[FM16] This Title Is Work In Progress

[Benjoe]

We did really well in our Euro League group and managed to qualify as second. This means more european football and more rotation thus more need of young players getting game time. Win-win. 

We did however draw AC Milan. This means we'll get to re-unite with Hugo Mallo for a couple of games and meet up with a fierce opponent even though they aren't having the best season either roaming around at 8th place. I am not sure we can really challenge them but there is a long time until the game so we might be able to get our tactics straight by then.

[Benjoe]

Tactical headache

After my last tactical post I left off just before a game against Espanyol. This is far behind now and we are looking a little better, a little more consistent. We needn't look far behind to our last failure however. Just a month ago we lost 4-0 to Almería despite a shot count that we led with 15-8. After this atrocious display I changed the system quite a bit and changed from a 4-1-4-1 to a 4-3-3. This resulted in some more aggressive flanks and overall more pressure on the opponent.

I decided to go with structured as it allows specialization and demands more control of the game giving less creative freedom as a whole. I can then give the creative freedom to the players I feel we would benefit the most from and let others have a more team orientated role. For now we only have two specialist roles; Raumdeuter (A) and Advanced Playmaker (A), but might add a Box-to-Box to our midfield instead of the Central Midfielder (S).

Structured - Counter/Standard

 

Shouts:

Retain Possesion:  We want to look to retain possesion as to keep the ball away from our opponent and play it around while looking for a big opening. We don't want to waste possesion for the sake of wasting. We don't have too many hard workers in our first team squad and we need to try to limit our need to fight hard and struggle for points. Chances are we won't make it if we have to. 

Play Out Of Defence: For much the same reason as above; We want to keep hold of the ball and since we only got a DLF to hoof the ball to and our flanks pull inside we wouldn't want to kick it long as we'd risk losing the ball too often. 

Whipped Crosses: I'm honestly not certain if we should go for whipped crosses our one of the three other options but for now this is how we primarily cross the ball.

Push Higher Up: Originally I didn't want this shout as I think we benefit from being a bit deeper and building play up from there but I found that we had a lot of possesion in our own half without getting into their box much so I changed to pushing higher and it seems to be giving us better chances. The risk is of course that our opponent will likely get bigger chances if they play through balls for quick strikers so I'll have to be aware who they field so I know if changes are needed.

Roam From Position: Roaming can help our possesion game by letting players drift into open space and receive a ball or to close down an opponent a bit away from their position thus creating a harder press as well. This will however come at the expense of shape and structure so in some games this might not be the most desired shout as we can risk opening our defence too much, but we want to be the more dominant team of most games so I'll use it often. 

Higher Tempo: Not the most obvious shouts as I am going for possesion perhaps? As I don't want possesion just to have possesion using a higher tempo will help us putting our possesion to better use, in theory that is. We have very quick wingers and some very nice ball control so playing a higher tempo should be able to give us an advantage over a lot of sides as we might be able to penetrate them easier but sometimes it might disrupt our style too much and we need to adopt a more patient style.

Close Down Much More: Despite not having hard workers I want our players to press on. We don't like to be without possesion of the ball so we want to get it back quickly. It can give away chances when our press fails but likewise give attractive counters when it succeeds.

Roles:

Goalkeeper - Defend : He is asked to keep things short and distribute to our defenders. As I said before we won't benefit much from hoofing the ball long so he needs to keep calm and send it out short. Sergio is also a technical GK so he should thrive in this system. I might change him to a Sweeper Keeper as he has been succesful as such before.

Full Back - Attack: My RBs are predominantly not strong offensively but are quite solid defensively. As I don't want them to hang around the box trying to combine their way to goals and assists I gave them the Full Back role with Attack duty. I still want them to use the vacated space that my Raumdeuter (A) should leave but without trying to be too creative. This role and duty should provide that.

Central Defenders- Defend: Nothing special here. They are set up without shouts and with Defend  duty. 

Wing Back - Attack: I don't have Marcelo running around as my LB but I still have more technical LBs making the Wing Back role more relevant. I want them to utilize the vacated space my Inside Forward (A) leaves when he cuts inside with or without the ball. He has the technique to be combining a bit more with the more advanced players so this role and duty gives him the freedom to do so still providing some defensive responsibility .

Half Back - Defend: As we have both our backs set on Attack having a HB should help our defence avoid leaking goals. He drops deep and pushes the CBs wider making it look sorta like a three-man back. When in possesion he does posses the ability to play the ball as well however and can easily recycle possesion. 

Advanced Playmaker - Attack: As we have a couple of players who are very good at creating opportunities but aren't too fond of running around the AP(A) is soothing as it allows them to control our offence distributing the ball left and right and join the attack themselves. They wouldn't be to much use defensively so putting them on Attack means we won't be relying on them tracking back as much but rather using their energy on creating for us. 

Central Midfielder - Support: Our other CM has to be a more dynamic one and a runner from deep. Here a BtB or CM(S) role is fitting and I've chosen the latter to start with. He helps defence and attacks equally and will help with both retaining possesion, closing down more and keeping a higher tempo as he has many different qualities. 

Raumdeuter - Attack: This will actually be the first time I utilize a Raumdeuter but I've seen many others having succes with the role so why not give it a go. We have some interesting choices for the position with strong mentality but lacking the finishing prowess. He will 'raum' around the box and flank and find space and surge towards the box and hopefully create chaos. 

Inside Forward - Attack: This role is rather standard to most of my setups. You know what you get and you like it. Put a right footed player with good technique and cool finishing and watch it happen. Put a more physical player out there and suddenly you score goals on the far post due to overpowering the full back. We have a couple of different players who can all play this role in numerous ways so this one will be more interesting that it might seem on paper. He is asked to sit narrower as I want him to give space to our LB. 

Deep Lying Forward - Support: This role might change if I don't feel I get the needed presence from the striker. I want him to drop (or start) deeper and be a part of possesion and build-up using his physique to our advantage and then getting inside the box to finish off the chances created. There is no magic about the role or instructions. 

In Possesion
 We are not getting pressed at all and simply pass it around our back before it's passed to our LB who has space to move into before passing either the IF or CM. 

In Defence

 As Zaragoza aren't pushing high our front trio are positioned high, ready for a potential counter, and marking their CMs options of passing an easy ball back. Our AP(A) is pressing and it ends up being a long ball to their right flank that my LB gets first on. 

Not consistent for the most part. A really ****** season so far.

[Benjoe]

Facilities

We have reached the middle of January which means that the upgrade of our facilities has finished. We have the best training facilities available now and only one upgrade from having the best youth facilities as well. 

Upgrading the youth facilities is coming along too.

Important last steps towards developing our talents that last bit. Now we just need to win some games so they can develop even further. Losing or drawing games won't do anyone any good. 

Last 5 games

Sigh.. Not impressive. Eibar equalized in 3 minutes overtime.. 

[Benjoe]

Euro League

Well.. Ouch! We got sent out with a bang, but on the positive side we did a lot of the things we wanted to do in Milan. We played mostly on the counter (despite having more possesion) and were far more dangerous than in previous matches. We still let 4 goals in... My defenders are atrocious. I mean they have great potential and their stats are somewhat decent but the perform really poorly in-game. They loose a lot of headers on crosses and set-pieces and we concede a lot from this but we concede just as much from insane lapses of concentration or whatever this **** is: 

First we have Varela who fails to tackle Honda before he can make the pass forward after he just barely kept in on-field. Mauri then gets the ball completely uncovered at the edge of our box. This is possible despite having a midfield with Fontas as CM(D) and a defender (David Costas) as well nearby. Neither thinks he should be covered. Mauri finally gets closed down and double-teamed by both of the aforementioned Celta playsers but.. he still manages to easily step on the ball and make a pass even further towards our goal as he finds Carlos Bacca at the penalty spot. Initially it doesn't seem dangerous as we have Sergi Gomez next to him who can step in and close him down. Sergi doesn't want to do this and practically runs away from Bacca leaving him with a one-on-one at the edge of the 6 yard box.. He scored of course. 

These scenarios happen way too often. 
I realized however that the formation and tactic I showed earlier probably had quite some open areas for the opponent to exploit so I covered us in better for this game but this **** still happens. I got no explanation for it. Just bad luck I guess. We were down 7-3 on aggregate anyways but it has happened so many times now.. Frustrating. 

[Benjoe]

Youth Intake 2018 

It looks somewhat decent with a couple of players with alright base stats and some okay potential. Also, we got two left wingers both with the name Pablo Álvarez and both with grey hair at the age of 16. So yeah..

  

I won't show any of the other youngster now as I will give a greater overview of the new youngsters when I've signed some of them and thrown some of the others away. 

[Benjoe]

La Liga

Last 11 games: 5W, 4D, 2L

We've finally managed to find some form!  We are not capable of keeping a clean sheet however conceding in all of our last ten games.. But we manage to score a single goal more than our opponents in most games so for the time being this will be satisfactory. 

This is the first time we score a goal in over-time iirc. Amazing to have it be a winner against Athletic who we notoriously have struggled hard against.

Except for losing against the team that will most likely become the champs, Atlético, we've looked good in terms of managing to win our games. We let in far too many goals but we score a fair amount as well so if we can close up in defence we can really make something out of it. Granada is impressing with being so close to the top and at times they were second but have since dropped a bit down. We are aiming at Euro League positions but it is a long shot a this time still. 

[Benjoe]

Early Summer Business

I've been looking at and trying to sign Vallejo for a long time but Real always demanded more than we were willing or allowed to pay. Suddenly Real wants him gone asap and he is available for £4.1M. It is weird and way too cheap but there is no way I'll let the chance pass us by. Just like Samper was, Vallejo is a too big talent at a too good price not to sign up. 

Looking at his stats he is really a player who can come in and make an instant impact in our next season campaign. He has no immediate weaknesses but he could have been a bit taller tbh but still, he is really a class defender. His concentration, team work, anticipation, positioning etc. are just so good. Huge steal.

[Benjoe]

New screens incoming soon for our youth players in the third post of the thread - A Fábrica. I'll also look to actually update my second post with the information that I promised would come, can't promise that'll be tonight as well though.

[Benjoe]

We wrap the season up with some fine performances only losing to Barca and Real but still while showing a much better overall performance. Promising display towards the end of the season which gives hope that we can bounce back properly next season and leave the middle of the table where we do not want to stay any longer. 

We figured some things out and as Drazic was struggling to find form as either STC, AML or AMR he was given a last resort at CM as a CM(A). This was only for the last two games of the season but it gave games with high performance play and ratings at 9.0 and 8.3 with and assist in the first. The complete review of the season is underway!

[Benjoe]

Under Pressure

The board were unhappy with our performances, well, they're not alone. It's been a shameful display for most of the season but it is a odd time to put in a complaint against me when we've turned the tables massively and performed well and been quite dominant for the last 2-3 months. Relentlessly they have given me an ultimatum of acquiring 9 points in our next 5 games. Seeing as we just finished this season I'm guessing this will move on to the start of next season so here's to hoping we draw some easy games to start off with. I'm hoping this won't bug however and they decide to fire me during the summer as I haven't been able to get the points they asked for. We'll have to see..  

 

Btw. the third post has been updated with new screens. 

[Benjoe]

Ugh. The game crashed, so now I'm back to just before the last two games of the season... I had just fixed training for all our players, negotiated new contracts for both players and staff and was scouting the market for potential steals. Good feeling. 

[noikeee]

Shame about the results going a little backwards this last season, but, again, FM16 is hard as there doesn't seem to be any easy ways out tactically. Considering this, you're making it very tough for yourself by selling so many key players and only hiring Spanish talent. Even with the impressive factory of youth talent you're building, it'll always be hard to maintain performance consistently under such a system.

Nevertheless Vallejo is a superb signing at that price and perhaps he can give a serious boost to your side's performances.

Hey, also, I nearly forgot: this title cracks me up every single time because "unha" means "fingernail" in Portuguese. 

[Benjoe]

4 hours ago, noikeee said:

Shame about the results going a little backwards this last season, but, again, FM16 is hard as there doesn't seem to be any easy ways out tactically. Considering this, you're making it very tough for yourself by selling so many key players and only hiring Spanish talent. Even with the impressive factory of youth talent you're building, it'll always be hard to maintain performance consistently under such a system.

Yeah it has not been fun these last two seasons. I've tried to play lot of different systems and have failed to succeed with most of them. Now I'm trying to be a little less demanding and give them a more defensive formation with some structured instructions. This has worked for the last few months at least. 

Quote

Nevertheless Vallejo is a superb signing at that price and perhaps he can give a serious boost to your side's performances.

Vallejo is really something to be excited about. Hopefully he'll have a huge impact on our defensive stability in next season. This as well as our young defenders getting more experience which is vital for any defence, so I'd say we are going towards better times. Also, I have bought another Real player, a versatile striker for the breathtaking price of £7M, and a young defender from Barca on a free. 

Quote

Hey, also, I nearly forgot: this title cracks me up every single time because "unha" means "fingernail" in Portuguese. 

Hahaha, what the actual ****.  Well.. uhm.. The Factory - Fingernail Celta Vigo story, sounds good to me? 

[Benjoe]

So from winning the last two games of the season in comfortable style we now win one and draw the other. Not what we needed, especially not considering how the board already are looking sideways at me. 

The game against Málaga was a game we didn't want to dominate apparently and couldn't manage more than a score from our left winger. A tendency lately (for the entire save perhaps) is, that by far most of our headers are missed. Borja's heading isn't the best but physically he is quite good so he wins a lot of headers but just can't put them in.  

The game against Eibar was very frustrating.

Creating this many chances and 3 ccc's against their 3 shots and single ccc, and we only just draw as we equalize in overtime.. Jeez.

It's also annoying me that the injury that Molina sustained in the game was a broken ankle. 

Hopefully this won't hamper his development as I really like him. He has some heavy physics accompanied by beautiful passing. Could really be some player to watch. 

 

[Benjoe]

23 hours ago, Benjoe said:

Under Pressure

The board were unhappy with our performances, well, they're not alone. It's been a shameful display for most of the season but it is a odd time to put in a complaint against me when we've turned the tables massively and performed well and been quite dominant for the last 2-3 months. Relentlessly they have given me an ultimatum of acquiring 9 points in our next 5 games. Seeing as we just finished this season I'm guessing this will move on to the start of next season so here's to hoping we draw some easy games to start off with. I'm hoping this won't bug however and they decide to fire me during the summer as I haven't been able to get the points they asked for. We'll have to see..  

 

Btw. the third post has been updated with new screens. 

Following the crash and the 2 lost points as we drew instead of winning against relegated Eibar it now means my board wants me to pick up 11 points in the next 5 games..

 

[Benjoe]

The Season of 2017/18

Let's start off with our u19s first.

 

This bunch was quite the bunch. They were completely dominant in their league and were very, very safely the best team in the league. Winning 36 games, drawing one, and losing one is very impressive. Seeing how they lost and drew is not any less impressive tbf.

Creating a lot of chances in both but lacking the last bit of cynism that comes with age and experience (most often at least). 

U19 League

Destruction.

Looking at the squad ss some names should pop into your eyes at first glance and I'll choose to point out 3 of them this time, all of them offensive players.

Ignacio Gomez should be the first imho. 
Only 17 years old still but what a player he is becoming. He'll be in the first team squad next season. He lacks composure and improving his technique is also a task of the future, but other than that this is a very well-rounded young talent. Completely dominating the u19 league with 16 goals, 14 assists in 36(0) games with an avg. of 8.20. Monster. To top all this off he is now a professional due to tutoring him. Vital step towards making him take the next step from being a talent to a wonderkid and hopefully much further than that.

Xurxo Bouza is still a rather curious case. He clearly got the talent but his lack of quickness seems to hold him down combined with his lack of willingness to put in a decent work effort. He is progressing decent though, and despite an injury hindering him in the closing months of last season he is still looking scary good with his first touch-finishing combo. He just needs to add to his game. If he can't shine at u19 level how is he ever going to do so in La Liga? Next season he'll start with u19 again and hopefully prove to me, that he deserves more. 

Souleymane Dao is proving what speed can do to your overall game. He is clearly more lacking offensively compared to Xurxo, but he is performing quite a bit better and scoring more goals as well. I still don't see as big a future in him but he could potentially become a decent depth player. U19 next season too. 

I don't have time to go through the B-team this instance so that'll come either tomorrow or the day after. Cheers. 

 

[Benjoe]

The Season of 2017/18

Now let's have a look at our B-team, who we cleaned up a bit leading up to the season.

A lot of players were loaned, a few moved up to the first team and some were sold. This lot ended up fighting for promotion but failed. I don't care though. I can't control their training so I don't wish to use to much energy in the B-team in the future. It's just to unknown how the players will develop and at the moment they aren't playing at a high enough level so would rather loan out to better teams if they need higher level experience. 

For future reference "(OA)" means they are from our own academy. 

Daniel Nevado (OA) won't have much of a future here with us I am afraid. He knows how to handle balls.. has decent reflexes and good one one one but unless my coaches are misjudging his potential hugely I an't see him develop enough to make it. He'll stay here or get loaned in the future.

Gerard Prieto has done terrific for the B-team the last 3 seasons so he deserves his shot at first team football. I'll give a look into our transfers and replacements and such in another post but we will have 3 LBs in the first team squad with his addition so somethings got to give.

Jorge was bought because he had physical presence along with talent and I had expectations but as we both bought others as well and got people back from loan and had others fine form suddenly he was thrown down the gutter. He is young however and I've had trouble dealing with set-pieces and crosses for the past seasons so he'll be sent into our first team next season and we'll either re-position some of the smaller CBs with talent or they'll be sold. I want one tall, strong CB along with a speedy, technical CB. He fits the bill for the first type, just needs some match experience to develop further.

Iago López (OA) is slowly developing into a very decent DM and with good mental strength underlined with a nice media handling style (evasiv = prof: 15-20 ref. https://community.sigames.com/topic/247494-the-ultimate-personalitymedia-handling-guide/). If he can build on from some decent showings in the B-team he could develop nicely I think. First team next season as well.

Javier Calvo (OA) will be pushed into the first team again following last seasons promotion to the first team being ruined by an injury. He got something special about him despite lacking some cleverness and coolness. He is interesting and might be pushed out on the flank to make room for some of the clearer talent going for the STC or CM positions. I like the kid however he just needs to get tutored into a better personality than 'balanced'. 

Following all these promotions and no notable promotions from the u19s to the B-team it'll be a pretty empty team next season as it'll mostly be a pit stop for players I don't really believe in. 

 

 

[Benjoe]

The Season of 2017/18 - First Team

Our first team had an unpleasant season. We made it through to the knockout round in Europa League but really couldn't match AC Milan even though we did put up a fight we can be proud of in Milano. We didn't have much succes in the Spanish Cup either being knocked out by lousy Levante (yes, they ended above us in the league, still lousy). We struggled very hard in the league and twice this season we've lost four league games in a row. 

Disgraceful. Those one-nil losses will kill you in the end.

We made changes and changes. Little did it help. Not until the very closing stage of the league did we actually succeed with our tactics and won more often than we lost or drew. This was too little, too late however. We were far from any European positions. 

Not a fun season to play through. We end up with a negative score of minus eight goals. Loosing as many games as we win. Only positive is that we blooded some youngsters throughout. We were the team that used the most players as we used 29 different players.

A lot of these being young players either bought or developed ourselves. 

Our future seems fairly good in terms of youngsters getting national youth team action. 

Squad

I won't delve into all of the players in the first team but I'll point out some of them. 

Sergio Álvarez (GK) played almost all our games only missing som due to injury. He did well, but still I want to replace him, and I have. I've found his replacement but he won't be shown now. I want him replaced mainly due to his lack of tutoring ability. He is 'balanced' and I don't want that to remain a big part of our squad. He doesn't communicate well either and isn't great in the air. I wanted someone else and have found that person, now I want Sergio to find a new home. 

José Ángel (LB) turned up big time in the last three games of the season and generally had a very good season. He is pretty sure to be here next season despite too many left backs in the team. I can't find any reason to replace him as of yet. Prieto will be his replacement in a couple of years I imagine. 

Sergi Samper (DM) is a very well developed DLP but I don't utilize that role in my current system. That could very well change during next season but for the time being he plays as either a Half Back or Defensive Midfielder (D) role in the DM strata or as a AP(s) in the MC strata. He performs well and I like him in the team but if a big offer comes in for him he'll leave. I got so much depth and he is ultimately replaceable as I want a different type of DM. 

Lévy Madinda (CM) was voted the player of the season by our fans and I can hardly argue with them. He has really shown class this season being a force going both ways. The perfect box-to-box midfielder for us giving us balance and providing numbers in attack. Impressive season and a player I'd struggle to replace.

Dejan Drazic (LW, RW, CM) hasn't become the dominant player I had expected when I first saw him shine at RW. Suddenly he's struggling at RW and only performs as either a IF at LW or as a CM(A) in the CM strata. The last option especially succesful in the last 2 games. This might work for the future as well but we are receiving big offers for him and I might fancy a sale. 

Angel Molina (CM) is a beast and should soon start to dominate the midfield. If Madinda was sold this instance I'd probably replace him with Molina. He really looks the part and I don't feel he has any major flaws to his game albeit he could use a more stable tackle. Other than that he is a real treat.

Rufino Tomás (LW) was voted the young player of the season and no wonder. He made his breakthrough as I'd hoped (and sorta predicted) he would prior to the season. He can both score and assist and averaged 4.39 dribbles a game over 34(5) games the entire season. That was by far the most as Drazic trailed at 3.57 and in third was Solís with 3.22. He is really a gem and was also awarded with being the best young player in the entire league!

Sergio Canales (CM) stepped up in his second season and his first full season in Vigo. I am planning on making him the focal point in next season and he should shine further next season unless some team throws stupid money after him and releases his clause at £50M. Either that, or he gets so upset I have no choice. He is already upset I denied him a move to Tottenham but I don't want to keep replacing my offensive center pieces. He'll stay put if I can help it.

Borja Bastón (ST) was decent but really found this season hard. I am assuming it was more down to the tactic not feeding him properly and not providing enough support to make him dangerous and also having him in a support a lot of the season had an impact on his total scoring. He was not dangerous in the box, that is for sure no matter what however, but neither was most other strikers for us so it has got to be tactical. He will stay for next season I imagine but he needs to step up. Ignacio Gómez honestly isn't far off getting the big chance. 

 

Generel stats:

[noikeee]

Hopefully you'll dodge the sack, I've had quite a few of those "get xx points in the next xx games" warnings and it's not a nice feeling. Would be a shame to see this cut short.

[Benjoe]

5 hours ago, noikeee said:

Hopefully you'll dodge the sack, I've had quite a few of those "get xx points in the next xx games" warnings and it's not a nice feeling. Would be a shame to see this cut short.

It's never pleasant and I must admit, it's affected this transfer window. I am hanging on to our best players for once and am looking to bring more established players in. This is also partly a natural effect of our quite large talentpool and it's increasing in size as we've bought great talent throughout the last couple seasons and have created some nice prospects too. But still, had I not been warned like this I would have done something like last season and only bought 1 or 2 first team players and promoted youngster for the rest. 

A little teaser. 

 

[Benjoe]

Jesus f'ing christ.

Our first 5 games in which I need to earn 11 points......

[RCtheOnly]

That's not exactly the easiest and I guess you can call it salt in the wounds considering how 3 of them are away too. Nonetheless good luck to you!

[Black and Yellow]

Ouch. Going to need to take something from the Camp Nou or the Bernabeu, and that's some ask.

Good luck!

[noikeee]

Easy, just beat Valencia, Levante and Rayo, and draw away at the Bernabeu and at the Camp Nou. 

[Benjoe]

10 hours ago, RCtheOnly said:

That's not exactly the easiest and I guess you can call it salt in the wounds considering how 3 of them are away too. Nonetheless good luck to you!

 

9 hours ago, Black and Yellow said:

Ouch. Going to need to take something from the Camp Nou or the Bernabeu, and that's some ask.

Good luck!

 

8 hours ago, noikeee said:

Easy, just beat Valencia, Levante and Rayo, and draw away at the Bernabeu and at the Camp Nou. 

Thanks for the moral support guys and yeah sure Noikeee, easy task!  
As I've been sick the entire day I haven't gotten around to play but will try to get through the games by tonight if possible. Not feeling too comfortable about this..

[Benjoe]

Factory Shutdown?

As we were given an ultimatum of acquiring 11 points in our first 5 games of the season I watched by as we drew a horrendous starting 5. 

Well of course, I thought, Rayo at home looks a sure win and Levante aren't exactly good despite ending a single point higher than us last season. Looking at the other three fixtures however. Oh boy. Barca to start of at Camp Nou, then Valencia at Balaídos and then a trip to Bernabeu to meet up with Real. A loss in either of these three and we'd have to defeat the other two teams. Not exactly the teams you expect to defeat. 

To ensure the excitement the following x amount of games will be untold in spoilers. 

@FC Barcelona: Game 1 of 5 - 11 points to go

Spoiler

Our expectations weren't high when we prepared for the match against Barca. We therefore went with a 4-1-4-1 deplyoing a DM. With defensive mentality and a structured shape we started the game and looked a good part. In the first half we kept a clean sheet and looking at the match stats it wasn't the worst ever. Shots: 12-6 to Barca and possesion: 54-46 in their favor as well. This could hold. They hadn't had any big chances yet and we kept it that way in the start of second half however, slowly as the game got in the latter stages their overtake became clearer and clearer. They started getting bigger and bigger chances and despite our best attempts to hold on to a draw we couldn't stop Thiago from slamming in a 30  yard long shot into goal. After this it became strict surviving until we gave a final push for it in the closing minutes of the game but our efforts were not enough and we suffered a defeat in our first game. Great. 

We did manage to frustrate Batra enough to commit to a red card in the finishing stages but it was to late to be worth much. 

Of our best performing players we had Sergi Palencia who we signed on a free from Barca, Fontás finding some good times in the DM strata and Madinda being diligent as always. Most surprisingly our best performer in terms of avg. score was our young LB who we just promoted for this season, Gerardo Prieto. Had Jose Angel not been out injured he'd not started but this seems like a start of something promising. Ignacio Gómez also got his debut in the game and did fine but I might not benefit from these promising youngsters however if we don't win the next 4 however... 

Vs Valencia: Game 2 of 5 - 11 points to go

Spoiler

Against Valencia I decided to throw all preparation into changing system once again. A change back to a personal FM-classic, the 4-1-2-1-2 with a narrow diamond. I've always been able to squeeze a lot out of this formation and even though I was a bit reluctant as to utilize it here in Spain because of my fixed belief of having too good wingers to wanting a wingerless formation but seeing how this transfer window fared and the players we had left I saw little reason as to why I shouldn't experiment with it in this last chance to shine. Iago López and Ignacio Gómez played from the start. Newly bought players Palencia, Vallejo and Jesé all got their second game in the skyblue jersey and on the bench was last minute buy, Pedro, sitting. He would go on to play a massive role later on, but first we had to endure 90 minutes of dull game time. Of most notable performances we have Sergi Palencia who, despite not completing any of his 5 attempted crosses made 6 key passes that led to chances. Defensively he had a fair amount of tackles and interceptions but it was his passing that really was a threat. Crossing won't be very succesful for us as we lack physical presence in the box and didn't go for early crosses in this fixture. Jesús Vallejo was also very good for us winning 5 key headers and providing 2 key passes from central defense. He was also the player intercepting most passes in the entire game with 16 in total. Joâo Cancelo of Valencia was the MotM however as he delivered 10 key passes from the RB position. 

I subbed Canales and Jesé for Rufino and Pedro as we looked to win the game late. We desperately needed the goal so when Rufino broke through and made a through pass to Pedro I got excited. Could our new man save us? 
He could. In two minutes overtime he scored the winning goal and we could celebrate a quite lucky and hard fought point. 

@Levante: Game 3 of 5 - 8 points to go

Spoiler

For our game against Levante we held on to our narrow diamond but decided to start Alberto Bueno and Pedro over the previous duo of Drazic and Jesé. Jesé hadn't impressed and Drazic had become injured. It would prove to be good for this game however as we pulled away with a 2-4 win. Once again it could be seen as a bit either lucky or opportunistic perhaps as we were down 11-6 on shot count but we were tied in terms of hitting the target. Possesion wise it was an equal measure and we were just sharper especially Alberto Bueno. He has not been impressing me since I bought him but in this game he could do no wrong, and racked up a hat-trick and an assist. Ignacio Gómez enjoyed a re-selection and he impressed in the game. He was the player with the most passes in the game with his 74 attempts and completed 63 of them and hereof were 6 key passes. He is really an interesting talent. As Palencia suffered an injury in training he was missing so Elustundo saw his chance to impress from the RB and so he did. Madinda diid as he does. Dominated allround. 

 

@Real Madrid: Game 4 of 5 - 5 points to go

Spoiler

... This was not a game we looked forward to with hopeful eyes. I feared this ****. I worked hard in the time up to the game with deciding how I would tactically tackle a team that by far is better than us. Should we press high and try to surprise them and startle them by wanting to be on the ball? Should we drop deep and play the counter? Should we play with our muscles and fight them in challenges? 

I decided, that what I felt would be the most likely draw-giving tactic would be a defensive mentality looking to be disciplined and hope for a lucky counter. The tactic ended up looking like this with these exact players in these positions:

 

Looking from the back up Doménech was an obvious choice. He'd had a good start to the season and is by far the best choice. Palencia was still out injured so Elustundo chosen again and Gerardo Prieto would impressively get his 4th game in a row in the starting 11 as José Angel was still out. So far he had impressed but this game would provide even fiercer challenges on the wing with either Ronaldo challenging his back. Vallejo and Sergio Gómez was the choice for a CD-duo despite David Costas doing well in the previous games. I just felt that Sergio would be better in a game like this with his experience. Fontás would get his second game at DM as a DLP(S) as I once again went for experience. Fede and Madinda in the center of the park provided grit. Fede an aggressive Ball-winning type of player and Madinda this allround machine going forward strongly. Canales was chosen as our  main creator and Pedro as a player who'd drop deep to help fertilize counters. Perhaps surprisingly I went with Ignacio Gómez instead of hat-trick hero Albert Bueno but he just didn't fit in - unless I'd chosen him instead of Canales which was a close call. But I opted to go for the younger and harder working Gómez as I felt he'd be better at unsettling the Madrid defense.

Here are the instructions we used. Very conservative. Very defensive. Very compact. And very simple to understand. We wanted to stay back and give as little room as possible for quick and agile players to exploit as well as admitting to a lot of potential crosses as we assume we'll win the headers against Martial most times or at least pressing their headers enough to make them miss the target. 
The game started and we were quick to show Madrid how we wanted to tackle this game. Withing the first minute we had delivered two early crosses. Both missed our players but the last one resulted in a corner. Not a dangerous corner however, but the intent was clear. You press us? We hit you right back. 

We managed to keep Real from more than one chance within the first 20 minutes, but we also only had one finish. One of these two were a goal. 

     

    

0-1. 13 minutes played. 

The next 25 minutes gave us 2 shots more but not dangerous, had about 6 shots in this time, all within the box. No goals though. 

By 37 minutes however another miracle should happen. Pedro had the ball on the right wing as he'd done what I hoped he would. Drop deep to help a counter.

Pedro goes by a static Casemiro!

As I've instructed the players he crosses the ball early - as soon as he is away from Casemiro. Looking towards the box it is clear we have Ignacio in a dangerous position as he is bursting towards the penalty spot - the same place the ball is heading. 

 

 

Varane has realized he has a man in his back and tries a desperate jump for the saving header but he misses the ball as it drops to Gómez feet. 

The young and versatile striker hits it with attitude first time and Navas is chanceless in goal. 

What an opportunistic beauty!

No more goals in first half but we weren't finished. Pedro wasn't finished. Prieto wins the ball at midfield and quickly plays a through ball to Canales who just as swiftly puts a cross forward towards Ignacio Gómez. Varane gets ahead of Gómez and heads it towards safety, towards his own keeper, but then Pedro turns up and suddenly we are up 3-0 at Bernabeu. 

We couldn't keep a clean sheet however, but it would take a corner before they were able to score a goal on us. We ended up closing out the game. Allowing a lot of crosses and shots but still keeping them at one goal.

34 shots against our 8 shots. Damn. Doménech just proved himself well-worth the money we paid. 

Vs Rayo Vallecano: Game 5 of 5 - 2 points to go

Spoiler

Well well well. So, one game left, a win needed. Rayo seeming as one of the easier opponents in this program. However there is the fact, that we have met 3 very good teams and just barely managed to win 3 of them. Rayo wouldn't just lie down and allow us to plough trough for a win. We would have to work hard. Some different roles and instructions to give us more possesion and looking patiently for better chances. We kept Rayo from creating anything. Anything at all really. They didn't have more than one shot on target and is was harmless. We had 12 shots in total with half of those within the target. Problem was, we couldn't score. Their keeper saved everything and my frustration and desperation grew bigger and bigger. Ignacio Gómez didn't have the same lethal runs in behind defenders as against Madrid and Canales didn't find any players in dangerous positions either. Canales actually has been very average in these first 5 games. Pedro however would turn up once again and ultimately save our (and more importantly my) asses as he scored in one minute overtime. Elustundo crossed the ball and a determined Pedro got first on the ball and shoveled it in. 

Spoiler

 

Yes. Thank you. The most nerve-wrecking games I have had the pleasure of enduring in a long, long time. We managed to do it in the end however. Mostly thanks to Pedro really showing some instant class. 

Elustundo was very impressive as well. Prieto was really surprisingly stable. And all in all, I am very happy to be able to continue with working on the factory. I'll head back to bed and cough my lungs out for the rest of the night. Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

[Ceching You Out]

Congratulations! I would've put money on the axe given that executioners lineup of matches. Quite spectacular to live to fight another day.

[Benjoe]

On 8/10/2016 at 23:21, Ceching You Out said:

Congratulations! I would've put money on the axe given that executioners lineup of matches. Quite spectacular to live to fight another day.

Thanks! But yeah it was a brutal draw, we were lucky to get out of it alive however. 

They even decided to grant me a new contract following the 12 points acquired. Ridiculous to give me an ultimatum to then want me to stay further after succeeding. Wouldn't it make more sense to wait and see how it all goes afterwards? Anyways, good to sign it. 

Pedro was a player I was very much in doubts about buying but ever since it feels like it was a very sound piece of business. He was our sole scorer in our first game following the match against Rayo Vallecano.

 

He was bought for just £3.6M and it is really nice to see him perform like this. An experienced player who is really lifting the burden of being a player the young guns are looking up to (ignore the fact that he is only 169cm tall lol).  

[noikeee]

I'm honestly amazed you managed to survive that. Really well done. And Pedro's a cracking signing.

[Benjoe]

22 hours ago, noikeee said:

I'm honestly amazed you managed to survive that. Really well done. And Pedro's a cracking signing.

I am/were very surprised too but I worked hard tactically and invested in some strong players in the transfer window, so it's nice to see that have a this big impact. Last season I doubt we'd acquired anything more than 4 points tbh. This season seems different however. 

10 games into the season and it's looking really good except for an away fixture to Sevilla where we got destroyed. Pedro has been everywhere but I feel we could play better and I miss seeing Rufino shine and he's really struggled with the system change so maybe we'll tweak it so we have at least one winger to get him back on track. We need to create and score more, and close better off in our own half but all in all we're doing well. We play the game how we want to and get some decent wins. Vallejo has had a huge impact on stabilizing our defense. Really liking him so far. 

All in all we're second placed only behind undefeated Barcelona. They're looking fierce.

 

[Benjoe]

Updating - Been a while

I haven't gone completely cold but there's been a lot going on lately so FM has been pushed a bit into odd occasions rather than daily routine. I've only managed to get 9 games further (in the league) but they've also been watched in "Full Match" as to see every detail about both tactics and players. This has resulted in some good performances but not always wins. I've tweaked a lot but it doesn't always work of course. One game was especially heartbreaking:

Look at this ****.  

 

We've still won more than we've lost so it's a lot better than last season but don't quite know just yet, what we need to do to take it to the next level. We've not been able to close off defensively which I imagine is due to very offensive wing backs and no other cover on the flanks. This puts our CBs under a lot of pressure and we let in a lot of stupid goals as a result. 

I'm not really helping the defensive issues considering the players I am utilizing as wing backs.. Rufino Tómas and Dejan Drazic are my two newest back projects. And both are very promising. Rufino has played 10 games as LB and has averaged an impressive 7.73 and dishing out 6 assists during those games. And Dejan, who just got back from injury played his first game with a massive performance with a 8.7 rating. Despite not getting a single assist he had 8 kkey passes but defensively he only won 2 of his 6 attempts. Both are still work in progress but they look quite interesting and I like the firepower they bring going forward. 

The transfers will be gone through very swiftly. 

We bought these 7 players in the summer for a combined fee of £21.92M and Vallejo and Pedro has by been the most influential of these. Pedro is the topscorer in La Liga currently and is really impressive. Even in games where he seems to be finding it tough he has this uncanny ability to come up with a one-man move that ends up with a goal. 

Sergio Palencia was completely free from Barca and despite a knee injury keeping him out for two months he started very well for us and is more defensively sound choice compared to Dejan. He has a bit more left in him I believe so looking forward to see him improve. 

Gaizka was just bought due to his resolute personality, but I'm also hopeful that stats such as; Agression, Bravery, Concentration, Teamwork and Work Rate can be rubbed off on tutees but I'm fairly certain it doesn't affect those stats in any way, 

Jaume Doménech was bought to replace Sergio Alvarez and I've been very happy about that signing. He's been fairly stable and seems a decent keeper for the coming seasons. 

Jesé seemed a steal for 7M quid but he's really not found his footing yet. There's still hope however and I am experimenting in different ways to make him click. 

Jonathan Ibáñez is an attacking talent who I could see going  places but it is yet show itself. He clearly had a negative month in terms of stats but usually they bounce right back in next month with increases in specific areas instead so it'll be fine I think. Nothing much more to say atm other than that he is a prospect and is only in the u19 for now.

OA Talents

Iago López is improving steadily and looking really good. Given some more time and gametime especially he'll become either a good starter or an excellent backup. Either way I'm happy with him. 

Javier Calvo  is getting a bit of gametime but hasn't impressed at all. It's still early to call quits on him however but I am planning a loan deal as a sort of last resort for him. He is not in the first four in terms of the striker roles so he'll be sent away to get to play. 

Ignacio Gómez is getting to play a lot, partnering with Pedro and even though  he isn't performing as well as his partner in crime. he is doing fine and improving as well. I am content atm and looking forward to more impressive showings from him. 

Xurxo Bouza was sent on loan as I wanted to give him a few games at a bit higher level than the u19s, but still not quite La Liga level. I was planning to recall him so I added that clause to the loan deal, but I have no option to recall him so he is staying for the entire season it seems. This is quite sad as it was never the plan to see him going for the entire season and he is improving in a lot of the right places and I feel he is ready for the next step. The big step into the first team. Anyways it probably won't hurt him to play consistently for this entire season and then giving him the chance next season. 

The League has us sitting on the second place despite loosing 3 of our last 5. Had we won those instead we'd been tied with Barca, who looks to be breaking away. 

[Benjoe]

 

We are so unbelievable unstable. We beat Valencia and Barca and continue our good form against Levante who gets thrashed completely. Then we meet Rayo and despite leading in chances we get smashed 3-0. Two goals from corners made it a hell of a struggle and when we got our play flowing the struck us on a counter. Jesus, what a game. Following that game we traveled to Valladolid and after three minutes we were in the lead. But.. 22 shots were apparently not enough to get a win as usually so stable Madinda had a shocker of a game and committed ad clumsy penalty. We couldn't get the ball across the line another time so vital points lost. After the win against Barca there was actually some belief that we'd be able to muster up for some serious s**t this season, but I fear we are too unstable. 

Looking at player performances in these games a few have been really good however. Dejan has been terrific at centre midfield as I paused his RB experiment to have his offensive game in midfield. In his last 5 games he's averaged 8.26!

Rufino keeps bossing LB, despite the occasional defensive lasp of concentration resulting in a goal but he creates so much offensively that I am accepting this. He averaged 7.96 in the last 5 games with numerous assists bringing his total assists tally up to 10 in 15(5) he is also (very) slowly improving his defensive stats so he might get to a decent defensive level making him even greater, but he is not happy at the club as he wants to find a bigger club. I really don't want to lose him but can't see how I should keep him for more than maybe a season more after this.

Ignacio Gómez has been a real treat as well. Averaging 7.80 in the last 5 games and proving he is a player to recon with soon. 

We are getting close to regen day as well!

 

[Benjoe]

Youth Intake March 2019

Some quite nice prospects here but most of all another promising striker making this the third year in a row with decent strikers. Scrreenshots will come either tonight or tomorrow we're getting flooded at STC.

[Benjoe]

Oh well. It's finally been updated. Now there are ss's from 4 different batches of youngsters and it's shaping up pretty nicely. A couple of those youngsters have made it their way into the first team and more is on the way. Looking at this year we signed with a keeper, a DC, a MR and a striker from the YI. 

Hugo Méndez
Is a pretty exciting prospect at GK. We haven't been too lucky with GK talent yet so getting one in who might become something would be very nice. Would, however, much rather just get one really good GK and then only ***** ones the next 10 years tbh. We'll see how he develops but I like his initial stats. 

Francisco
One of those rare CBs who have height, strength and quickness. And he got decent potential as well. I like that, but his defending needs to be improved but his physique makes me very interested in getting him to develop into a first team player. We lack that power in CD. 

Tomás Aquilué
He is not really that good yet. Might be another 'could-have-been'. Not sure what it'll turn out to be yet but not too excited about him. When their starting CA is so low I find it very hard to give them playing time on higher levels as they often fail to perform and then won't benefit as much from it. We'll see what we can make out of him.

Pablo Silveira
This guy takes our striking producing game to another level. Following the year we got Xurxo, we got Muñiz and now Silveira. They are all fairly different to each other in style and stats which is a good thing. Xurxo obviously a player who needs to use his size to his advantage but  tbh I am training him as a Complete Forward and letting his stats develop the way they do, he's just that good imo.
Muñiz is a very explosive player who does have the ability do the unexpected moves, he just needs the technique to back it up. He might be a decent Inside Forward in the making.
Silveira got finesse combined with quickness at a very young age. Also being very one-footed should free up even more CA to his stats opposed to Xurxo who is ambidextrous. They could potentially be a very nice partnership in the future, but for now I am actually having a fair amount of succes with a one-striker-formation so we'll see in some seasons. 
 

 

[Benjoe]

Season Review 2018-19
Yeah well, I've actually finished the season in the period of time in which I never got around to update the thread. But what a season it's been. Here are some ss's at first.

Spanish Player of the Season

Player of the Season

Young Player of the Season

Topscorer

 Team of the Season

Celta - End of Season Awards

First Team Squad

Here comes the real interesting bits however

Manager of the Season

Uhhh

La Liga Table

Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus

A ridiculous season comes to and end and we can lift the trophy at the end of it. A sidenote of course is that we had no European football to worry about which seemed to eat up all the other three main contenders. We benefited highly from this and were able to really scramble some important wins in our last couple months. 

As can be seen when looking at player stats Ignacio Gómez and Iago López has broken into the first team and done very well too. Ignacio especially has been really good and is also developing at a very rapid pace. 

 

Being 18 (soon 19 though) and this good is not too shabby. He is really an exciting player and got the fourth most games as a starter last season. Impressive - especially considering we actually still won the league. 

Sergi Palencia however has been the most consistent this season. Averaging 7.75 in all competitions! How he didn't win the Young Player of the Season award is beyond my reach. 

And the same goes for Rufino Tómas. 14 assists and averaging 7.57 he should have been second just behind Palencia and then Ignacio at third - if not even the winner due to his age and it being his f-ing debutseason. Jeeez.

Anyways, a very wild season and now comes the hard follow up season. 

 

[Benjoe]

I'm giving this career, and thread a reboot as I've found time for FM again. How much I will get it updated is unsure but there will be activity from time to time. First of all I will start with updating with screenshots of regens in my third post of the thread. I've only advanced about a season further so there isn't a lot to catch up luckily. I can, however, reveal that we've not been able to hit the same form as last season, which is understandable though taking all things into consideration but I'll come back to that later.

[Benjoe]

Youth Intake 2020

In this batch we've hit something good I believe. We've kept the five guys with the best potential and thrown the other ones to the wall! 

Adama Sylla is a fairly decent prospect at RB. Since the intake day in march he has seemingly been valued to have a higher potential than first thought and looks to be a guy who can develop into something like a decent backup. 

Hugo Paz. I don't really know what he'll accomplish. We'll see if he can raise his level, maybe some sort of playmaker could work. 

Dani Olmos looks to be able to develop into a deeper playmaker of decent level. He's got some fine starting mental attributes and technically he is fine for his age. If he is to be a defensive guy, however, I'll have to get rid of that "Tries killer balls often" PPM. 

Lee Forster might have good potential but I fear he is too under-developed to really become something exciting. That, as well as the fact that we have loads - and I mean LOADS of talented strikers, makes him a question-mark for the future. 

And then we have Luis Fernández who is the real gem in this bunch! I was hoping for either a big talent at CB or DM if not a winger who was lightning quick and could dribble and cross, so I got some of what I wanted, and needed. We have a lot of different options at our DM positions but they're not all that great and most of them are not going to be staying with us for long. We'll try to keep one experienced player at most positions and fill with young talent. Luis is so good that he'll get eased into first team football in the start of next season and maybe we'll see him get as much game time as we've seen both Ignacio Gómez and Pablo Silveira gain in their early seasons. The foundation is there, and the talent seems to back it up. I think we have a defensive centerpiece. The important next step is deciding exactly which type he should develop into. Should we go for solid defensive and keep his technique and vision at par, or should we let him develop into a regista/roaming playmaker from deep? Lots of choices to be made with this guy especially. 

[Keano16]

Fernández looks very, very good.

[Benjoe]

Season Review 2018-19
Let's just get the screenshots out of the way and start explaining what went well and not so well this past season.

Transfers 

Spoiler

 

I had given Pedro a very small RC and Tottenham wanted our main man. Five-****ing-million was all they had to pay to get him and suddenly our magic in front was gone, which would be felt for the entire season. We led Jesé and Alberto Bueno leave as well and looking back at it, we should have kept at least one of them following the sale of Pedro but I messed that up. 

£30M in total for our incoming transfers. 

The screenshots of these guys are a season older than the original buy date so their stats looked different back then, of course.

Spanish Player of the Year

Spoiler

Young Player of the Year

Spoiler

Goalkeeper of the Year

Spoiler

Team of the Season

Spoiler

Fans Player of the Year

Spoiler

First Team Squad

Spoiler

Super Cup

Spoiler

Champions League - Group Stage
 

Spoiler

 

Euro Cup - Knockout Stages

Spoiler

 

Spanish Cup - Road to the Final

Spoiler

The Final Against FC Barcelona

Spoiler

 

La Liga 19/20

Spoiler

As the first few screenshots show we had some succes with personal honor to a couple of our players. Jaume, our GK, was chosen as the third best GK in the league, Ignacio was the second best young player in a decent follow-up season and Rufino was once again dominant and could celebrate being chosen as the best Spanish player this year! However, despite being chosen as the best Spanish Player this season, he was only chosen as a substitute for the Team of the Year. He had other awards as well as he was the Best Player at the European Championships 2021, and the European Golden Boy  He was celebrated in Vigo as well, as he was voted player of the year and thus, following another massive season at the age of 22(!), he is now an icon (notice his biography) at Celta Vigo! However, that exact biography also reveals something rather unsettling or rather the fact that Rufino is unsettled. Luckily I've got him locked down on a long, lucrative deal with an £80M release clause so I doubt he'll get bought out and he seems content with staying - that is, if I keep my promise of qualifying for CHL football next season. 

Jesús Vallejo, our only player in the starting lineup of this seasons team of the year, had another massive season for us after joining from Madrid 2 seasons ago. But, as the screenshot reveals he, just like Rufino, is unhappy. His RC is at £50M and some of the offers I've rejected so far have been in the range of £35-£40M so we might see him leave against our wish this off-season. 

The Super Cup was a pretty one-sided affair. Atlético was by far the more dominant team but still we somehow got the win and could lift the trophy after the two legs. Newly bought Toni Ibaibarr came from the bench in the second leg and stole the show as he scored the goal that led the trophy to Vigo. 

It was exciting to get to play Champions League but we really didn't show much. We drew both games against FC Midtjylland from my native country Denmark, and only won one of the 4 games against Köln and Tottenham. That was not enough to get us any further than to the Euro Cup but even here we struggled. We got past Dynamo Kiev but not in comfortable style and when we then met Olympiakos our luck ran out. Sergi Palencia got red carded after 43 minutes and then we were chasing tails for the remainder of the games. We managed to hold them long enough, however, and we ended up in extra time but we were tired and ended up conceding after 2 minutes added play time in the first half og the extra 30 mins.

The Spanish Cup provided us with a longer adventure than the Champions League and Euro Cup did. We were the defending champions and wanted to prove our worth at least despite still rotating heavily to save energy for league games. We went as far as to the final, but Barcelona proved to be to much of a challenge for our tired players. It'd been a long season by then and a lot of injuries kept the season at turmoil. This brings us on to the league performance. I would have thought we were able to capture and hold a spot in the top 4, but Valencia wanted otherwise as they emerged to the top 3 and we were just short of advancing past Real Madrid at 4th. Atlético were dominant and won the league in controlled style.  

The players we bought proved to be beneficial to a large part. Except for José Antonio, all of them played over 25 games spread over all comps and they all averaged a minimum of 7. They are also quite important for the future as all except for Iborra has a good age with lots of peak years left. 

This was all for now about this season, if you want screens of anything in the save feel free to ask! I'll bring another update one of the coming days about our academy and our ongoing development of young players. 

[Benjoe]

18 hours ago, Keano16 said:

Fernández looks very, very good.

Yeah he really does. I'm very excited about the prospect of him. Expect him to be an important part of our starting XI in 3 years tops!

[noikeee]

Welcome back!

I'd missed last season's incredible Spanish title. I think you might be a bit disappointed with this season? On normal circumstances 5th place and a run to the cup final would be brilliant for Celta, but after grabbing the title that feels a bit short. Obviously Pedro leaving was a huge blow.

[Benjoe]

2 hours ago, noikeee said:

Welcome back!

I'd missed last season's incredible Spanish title. I think you might be a bit disappointed with this season? On normal circumstances 5th place and a run to the cup final would be brilliant for Celta, but after grabbing the title that feels a bit short. Obviously Pedro leaving was a huge blow.

Thanks!

It was a big surprise with the title last season and must admit that you are correct. I am a bit disappointed but honestly I feel I shouldn't. We don't buy expensive players and try to develop and still challenge the top. So as you say, it was really a good season but just feels somewhat underwhelming. We were very inconsistent and couldn't find a replacement og Pedro but I got blood on my teeth again and will soon follow up on this seasons review with a somewhat in-depth analysis of our youth academy and an evaluation of how I believe I've managed my talents. Hopefully it will be interesting for you guys to read my thoughts about it all.

[Benjoe]

Evaluating our Academy part 1 - The F**k Ups

To a certain extent I feel that I've managed my talents well. We have some academy players in the starting 11 and we have a lot more coming through the ranks I recon. But still, I feel I've failed on my agenda when this save started. First and foremost I wanted to develop the players at the club from day one and the of course the talent that came from our own academy. Looking back at how many players I've bought I feel I somehow got sidetracked and just wanted a lot of young talent to develop instead of taking what was already given to me. 

In this post I will look at the players who I feel I've helped and the ones I feel I should have done more for. First of, let's take the guys I should tried harder with.

In comes Alexis Alejandro at the age of 18. I remember expressing how I could see him develop into a decent backup at LB and that is not completely ridiculous to believe when looking at his alleged potential. He could really turn into something decent. Make him work on defense only and then you might have a working class hero at LB. Now, at the age of 22 you can hardly see any difference to his stats. This, I believe, could have been a different case had I given him game time and chances here and there. This one annoys me a lot mostly because I pointed him out back then and said he was interesting and then did nothing at all, but also because of that LB backup is a position where you can really allow youngsters to get blooded I feel. 

Iago De La Cruz is next guy up. When he first came through I had envisioned him transforming into a striker since I was moving away from wings back then. "But as I am planning to change system to a winger-less one talents like De la Cruz will be looking for new ground to stand on. Here I envision Cruz to have the ability to transform his huge potential into becoming a fearsome striker. He got plenty of potential to work with and age on his side as well. I can see him do big things(..)"  

Looking at him now you get another feeling. He is anything but dangerous and has not developed a lot more than pace and a little bit of technical attributes. He is still young so maybe, just maybe, I can still salvage something from him, but this time I'll stick to having him as a winger in the right side. 

Javier Sanmartín is a player who I neglected and never got around actually seeing in the first team. At age 17 he really had stats that was promising and the potential was decent, he could have been something I believe. I just didn't use him and now, we have so many other strikers in our setup - both OA and non-OA. At age 20 he is just not cutting it but it hurts me to see how his stats are now and imagining what some game time could have done to him. 

The next one probably hurts even more. Oscar Martinez was a real talent who looking should have gotten a lot of chances. His stats were pretty much perfect for a poacher or a deep-lying striker. Whatever role I used he should have played game in the league from the very beginning. He now runs around in Llagostera out on loan from Getafe. He should have been a goal-getter for us, but I failed on him. 

Borja Fernández, Pape Cheikh and Theo Bongonda are the last few players I'll bash myself about. They were all part of the reason for taking Celta in the first place goddamnit.. I used Borja and Theo but both got injured quite a lot disrupting rhythm and allowing others to surpass them in game-time and capabilities. All of them are gone now. They could all have been good players for us, but I missed out on them. Borja anno 2020, Pape anno 2020, Theo anno 2020.

 

[Benjoe]

Evaluating our Academy part 2

As I stated earlier, we do have guys from our own academy among our starters, and some of those are evenly regens. 

  

Looking at a lot of the players in our first team squad this off-season we got a lot of local boys and a lot of guys who's been here for a lot of years and gotten their final football education with us. The players marked are the guys who have come from Celta's academy either irl or as a regen. 

Yelko Pino is a player who I haven't used a lot but have had in the B-squad and given cup games. He has developed into a decent playmaker but I don't know where he fits in atm. or rather, who he should fit instead of. Last season he was out on a second loan deal to Real Valladolid but this one got recked by injuries so I'll give him a chance in the first team and see how he does. 

David Costas is your typical spanish defender who is rather small in comparison to other centre backs but is very capable with his feet and a great reader of the game. Pair him with a tall, strong partner and you can have a very solid duo. He was quite developed when I took the seat in Vigo but he has still increased a few stats but primarily he is just a quite stable player. For now he is a starter for us but might be pushed to be a solid backup should other options develop. 

Next up is Alberto Solís who we've seen getting games and perform very inconsistently. Some games he is light out and tearing up the opponent, others I throw him out of the game at half time. I still haven't completely given up on him but I might soon have to let him go. 

The next guy is Javier Calvo who just isn't going to be a star, and that was never expected either. I am still, however, not done with him and will loan him out this season and see what he can do in the Portuguese league. He could still be an interesting player to have in the squad with strong, aggressive play style. 

Iago López was a regen I was looking forward to nurture and develop. He had to play a couple of seasons with the B-team but he has been a very stable ever since joining the first team 2 years ago. In his debut season he averaged a 7.14 in 27 games with one assist, and in his second season he averaged 7.04 in 23 games. I like him, but he will probably never be more than a very liked rotation player for us. 

Xurxo Bouza with the elegant name is still some way off from living up to the hype I created when he was only a youth candidate. There were some injuries to Xurxo here and there but not enough to excuse anything. He has actually developed tremendously in some aspects. Back when he was 16 years old he was a weak kid both in body and mind. Now he is a resolute and powerful man with a dangerous shot and slick first touch. Still, he just lacks a lot of things. He is still a poor header, he doesn't like to work hard, and has quite the ego - which could be fine if that meant banging in goals, but it doesn't. This past season he played 26(14) games in all comps for us and scored 11 and assisting 3 while averaging 6.89 in rating. That is not exactly impressive but I guess it's not really bad either. He just needs to score more. I still got belief in Bouza but others are battling to take his place.

Souleymane Dao is a guy who I actually quite like. He is the only player yet to come through the academy with links to our feeder club ASEC from the Ivory Coast so I want him to succeed even more to prove that it is a good choice to have them feed us, but he will never be a world beater. What he will be, however, is a super fast player who can do a little bit of everything but not a lot of anything. A master of no traits, a decent guy overall. After having him on loan for a couple of seasons I've decided to take him back to try and guide his development a bit more. He might still be able to develop but I still only want him to develop his finishing even more and let him turn into a one-trick pony as I just don't see him being more than that. 

We really haven't been blessed with a lot of defensive players with talent aside of Iago López but Jonathan Sánchez is a decent no nonsense centre back. He might never be the guy who knocks David Costa out of the starting lineup but he could easily become his backup. His development is going decent and he'll stay in Vigo this season and get some cup games and occasional league games.

The last three players came in the same youth intake as this guy but he far outshines them all. Ignacio Gómez is just really turning into a star. I haven't quite figured out which position I prefer him in though. He could easily play CM, AM, RW, LW or striker, but doe to his excellent decision making along with his overall passing attributes I like him in a playmaker role of some sort. I haven't really (successfully) utilized an AM for a long time I feel, but Ignacio might just make me retry a formation with an AM as centerpiece. He is really by far the best player to come through our academy these past 5 seasons.

Despite still being young as he only just turned 18 last month in-game 18 year old Pablo Silveira is really impressing me. His stats are good. Simple as that. They are very good. He is a composed finisher who knows when to run and how to run. Good technique and good physique. The combination of agility (15), balance (14) and strength (13) is something I like in a fast and opportunistic striker. He needs to develop his stamina though! An 8 in stamina is atrocious and probably cause by his lousy natural fitness (8). Still he is a very nice striker who needs to be kept close to goal to use his attributes best and has so far scored 7 in 19 league games in his debut season for us. I like it!

 

As a whole we have good times coming I believe, but we have a lot of players. A LOT of players. I need to cut ties with some, I am afraid.. Some of the guys who I bought on the cheap in my first few seasons will probably have to go despite actually being good guys and decent players. That, spiced with my addiction to buying cheap young players who I can develop, is reason for a bit of sadness. I sign to many players for the good of our own guys and some of the guys bought. I will really have to improve on this from now on. Maybe, I'll make some harsher restrictions to my signings in the future. 

[noikeee]

Wtf is Alberto Solís doing here, and why's he so good? He was a decent League 2 player for my Stourbridge side!

[Benjoe]

2 hours ago, noikeee said:

Wtf is Alberto Solís doing here, and why's he so good? He was a decent League 2 player for my Stourbridge side!

Haha woah, they have rated him very differently for FM16 and 17 it seems! Funny contrast between seasons for such a young guy.

[Benjoe]

Summer Transfer Window '20/21

Heading up to this transfer window there were a fair few things certain. A lot of our players wanted out, and a lot of those were our primary guys. Two of those guys got sold before the window was even 10 days old. We had a huge first team squad before the transfer window, and that hasn't changed after the window tbh. We have a lot of midfielders and wingers but lacked quality backs. The wingback issue was addressed early on as we also bought four young prospects. As I said in my recent posts we don't really have room for too many prospects right now, but I am planning on cleaning out the entire club in the near future and I believe there will be room for these young guns in that near future.  Should they fail, however, then I won't have wasted a lot of money on them as they were fairly cheap with great age and potential.

Martín Lorente is probably the least interesting of the entire bunch of players bought, but that is only because we already have other talented keepers in the club. He will battle it out with them all and in a couple of seasons one of these guys will probably be our keeper for the next decade or so. He is very talented and was an expiring contract. Good deal. Another solid signing is striker talent Víctor Alberto. Commanding the humble price of 400k Las Palmas let their young talent leave to join us. We already have an abundance of young strikers but a lot of those does not posses the talent that Alberto does. 16 years old when we signed him and I can already reveal that he got his debut in October and scored in it. A lot of promise in this kid. Joseph Mandjeck might actually fall a bit outside of the system that I am slowly settling on. Unfortunate for the young guy as I bought him for a different system, but I believe he'll find a way to play himself into some sort of role. His Passing (19) and Flair (20) is brutal and Decisions (15) is good too. He needs to improve his Technique (12), however, but I am sure I'll find a spot for him in the rotation. Juan is a quick and aggressive winger who wants to beat his man and cross the ball but I think he can do wonders as a Box-to-box midfielder. The Work Rate (14) is there and he is fairly decent at a lot of things. Limiting him to only being an out and out winger would be waste of his talent I feel. 

We signed two wingbacks and one of those were given a welcome back. Carles Planas left us after playing here for a couple of seasons after joining us from Barcelona. He is a solid and brave back and I really like his overall style in our squad. If only he had a better personality than balanced.. He will come in and take the LB spot instead of Rufino Tomás who will be moved further up the pitch this season. At RB we lost our previous starter and needed new blood as I didn't feel we had the right guy to command the spot. We had decent choices, but I'd rather ham them backup for a newer guy. And we found him in Britain. Playing for Man City having had his football upbringing in Atlético we signed Javi Manquillo. Defensively solid and very clever combined with a quick and enduring physique. That's what I want!

Dejan Drazic, and Sergi Palencia was insulted by the 'lies' I had told them about reaching a CHL spot in the league. Whatever. Dejan was hard to loose since he had been a treat on the field for us in his 5 years with us, but he was a massive diva and always stirred up some conflict so I am sort of relieved to let him go, however the £11M was a bit too low imo. but we got a clause with 20% of the profit of any future sale. Sergi Palencia commanded a larger fee despite not having as good a season as the '18/19 season. 23M was needed to pay for PSG as well as giving 25% of any future sale of Sergi. Andreu Fontás was allowed to leave after staying with us since 2013. He was consistent when playing but often injured and just not that good any longer. He and Levy Madinda was allowed to leave due to wishes of more first team football. 

Transfers in:

Spoiler

Transfers out:

Spoiler

[Benjoe]

Determining the Style of our Future Football 

As the title of this post reveals I will try to go through the process of determining a style of football we will be utilizing in the future. This team is a bit of a wreck to be completely honest. I've paused and continued this save so many times through these 6 months it's been underway and already had the team go in completely different directions a lot of times. This might have been influenced by the restrictions brought upon by myself as to only sign Spanish players and sometimes having a hard time finding players who were already developed the way I wanted them and then being able to buy them for under 15M quid or not developing talent quite the direction I might have should. Either that or just me being incredible inconsistent and wanting to play a lot of different styles throughout the seasons always changing my mind about tactics and players. Probably a good mix of both tbh. 

Before deciding upon a tactic I looked at the future of our players and which talent I ought to give a real shot in the first team and who I wanted to let go and chase game-time with another team. I've decided to be a bit ruthless with some players as I cut ties with some players I had grown fond off. Ultimately I feel this is for the greater good though, and hopefully we will be rewarded in the future with a more coherent and overall better team. After cutting and moving a couple of guys into the first team we have a team of 29 players thereof 3 keepers. This is a larger squad than what I want in the future but for now this is how it looks as some of the guys will have this first half season to prove themselves before either being loaned or sold completely. Interesting times are ahead.

With all this being said I wanted a formation that could both be used in this season and hopefully in the future too. I want creative offensive minded football as we have a lot of players capable of creating such and I want to use two strikers or a duo of a striker and an attacking midfielder since we have a lot of capable strikers in the club. We also have interesting wingers and players  who can benefit from creating from out wide. Looking at our midfield we had a lot of different choices to go with. Here I've decided to go to ol' trusty in a sense as I want a deep lying playmaker with a very diligent and hard working partner. The physical powerhouse and the elegant maestro. They will become the backbone of our entire team and if they can't cope with the pressure they face we will risk losing the entire game. Therefore it is of utmost importance to have competent guys in these positions. Being a powerhouse, however, is not the only necessity for my hard worker here as I also want him to be able to do something with the ball. The midfielder duo will be needed to bring the ball out of defense often and therefore both guys need good technique and vision to keep all options open and within technical possibility. The defense would have to adapt to how my front 6 were shaped. Either with solid full back or adventurous wing backs. 

This could be one of the ways a such formation could look for us. P(A) - CF(S) to give our front 2 both some penetrating power with the poacher surging forward constantly testing the offside line and some build up presence. The CF can either be a technically gifted player or a more powerful player but will be in support to a more explosive pure scorer. These guys are supported by our 2 IF's from either side. One on attack and one on support. Both providing presence inside and outside of the box with dangerous runs and good control of the ball. These are guys who are gifted technically and have flair and vision for the game and due to their advanced position they will both assist and score for us - in theory that is. Our midfield could consist of a CM(S) - DLP(D) constellation which should provide support up the field and solid cover for the back 4. To ensure this can happen we need the right personnel as mentioned earlier in the post. We need these guys to be the lungs of our team. They need to have good vision and control of the ball as well and generally be very talented and clever footballers. At this moment we have some guys who can carry this workload but they aren't world class. I am trusting them to be diligent for the time being but we might see changes through transfers should they fail. The defense consists of 2 Wing backs on attack duty as I want them to come marauding past my inside forwards as they move inside. They need great lungs as well as they will need to track back instantly but I expect the DLP to go back and help and allow the 2 centre backs to close out. These centre backs will be on a defend duty, but I might try the Cover-Stopper variety if I find the first option lacking some how. The goalkeeper will be a standard goalkeeper but this could easily change to be a sweeper keeper if we press high and go for possesion. 

With these roles, and a desire to play attacking football I've chosen a fluid shape with a standard mentality. I want the players to have creative freedom and want them to test the cohesiveness of the opponents lines and penetrate through if holes are spotted. This I feel we can meet with a fluid shape, but if my midfield duo is either to isolated or roams too much themselves I will either try to make them hold position or change to a more structured shape.

The TI's will vary a lot depending on opponent and other variables such as our own starting line up but I'll give examples of which combinations I use at another time. I only have 1 player who have been instructed something specifically and that is the DLP. He is asked to Close down much less. 

The next post will explain who is going to play a vital part, who'll be supporting acts, and who is hitting the bus. 

[noikeee]

I hope that works but I'm a bit skeptical. 4-4-2 with inside forwards seems like a bit of a misfit to me - IFs call for intricate possession but a duo of forwards calls for crosses and direct play -, although I've seen it work with wide midfielders so maybe it's not impossible. I also think you're gonna have the IF/A running into the path of the poacher, and the IF/S running into the path of the CF/S, instead of the forwards creating space for the IFs.

I also think in this particular ME it's doubly harder to win without the numbers in the middle of the park, and with a formation with just 2 players you're gonna ask a hell of a lot from them. Even more so when they have to help out just 2 remaining defenders with the wingbacks running upfront - I think you will struggle on the counter against top-heavy formations.

[Benjoe]

1 hour ago, noikeee said:

I hope that works but I'm a bit skeptical. 4-4-2 with inside forwards seems like a bit of a misfit to me - IFs call for intricate possession but a duo of forwards calls for crosses and direct play -, although I've seen it work with wide midfielders so maybe it's not impossible. I also think you're gonna have the IF/A running into the path of the poacher, and the IF/S running into the path of the CF/S, instead of the forwards creating space for the IFs.

I also think in this particular ME it's doubly harder to win without the numbers in the middle of the park, and with a formation with just 2 players you're gonna ask a hell of a lot from them. Even more so when they have to help out just 2 remaining defenders with the wingbacks running upfront - I think you will struggle on the counter against top-heavy formations.

Yeah I have a feeling you're correct. Also the roles of my IF's should of course have been opposite or my striker's roles should have been swapped. To be fair though, the formation did win some very dominant games but we were very shaky in our games and gave a few cc-chances away each game relentless how dominant we were. I will tweak here and there, and maybe I'll end up with a completely different setup. It's happened before!  I just got to get into the rhythm of making functioning tactics again I guess.

Also thanks for your comments! Greatly appreciated - even when you point out my flawed tactical ideas.