[FM12] One more time - moonwalking my way through 'mo clubs

[deltablue]

Interesting seeing where you do go in the end.

[noikeee]

Decent start, a few more wins should see you finish in a good position

You've had some decent job offers there, Al-Ahly would have been interesting. I'd love FM to add a few more leagues in Africa, I don't really like adding files as it seems to slow the game right down for me otherwise i'd do it the way you have as i'm yet to manage in Africa on any FM (the only continent i'm yet to have gone)

The offers have been more than decent, I'm turning them down because they're too good!

I don't think edited leagues slow down the game, well if you load too many it will be slow but it's no different to adding too many out-of-the-box leagues. Agreed on Africa though, the default choice of South Africa only is very poor. I think there are a lot of African countries a lot more interesting than SA.

Interesting seeing where you do go in the end.

I've already gave away where I want to go, it's anywhere in Latin America really, that's my favoured destination because I've never played there, it will depend on what clubs have openings by the time the season ends in Sweden.

I'm on the slightly awkward position of playing a season already knowing I'm going to leave, sometimes I think why bother and not leave already but I want to see what can I get out of Torns this year too.

[noikeee]

July-August 2017

Transfers

I signed three players on free transfers:

Christoffer Karlsson (DM / MC) – I hired this seasoned homegrown DM in early July and gave him immediately a first team role, but have been a little disappointed by his performances so far.

Artan Ujkani (AMC / MC) – This Albanian kid born in Germany is only 18 but already quite a brilliant playmaking brain, good enough in theory to fight with Adam for the starting AMC place.

Eero Uusitorppa (M/AMR) – 19yo Finnish winger, does not excel in any particular category but seems useful, his debut for us was however spectacularly poor as he committed a foul for a penalty kick!

On the outgoing stream, I got rid of transfer record signing Arlisson, I had hired him for 35K in the Winter but he was quite the flop, sold him for a minor loss at 28K to Ängelholms; whilst Uruguayan striker Santiago Vázquez, who was STILL homesick after a year and a half in Sweden was sent back home to Deportivo Maldonado in a paid loan with a 7K fee.

Fixtures

Let’s start by the Swedish Cup this time, we didn’t have particularly difficult opposition in the shape of Östers (2nd tier) for the 4th round match but it was still a great 4-1 win with an unlikely brace by defender Roope Saarinen, however our star performer Albertsson picked up a 2 month injury! In the quarter-final we went to Helsingborg and our cup dream died there, we were comprehensively outplayed and somewhat lucky to even get a 93rd minute consolation goal, in a 3-1 defeat.

In the league we had ended June well and July continued great as we beat Gefle rather easily at home 3-0, Nigerian winger Augustine Agu scoring twice. That was probably our best league performance of the season, unfortunately nothing like it would come in a very long sequence of matches next. At Helsingborgs like in the cup we were totally dominated and lucky to only lose 2-0; at home vs Landskrona, a winnable game, we did not take our chances with Pavic missing a penalty and only drawn 1-1 with Agu picking up a bad injury; at Malmö another terrible performance masked by a low score of 1-0, defeat again.

Torns-Hammarby was next and somehow we won 1-0, debut goal by striker Ivica Saric who I randomly tried out of desperation, it was probably the worst game of football ever with 4-5 in total shots attempted!! I could’ve done with more ugly wins after that, instead we bored GAIS to death to get a 0-0 there, then embarked on a terrible run of 4 consecutive defeats: a rather harsh 2-1 at Norrköping (not good – they are relegation rivals), then home beatings to title challengers Brage and midtable Örebro, and an absolute hammering at Elfsborg, current title holders, who should’ve scored some 7 past us but somehow managed to only hit the target once.

Player on focus

Bertin Zé Ndille (DC) – Everyone has been utter sh*t these 2 months, and I am not exaggerating. Bertin Zé is the exception as he has maintained the same level of excellence displayed all season prior to this dip in the team’s form.

Competitions

Allsvenskan:

Svenska Cupen: defeated 1-3 at the hands of Helsingborgs IF in the quarter-finals.

Summary

A terrible 2 months have made us slide into a relegation battle. I think we are still looking good for staying up, with a 6 points advantage and Albertsson now back from the injury that unsurprisingly coincided with the drop in form, but we’re in a little bit of danger now for the 8 remaining fixtures.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Oh dear, wasn't expecting to see it go apart like that. Hopefully you'll get some form going and rebuild next season

[B.W.G]

Tough going in the last couple of months,hopefully the board remains patient with you so you can work on it.

[noikeee]

Oh dear, wasn't expecting to see it go apart like that. Hopefully you'll get some form going and rebuild next season

Not sure there'll be such a thing as a "next season"! Yeah we do need to improve, we're on relegation form at the moment.

Tough going in the last couple of months,hopefully the board remains patient with you so you can work on it.

No that is not a problem, I am "very secure", thankfully for all of my board's failings (STILL won't improve scouting range, I've been asking for some 4 years!!!) they do have a good memory and the "club stature" progress bar is maxed out.

[noikeee]

Torns IF - Youth intake 2017

Best player

Robert Westberg (DC / DR)

I really can't complain about the youth intakes, they've getting better year after year and we got another good bunch this time: Westberg is not quite the next Olof Mellberg but still a promising centre-back, and there's a handful of decent strikers in here as well.

[AK22]

Wouldn't like to see you relegated in your final season at Torns. Hopefully, you can turn it around and stay up!

[noikeee]

Wouldn't like to see you relegated in your final season at Torns. Hopefully, you can turn it around and stay up!

Challenge accepted.

[noikeee]

September-November 2017

Transfers

Hired a kid on a free:

Kasper Thrane (AMC / MC) – 17yo Danish midfielder who is not first team level yet but could be important in the long-term future at Torns (5 stars potential).

Fixtures

After those 4 consecutive defeats at the end of August it took us a while to get back to form, we really had to sweat to get a 1-1 vs Halmstads at home after trailing all match, at relegation rivals Brommapojkarna we kept things tight and got a decent 0-0, and at Göteborg – the eventual champions – we held them off for 72 minutes until they eventually scored the winner. That made for 7 games without a win, but I had a feeling we were improving. And the win did came but it was a sweaty thriller! We turned the game around after an early Djurgardens goal with a brace by teenage striker Nicklas Holmqvist only to let them equalize again. Nigerian winger Nwachukwu got his first ever goal for us in the 92nd minute to give us a very late win.

We lost to AIK disappointingly as they scored the final goal after they were a man down, but it mattered little as our rivals were not scoring any points, so we still only needed 1 point in the final 3 matches now to secure survival. We totally murdered last-placed Gefle with a very convincing 3-0 and clinched it there. 2 lame meaningless 0-0s ended the season, although the final game was funny as we failed to make a single shot on goal to Örebro’s 15 and it still ended 0-0.

Player on focus

Alexander Faltsetas (DM) – Not often a defensive midfielder shines as the team’s best player, but Alex has had a great end of the season, with assists in 2 matches, a goal in another and very solid tackling and interception stats.

Another man on great end-of-year form is Brazilian playmaker Adam, he scored twice and assisted twice, had in particular a fabulous game against Gefle including a gorgeous pass-and-move team goal finished by Holmqvist.

Competitions

Allsvenskan:

Svenska Cupen: defeated 1-3 at the hands of Helsingborgs IF in the quarter-finals.

Summary

We picked up form a little and it was enough to get survival rather easily, as the teams below us never put a challenge. At the start of the year I said all I wanted was 13th place and that’s exactly what we’ve got, plus a decent cup run (2 rounds further than ever before). It wasn’t the most glorious or interesting season I’ve ever had, but I have a feeling of job done.

[noikeee]

Season review 2017

Tactics and usual starting eleven

I fiddled a little with settings this season, in particular I tried to ditch “Get Ball Forward” in order to build something more possession-oriented, less rudimentary; whilst also ditching “Play Narrower” sometimes, particularly when needing a goal. Neither did really work, and I reverted back by the end of the season, we were better hoofing it up and as a narrow unit.

The one change I stuck with was changing the Trequartista role into an Attacking Playmaker/Support, may have been a coincidence but the Treq was very often a total passenger whilst Adam as a Adv. Playmaker excelled in a few matches.

Squad

Top 5 key players of the season

5. Mattias Pavic (DR) – Unspectacular but steady season from the Swedish fullback doing his 3rd season for the club, despite the threat of the more expansive Alex for his place he performed far better.

4. Adam (AMC) – Best signing of the year. Got better as the season went on, and his 5 goals and 5 assists proved decisive in a season we were completely missing a striker so he ended as 2nd best scorer (behind winger Albertsson) and 2nd best assister (behind winger Zschüsschen).

3. Alexander Faltsetas (DM) – Brilliant season from the dependable experienced midfielder, he even got to aid a little in the attacking end of the pitch with 3 goals and 3 assists.

2. Bertin Zé Ndille (DC) – Whilst his form dipped a little at the end, I think he was my most consistent player of the year, av. rating of 7.16 is quite impressive, I was really torn (pun intended) between him and Albertsson as to who was the player of the year.

1. Ágúst Albertsson (AML, AMC) – This was much like 2 seasons ago, Ágúst’s debut year for Torns, when he was totally unplayable at the start of the year but then disappeared. To be fair an injury didn’t help and he wasn’t the same afterwards. Nevertheless, 7 goals and 3 assists, by far our best attacking player, which is strange, I have never worked out what makes him this good, he looks pretty crap in theory. Certainly one of the greatest overachievers I’ve ever managed.

Career overview

[b]Season   League                      Cups                       International         Notes[/b]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Torns IF (Sweden)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012     Div.2 Södra Götaland - 1st  n/a                        n/a                   Champions, promoted
2013     Div.1 Södra - 11th          Svenska Cupen 2nd rnd      n/a                   Avoided relegation
2014     Div.1 Södra - 1st           Svenska Cupen 1st rnd      n/a                   Champions, promoted 
2015     Superettan - 3rd            Svenska Cupen 1st rnd      n/a                   Lost in promotion playoff
2016     Superettan - 1st            Svenska Cupen 3rd rnd      n/a                   Champions, promoted
2017     Allsvenskan - 13th          Svenska Cupen 1/4 final    n/a                   Avoided relegation

[noikeee]

Goodbye Sweden

I've realized quite a while ago that my heart wasn't in Torns anymore, in fact anyone reading closely will certainly notice this as well. I need a change in scenery after 6 years. It was never my original intention to stay this long and feel I have already helped this club a great deal. Climbing 3 divisions with them was brilliant fun, and I want to see them do well in the future so am happy to have proved this season they can survive in the top division.

Whilst I would never stay further there were a few annoyances that contributed to my decision to leave. The club is hitting several ceilings. 1st is the semi-pro status, it's utterly ridiculous that we're the only team out of 16 in the league that is semi-pro and I can't even ask my board to turn pro. 2nd is the refusal to improve the scouting range, we certainly need more than just Brazil and a few African countries. 3rd is the stadium, we don't own it and have started to pack it full. And finally, the limit on homegrowns is getting really asphyxiating even if it's the same or worse anywhere I'll go.

I have accepted a job offer from a new club, all will be revealed soon.

Torns IF 2012-2017 - Achievements

* 2012: Division 2 Södra Götaland champions and promotion to Division 1 Södra

* 2014: Division 1 Södra champions and promotion to Superettan

* 2016: Superettan champions and promotion to Allsvenskan

[noikeee]

Mendoza, 9th of November 2017

No secret anymore I wanted to move to Latin America. I have decided this was my next step as early as over 2 seasons ago when I was in the Superettan. The original plan was to move to Costa Rica, possibly to a 2nd tier team. The logic was that I have never played in Latin America at all, Costa Rica would let me make some use of an add-on league, experience lower league in an exotic different country, and there was a very interesting long term goal to go for the Concacaf Champions League against the more powerful Mexican sides.

However back then I suddenly got into a promotion fight with Torns and would develop that club for a further 2 years, so by now it would make no sense to do Costa Rica anymore. Only 3 or 4 clubs in that nation are a worthy step up from nowadays-Torns and I don’t want to go straight into fighting for national titles. So I was looking more into maybe Uruguay or Chile, but of course it depended on whichever jobs would open up at the time the Swedish season ended.

The perfect job opened up in Argentina. I am the new manager of Independiente Rivadavia, currently 11th placed in the Primera B Nacional. They are not to be mistaken for the more famous Club Atlético Independiente of Buenos Aires, no, my new employers’ greatest claim to fame has been merely a few cameo appearances in the Argentinian top flight. The latest of which came already after I had started my career, as in 2014 they got promoted to the Primera and in 2015 were straight back down. This has brought expectations up as the fans and the board are eager to get promoted again, media prediction is 4th placed which is why they sacked their previous manager as 11th is not good enough.

In terms of how this compares to Torns, well for a start they are professional, the wage budget is twice as large (114K€/month), club reputation is 2* instead of 1,5*, stadium is exactly 5 times bigger (20000 spectators). I could’ve signed for far bigger clubs as shown here in the past, in the very same day I accepted to go work for Independiente Rivadavia I got an offer from Almería in Spain who’d give me a 11M€ transfer budget! But I couldn’t do it, this is a far more realistic move.

The team

This is going to be a problem as this side doesn’t fit my usual 4-2-3-1 tactics at all as we don’t have wingers, and have too many forwards. I’m gonna have to re-think my tactics from scratch.

Best players:

Lautaro Insaurralde (ST / AML) – No idea why this kid was stuck in the U20s as at the age of 17 he looks more than good enough to be the star of the team already. A gem.

Alan Aguirre (DR / WBR) – Quite the complete fullback, bit of pace otherwise doesn’t really excel at anything but can do everything.

Javier Velázquez (ST) – Extraordinary footballing brain! However I am always lost as to how to use a striker without pace and at the age of 33 that’s only going to get worse.

Goals for this season

I wanted a challenge and really got one in my hands. Small club, big expectations, new league in a completely different kind of football, and a team that couldn’t suit my tactics any less. It’s an exciting new chapter of my managerial career.

[berty1978]

Some excellent work done at Torns and nice to see you've moved on. Best of luck at Rivadavia, looks like you've got a decent squad there and Insaurralde looks like a star, hopefully you can keep hold of him.

[noikeee]

Some excellent work done at Torns and nice to see you've moved on. Best of luck at Rivadavia, looks like you've got a decent squad there and Insaurralde looks like a star, hopefully you can keep hold of him.

Thanks, keeping Insaurralde is indeed a worry I have already got an enquiry for him!

[noikeee]

November 2017-January 2018

Transfers

The mid-season transfer window in Argentina is funny, you can only sign 2 players within a short period, then you have another short period where you can sign as many as you can but only free transfers. This meant signings were limited but I still hired 4 guys:

Alejandro Camargo (DM / MRC) (free) – My commitment to playing narrow tactics with 4 central midfielders meant I needed more of them, and this experienced guy will help.

Omar Merlo (DC) (24K€) – I’m not very keen on paying cash for 31 year olds but we really really needed a better centre-back, and it wasn’t all that much money anyway.

Nicolás Mansilla (MC / DM) (free) – Backup midfielder on a short-term contract.

Sergio Palacios (AMC / ST) (free) – Now this is a proper signing! This 19yo Colombian is a huge talent and I had no problems using one of the 4 foreigner spots for him.

I got rid of two players because they were foreign and, well, not very good, striker Marcelo Ibáñez was sold to AELK for 3.5K€ whilst centre-back Hugo Cáceres was loaned to Grêmio Barueri for an initial fee of 7K.

I forgot to post about club finances in the previous post, we seemed more than alright when I arrived but seem to be losing lots of money and have just delved into the red, 67K€. A huge unused chunk of transfer budget remains of 830K€.

Fixtures

I really couldn’t have got a tougher test at my arrival, travelling to meet league leaders Hurácan. We were totally humiliated 4-1. A trip to Sportivo Italiano seemed more winnable but we still lost 2-0 in a hectic match that could’ve got more goals either way. The woes continued with another awful 2-0 loss at home, admittedly to a strong side in the shape of Rosario Central, but by now it was blindingly obvious the 4-2-2-2 Box tactic I had set up with 2 DMs and 2 AMCs was poor. I switched to a 4-3-1-2 (3 MCs) and whilst the improvements were obvious, we let a lead go to lose rather unluckily to Dep. Merlo for a 4th consecutive league defeat upon my arrival.

The cup match was the first I tried the 4-3-1-2 and my only official fixture win to date. We looked solid and beat Dep. Morón 2-0 fair and square but they’re lower league so not a good measure of opposition.

The competition then went to a mini-break, presumably to accompany the top tier pre-season between Apertura and Clausura, we did 3 friendlies and looked good on them with 2 wins and 1 draw all away, but the 3 teams we faced were all lower league as well.

Player on focus

Rodrigo Ayala (DC) – The least awfully performing player in the official fixtures, scored 2 goals too.

It has to be said teenage forward Lautaro Insaurralde has looked increasingly lively lately, he scored 4 in the friendlies, I am a little concerned I may not be able to hold on to him as Vélez are interested, but they will have to fork out 3M€ under my asking price rule.

Competitions

Primera B Nacional:

Copa Argentina: onto the 6th round to meet another lower league side away, Platense.

Summary

It was a totally disastrous start as I lost all 4 of my first league fixtures, and have already ditched a tactic. For now there’s no negative feedback from the board but I don’t think South American boards are known for their patience, so I am a little concerned for my future if we don’t pick up form soon, albeit things have looked more positive ever since I switched to the 4-3-1-2.

[AcidBurn]

Hopefully the new tactic can help you find a bit of form, the wins in the friendlies will have help with morale a bit as well. Good luck!

[noikeee]

Hopefully the new tactic can help you find a bit of form, the wins in the friendlies will have help with morale a bit as well. Good luck!

Yes it is helping, I've now managed to win a few matches after this last post.

The 4-3-1-2 is making us play some beautiful football at times, the fullbacks on WB role bomb forward as if they were wingers, and with the 4 men in centre midfield plus 2 forwards there's loads of passing options. I think that's even more satisfactory than getting the results, it couldn't be any more strikingly different from the hoof-it-up Neanderthal football I was playing in Sweden.

Downsides are we need a bit of space to play in, can be bullied out of the game sometimes and it's not a great defensive shape (although far better than that 4-2-2-2 box I tried briefly, the 2 AMs and 2 STs were complete passengers, and there was loads of space between the DMs and AMs so our midfield was swamped despite having 4 central midfielders!). Argentina is really a fascinating place to play in, I've met all sorts of tactics, 4-4-2s, modern European 4-3-3s, 3-4-1-2s, 4-3-1-2s, 4-4-2 narrow diamonds, etc. Every match springs a tactical surprise and you have to be prepared to think and switch things.

[noikeee]

February-March 2018

Fixtures

I finally got my first win in the Nacional B and in style, when we received Chacarita Jrs and utterly obliterated them 4-1, Insaurralde scoring an hat-trick, and the same thing pretty much repeated itself in the trip to Huracán TA as we won 3-0. 2 draws followed, a frenetic match vs Atl. Rafaela which ended 2-2 but could’ve had more goals either way, then a strange one at San Martín de Tucumán where we were dominated but somehow held on to a 0-0. We then were back to being the dominating side next time beating Gimnasia de Jujuy 2-0.

At this stage we were hit by a few injuries and fixture congestion, our small squad had issues coping with that so we lost at Puerto Madryn to Guillermo Brown 1-0. Thankfully that did not become a pattern as we were helped by meeting the league’s laughing stock Estudiantes de Buenos Aires next. They are bottom with just 3 points and 122 goals conceded from 28 matches, we predictably stomped them 5-1. A minimum services win over 10 men San Martín SJ followed, then an away 1-1 draw at Ferro which was positive even if we let a lead slip because Ferro are promotion material.

In the cup we were knocked out in a spectacular match with 5 goals in the second half at Platense, where we turned the game around from 1-0 to 1-2 then they turned it around again. It was disappointing because Platense are a division below us, but they are pretty good anyway, and it was a misleading result as we were the better side on the pitch.

Player on focus

Lautaro Insaurralde (ST) – It would be wrong to say we are a one-man team when we rely so much on teamwork, but Lautaro really gives us the edge. 4 goals and 7 assists these 2 months, and remember he is just 17 years old! Truly a gem of the Rivadavia youth academy, even the likes of PSG are interested in him now.

Another kid on great form is 19yo Colombian Winter signing Sergio Palacios, he was already playing well as AMC but once Velázquez picked up an injury I moved him to ST and he started scoring: 4 goals in March.

Competitions

Primera B Nacional:

Copa Argentina: beaten by Platense 2-3 away in the 6th round.

Summary

We improved to start winning most of our matches whilst playing good football as well, the only negative these 2 months was an underwhelming cup exit.

This season is a write-off of course, given the poor league position left by the previous manager then my even poorer start, there is no way we can meet the media prediction of 4th (which would merit a promotion playoff spot). However I have a point to prove and want to climb a few more positions in the table, whilst enjoying playing in this very fun league.

[noikeee]

Independiente Rivadavia - Youth intake 2018

Best player

Marcelo Maidana (DM / MC)

We seem to have a really good youth setup, after Insaurralde's genius the next big thing seems to be this new young midfielder, however I think he'll need some serious tutoring as whilst the technical side of his game is great he needs a lot of improvement in his reading of the game to become a star. Has "leading Primera Divisíon" potential though.

[B.W.G]

Good job in avoiding relegation,best of luck at your new job in Argentina.Sergio Palacios is a cracking signing,hopefully he can develop well and help you in the future.

[AK22]

Ah, Argentina, I remember it well; I wish you lots of luck! After a tricky start, you're on the right track now, which is encouraging for next year.

Great to see an exciting prospect come through the youth set-up too

[cerud]

Looks like progress is starting. Back into form

[noikeee]

Good job in avoiding relegation,best of luck at your new job in Argentina.Sergio Palacios is a cracking signing,hopefully he can develop well and help you in the future.

Thank you, Sergio seems to be getting better match by match, but the real star is Insaurralde I'm really lucky to have such a fantastic player from the club's youth ranks! I was stunned to find him lost in the U20s, he hadn't made a single start this season before my arrival (but had a few last season).

Ah, Argentina, I remember it well; I wish you lots of luck! After a tricky start, you're on the right track now, which is encouraging for next year.

Great to see an exciting prospect come through the youth set-up too

Thank you, if Marcelo's half as good as Insaurralde we'll have a good player.

Looks like progress is starting. Back into form

Yeah I just hope the board can give me the time need to build this club. They say they won't judge me on the league this season but who knows.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Well done staying up and good luck with the Argie Bargies.

[deltablue]

Maidana looks like he'll be excellent.

[Dexter_Morgan]

A decent run of form there, hopefully you can push on next season. Echo what deltablue says about Maidana too

[noikeee]

Well done staying up and good luck with the Argie Bargies.

Thanks.

Maidana looks like he'll be excellent.

A decent run of form there, hopefully you can push on next season. Echo what deltablue says about Maidana too

Maidana looks good but he is lacking badly in some key mentals for defensive midfielders (ex. teamwork) and at the moment I can't tutor him strangely - he doesn't show up in the list of players to tutor.

[EFC Luke]

Good read so far, liking the layout as well, KUTGW!

[noikeee]

April-May 2018

Fixtures

April started pretty badly with Olimpo shocking us at our home in Mendoza, total fluke as we had more chances but still a very heavy 3-0 defeat. We improved by just about snatching a draw at Chubut, then went back to victories (and crucially, to Insaurralde goals as he had been on a long dry patch) with a 2-1 over Tiro Federal then a great 2-0 away at Atlético Tucuman.

It was again a slightly unfair home defeat that stopped us from continuing a positive run, because we could not overturn a Belgrano lead that started in the 1st minute. We were better again away and drawn at Atlanta, before quite possibly the most annoying match all season. Huracán were promoted and nearly champions yet we dominated them to my surprise, only to concede a 93rd minute equalizer - infuriating. Yet again we could not turn our chances into goals at Rosario Central (2-1 defeat), but then ended the season on a good note as we swept Sportivo Italiano and Deportivo Merlo aside with two comfortable 3-0 wins.

Player on focus

Sergio Palacios (ST, AMC) - Seemed to score in every match for a while and whilst he never really is able to dominate a match (hasn't broken past 7.5 in the match ratings these 2 months), goals is what matters isn't it. 5 goals, 1 assist.

Lautaro Insaurralde had some pretty poor matches in early April - I wondered even if I wasn't burning him out by playing him so often at the age of 17 - but then returned to goals and ended the season in great fashion with a fabulous performance vs Dep. Merlo.

Competitions

Primera B Nacional:

Copa Argentina: beaten by Platense 2-3 away in the 6th round.

Summary

We were inconsistent in this end of season - 2 home defeats isn't acceptable - and I am really quite annoyed that we missed out on a top half finish by the smallest of margins. Players have complained before that we were underachieving and I think that was the bare minimum to shut them up.

Nevertheless we end with 2 big wins which bodes well for next year. What doesn't is the finances which have gone down and down to 850K€ negative - quite the change from Sweden's riches, and I do wonder if I'll have to sell Insaurralde soon...

[noikeee]

Good read so far, liking the layout as well, KUTGW!

Thanks always nice to know about new readers even if I don't do this for attention, it's just more fun to play if it's all documented and shared.

[noikeee]

Season review 2017/2018

Tactics and usual starting eleven

This deserves a longer write-up than usual - even if it's FM12 and most of you are playing a totally different match engine - because it's such a radical U-turn from the tactics I used in Sweden, and I really haven't been this fascinated by the tactical side of the game in a very long time.

We are playing a very patient, controlled, narrow 4-3-1-2 without wingers. I use the shouts "Retain Possession" and "Work Ball Into Box", which together with short passing and the very high pressing game makes for a very Barça-influenced system (albeit the totally different formation leads to very different dynamics). I also use "Drop Deeper" most of the time, which allows us to maximize space (so vital for us to be able to work our passing angles) in a less risky way than "Plan Wider" would.

When it works it's magnificent. Our 2 wingbacks bomb forward and work like wingers, together with the 4 central midfielders there's passing lines everywhere, plus 2 targets in the area - and the 2 targets are a real asset, notice Palacios + Insaurralde scored 21 goals in half a season, when last year in Sweden none of my lone strikers scored more than 3 goals. And when we don't control the match patiently we still can play balls into space for Insaurralde to run into.

The weakness is the classic problem of this formation, if the opposition fields a winger and a fullback, we have no obvious player to mark the fullback. I've tried telling the lateral MCs to tight-mark them, but that opens up a giant hole in midfield. I've tried the strikers but they don't drop back that deep. I've made formational changes, one of our plans B is dropping one of the strikers for a 5th central midfielder in DM position, so the lateral MCs no longer leave as much of an hole. And the other plan B (C?) is a 3-6-1 swapping a striker for a 3rd CB and pulling up the fullbacks to wingback position, this counters opposition's 4-4-2s pretty well sometimes.

But whatever we do, unless I revert to a tactic with wingers, we are just overcompensating for the issue of opposition fullbacks. It's particularly alarming when facing teams that are stronger than us, as we get pulled back and our shape is much much better for controling matches than sitting back. A secondary issue is our wingbacks get really really tired of doing the whole flank all day and our wingbacks are not the best.

Overall it's a hugely rewarding way of playing, but facing the very wide range of tactics found in Argentina, it sometimes work and sometimes it doesn't. We are very inconsistent.

Squad

This includes all the matches before my arrival, of course.

Top 5 key players of the season

5. Jorge Correa (AMC, ST) - I don't like him much because he badly lacks creativity which is key to a AMC, but he is still one of my best players. Quick and technically excellent. 5 goals and 7 assists.

4. Omar Merlo (DC) - Proved to be a nice, fairly reliable mid-season signing.

3. Sergio Palacios (ST, AMC) - Another great mid-season signing, the young 19yo Colombian is the future of the club and stepped up to the occasion by scoring goals when Insaurralde went on a dry patch. One half of a fabulous duo of teenager forwards (I've never really had duos of forwards before, some stellar AMC/ST combos like Rahlfs/Sincar for my Ajax, or Bagayoko/Duval for my FM11 Roma, but never ST/ST). 10 goals, 4 assists, but is yet to truly dominate a match yet.

2. Rodrigo Ayala (DC) - Already a key player of the team before my arrival and remains so, he is the boss of defence. Helped us with 5 goals too, some of them important.

1. Lautaro Insaurralde (ST) - Every club wishes it had a youth player like this - how many jump out of the academy and become the club's star at the age of 17? Lautaro to be honest is not as clever a player as Sergio for example, but he makes up for it with his direct running at very high pace. 11 goals, 8 assists, PSG, Atlético Madrid, Huracán, Independiente and Univ. Chile interested. 3M€ is his current maximum selling price, so he could be leaving at any moment.

Career overview

[b]Season   League                      Cups                       International         Notes[/b]
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Torns IF (Sweden)
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2012     Div.2 Södra Götaland - 1st  n/a                        n/a                   Champions, promoted
2013     Div.1 Södra - 11th          Svenska Cupen 2nd rnd      n/a                   Avoided relegation
2014     Div.1 Södra - 1st           Svenska Cupen 1st rnd      n/a                   Champions, promoted
2015     Superettan - 3rd            Svenska Cupen 1st rnd      n/a                   Lost in promotion playoff
2016     Superettan - 1st            Svenska Cupen 3rd rnd      n/a                   Champions, promoted
2017     Allsvenskan - 13th          Svenska Cupen 1/4 final    n/a                   Avoided relegation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Independiente Rivadavia (Argentina)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18  Nacional B - 11th           Copa Argentina 6th rnd     n/a                   Joined in November

[Nobby_McDonald]

Decent start.

[noikeee]

Decent start.

I'm not very happy with it, I barely made the club move from its starting position and I arrived before midway point. Don't forget we were tipped for 4th place by the media, it was an underacheiving season.

Points/game since the move to 4-3-1-2 we were good enough for 6th place or so, that is the only encouraging thing.

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2018

Transfers

I didn't spend money on any players as the club is not in a great shape financially at the moment. These are the new guys:

Jonathan Maidana (DC) - Fantastic veteran defender, we were more than fine in the centre-backs department but I can't pass on players like this.

David Abraham (DC) - Repeat everything I said about Jonathan. I think Jonathan is slightly better though.

Angel Reyes (M/AMR) - A problem as I don't use wingers and have not planned to use them since arriving at Argentina. But again, I couldn't ignore such a player. This 19yo phenomenal Peruvian may force me to change tactics, for now he is a strong alternative from the bench to spice things up.

Rafael Alberti (MR / D/WBR) - Actually not a signing, he was already at the club but loaned out to Deportivo Quito. Criminally overpaid but a great wingback.

Gastón Mena (DM / MC) - Promising young midfielder (aged 20), capable of fighting for a first team spot.

Clive Mendieta (D/WBL / DR)

Federico Sarobe (DC / DL)

Damián Musto (DM / MRC)

Ariel Bulasio (GK)

Gustavo Toledo (DR / WBR)

Jorge Luna (AMC / ST)

In terms of sales I had to make some cash but didn't want to sell our diamonds Insaurralde or Palacios, the solution was letting go right-back Alan Aguirre for 350K€, who became surplus to requirements with the arrival of Alberti. Other sales were backup goalkeepers Julián Starna and Javier Burrai, full-back Pablo Vergara, attacking midfielder Cristian Fabbiani and centre-back Oscar Erviti. A few contracts ran out too, notably midfielder Nicolás Mansilla, fullback Fernando Saavedra, centrebacks Federico Guerra and Aníbal Medina, forward Bryan Danessi, and finally midfielder Gabriel Sólis retired from football.

Finances

Despite profit in the transfer market our bank account is at a negative 230K€. We are using 109K€/month of our 114K€/month wage budget, this after adjusting my transfer budget to 0€, an act which squeezes cash beyond a reasonable point. It's not looking great.

The full squad for the 2018-2019 season

I think we have improved but not by a great amount, the new CB pairing looks mega but it was an area of the team we were already strong, the other positions have negligible boosts.

Fixtures

This is missing the first friendly, we won 4-1 over Puerto Comercial goals by Insaurralde(2), Mena and Correa. We had a good pre-season, only failed to beat Racing Club which is a bigger club than us. Bad news is Insaurralde got injured and missed the start of the season (he still is only coming back into fitness).

We opened the league season failing to beat Instituto, but they came from the above division and we dominated the match so it was fine. I had a good feeling and confirmed it as we beat fairly comfortably Sportivo Italiano and Atlético Tucumán scoring 3 goals in both matches, making for quite a nice start.

Player on focus

David Abraham (DC) - Theoretically only my 2nd best centreback signing, but he is the man that has shone the most in the first 3 fixtures, with 2 assists vs Sp.Italiano and 2 good performances in the other matches.

Competitions

Primera B Nacional:

Copa Argentina: early days, no opponents yet.

Summary

It's looking good in all areas except for finances, albeit we didn't improve the squad greatly in the Summer. The feedback from the pitch is positive though, and that's without Insaurralde who will be back soon.

Media prediction has fallen to merely 9th this season, personally I would like to and think we can do better than that, not sure about getting promoted outright but I certainly want to fight for promotion.

[JackJCFC]

Great preseason and a solid start to the league, hope it continues!

[AcidBurn]

Decent start and it'll be even better if you can win that game in hand.

[B.W.G]

Good start to life in Argentina,hopefully you will be able to keep the pressure up on the top teams.

[AK22]

Some brilliant signings, especially the defenders. No wonder you've conceded so few goals

[noikeee]

Great preseason and a solid start to the league, hope it continues!

Decent start and it'll be even better if you can win that game in hand.

Good start to life in Argentina,hopefully you will be able to keep the pressure up on the top teams.

Some brilliant signings, especially the defenders. No wonder you've conceded so few goals

Thank you gentlemen, we have continued relatively strongly although the defence has not kept up at the same level and has let me down once or twice!

[noikeee]

Shock transfer news

I held off selling our jewels Insaurralde and Palacios in the Summer, but despite making some transfer market profit we were still in the red and leaking money every month. Indeed by the 30th of October we were over 500K€ in the red, when I received this loan offer for Insaurralde, our highest valued player, for 825K€. I decided to gamble to negotiate it to his value 1.5M€ and to my amazement they accepted.

I certainly would not want to lose one of our best players for a year, but this sorts out the finances for now and we don't lose him permanently. It may however make a big dent on our promotion chances as we are currently 5th after 13 matches, which means on the verge of the playoff positions, albeit we aren't even at the halfway point yet.

[berty1978]

Good start to the season and shame to lose Insaurralde for the rest of the season but 1.5m Euros is a great deal.

[noikeee]

Good start to the season and shame to lose Insaurralde for the rest of the season but 1.5m Euros is a great deal.

It had to be done, we needed a massive income from somewhere, to lose a player for one year who wasn't even performing to his best (had 2 goals in 7, far from last season's prolificiency) whilst keeping him contracted to the club anyway at the young age of 18, seemed like a sweet deal to me.

Downside is this may be the difference between going up and staying down, to be honest we aren't ready to compete at the upper level yet so another year in the Nacional B wouldn't be a massive problem.

[noikeee]

September-November 2018

Transfers

The only transfer in these 3 months was the already extensively discussed loan exit of Lautaro Insaurralde to Ecuadorian side Liga de Quito, for a mammoth 1.5M€ - relieving our finances who are now 728K€ in the black (but losing 150K or so every month, so we will need to sell more players soon to trim down our wages).

This move seems to have worked to perfection so far, we have not felt any drop in results (in fact they've improved), he seems to be performing even better in Ecuador (5 goals in 4 matches so far, rather than the 2 in 7 he had here), and his market value has increased from 1.5M to 1.9M€.

Fixtures

The positive start of the season continued for a while, we may have dropped a lead twice to draw at Sarandí, but then embarked on a nice run of 4 straight wins: we obliterated Rosario Central (a strong club!) but failed to score more as we should, brushed aside weak Sarmiento away, had better finishing than Racing Córdoba at Córdoba, and relied on a sole early Insaurralde goal to beat Atl. Rafaela as we should. At this stage we led the league table!

Then we suddenly crashed, and badly. We were awful at CAI Chubut, briefly led but they were much better and were already ahead when we had Gustavo Toledo sent off - only positive was

. Home to Ferro we were again surprisingly beaten despite doing fairly decent if not playing to our best; then worst was even to come as Deportivo Merlo totally steam-rolled us, it was even 4-0 briefly but we got a consolation goal. A team meeting was called ahead of a nice easy home match vs Guillermo Brown and it worked as we won, but then it was back to disastrous ways as in a thrilling match in Tucuman we lost to San Martín 3-2 and were never really in the match. We had dropped to 7th - but within catching distance of the leading pack.

That was the last game Insaurralde made for the club before heading off to his Ecuador adventure, and puzzlingly we improved without him. Tiro Federal? No problem, easy 2-0 victory. Olimpo away? Our best match all season as we tanked them 5-0 with 3 corner goals (2 from Maidana, 1 from Zárate), fringe forward Jorge Luna the unlikely star as he scored one and assisted all the corners. Atlanta? 2-0 again, and again Maidana starring in the air with 2 early corner goals. We finish November with a somewhat disappointing 1-1 draw at San Martín de San Juan, after leading for 72 minutes with an early Jorge Correa goal.

Player on focus

Jonathan Maidana (DC) - Besides being the boss of defence, a level above this division really, he has now suddenly developped a scoring vein and scored 5 in the last month, including 2 braces.

Upfront it's all been about Jorge Correa (8 goals, 2 assists) and Sergio Palacios (7 goals, 4 assists). Both can play either as ST or AMC, but usually Correa's the advanced forward as ST to exploit his pace, Palacios often the AMC as advanced playmaker, sometimes the 2nd forward as deep-lying forward.

Competitions

Primera B Nacional:

Copa Argentina: we finally enter the competition in December, it's the 5th round, we play fellow Nacional B side and promotion rivals Atlético Rafaela at home.

Summary

It's been a pretty wonderful season, we had a terrible October but other than that it's all smiles and a promotion campaign well on its way. Particularly encouraging is the fact we have not felt Insaurralde's absence at all.

Half a season is yet be to played, things are tight albeit we do have a slight advantage, fingers crossed we can do it and climb directly by finishing in the top 2, but going to the playoffs in 3rd or 4th would be a pretty big success as well.

[noikeee]

Staff

I don't usually post about staff as they're a pretty uninteresting part of the game who we don't interact with much, but I have felt these 3 lads we hired in the Summer have contributed a fair bit to our success:

I have seen a lot of more green training arrows since their arrival, the most noticeable is probably Sergio Palacios who I hired back then in January/February when I arrived, see the difference between him then and now - he's been on composure training so that's the biggest gain:

Sergio Palacios - 10 months ago

Sergio Palacios - now

I will also soon probably search for a new assistant manager, currently I am still with the original man at the club Norberto Araujo, he's not great assessing players or motivating in press conferences and team talks which is where I want him most, but is however a great defensive coach which is what complicates things as I don't want to outright lose him:

[B.W.G]

Good to see your doing well so far,hopefully you'll be able to keep your form up to keep pressure on at the top.

[noikeee]

Good to see your doing well so far,hopefully you'll be able to keep your form up to keep pressure on at the top.

Tks, I'm not really trying to put pressure on the leaders Instituto, 2nd would be more than good enough.

[noikeee]

Shock transfer news #2

Angel Reyes

Independiente Rivadavia stats - 3(7) appearances, 2 goals, 3 assists, 6.80 average rating.

I completely missed the first news item, so I was like, completely WTF when I saw he was leaving. Not nice to have the chairman doing business behind your back, but by that value I would've sold him anyway, IIRC his value was 1.1M€ so 2.2M€ was the maximum asking price under my somewhat-arbitrary force-myself-to-sell-players rule.

Angel Reyes was a hugely promising kid I hired in the Summer with the caveat he was a winger and I don't use wingers. Therefore despite his immense talent I've been using him mostly as a impact sub to switch things tactically, and re-training him to striker. So it's not a massive loss, one of the reasons I hired him on the first place is that I knew I was going to make a profit on him. However this comes just as he was starting to gain some ability as striker and as I have lost AMC/ST Jorge Luna to a long-term injury in the mid-season break friendlies. Angel wasn't key but will be missed.

In financial terms, with this we now have 2.6M€ in the bank.

[noikeee]

Major scare!

This was so close, I can't believe Sergio preferred to stay. It would've been a disaster if he went, we'd probably lose any chances of promotion. He is the soul of my attack, and the injury crisis has only got worse as in the 2 friendlies after selling Angel Reyes and the injury to Jorge Luna (4 months), we also lost AMC/ST Jorge Correa (2 months stop) and ST Javier Velázquez (2 weeks), not to mention several defenders. We are barely without forwards as it is, nevermind without Sergio. The transfer window is over too.

[noikeee]

The big news just keep flying in this Winter. It would be unrealistic and I don't really fancy international management at this stage - maybe later but only if I dedicate myself full-time to it. Rejected, of course.