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I Shot the Sheriff - Jumping On the Bandwagon in Moldova


EvilDave

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I Shot the Sheriff

Youth challenges. Everyone's doing them at the moment, and for someone who loves the transfer window as much as any other part of FM, I've struggled to get into one before. However, my 'Russian Ramblings' save has corrupted after the 2018 World Cup (still a bit of life in the thread for now though), so to satisfy my love of all things Eastern European, indulge in a little tactical experimentation and experience life in a league less visited, allow me to introduce Valeri Soldatkin's latest charges:

FC Maiak Chirsova.jpg

Maiak Chirsova

You may well be asking ' who on earth are Maiak Chirsova?' Well, it's a valid question. Maiak play in the third tier of Moldovan football, in the Divizia B Sud. It's a league of ten teams, with the winner joining the champions of the Centru and Nord zones in Divizia A for next season, which in itself is a step below Divizia National.

In terms of location, Chirsova is a village of just over 6,000 inhabitants in the south of Moldova, in the autonomous and self-proclaimed independent region of Gaugazia. The Gaugaz people make up around half of that number, with Bulgarians and a handful of Moldovans, Russians and Ukrainians making up the numbers. In sporting terms, it has achieved very little, and I aim to change that.

As per usual, I'll be trying to take Maiak as far as I can, using just the products of the club's frankly terrible facilities. We're expected to win the league this season, which would be nice and unlikely given the standard of my current set of players. Oh, and the stadium? According to FM we're playing at Maiak Stadium, but a quick look around the internet tells me that Stadionul Chirsova looks something like this:

stadion-Chirsova6.JPG

So yeah, not quite the Maracana.

To give you an idea of what I'm up against, this guy is my best player according to my assistant. Oh, and I'll be playing this tactic, purely because I've always fancied playing a W-M on FM before and haven't really had the chance.

In short, I'll be playing as such:

- Youth only - no signings except staff, where retired players will take priority.

- Maiak Chirsov, in the Moldovan Divizia B Sud (third tier)

- W-M formation, at least unless it just doesn't work

Watch this space!

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Sounds like an interesting challenge. Always found Moldova to be an interesting country because of the strange political system in terms of the different territories within the country. How did you manage to add this league to the game btw?

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BWG - if I ever do get into Europe I'll allow myself a snigger at the world's finest clubs coming to play on that!

Niebescy - Agree with you entirely on the strange politics there, very interesting. The champions, Sheriff, are from another breakaway region as well! As for the league - if you head over to the Editors' Hideaway and search for a thread by Unknown Hacker,​ he's made loads of leagues. Some are more detailed than others, so see what takes your fancy!

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Yeah I saw a documentary before about Transnistria before on BBC. I don't remember the title but it was a great series about places that "don't exist". It was probably the most interesting of the territories because it was so unique with the mix of Romanian/Ukrainian/Soviet everything and their special system based on corruption.

Good luck in the game anyway!

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That looks excellent, I'll have to have a look at that if and when my inspiration runs dry!

FC Maiak Chirsova.jpg

Maiak Chirsova - Moldovan Divizia B Sud 2011/12

I had planned to do this in two parts, but with an 18 game season and such a poor level of football it hardly seemed worth it. So, here you go:

Final Position: 5th

Top Scorer: Nicu Almasan

Highest Rating: Nicu Almasan

Youths to Watch: None, they were all terrible.

Finances: Non-existent, thanks to this announcement.

So, considering we were expected to win the league, and therefore promotion, this season has to go down as a massive disappointment. I have to take some responsibility for that given my penchant for slightly crazy tactics, but on the whole the players, particularly the defence, just aren't good enough and it says something that we finished closer to the bottom than the top.

The youth intake wasn't even worth mentioning it was that poor, plenty of 5* potential but nobody with even a single gold star for current ability, which is what we desperately lack. The problem is the concentration of talent - three of my best five players play on the right wing, for example - and our goalkeeper is so bad that practically any shot on target from 20 yards or closer ends up in the net. We need a defence that is capable of both watching the ball and responding to it, and at the minute we don't have that.

I can however announce that the W-M experiment is over, and was after about two thirds of the season. We're scoring the majority of our goals from defensive mistakes or hopeful punts, so there's just no point in jeopardising our defence when we can do that in any formation. Also, I couldn't stop the full backs stepping up and leaving the lone centre back completely exposed, so we conceded for too many. I've since developed a 4-2-3-1, 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 that we'll switch between when necessary, as I think tactics are going to be what gets us out of this league rather than talent.

Next year? If I've still got a job, I want top three. I don't know whether that's realistic, but I want to prove to myself that it was my tactics, and not just because my players are useless. Which they are, but that's by the by.

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Wow, an £85k stadium, gonna be big then!

I've since developed a 4-2-3-1, 3-5-2 and 4-4-4 that we'll switch between when necessary, as I think tactics are going to be what gets us out of this league rather than talent.

4-4-4 you say? Well I suppose if you can get away with it, then why not!

Anyway, hopefully next season will be better.

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Wow, an £85k stadium, gonna be big then!

4-4-4 you say? Well I suppose if you can get away with it, then why not!

Anyway, hopefully next season will be better.

Oops! Well spotted, changed that now...

The stadium is 3,500 which seems excessive given our avergae attendance of around 250, but there are no loans involved so I'm not complaining. As to next season being better, I'm not holding out much hope given the number of my players getting poached...

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  • 1 year later...

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