Back on topic, I have thought of perhaps doing a little bit of FM commentary on YouTube too, just as a different way of sharing the trials and tribulations of virtual football management. Now that I have an YouTube account and headset sorted, there is no limit to the possibilities! :D So watch this space. :)

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You don't sound anything like I'd imagine you too.

Sorry to disappoint! What did you think I'd sound like WS? :D

Perhaps you should look at some aspiring Japanese players for Perugia, following in Nakata's footsteps. That's if you've deleted the relevant file :)

Yes, I need to look to make some exotic signings for Perugia to bring back memories of their success in the 90s!

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