FM 2016: Oooooh Lilies! - Keep Darmstadt in the Bundesliga!

[Jean-Luc]

Great to welcome you here in the thread, TheJanitor!

Awesome first posting. Looking forward to your updates. Especially because you embark on the journey with the original squad. I admire your willpower to develop the Darmstadt Youth. I normally love to develop young players, but the ones I got there simply looked too poor for me. Then again, Wembacher and Kazimi both have more or less random stats. Your Wembacher indeed looks a bit more decent than I remember mine.

[justanotherguy]

Tried this challenge. Early on I decided to use the tactic from this thread , a 4-1-4-1 tactic with GK, FB, DC, DC, FB, Anchor, WM, CM, B2B, WM, DLF. So in essence a pretty defensive tactic which, in theory, should help facilitate counter-attacks. As you know, there is no leftover funds from the transfer budget nor from the wage budget. I got an offer for Heller from Fiorentina for 2.8 million GBP, which seemed too good to turn down. In my mind, it was a lot of money from a 29-year-old winger who wasn't even that good except spectacular pace. Besides, the step down to Tobias Kempe was not a big blow, and Darmstadt even has a third MR in Milan Ivana who can cover for both wings. Because Mike van der Hoorn (CD, Ajax) became available very cheaply, I decided to bring him in and then to send the loan CB of Caldirola back. Hoorn has a higher upside and is only 22 years of age, bringing him in was a decent bargain. I also brought in Jefferson from Figueirense from Brazil, a 21 year-old DM with very high potential. But the tactic/team never seemed to work. The results, even from the pre-season told me it was going to be a disaster. Even in the first round cup against Aue, a third division team, we got outclassed and lost 1-3. Then we had a sort of a "FM'd" moment against Mainz where we got a lucky goal and won 1-0. We also had a nice 0-0 draw against Bayern. But then shortly thereafter, the team just sucked and we only picked up 1 point in 10 games which led to me being sacked. The sacking came after the final loss on the schedule, but then right after I get sacked the team plays a 100 % similar tactic and suddenly wins 3 matches in a row. Logic.

Anyway, the team felt pretty good defensively despite letting in more goals than 75 % of teams. Most games we lost, but it was rarely more than a goal or two at most. We just couldn't score if our lives would depend on it. In the league we scored 6 goals in 14 matches, with that kind of record you are going to tear your hair out. The troubles were everywhere. We struggled to create chances as well as to finish chances. The only creative player on the pitch was Vrancic the CM, he was our best player if you only look at average rating where had just above 7. But there were so many missed chances, when we finally managed to create some of them. The "counter-attacking" tactic, which was created by a FM "Guru," only lead to 1 goal by counter-attack all season. We didn't even have any significant injures short- or long-term.

This was my preferred lineup with roles:

Mathenia (GK-D)

Jungwirth (RFB-S), van der Hoorn (CD-D), Sulu (CD-ST), Diaz (LFB-S)

Niemeyer (Anchor-D)

Kempe (WM-S), Gondorf (B2B-S), Vrancic (CM-S), Rausch (WM-S)

Wagner (DLF-S)

[Alicia_WAFC]

This looks an amazing club, going to start a save with these as soon as possible!

[Ross Ingersoll]

i dont normally manage in Germany but this is a must save now. excellent work on the write up.

[VirtuosoFlame92]

I started a save with Darmstadt. 3 Bundesliga games in and I am yet to score a single goal. Cant attract players, key players out injured hhhmmm a challenge indeed

[causeforconcern]

I don't post much these days but this has been the best club write up I've seen on this board, well done!

[tmason122]

I don't post much these days but this has been the best club write up I've seen on this board, well done!

Yep, definitely a great write-up! Shame the thread isn't as active as it once was I think a lot of people (myself included) found the first season very tough and moved to pastures new. Though some people did have success! Even though I got relegated I really enjoyed the save..... and it paved the foundations for me getting the Burnley job in summer 2016 in my game after a shambolic season in the championship

[kccircle]

Probably had a few of these, but the best opening post to a thread I've seen on here

[Jean-Luc]

Thanks for the praise, people.

I have been a bit inactive the last weeks. Sorry for that. In fact, I didn't play much FM since the beginning of 2016.

As a matter of fact, there should be an Update after the February database patch, because the SV Darmstadt got a little push in stats here and there. Sandro Wagner is a better striker now, which might help some people starting a new save.

In real life, Darmstadt is still in relegation battle, but thanks to two consecutive wins, they look pretty good, and another year in the Bundesliga seems... not too unlikely, actually. I don't want to put my hopes up too early.

[Jean-Luc]

key players out injured hhhmmm a challenge indeed

This is a very big problem for Darmstadt, indeed. Once their key players are out, there's no real backup. Real life Darmstadt was really lucky (or had an absolute magnificant physio team) to get through the season so far quite unharmed. Only Jan Rosenthal is a long term abentee at the moment.

My save with Darmstadt was definitely much more challenging because Vrancic and a few other players were missing out a lot with injuries.

[tmason122]

This is a very big problem for Darmstadt, indeed. Once their key players are out, there's no real backup. Real life Darmstadt was really lucky (or had an absolute magnificant physio team) to get through the season so far quite unharmed. Only Jan Rosenthal is a long term abentee at the moment.

My save with Darmstadt was definitely much more challenging because Vrancic and a few other players were missing out a lot with injuries.

I'll be interested to hear how your Darmstadt save is still going!

[Jean-Luc]

I am happy to report that the real life SV Darmstadt has secured a second year in the Bundesliga, against all odds.

Of course, the 2nd year is always the most difficult, so we can expect Darmstadt to be just as much at risk of going down next season as they were this season.

But, in any case, Darmstadt will be part of the Bundesliga again for FM2017! Yeah!

[tmason122]

I am happy to report that the real life SV Darmstadt has secured a second year in the Bundesliga, against all odds.

Of course, the 2nd year is always the most difficult, so we can expect Darmstadt to be just as much at risk of going down next season as they were this season.

But, in any case, Darmstadt will be part of the Bundesliga again for FM2017! Yeah!

Or they could win the league, just like Leicester

[Ross Ingersoll]

I have to say that this is both the toughest save ive ever played but at the same time the most enjoyable. sitting in 12 place right now with about 10 matches to go in the first season. Sam Gallagher  (whom I got on loan) saved my butt.  Picked him up in the winter transfer window and turned my season around. I would have to say highlight of the season has been thrashing Schalke 6-0. was very unexpected

[Collzy]

I honestly had no idea on the Darmstadt story, brilliant OP, wonderful read.

 

Tempted to give this a go once I'm bored of my current one, this could be quite the challenge, but a good long term one to see if you can eventually dethrone Bayern as Top Dog.

[Ross Ingersoll]

for any of you with a long term darmstadt save, what did you do about no reserve team?

[Gene]

6 hours ago, Ross Ingersoll said:

for any of you with a long term darmstadt save, what did you do about no reserve team?

You can find a database on MeisterTrainer that will take you all the way down to the Regionalligas, allowing your reserve team to play as normal. 

[Ross Ingersoll]

Just now, Gene said:

You can find a database on MeisterTrainer that will take you all the way down to the Regionalligas, allowing your reserve team to play as normal. 

ah ok, will do that. ty

[FreddyGuarin16]

Season 2015/2016

So this challenge was suggested by somebody on here back before release, I parked it as an idea, and took over Sheffield Wednesday, After a successful career of a bout 10 seasons, I decided to have a break from playing and to get outside a bit more for the summer! However with the start of the new football season fast approaching, I felt the need to start playing again. 

So I did, I loaded up a game with about 40,000 player database. Germany, Italy, Spain, France and England and got cracking.... 

Well this is a story of two parts to be honest. I had originally posted my story of the game above, but a few circumstances meant i have changed my plan.

So first season ticked around and I stayed up, It was a pretty good season I had Traore and Kiwomya on loan from Chelsea and Obertan from Newcastle. At Christmas we had 17 points by the end of the season we had 37 points and stayed up. In December i terminated the loan of the two Chelsea boys as i was not playing them, and  I got Marcus Rashford on loan and he scored many vital goals as well as having an average rating of 7.54.  I sold Rausch, Kempe and Stoh-engel to get some cash in as i was in the red. 

Second Season, I extended Rashford's loan for another 2 seasons (big move and payed off big style)  I also loaned in Will Keane and Andreas Pereira (Yes i am a man utd fan)  It was a hard season,  I had signed Colback and Tom Carroll on free transfers as well as Joel Ekstrand. I felt the team was a lot stronger going into the second season. But it was a struggle after winning my first 4 games, i went on a win-less run until Christmas.  Christmas came and I could not strengthen due to no money at all.  So i changed tactics up a bit and managed to finish in 16th on the last day of the season.  During the Playoff game I won both legs and stayed up. 

The board were happy we stayed up and the planning started for a 3rd season. However no money for transfers and no wage budget were causing issues, so i went cap in hand and asked for a transfer budget. They told me it wasn't happening (even after I begged) so i got a bit frustrated and released it to the press. The board told me to apologise to them. I refused, I got sacked. 

I then got offered the Job at Watford who were bottom of the Prem, so I took that and started pre season there. but the same feeling of excitement had gone. so I made a decision..... that maybe the darmstadt game would have been more fun if I had more players loaded, I could play the transfer market a bit more etc....

So I loaded up a new game with about 70,000 players! and set out for my new adventure (more to follow...) 

 

[FreddyGuarin16]

Season 2015/16

 

So new game, same squad, I know this team well as I have already managed them for two seasons. I wanted a different approach this time, and decided not to shift off  Rausch and Kempe straight away, I decided instead to keep them around,

With a larger player database, there are a lot more players available to me in the search, I opted for my back room team first as last time and ripped apart the back room,  Instantly 'mutually terminating' the following:

 

Michael Weingart - Petr Ruman - Eberhard Schuster - Ramon Berndroth - Dimo Wache - Frank Steinmetz - Sascha Franz

This left me with 1 scout left, (Horst Franz) So I started recruitment for my back room team,

I brought in the following coaches:

 

Paul Scholes - Wally Downs - Steve Cooper - Ronald De Boer - Franck Raito - Ronald De Boer

 

These guys as scouts:

 

Vadim Comarda - Thomas Cost - Mick Hassall - Wolfgang Vogel - Burkhardt Reich - Ralf Lempel

 

As physio I brought in Stefan Herzog.

 

As my trusted 'heads of departments'

Valeri Parkyn (Chief Scout) - Phil Cannon (HOYD) - Michael Lindeman (Assistant Manager) - Eva Carencro (Head Physio)

 

I then set up my training and scouting and tactic wise would be playing a pretty solid 4-2-3-1 in an attempt to use my attacking players as well as keeping a solid defence.

After 10 days my scouts turned up an ageing attacking midfielder from Brazil called Lincoln (previously of Kaiserslautern, schalke, galatasaray and a host of other clubs) I managed to sign him on a very cheap contact, which was ideal and he gave me a bit more creativity in the middle of the park.

 

Another 8 days later my scouts brought me Guilherme who is a 25 year old brazilian who plays as a left full back, he had good stats and 3 stars so will be used in rotation with Holland.

The only other player I felt like I had needed (and from experience in the other save) was a striker, I tried to get rashford on loan but could not afford it, so instead I managed to get

Another young brazilin Felipe Vizeu from Flamengo on loan, no monthly fee and paying his £450 wages a week, a steal, he had average stats but a lot of 12,13,14's in the right places.

 

I did not sell anybody, but loaned out Noel Wembacher, Nick Volk, Domink Stroh-Engel and Jan finger to other German Teams. The season started disastrously taking 1 point out of 15 available, and sitting at the bottom of the table, a change in tactic, this time to a 4-1-2-2-1 control and giving the players a bit more freedom in their game.

 

The next 13 games saw me pick up performance with 6 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses. A vast improvement which saw me fly up the table quite a bit. I was 10th at the winter Break.  During the January transfer window I tried to sell off a few players I am not using to generate a bit of money:

 

Zaluska, Garics, Ivana, Stegmayer, Junior Diaz, Sirigu, Gorka, Stark.

 

However no joy, I will attempt again in the summer when I streamline my squad even further, The new signing, Vizeu has scored 5 goals in 10 games. Guilheme has been average at left back and is rotated out more than he is rotated in. and Lincoln is consistent but his legs/condition lets him down in second half of games.

Top performers are obviously Rausch and Heller, I wish I had not sold Rausch in my first game. He is very good and was exactly what I needed!

 

I signed about 6 players on trial over Christmas to try and see if any were good enough, they were not apart from one:  Vitor Hugo who is a central defender from Brazil who has good stats in the key areas

Marking, heading, And Tackling are all at 12, aggression 12, bravery 14, decisions 13, position 13, work rate 11, jumping 12. Fingers crossed he becomes decent as he was a steal.

 

Straight after the winter break, we had 3 games lost in a row, all that pre-christmas form had deserted us. Then a lovely 4-2 win against HSV which I enjoyed.

Then, the strangest thing that has ever happened to me on football manager, a complete Drubbing.

 

I turned up to Bayern, with a decent squad and a slightly low morale, I had decided to play a bit more defensively due to the fact it was Bayern.

15 minutes into the game I was 4-0 down, I even checked to see if I had mistakenly put a striker in goal before the game started or something, Nope...  So I switched out a Central

Defender (caldirola who was having a shocker) and dropped my team to play as defensive as they could, for damage limitation.

 

By half time I was 8-0 down another 4 goals in 30 minutes. Jeeze I was hoping that would be it, but nope 3 more goals in the second half saw me lose 11-0. My biggest ever defeat in FM.

Next game up, I was fearing Stuttgart. What would they have instore for me... I won 1-0 then lost to schalke 2-0 and then beat Leverkusen 2-1. The Bayern game have been a complete wobble!

 

By March we were in 10th position vast approaching the 35pts deemed necessary to stay up in the league sat on 31 points at the start of the month.  With 1 win and 2 draws in March, Followed

By a loss and a very well taken 3-1 win against Hannover we hit 36pts and were in 11th position. With 5 games left to play (mainz,ingolstadt,augsbury,dortmund and Koln) and only 5 points of 6th place,

My head for the first time looked up rather than down.

 

After typing that line... our GK Mathenia got ruled out for 6 weeks so would miss the rest of the season between the sticks! Which is in no way ideal,

 

The last 5 games:

 

Mainz - Lost 2-1

Ingolstadt - Lost 0-1

Augsburg - Won 2-0

Dortmund - Lost 5-0

Koln Won 2-1

 

Final finishing place 12th, which to be honest I am more than happy with. I was only 4 points off 7th place and a full 10 points away from relegation zone. Hannover and Stuttgart went down,

Werder Bremen won their relegation playoff to stay up.

 

So into pre-season we go. My scouts have been working overtime scouting every area you can think of, focusing mainly in South America, these players are cheaper and can do a very good job.

 

To be continued....

[Jean-Luc]

Great to read that there are still people taking on Darmstadt.

I have been a bit inactive, but I have actually been "promoted" to being Research Assistant for SV Darmstadt, which had me work quite a bit on the team the last weeks. Very intrigued where the new season and FM2017 will take us.

For those interested in "real life" developments, the club has sold or had let go:

Sandro Wagner (for 2,8 Mio. Euro to Hoffenheim, Bundesliga)
Slobodan Rajkovic (for 1,5 Mio. Euro to Palermo)
Christian Mathenia (for 800,000 to Hamburg, Bundesliga)
Tobias Kempe (free to Nürnberg, 2nd Division)
Milan Ivana (free to 4th Division Elversberg)
Konstantin Rausch (free to Köln, Bundesliga)
Marco Sailer (free to 4th Division Nordhausen)
Yannick Stark (loan to FSV Frankfurt, 3rd Division)
Luca Caldirola (end of loan, back to Bremen, Bundesliga)

So that was quite a drain.

Wagner, Mathenia and Caldirola are the ones hurting most. The fans had actually hoped that some English club with their huge TV money would have been interested in Sandro Wagner. 3 million Euros is a bit of a joke for player who managed 14 goals last season, to be frank. The problem of Wagner might still be his image, he is seen a bit as a trouble maker and also as a one trick pony who can only thrive under very special circumstances. Having watched him the whole season I actually disagree on both points, but you need to see him play live in a stadium to appreciate his work.

Rajkovic, Rausch and Kempe can be replaced, I think.

Ivana, Sailer and Stark were never part of the first team anyway.

The worst thing though is that the manager of Darmstadt, Dirk Schuster, left. He had been awarded Manager of the Year 2015 by the German Press and Manager of the Season 2015/16 by the German coaches and players, so you can imagine his impact on Darmstadt. Nobody knows yet if the new man in charge has it in him. Of course, that's where YOU as FM2017 players can come in quite nicely into the story.  

[CRM2009]

WOW, great read and career mate! I was still living in Germany when they came up to the BL. It was great to see some smaller clubs making it as generally German football is slowly becoming infiltrated by Werksvereine and loosing much of its appeal because of the FC Bayern domination.

Despite living there for quite some time, I never really got going with a German save, until now that is. I'm at 1.FC Magdeburg on FM15 and coming along nicely. One question I could not find an answer to yet though (and I guess here is as good as any place to ask it...): How does the game determine which lower league sides qualify for the German cup? Given that the Landespokale are not in the game, it must somehow be randomized, but I'd expect some kind of reasoning behind it (apart from the club's location)...

[Jean-Luc]

I don't know, to be frank. My assumption is that it's based on club reputation. That's at least also how the promotions from 4th Division into the active 3. Liga are handled. Maybe a combination of repuration and region?

If you want to know for sure, I suggest you ask your question in the German research subforum.

 

[naufal husain]

this season squad looks promising. lots of young player came replace old player like marco sailer and milan ivana. are you guys ready for darmstadt in fm17? SURE