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FM16: GCZ - Oh, to be a Grasshopper!


michalgottwald

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GCZ, or Grasshopper Club Zürich, is a swiss top division football club. I won't write much about their history here, as Wikipedia provides most of the information the average person would need about the club. I will, however, write up a few of the things that makes it a great club to manage in Football Manager:

Grasshoppers is one of the better teams in the swiss league(ranked 13th in Europe, with two champions league spots) - however, they haven't managed to win the title since 2002/03, and are one of several evenly ranked clubs trying to topple Basel, the dominant force for the last decade, with six straight league wins. Your first challenge will be to retain the top spot in the country, which won't be easy. Basel are a club with a large fanbase and large resources - however, their playing squad possibly looks a bit weaker than last year. In any case, you'll do very well to beat them in your first season - weakened or not, they are still a good bit ahead of anyone else in the country. You'll also get fierce competition from Young Boys, and the league itself(10 teams that with a couple of exceptions are very even) is very competitive. Two points separated 4th to eight spot in my first season, and either of those teams could make the step up with a bit of flow.

Grasshoppers is mainly a great game if you want to focus on youth development and the player market. Prize and tv money is hard to come by in the swiss league, but player values are high compared to similar leagues, so you'll need to either be smart when selling and buying or be great at developing your own youth if you are to be a force to be reckoned with. The Grasshoppers squad is filled with potential talents from the get go, and youth intakes regularly gives you players of national team potential. Last year I went route one, bought cheap and sold big, this year I'll try to go for the swiss identity and a save with more longevity. But Grasshoppers as a club is very suitable for both options.

You are allowed ten non EU players in your squad, five in your matchday squad, a relatively lax approach to foreigner rules that gives you the option to import from South America etc should you want to. But my favourite reason to play in the Swiss Super League is it's format - 10 relatively evenly matched teams play each other four times, quickly making you familiar with your opponents and adding plenty of identity to the save. It just does so much for the realism of the narrative - for me, hugely preferable to the faceless, nameless 20 team league.

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This is my third year as a Grasshopper, and it certainly won't be my last. As you can see, training and youth facilities are very good, with good junior coaching and youth recruitment - which will be my approach for the year.

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As you can see, there isn't much money available for improvements from the start without selling key players. You do however have a few assets that you can choose to cash in should you want to bring in your own people. This will probably be controversial to some, but Munas Dabbur can be sold for £5mill+ from the get go - leaving you in good shape to strengthen.

Pre-set season expectations are very achievable. Personally, I chose "Finish close to the top of the table". It doesn't really give much more financial wiggle room to change ambitions though, so it's propably safest to leave them as they are.

Next up, the playing squad.

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The playing squad has already been covered in Fm_Grasshoppers excellent blog, which I highly recommend: http://fmgrasshopper.com/blog/

I still want to offer my own review though:

Goalkeepers:

You have two goalkeepers in your squad, Joel Mall and Vaso Vasic. They are very similar both age and ability wise, but as Fm_Grasshopper concluded in his review, Joël Mall just about edges it for me. He's all round decent(with a random determination attribute), and with the tight finances he will have to do for the first season. He is, however, not good enough to be a long term solution, and you should look to strengthen this position from season 2 and onwards.

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Left back:

You only have one natural left back in the first team squad, but to compensate he comes highly recommended. 20 year old Nemanja Antonov doesn't really have any weaknesses, and is a great player for this level. He also has potential to burn, and age on his side - a potential Champions League player, and a definite keeper. Moritz Bauer can also play left back, but he is right footed and better suited on the other side of your defence. One of my last years first season stars, Daniel Pavlovic, is yout on loan and will not be available to you until the second season.

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Right back:

On the right side you have two options in aforementioned Moritz Bauer and new signing Benjamin Lüthi. They are relatively even, Lüthi a bit better going forward, Bauer a bit more defensively sound. All in all they're relly not that different players either and the only reason Bauer is my first choice is really because he's three years younger and still has a little bit of potential ability to fulfill. This is also a spot you should look to strengthen in time, but it's not a priority for the first season.

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Central defence:

In the heart of your defence the boss is long time FM favourite and french bulgarian Alexandre Barthe. He's a new signing at Letzigrund, and a much needed one, as his all round solid game is one of a kind at Grasshoppers at the moment. Alban Pnishi is decent, but just barely - home grown 21 year old Levant Gülen has some potential left, and is a great marker with high concentration, marking and tackling attributes, but sadly he's not strong enough and not tall enough to ever become more than a utility player for me. Outside of these three you have some talented youth with random attributes. If you're lucky one of these could come in and do well in the first season - but it's a big maybe. Long term though, there should be some excellent youth in the U21 and U18 teams - don't forget to check these out as they are ripe with unfulfilled potential.

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Forgot about Marko Basic, who is also a solid defender - or he would have been, if not for his determination stat of 4, which in my book makes him a bit too unreliable both as a defender and as a defensive midfielder, his two natural positions.

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Midfielders:

You have a couple of very good central players, but you're seriously lacking in depth, of course a bit depending of how you want to play. Already mentioned Marko Basic is a natural DM and a relatively useful player, although as mentioned his determination of 4 makes him a bit of a liability and not the kind of person i would want protecting my defense. Playing him as a ball winning midfielder is propably the best option. Kim Källström should be a well known name to most, and although on the slow side an overall excellent player with stats suited for a deep lying playmaker role. He's also a great tutor, with Professional personality and a determination stat of 18. Personally I had him tutor 18 year old Harun Alpsoy, another one with random stats, but he seems to be hugely talented in almost every version, often with big clubs from around Europe sniffing around him. In my save I'm looking to build my future team around him, and he's developed really well so far.

Further up the pitch we have brazilian Caio, a real life success and technically brilliant player. I know a lot of you playing Grasshoppers got a lot of joy from him last year(when I sold him at the start), but for me he just doesn't seem to do it. Keep him if you want, but be warned that he'll shoot from everywhere, never put in any work for the team and needs a good backup for when his natural fitness stat of 8 deems him unfit for playing.

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Wingers

Yoric Ravet is the big name here - he can play on both wings, he's a goalscorer, he's a creator - he is, for this level, a complete wide attacker. Natural left footed inside forward on the right, but just as good as a pure winger on the left. Nikola Gjorgjev is one of a few serious talents at Grasshoppers this year - wanted by the big clubs, so be sure to tie him down with a new contract offer as he's currently on a youth contract. Natural right winger, but as Ravet he can also play on the opposite side. Mergim Brahimi is the last of your natural wide players - he plays on the left - and he's also the lesser of the three. 22 years, with not much potential ability left to fulfill, he'll never be more than just a squad player. Or at least, he never made it with me.

Munas Dabbur can also play on either wing, but why would you want to play him there? He's a striker, everything else is a waste.

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Strikers:

Dabbur is obviously the big big name here, but in time he might se his ability surpassed and then some more by young Shani Tarashaj. Tarashaj was a good talent last year, but has had a huge upgrade and now looks like a world class talent. He has a random determination stat(a bit too much randomness in this GCZ squad this year, researchers?), and will propably vary between great and fantastic. The other young strikers in the squad also vary, but Manuel Kubli seems to be the best of the lot. Also, look out for Nikola Sukacev in the U21s. All three of these feature regularly in my matchday squads at the start of season 2. Florian Kamberi also looks like he has the potential to go far, but doesn't have the current ability of Kubli and Tarashaj.

Semir Music and Sherko Kareem are also in the first team squad and has good potential, but with the amuont of talent there will have to develop exceptionally well to ever feature much.

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And that's it. As mentioned, don't forget to go through the youth teams, as there will likely be several five star talents there. If you want to sell and strengthen, Munas Dabbur will get you a huge fee right from the get go and give you space to make the changes you need. There are other ways to do this of course, and Dabbur is undoubtedly a fantastic player.

For ransfer targets, I never manage to look past my home country Norway. Vieux Sané is as good and as cheap as ever, and can be gotten for around £30k. You absolutely need a new left back - Birger Meling from Stabæk looks to be this years Andreas Vindheim. Cheap, young and potentially very solid. Want to bring in established strikers while your younger players develop? Christoffer Nyman of Norrköping looks great for 200k, with a resolute personality as a bonus. Want a cheap and good midfielder? FM_Grasshopper recommended Edinho from Gremio in his blog, and he has served me very well.

Come join Grasshoppers. It's a great challenge, there is so much potential in the team, last years thread had a great atmosphere and Switzerland is a great country to manage in. What more would you need!

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(a bit too much randomness in this GCZ squad this year, researchers?)
I am the Swiss Super League Researcher. The only one. There's your reason why there is randomness in some of the players stats. ;)

Good opening post, as always. I'm glad when people play in Switzerland. The more feedback on the DB, the better.

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I am the Swiss Super League Researcher. The only one. There's your reason why there is randomness in some of the players stats. ;)

Good opening post, as always. I'm glad when people play in Switzerland. The more feedback on the DB, the better.

Thanks! Hoping to get some people playing here this year too, it was a very enjoyable enviroment last time around, and I'm really sold on the swiss experience.

Being the sole researcher of the whole league sounds like a lot of work! In that case I'm kinda impressed by the number of players with visibly updated attributes - I think a few researchers in other leagues are a bit too content with recycling last years database - it might be mainly the GCZ squad(although that isn't my impression when browsing the other teams) and its many personel changes, but the first season had a really fresh feeling to it.

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Michal, well done on another great GCZ thread again :applause:

I've not studied the squad much this year to be honest, but if I want a 'cool club' that will be a struggle then it's always an option to consider again. Last year was good fun, only spoiled for me when a new database came out and I got tempted in to 'fresh options' elsewhere. I must say I really like the Sion squad this year, but the club itself doesn't have the same attraction as GCZ. I do however have a fondness for challenges, and that (and the good vibe here) could be enough to tempt me back in. I'll either have to sign half of the Sion squad, or go with my cheap African (and maybe the odd Brazilian) picks if I come and join in again ;)

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I must say I really like the Sion squad this year

One would have to be crazy not to, to be honest! They've had a huge(!) upgrade quality wise - Salatic, Mujangi Bia, Zeman and Ziegler in as new signings, that's half a team of top Swiss Super League quality. Add to that Xavier Kouassi and the ever so dominating Moussa Konate, and you have a title challenge on your hands easily. Unsure of the attendance potential in the smaller town of Sion, but to be honest you have to play for quite some time to get to decent levels with Grasshoppers too--- they only finished sixth in my first season, but there were a LOT of margins - it was a year where everyone beat everyone and they're easily top four in the league quality wise.

Of course I hope that you revisit GCZ at some point, but if you go with Sion I hope I'll be able to follow your progress, in here or elsewhere - your updates are always a great read :thup:

First season review coming later tonight, of course.

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Thanks! Hoping to get some people playing here this year too, it was a very enjoyable enviroment last time around, and I'm really sold on the swiss experience.

Being the sole researcher of the whole league sounds like a lot of work! In that case I'm kinda impressed by the number of players with visibly updated attributes - I think a few researchers in other leagues are a bit too content with recycling last years database - it might be mainly the GCZ squad(although that isn't my impression when browsing the other teams) and its many personel changes, but the first season had a really fresh feeling to it.

It is a lot of work and so many things go forgotten or are low on the priorities list. I'm glad you pointed out some of those things. I'll address those for the winter update if I can. Still unsure about Tarashaj's Determination though. There also are changes made that you can't see on first glance, but will be obvious further down the line. Youth in general and youth intake specifically are two fields who saw an overhaul.

I'd be thankful if you, and everyone else playing in Switzerland, could post the financial data after the seasons. Balance, profit/loss, transfer budget and players sold/bought is what I'm looking for. :)

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Why don't you give them a try, tyro!

Apologies for being two days later than I said I would with this, new life situation living with fiance always leaves less room for hobbies than I'm imagining and hoping for.

I started my first season off with some transfers. As mentioned, the budget doesn't have much wiggle room, and the board decreases the amount recouped from outgoing transfers to 40% after a couple of days(this is still better than last season, when that number was 20% iirc). I knew I had to strengthen several areas of the squad(left back, centre back, central midfield of some variety depending on how I wanted to play), so I needed to make a big sale to get in the right quality players. The obvious candidate was Munas Dabbur, with early interest from several clubs and the highest value in the team. As mentioned in the opening posts, he's a fantastic player, but when Monaco offered me £5m for him I felt it was right to let him go.

This gave me a couple of million for strengthening, and being norwegian and having intimate knowledge of that league it's always the first place I look. Vieux Sané haven't changed much stat wise from the previous version, and is cheaper than ever - the game scouting system never really rates him(he has two stars current ability at the moment according to my assistant), but I know better. He's fast, strong, brave, determined and a great tackler - his mental attributes are average, but his physicals more than make up for this, especially with his pace and me planning to play with a high defensive line. He's also experienced, which is something my defence needed - with a £34k price tag it really wasn't a hard decision to make him my first signing.

Birger Meling has been one of the biggest breakthrougs in norwegian football in real life this season, and I liked the look of him in game too - Nemanja Antonov is among the best prospects at Grasshopers and was going to be a starter, so I could afford to bring in a talented backup - he joined for £250k. Here's a screenshot of him at the start of the second season:

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I didn't like the look of Marko Basic as more than a rotational player, so wanted to bring in an experienced, solid midfielder with some defensive fibre: FM_Grasshoppers blog pointed me in the direction of Edinho, and at £9,5k he's a great option. He's 32 at game start, so this is a short term signing, but he's got a great personality for tutoring, fantastic mental attributes, he's strong and has good tackling and should be able to stamp his authority on a game. I also needed a replacement for Dabbur unless I wanted to start the season with only young, unproven strikers - the solution came in the form of Christoffer Nyman:

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For only £220k he represented real value for money - and with a resolute personality as a bonus. He's only 22 at game start, so isn't available for tutoring until early in the second season, but will hopefully prove a valuable mentor for my younger players after that time.

I also wanted a backup from Caio, and with last year favourites Thomas Drage and Fredrik Haugen unavailable after forgetting to load norwegian second level players I didn't really find anyone I was entirely happy with - in the end I went for Moldes Agnaldo, a young, relatively talented brazilian with great dribbling and flair but with nonexistent finishing and weak physical attributes. The idea was to play him and Caio in an enganche role--

Summary of transfers in:

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First window transfers out:

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Tactically I wanted to line up to make the most of my best players, so I went with an assymetric 4-3-2-1 that allowed Antonov the whole left wing to himself, Källstrøm a deep lying playmaking role with an aggressive ball winning midfielder by his side in the MC slots, Yoric Ravet license to cut inside as an attacking wide midfielder, Caio an enganche role and Tarashaj/Nyman in DLF/Shadow striker roles. I stuck with this for the first half of the season, with some mixed success - Yoric Ravet excelled in his wide position and the DLF/SS pairing was good to watch. Nemanja Antonov also had some great performances and provided some goals and assists as an attacking full back(he really got LOTS of space with the rest of the team focused to the other side of the pitch and took good advantage). The problem was the defensive. I quickly missed count over games lost in the final ten minutes because we were completely unable to defend when attacked in numbers/at the break. It became obvious that Källstrøm/Edinho were WAY too static as a midfield duo with no DM protection - especially in combination with Caio in front of them who really got on my nerves with his extremely sporadic contribution and mindless shooting from all over the pitch, getting shots blocked and exposing us to counters. For some reason I'm yet to understand my right flank(Bauer/Lüthi) was even more exposed than my left, even with a wide midfielder(who should track back some) in front of them.

I reached the winter break with nine wins, five draws and four losses - in itself not too bad, especially with Basel looking like a different team from the get go than last year - giving me 39 points to Basels 38 - but largely frustrated with the tactical side of things and unsatisfied with some of the players that were supposed to run things, namely Källstrøm and Caio.

The league itself was very tight, with Luzern, Lugano and St. Gallen all within a few points of the top spot. It really was a situation where everyone could beat everyone, and all games were a struggle to get the points.

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Michal, nice update. Interesting to see Basel not running away with it, which gives you a great chance of early success. It makes sense to use your knowledge of the Norwegian leagues to build your squad, and I expect that will keep your game different from others in terms of player choices. It was a brave decision on Dabbur, but £5m is a massive temptation at GCZ in the first season.

Good luck sorting your tactical issues out. As we know, it's certainly not easy at the start but you're lucky that Sion haven't stormed the league yet ;)

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A GCZ thread, what a surprise. I'm from Zürich and a big Grasshoppers fan and normally play a long term save with them on every new FM, but I'm currently doing the Ultimate Football Manager Challenge and am still playing my FM15 journeyman save. If I'm able to finish that challenge before FM17 is out I will definitely have another go at Grasshoppers too.

I'll give a short update on how they are doing in real life for those who are interested: It's a very exciting squad we have this year. Last season ended in a fiasco with an 8th place finish and captain Vero Salatics intrigue against Coach Michael Skibbe. Skibbe left for Eskişehirspor (and now Greece) and Salatic for Sion in winter. They were replaced by former Swiss U21-manager Pierluigi Tami who is great in developing young players and Swedish captain Källström, a true professional and role model as well as a great passer, probably the perfect captain.

The management used last summer to unload a lot of expensive overrated players and replaced them by decent ones (Basic was one of the best players in the challenge league for Lugano last season, same for Pnishi from Wohlen. Antonov is a big talent and Barthe showed that he can become an important player).

The squad is small and injuries could become a real problem, but this gives the youngsters a chance to develop. And there are plenty of them. Tarashaj became a first team regular this season and scored 8 goals in 17 games so far. Alpsoy, Gjorgjev and Kamberi played mostly as subs so far but proved to be very promising players, and in central defence there's Rhyner and Loosli, two players with the potential to be star players on Super League level in a few years.

The attack is the gem of this team. Grasshoppers have scored the most goals in the Super League so far this season (45 in 17 games), with Dabbur, Ravet, Caio and Tarashaj all among the top goalscorers in the league.

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Now one game before the winter break, GCZ are lying in 2nd place 7 points behind Basel. They will probably not be able to compete for the title, as Basel seems to be even stronger than the previous years, but even 2nd is a great achievement after what happened last season and with such a young squad. On a normal match day there are only players aged 20 or younger on the subs bench. Last sunday they played the derby against FC Zürich and won 5-0, the highest derby win since a 7-2 in 1977. Like I said before, this team is really exciting and it should be a lot of fun to play them in FM (or watch them play in real life :))

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Great update! I'll be able to post mine at the weekend once I've completed the season (takes me approx. a month of regular play to complete a season now that I am playing Extended highlights and being obsessed with ProZone). I have 2 league games a a cup game [spolier] to go!

You negotiated the transfer market really well. Nyman in particular looks v.good and glad you took up the option of Edinho. Sadly for me, Edinho signed a contract in my game early on so had to make do with Danielle Conti. Impress you got £5m for Dabbur...the best I got offered was a non-negotiable £3.1m bid from Schalke in Jan 2016. I kept with him in the end for the whole season, which largely dictated my transfer spend to just £13k...Taye Taiwo!

We seem to play the same formation (4321) and a similar style (Antonov as a marauding wingback). I guess this is mainly due to the limitation of players at our disposal!

I would be interested to hear about signings for Season 2. I have a few targets for a new replacement striker that I will share on here later on. I also need a GK, DC and perhaps x2 Mids!

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At the end of december I made a signing that made my defence twice as stable for the remainder of the season. Some of the improvement in this department could propably be attributed to tactical changes but I'm prepared to give a LOT of credit to Ondrej Mazuch, who joined on a free and has to be the most obvious free transfer signing since Josep Guardiola and Taribo West in CM 01/02:

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Top class defender with everything one could ask for and modest wage demands - he made the ideal partner for Sané for the remainder of the season.

I also decided that the midfield situation was one I couldn't live with - Kim Källström had at this point tutored Alpsoy to a professional personality and an 18 determination attribute, but other than that he hadn't contributed much positively. Also on the highest wages at the club at £7.75k/w, with rapidly declining physicals at 32. I had also completely lost patience with Caio, and had identified a couple of targets that I REALLY wanted. Problem was that they were too expensive, even with the money I would get from selling the pair. So should I forget about them and leave them to sign for other clubs? The only other option was to sell some of my biggest assets - which is exactly what I did.

Yoric Ravet was my top performer in the first half of the season, with six goals, six assists and a 7,45 rating. I admit I imagined I would get more for him when I offered him out, but by then the "damage" was done, and I eventually sold him to Olympiakos for £2.8m. Now with huge talent Nikola Gjorgjev the only dangerous winger in my squad I decided I might as well sell him too and go narrow, an approach that worked well for me last year with GCZ. I feel that I maybe should have gotten more for him as he had obvious potential, but he was still very rough, hadn't really performed when playing, and in the end I settled for £2m from Barcelona.

I'll quickly post my transfers out:

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and in:

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for aulit to review, then I'll write a bit about the two really important signings here: Iver Fossum had left his hometown club Strømsgodset for a big club in every save I had yet to play through the first transfer window since the demo was released, and understandably too -- he's just fantastic. Dubbed as a wonderkid at the start of the second season, and having a chance to sign him was enough for me to decide to sell my highest performing player:

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He's really been a joy to behold - he can be played with success in a number of roles, but CM(A) is where I've seen him dominate the most. He's made for it, with "Gets into opposition area", "Gets forward whenever possible" and "Plays one-twos" as preferred moves. Joining him in midfield, a replacement for Kim Källström, was Marko Grujic from Red Star:

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Suddenly my weakest area of the pitch is the strongest and I have no wingers, so I start to play around with tactics in the friendlies. Manuel Kubli, is a young striker that has really performed when given the chance in the first half of the season, Nikola Sukacev is another - I realise that if I play Tarashaj as a striker instead of an AM and manage to get one good reinforcement I have enough backup up top to play 4-3-3 with three strikers. I've never done this in FM before, and at first it's just an experiment, but I notice a number of good things are happening:

- Playing three strikers forces them to keep more people at the back - counters, which have been my biggest tactical concern in this FM, are much fewer and far between.

- Playing three strikers also enhances your own countering threat, and such exploits that counters are far more powerful in this years FM than they've been before.

The rest of the season I'm lining up with variations of this:

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I switch around and play with some of the roles and duties depending on the game, but never stray from the 4-3-3. The final table looks like this:

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Which I'm more than a little bit pleased with! :D Above all expectations, although a cup semi final loss to Lugano put a dent in what could've been a perfect first season. Iver Fossum was really dominant, Christoffer Nyman was my top scorer with 16 league goals, Shani Tarashaj then followed with 14. Manuel Kubli had a really pleasing first season, chipping in with 7 league goals and 10 goals in total. Harun Alpsoy developed really well and will get a lot of playing time in the coming season:

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I'd write more, there's lots to write, but I don't have the time now so it'll have to be later. Will catch up with my save at the next opportunity and report "live" from then - which should give a better and more precise account of things.

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I would be interested to hear about signings for Season 2. I have a few targets for a new replacement striker that I will share on here later on. I also need a GK, DC and perhaps x2 Mids!

These are my second season signings in the summer window:

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In particular Kamara:

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and Israelsson:

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look like extremely solid players for the swiss league. Haven't really played long enough into the season to give feedback on how they are working, but they've both started well.

Vindheim also looks very very solid as a right

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I would be interested to hear about signings for Season 2. I have a few targets for a new replacement striker that I will share on here later on. I also need a GK, DC and perhaps x2 Mids!

These are my second season signings in the summer window:

aQfiwMm.jpg

In particular Kamara:

WQ7j1Io.jpg

and Israelsson:

aRU6xsS.jpg

look like extremely solid players for the swiss league. Haven't really played long enough into the season to give feedback on how they are working, but they've both started well.

Vindheim also looks very very solid as an attacking right back.

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Fantastic update again Michal. That squad really looks good now, well done to you! I played 3 main strikers at GCZ last time out and with a lazy AM too (Caio). Despite that my defence was really tight, so it will be great to follow your progress with a similar style.

FM_Grasshopper, it will be great to see you posting in here too, your passion for the club is incredible.

That brings me to the posts made by mayihaveacookie, which offers little in FM16 terms (like my pointless posts) but gives even more great detail about GCZ.

I'm beginning to be tempted again...

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JogoBonito: Thanks! Sion missed their chance of glory with a weak first season I'm afraid : / They've now lost Moussa Konate to Fiorentina and look much weaker as a result.

Both the norwegian and swedish leagues are full of prospects and good players on the cheap as usual. I'm sure I'll go back there a couple of more times yet.

mayihavecookie: That's very interesting, thanks! Hope you'll get the time to do a save before the new game comes out. I actually read up on GCZs games on Soccerway around once a month, and I've got the impression that a few of us actually has developed a small real life affinity for the club.

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We seem to play the same formation (4321) and a similar style (Antonov as a marauding wingback). I guess this is mainly due to the limitation of players at our disposal!

Yeah, that would be it. The starting squad doesn't really allow for much flexibility. Really looking forward to reading your end of season review, from what I've seen on twitter/your blog you've made some different choices from me, which makes it all the more interesting.

Looking forward to your progress on youth development, will post a bit about that myself in the coming days. Alpsoy, Sukacev, Kubli and Jan Bamert are my youth rotation players in season 2, in addition to Tarashaj but I rate him as a full first teamer by now.

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Thanks for the update, Michal! Could you please post the balance, profit/loss at the end of the first season and the transfer budget for season 2? I'm mainly interested in how the financials work out as this is the trickiest part in Switzerland. Although it's good to see the development of the players too (like Alpsoy), but that's a bonus.

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I don't have it for the end of season 1, but here is the balance after transfers in/out in the summer window of the second season. Includes champions league group stage money:

UDWfTi3.jpg

As you can see transfer budget for second season is included at the right - but the initial budget was different - just low of £1m iirc- and the wage budget was ~150k. Transfers in/out were:

V6vXkob.jpg

If there are any specific screens that you want, just explain how I find them

Edit: But I can see that total income last season was £22 729 132 and that the total expenditure was £18 442 195 if that helps.

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If there are any specific screens that you want, just explain how I find them

Edit: But I can see that total income last season was £22 729 132 and that the total expenditure was £18 442 195 if that helps.

No, just income, expenditure, balance, transfer budget and transfers is fine. Those figures are looking quite good. You made around £4m profit, boosted mainly by £12m transfer income. In reality, GC isn't going to reel in 12m, but other than that I'm quite satisfied with how it looks. This also is quite similar to when I tested the finances. So it is consistent. Good job and thanks again. :)

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FM_Grasshopper, it will be great to see you posting in here too, your passion for the club is incredible.

All going well, I should be able to post my end of season review either tomorrow night (Friday) or sometime on Saturday. In the meantime, this week's blog (always released 0830 GMT on a Friday) introduces two Newgens that were part of my new youth intake. Would be good to get your opinions on them...

michalgottwald - thanks for prompting me to look at Grujic. He looks a great replacement for Kim. Serbia has some great young players this year, I am particularly keen on Ivan Saponjic. If I can shift on Dabbur, he may well be the target I go for. He is mentally strong for an 18 year old.

You are brave in the transfer market, I respect that. As you've seen, I have taken a different route but both are equally effective.

Re: Ravet. He has been so good in Season 1 (22 goals in all comps so far with three left to play), I offered him a 4 year contract. I still plan to sell around 2017/2018 when his sale value will be maxed out. This is all dependant on whether I can convince Gjorgjev to stay, in my mind he is the heir to Ravet!

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michalgottwald - thanks for prompting me to look at Grujic. He looks a great replacement for Kim. Serbia has some great young players this year, I am particularly keen on Ivan Saponjic. If I can shift on Dabbur, he may well be the target I go for. He is mentally strong for an 18 year old.

I have a few serbians on my shortlist this far. Saponjic looks like he could be top class.

I am however also scouting in an often overlooked baltic country - Slovenia. Found a lot of great talent there in a FM15 save with Rijeka in Croatia, and many of them are still really good - plus there is some new talent - Peter Stojanovic, Mitja Lotric, Erik Gliha, Pozeg Vancas(that I already bought), Tilen Klemencic, Nik Kapun etc. Domen Crnigoj was really, really great last year, and still looks like he could be pretty solid - he's now at Lugano from game start.

Posted my transfers for the second summer window above, so won't repeat myself, but a short recap -

I sold the disappointing Diego Falcinelli to Club Brugge for £1,5m and replaced him with Alhaji Kamara from Norrkøping. This is probably the signing I'm most excited by. I also sold Meling to Celtic, as I got the chance to sign Fabio Daprelà on a bosman to rotate with Antonov on the left. He's swiss, and he's even trained by Grasshoppers, plus he's pretty damn good and with a determination stat of 17 and a professional personality. Very easy decision and a great signing. I had very little cover in midfield the first season, so strengthened by bringing in Erik Israelsson from Hammarby for £550k, looking like a bargain so far. Rudi Pozeg Vancas can do a bit of everything, and should therefore be great as a BBM or a CM(S) or even a CM(D). Last years favourite Cephas Malele is back, signed from Palermo on a bosman - he doesn't look quite as rock solid as he did back then, and I'm planning on using him as DLF backup for Alhaji Kamara. Benjamin Lüthi is sold to Aarau, so I need a new right back to rotate with/take over for Moritz Bauer, who has been solid but mediocre - in comes good old Andreas Vindheim, and if you ask me he looks even better than he did in 15.

I also make one signing for the U18 team that is more long term - Andi Zeqiri, a 16 year old striker(not a newgen so check him out) from Lausanne, joins for £150k. He's tearing up the U18s league like there's no tomorrow - 26th of september into the season he has already scored 19 goals for the U18s in 13 games. Chances are he'll get some playing time for the first team before I anticipated, as there has been some unfortunate development on the transfer front. Nikola Sukacev, who I put into the rotation last season more out of hope than out of belief, has started the season absolutely magnificently, with five goals and three assists in six league games(two as a sub) and my only goal in a 1-1 draw away to Ajax in the Champions League. This prompted the attention of Inter and Milan, who in a series of bids managed to unsettle him, forcing me to sell. I'm almost in shock that I actually got the £5m I offered him out for(Barcelona, Atletico, Porto and SLB I think snap accepted, making me think I should have asked for more), it seems a lot for a young player with a very limited number of senior games under his belt, although he was starting to develop into a real good player - but I'm still kind of sad about this as I was looking forward to seeing him up top with Tarashaj and Kubli for a few more years.

At least I get to keep him until january - at which time I'll either have to replace him with Zeqiri in the rotation, a VERY bold move, or get in a new striker. At the moment I'm looking at the aforementioned Mitja Lotric, who I really like the look of.

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Re: convincing Gjorgjev to stay - I find it harder than ever to keep ahold of promising youth this year. I've lost Sukacev, and barely managed to keep Tarashaj and Alpsoy - that is relatively normal, but italian scouts seem to live at my U18 training ground - I regularly recieve offers from different clubs and have to max out the asking fee to shut them up.

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You guys have done it again, with your great enthusiasm and updates. I'm going to join the GCZ party (sorry Sion) already, as last year I arrived a little late. I'll be combining this with my current English save so will be in & out with my updates and game play.

Excellent news. This thread is certainly better with you actively in it!

Swiss Roll as well hahaha :lol:

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Season 1 is complete and what a fairytale it's been. We've won 'The Double' ! For those that do not know, I am already way ahead of my Challenge...which places certain restrictions of what I can/can't do and when. But being ahead will not change my approach to things, this is a save devoted to youth development and frugality in the transfer market. Let's crack on before you lot get bored...

Swiss Super League - 17 Clean Sheets!

Swiss%20Super%20League_%20Overview%20Stages-3.png

So the season on the whole was a solid one. Four teams outscored me, but nobody could out defend me. I lined up with a 4-3-2-1 pretty much the whole season, in a Control & Fluid way. I figured I wanted to play possession football and be solid at the back. In many games I was losing the Shots statistics but clearly winning the Clear Cut Chances stat. This is because I was generally playing with a Low tempo with Play Out Of Defence and Work Ball Into The Box selected. For the big games I tweaked certain things and played on the counter, which was semi-effective...especially away at Basel where I picked up two away wins.

Grasshoppers%20v%20Sion_%20Overview%20Formations.png

But my job was made so easy by Basel's astonishing collapse in the Second Half of the season, where they picked up 21 points out of a possible 54! Critics will point to my lack of goals and zero competition when disregarding my Title win, so I need to be better in the future.

Swiss Cup - All Hail Yoric Ravet!

Without a 90+3 minute Yoric Ravet goal to make it Cham 3-3 GCZ, we would have been out of the Swiss Cup in the first round. After that the route was mainly straightforward. I missed Young Boys, Basel and Sion who would have proved tricky:

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The Final was not pretty, but we did deserve it..coming from behind to beat relegated St. Gallen. Again 22 goals (in all comps) Ravet pulling some magic out of the hat to cross well for Barthe after a broken down corner.

Transfers

I kept the core of the squad together. Despite interest in Munas Dabbur, I decided to keep him because of the poor offers I was receiving. I think Schalke had the best offer of £3.1m. Not good enough sorry. I also had bids of around £4m in Jan 2016 for Nikola Gjorgjev (who at that point had 7 apperances!), I resisted once more and risked the bank balance for a shot at the Champions League.

Transfers_%20%20Transfer%20History-3.png

I did manage to get Taye Taiwo, who came in handy when Antonov had two big injuries (strained knee ligaments and a broken leg). I also snapped up Danielle Conti on a free, mainly to tutor and provide cover for the first choice CMs. The other two signings were loans that didn't really amount to much, they provided cover but overall I was not impressed with their performances in the match engine.

Notable Breakthroughs (Youth)

The youth that stood out this season were:

Harun Alpsoy, who got a well deserved contract at the end of the season after 21 1st team appearances, 3 goals and 4 assists as my Box To Box CM.

Noah Loosli, who stepped up after Pnishi was loaned out in January 2016. He effectively became 3rd choice and made 4 league appearances.

Nikola Gjorgev, who made 15 sub appearances off the bench, 5 starts and scored 2 goals

Shani Tarashaj, who displaced Caio in the 2nd half of the season by assisting 11 goals in 25 appearances.

Fabio Quintoles, who aged 17 made his debut on the last day of the season. Scored a worldie and finished with a pass success rate of 89%. Looked very promising.

I also had a good Youth Intake, which I introduce two talents here.

Transfers for Season 2 - Goodbye Munas

Munas after 19 league goals has been sold to Villareal for £4.4m, delighted with the money as other clubs like Lyon were only prepared to go up to £3m. In his place comes Airam Cabrera on a Free Transfer. Somebody I know well from managing Cadiz in FM15. Admittedly, it's a step up but a risk worth taking.

I also need Central Midfielders at least x2. Conti is retiring and I play in Europe next season. My immediate thought it to look inwards and see who I can promote to the 1st team. Other than that, I really like the look of michalgottwald's target: Marko Grujic from Red Star. He is a great long term replacement for Kim as a DLP.

I also should get a GK. I always find it a struggle to find GKs, especially good ones. Any ideas chaps?

Also, half of Europe are now after this guy: Ivan Saponjic

Ivan%20Saponjic_%20Overview%20Profile.png

I am going to try and get him, but PSG are also involved. So it might be a wasted exercise.

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Thanks for your kind words FM_G. I'll be looking to sign a few cheap talented players from slightly different regions, and some youth players that will become HG at club whilst being developed. I'm fairly sure that like last year most of the names will be fresh in the thread, which will hopefully keep it interesting. I already have quite a few names in mind that I hope will be willing to join a club like this. As with last year, I think my first task will be to improve the defence and defensive midfield - picking up quality attacking talent for peanuts is always much easier. One thing I'm trying to do this year is to give every manager some personality, hence this choice becoming Swiss Roll :lol:

That was a great season for you, and all done with hardly any outlay and no big sales either. If you remember, I'm a big fan of defensive strength, so I salute you for the clean sheets. 50 goals in 36 games is a fairly modest return for league champions, and it will be interesting to see how you get on without Dabbur next season. I guess you're expecting Ravet to be a key player again? I'd really like to give you some names for goalkeepers, but I want to have a look at them myself first haha. By the way, how did Onuachu do on loan?

@Michal, I look forward to contributing to your great thread once again. Thanks for bringing the GCZ family together.

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Those two youngsters look very promising FM_Grasshopper! Difficult to say who I like the most, but Mahrer sure looks like he'll go on to score a few goals for you.

Judging by yours and mine youth intake put together it looks like the game regularly brings through some great youth players in Niederhasli - I'll do a full writeup of my development projects later, but for now I'll just tell you about the second Züricher derby of the second season:

Injuries on Fossum and Pozeg Vancas, combined with an important champions league game three days later, forced me to give two young players their debut in the big derby - I had already started thinking of how I best could start bedding them in, but playing both of them in an important high pressure away game certainly wasn't the plan! One of them, Nedim Bajrami, is a U18 team Grasshoppers player from the start - at the time of his debut, his stats looked like this:

JTUxELb.jpg

The other one, Riccardo Moratti, was a product of the season 1 youth intake, arguably(but not certainly) the best talent to come through:

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Obviously I was worried about a midfield battery consisting of two so inexperienced players, even when coupled with Edinho(who's been a wonderful tutor to Bajrami). The game itself turned out to be a special one in many respects:

gytYAyP.jpg

That picture doesn't cover all of the match events, so here are a short list of the most important--

- Riccardo Moratti scores a free kick goal(the first in 1 1/4 season for Grasshoppers) two(!) minutes into his senior debut

- Nedim Bajrami also scores a debut goal 24 minutes into the game

- Moratti scores his second(!!) at 34 minutes

- Just before half time Fabio Daprelà gets his marching orders after a second yellow card. I'm up 4-1 and a man down at half time

- Jan Bamert is sent off, conceding a penalty, in the 66th minute. I'm 5-1 up at this point, but it'll be nervous as hell for the last ~half hour

- Julio Cesar saves the penalty! and we ride it out for a Zürich 1-5 Grasshoppers full time result.

Very rarely do I have games that gives me so much!

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That's one hell of a first season, btw. And as Jogo said, with very little strengthening to the original squad. Consider me impressed!

Oh, how does Alpsoy look in your game FM_G? Similar to mine or completely different player?

Both Riccardo Moratti and Nedim Bajrami look more than capable for the 1st team. Bravo on their development thus far!

Alpsoy is actually my best midfidler in terms of end product, which is a bit scary. Here he is in 01 June 2016:

Harun%20Alpsoy_-2.png

Here is my Nedim Bajrami:

Nedim%20Bajrami_-2.png

And my Nikola Suckacev. It would be good to see what he is like in you game michalgottwald, I am thinking about using him in the 1st team from Season 2. I have a real dilemma: I have sold Dabbur and now have to use Kamberi, Kubli and possible Suckacev...who were all on loan last season so I do not know if they're any good! Very risky going into a CL campaign!

Nikola%20Sukacev_%20Overview%20Profile-2.png

Or I have to hope Airam Cabrera is consistent enough to regularly lead the line at this level.

Airam%20Cabrera_-2.png

I have deliberately not played since yesterday to think a bit more about what direction I want to go. I have to be careful with who I bring in, because I could easily curtail the growth of some youngster I already have!

All I know is a GK is a must and cover for DLP (Kallstrom) and my BWM (Basic).

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By the way, how did Onuachu do on loan?

1 league start, 5 as sub: 0 goals

1 cup start: 1 goal

He is a very effective Target Man from looking at his stats. The problem is that he just didn't fit the system. My intention was to have a strong TM upfront for difficult away fixtures. However, I hardly used a high tempo style with balls being thrown into the box.

I found my play was much better being patient, low tempo, conserving the ball and working it into the box. Onuachu's balance, heading, jumping reach & strength were not being used. Instead A Deep Lying Forward (Dabbur) or a False Nine (Caio a few games) worked better.

So it was kind of a failed loan really - a mistake on my part. I thought what I needed was strength when in fact I needed intelligence and movement. I am interested to see if this intricate approach can work with the likes of Kubli or Kamberi.

Gideon Jung on the other hand was the right kind of player but just too inexperienced. I would have got Edinho if it was not for him signing a new deal, meaning that I couldn't get him for free. Jung had 8 starts (and 6 sub apps) in the league, 3 yellows and 3 reds! This was despite having him ease off tackles and tone down the pressing. Experience in the vital areas is everything.

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Really sad to see Sukacev go. He's still 18 at this point! 5 million sweetens things of course, but watching him develop at the club would have been so beautiful.

Don't feel too sad. To get 5 million is amazing business and may be good for the player as Barcelona are sure to develop him into a top striker. Perhaps see if you can get him back on loan? It was really too good of an offer tbh.

I almost had an offer too good to refuse for the other Nikola (Gjorgjev) in Jan 2016. Chelsea bid around £4m...perhaps if it was closer to £6-7m I would have definitely sold. My plan with Gjorgjev is that whenever I sell him I will do my upmost for a loan back of 1 year. It will give me an extra year to polish off whatever replacement is coming through the youth system.

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Thanks to your passion and enthusiasm, it didn't take much to lure me back to Grasshoppers. And so here begins the FM16 journey of the Zurich-born manager 'Swiss Roll'. As usual I'm looking forward to this challenge, and hopefully my spell in the Letzigrund dugout will be as enjoyable as last time. Here is a summary of my thoughts from the first few days back in charge of Die Hoppers...

Staff

The first task was to radically improve the staff at the club. I know I'm the only one who ever seems to go in to this in detail, but it's all part of the fun for me. I'm really quite happy with some of the names that will now be supporting me on the training ground, but my number one target (a free agent physio) has so far refused to enter talks. I'm determined to get my 'man' though, as I think that team morale will go through the roof if I ever manage to pull the deal off ;)

Players In

One of the reasons I love managing this club is that I can bring low value African players here without any work permit concerns. They're the types that I would like to take to lower leagues in England but they never qualify due to the restrictions. So far I have signed one free agent to play the strong-man role in central midfield, and two younger attacking players on loan (one on a short term deal until his parent club contract expires). I've also got two more strikers joining on free transfers in the future - one in January 2016, and one I have to wait for until January 2017 when he is old enough to move from Africa. I'm really quite excited about these two - in fact if it works like I think it might, there may not even be any need to consider bringing 'King Innocent' back to Zurich...

With these early moves, I'm confident I now have enough attacking options already - although I might be tempted to shell out a very small sum for a Challenge League forward that caught my eye. So the main areas of concern at the club (as per last season) fall in central midfield and defence. I know I could sign Jevrem Kosnic on a free to cover left-back and centre-back, but I like to introduce fresh names wherever possible so that puts me off him a little. Instead, I may look to a youngster for the left-back slot as he can be developed in the U21 team, which lacks any player at all for that position. I have one or two players in mind for central defence, and for when the time is right to upgrade the 'keeper, but may take a month or two to weigh this up further. I wouldn't mind another defensively strong central midfielder too, but my first new signing will almost certainly nail down one of those starting spots.

Players Out

I'm trying to offload Kallstrom as he is too old for my preference (and earns far too much money) but so far nobody is interested. I'm also testing the market to see if I can get significant sums for Caio and Dabbur, but I am applying strict conditions on these two potential sales. Basically, I'll need a loan-back option to tempt me to sell either of them in the first season, so it will be interesting to see if anybody will take me up on the offer.

Plans

So, that's it for now. I've not mentioned any names of the staff or players joining my project yet as I've only played a couple of pre-season games (with little success). It's not been the best start, but I feel confident I'll get things going in the right direction soon. My own expectations are to qualify for some sort of European football next season, but I know this league is tough.

My initial idea is to go with a 4231 formation, but I won't rule out the three striker formation that worked so sweetly here in FM15. I want to have a high-tempo, direct style of play, where I can get the ball forward quickly to my skilful and fast (except Caio) attacking quartet. The central midfield pairing will be expected to work hard, and provide a physical presence and a bit of muscle - they're not in the team to be creative or score goals. Most importantly the defence needs to be solid, as nothing is more disappointing to me than a leaky back line.

Now, let me get back on the phone to my physio target. I don't think the opportunity will be there for long, so I have to do anything possible to get this sorted quickly before somebody else beats me to it.

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Hi guys, first of all excuse my English as I'm a Spaniard currently living in the UK precisely trying to improve it.

Few weeks ago I started a save with GCZ so it was a nice surprise for me to found a thread with some other people sharing my adventure. I must say that I'm a freak of playing in a "realistic" way so I made a couple of tweaks to the DB before starting my save - I added some ex players to the staff like Nkufo, Mats Gren, Richard Nuñez... My idea was to fight against Basel for Swiss "domination" with a lot of emphasis in scouting so I decided that I would only sign players previously recommended by my scouts. I hate signing wonderkids out of a list that I've downloaded from the internet - anyone can do that.

Enough intro, let's me show you how my first season is going as I'm currently in the winter break.

TRANSFERS

As mentioned above, I like playing in a realistic way so I wanted to face the same problems as the current manager IRL, so I decided to keep the same squad - no ins and no outs until January.

My only signing so far has been Saliou Guindo, a Malian ST my scouts discovered while playing in the Ivory Coast. He signed on a free and it's set to join the team in a couple of weeks.

VR8Kewd.png

TACTICS

Another of the challenges I set to myself in this save was trying to recreate Klopp's gegenpressing. Well, to be honest I'm not trying to recreate 100% his tactics, but I'm sharing the main ideas: high pressure, defensive line and tempo. So this is how I'm lining up:

rUTQo2l.png

I'm a bit obsessed with my tactic and I tweak a few things every game but this is how I've ended shaping. I want my FB to have presence in the opposition half so I decided to set them as WB. The wide players are IF with support duties because I want them to cut inside to give some space to the WB to overlap. Of course, I know the risks associated with this approach - long balls flying over my CB's heads, etc, but I assume them.

RESULTS

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You wanted a tight top of the table? Then here you are.

As you can see we are by far the team with the most goals scored and this is thanks to the great Munas Dabbur, currently leading the top goalscorer's table with 18 in 18 apps.

mVzJ4xc.png

YOUTH PROSPECTS

Of course, one of the main reasons behind the choice of GCZ was their youth system. As you know the Swiss League is not big enough to seduce great players so instead we have to produce them as Basel's been doing in the last years. With that in mind I wanted to give importance to the youth and here you can see the young players I've been using the most:

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ZÜRCHER DERBY

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Enough said

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Thx Jogo Bonito.

BTW, I forgot to mention that our Cup run ended in the 2nd round when we get knocked by Tuggen - I think they play in the 3rd division- with a goal in the 119th minute. To be honest it was totally my mistake - first of all I understimated them and lined up a lot of youngsters and also made a lot of tactical changes with the intention of testing some stuff.

Well, January has arrived and calm has gone. Our good form has catch the attention of some clubs as you can see down below.

PrykLF8.png

9YOtnyV.png

Inter's bid for Alpsoy was a joke and although Liverpool's one for Gjorgjev was interesting for a player with less than 20 first team apps, I decided to decline the offer as I feel he still has job to do here.

Two offers I couldn't reject were Hoffenheim's one for Dabbur and Sassuolo's for Ravet. As you may know, we are in the red in the first season so big money is much needed and appreciated. The Bundesliga side came with a €7M offer at first place but then I realized that Steven Zuber (product of our academy) had been transfer listed by them so I decided only to negotiate if they include the player and if Dabbur leaves the team in the summer not in the middle of the season when we are trying to achieve European football. After some tense negotiations, we reach an a agreement.

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Züber:

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As he is a product of our academy and he loves the club, he accepted to reduce his salary in order to play for us - he will earn around €430k iirc, something that we could afford when Dabbur and Ravet leave the club.

Sassuolo came after Ravet and they offer €3M at first place and in order to start with the negotiations we set the same condition: he would only leave during the summer, not now. They accepted and ended up paying €4.6M for the frenchman. Sorry guys but I forgot to save a screenshot of the inbox's news.

3EGZzI1.png

As you can see, I'm already working in the next season and I've also completed the signing of another player that will join us next June - Roy Gelmi. We payed St. Gallen €600k for him after he handed a transfer request when they rejected our first offer.

C5hre5w.png

I found him in our first match against St. Gallen and I've been following him since then. He is just 20 but he's stablished as the first CB choice there and looks like a great player for the future - and present. This signing means that one of our CBs needs to leave and it was an easy decision: Pnishi. He has complained about not getting as many minutes as he would like so he will be one of the first outs during the summer.

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Grüezi!

Thought I'd (think up a username, register and then) drop in to let you guys know this thread has inspired me to give a save with Grasshoppers a shot. Always wanted to have a file in Switzerland, but couldn't decide on a club for the life of me. I only really ever knew it wouldn't be Basel...

Anyway, I'll keep checking back in and, if'n you kids are interested, let you know how I get along.

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