[FM16] This Title Is Work In Progress

[Benjoe]

Determining the Style of our Future Football v2

Having seen how my previous formation worked in-game and looking once again at the material I have atm. I decided to revert back to a one-striker formation. This, either utilizing a DM or AM seems to be a far better look for us. Currently I'm working with 3 different looks but they function quite similarly. 

First we have a 4-1-4-1 with aggressive wingers as this is where we have our best weapon.

After trying with Inside Forwards I decided to see how they would perform if they were both Wingers on attack instead and so far it's been nothing short of amazing to see the work Rufino (LM) and Ignacio Gómez (RM) has put up. Quite opposite of how their stats would indicate, Rufino has been the primary scorer and Ignacio the assisting player. If this will continue we'll see a dint of form soon I don't know, but they show great promise and Ignacio is playing himself out on the RM spot now. Having been a position I didn't fancy too much due to an (maybe/clearly? unfairly) underestimation of the winger role to now being one of the most valuable and best performing positions and the place we field our two of our biggest stars. Rufino, who - and I can't stop pointing this out - was the second signing I ever made with Celta and for just 145k. Now he is an Icon and valued at 34.5M and wanted by Europes biggest. His decisions, his flair and technique, his quickness and his almost perfect first touch. What a player - an most importantly, winger. Ignacio is from our own academy and I've had trouble finding his perfect position. He was succesful in the centre of the midfield in his debut season but didn't follow that up and struggled to produce greatly as striker but now it would seem he found something he likes. Not exactly the same type as Rufino despite sharing some qualities. Good decision maker, quick feet, enduring, hard worker and able to get into dangerous positions when not in possesion of the ball. He is also technically very well rounded despite not being the best crosser if even much of a crosser. Of other things to note I use a Inverted Wing back at LB. Neither Planas or Prieto are born crossers or lightning quick so I see great benefit in having them join the midfield with the ball from time to time. They are both clever players and have physical and mental attributes that makes me believe it can help our midfield be harder to penetrate and perhaps also harder to counter through the middle as we'll sometimes have our LB in the DM or CM strata ready to win the ball back. The rest is quite standard but not necessarily looking this way every match. Our DM-CM-CM trident can easily change depending on opponent and players available. I can move the playmaker into DM strata and have a ball winner higher up the pitch or make both midfielders runners and have my DM be our playmaker. Lots of options. 

Second we have a 4-4-1-1 

Nothing to different with this formation. We move our DM up to AM strata and can play with some of what I envisioned in my previous post, a striker and an attacking midfielder combining with each other. This, added to the two dangerous wingers can prove too much for weaker teams but might be too much of a risk against better teams. The roles can once again get tweaked and we can also have the playmaker at AMC and have a runner in midfield who doesn't have to build up play but instead be more aggressive in adventurous raids. A CM(D) - CM(A) - AP(S) could for example make such a result giving us balance as well as penetration from deep. 

Third and lastly we have a skewed 4-1-3-1-1

The, not so well-tested, 4-1-3-1-1 seems odd but could be devastating I feel. Having a guy building up play and roaming from deep, holding midfielder in midfield and a Trequatista to roam and find dangerous spots to combine with either of the 4 players who'll mostly be around him. Depending on the player playing the treq-role he could also go for a shot himself after a clever dribble. 

All in all I feel these looks good for the time being, despite having some trouble getting my striker to contribute in ways of goals or assists. Might change the CF(S) role, might not. Time will tell, but this looks promising to me. 

[Benjoe]

Let's get moving!

Having gotten all of this formalia with transfers and tactics out of the picture for a little while let's quickly get you guys up to speed, shall we?

8th November 2020

Injuries is great fun. 

As the date tells you I've played a little bit into the season despite not even deciding completely on a tactic until just now. It's been an up and down experience so far. As you can see on the tactics screen the previous post, we have injuries to 4 of our main 11. Vallejo took the "break a leg!" phrase a bit to serious and.. well yeah, broke a leg. He did that two games into the season and is out for probably another 3 months. Great. David Costas sprained his back trying to impress some lass and is slowly returning after 3 weeks of not impressing lasses. Planas did something odd and strained a muscle in his stomach.. Don't even want to know how or why. He is due to return in a couple of days and Iborra got a hip injury in something that might have been correlating with Planas' odd stomach injury.. He's been out for 4 weeks so far and is not back for at least another 4 weeks. 

New full backs are doing great.

Both Javi and Planas has done great for us since joining. Javi especially has been terrific and really taken over from Sergi Palencia, who couldn't be bothered to stay with us for another season and is now ripping up Ligue 1!

Orrr something.. 

Aleix is doing dutiful work in midfield.

Having been thrown a bit around Aleix haven't complained and just kept doing his thing. And his thing is good. Wait.. Not that thing, his football thi-never mind. 

These guys are winging it for us. Get it?

They're wingers. You get it now?

Strikers are striking out.

Both Xurxo and Pablo have actually had quite productive seasons, that was until I changed away from a two-man striker tactic. Since then Xurxo has been getting the nod to start but without his shorter friend, Pablo he's been a shadow of what he was just a month ago. He's been POM twice this season but both times before the change. Maybe I gotta change his role to backup to his friend Pablo. I do, however, understand their sadness to not link up in attack atm. When they hit the cylinders at the same time they were unstoppable. 

Maybe Pablo could play the AM role in the future? 

Youngsters are stepping up when given some game-time. 

I'm really excited about these young ones. We have a (very) young squad overall, as you'll read in a couple of seconds below, but these are some of the youngest and doing really good. Actually Luis is the youngest in the entire league.

And still he hasn't seem out of depths when he played. He evenly gets to play difficult and important roles as he has been either holding midfielder or a playmaker for us in what was a very demanding 4-2-4 basically. 

We got the youngest squad in the league.

This probably is also a strong factor in the fact that we are also the team with the least avg. int. caps per player. 

Looks like we are doing good with the talents we have had at our club anyway. Just one player behind Barcelona. That's good.

Have a seat.

We got more seats and that was needed. Immediately after we made a new record for highest income to a game so we should be able to fill it out soon and hopefully get more seats.

We doing fine.

Except for the embarrassing first loss to Brøndby we've actually done fine in general. 

Would ya look at this though?

But we got our revenge a a couple weeks later.

Europa.

,

La Liga.

Closing in on the January transfer window we have already made quite a few deals. One of them is a player who'll be playing a big part of winning games for us, the otters (Lost anyone?) will be all about tutoring and getting good personalities and ppms for our young players.

[Benjoe]

I think Gómez will be even better when playing one-twos now and Dao will really benefit from his new ppm. He is rubbish at dribbling. 10 dribbling, 10 technique, 10 flair. But his acceleration at 18 and pace at 18 should be enough to get past most people. 

[Benjoe]

We just scored a goal against Atlético that perfectly illustrates the beauty of Rufino and Ignacio as wingers. 

3 minutes into the game. Sergi Gomez is playing RB as Javi has gotten a 3-week injury. He brings the ball out of defence and plays a pass to an open teammate.

Garcia uses his good vision (14) to spot Ignacio and passes it first time using his good technique (15), good first touch (15) and good passing (15). 

Ignacio gets the ball and turns with it as he has time and space. As a matter of fact he has a lot of space. If he gets past the onrushing left back, Nabiullin, he'll get into very dangerous grounds. Notice Rufino Tomas in the other half of the pitch. Ready to sprint to the back post.

He knocks the ball between the legs of the fullback and is good to go. With an acceleration of 17 and 14 pace he is not easy to catch and his good technique 14 and good dribbling 14, he won't struggle to keep the ball under control. 

He continues his massive sprint all the way to the byline and crosses it to the back post where he knows Tomás is running to. 

 

[Benjoe]

The game against Atlético ended with a convincing 2-0 victory. Bouza scored the definitive goal after some clumsy defending. 

19-year old Jonathan Sanchez also got another game from start and was a part of the defence that kept a clean sheet. Really liking what I'm seeing from him. 

 

[noikeee]

The tactics look a lot more sensible to me now.

Doing well, too. That league table is mental - what the hell happened to Barcelona and Real Madrid? 

[Benjoe]

2 hours ago, noikeee said:

The tactics look a lot more sensible to me now.

Doing well, too. That league table is mental - what the hell happened to Barcelona and Real Madrid? 

I agree! And it also feels like I have way more options to play around with. Much better control of how the team plays. Only issue now is the fact, that when Ignacio and Rufino aren't playing, we are utter ****.  Need to find out the right combination when they need resting. 

It surprised me to see just how close we actually got to the top. Valencia still 8 points up, but they've shown signs of being stoppable so who knows. And beating last seasons champions 2-0 at home is a sign of our strength - even despite still missing Vallejo and Iborra (and Javi Manquillo)! Barca and Madrid are just messing up despite great squads. Laurent Blanc at Barca, André Villas-Boas at Madrid. 

[Benjoe]

I love Rufino and Ignacio.

We meet 5th placed Granada at home and after 6 minutes Pablo Silveira score after a good cross from Ignacio. In the 11th minute Fede, the stupid ****, decides to slide a two footed tackle unto the knees of an opponent right in front of the ref. He gets a ticket to an early shower and a 2 weeks wage fine (by me). So, now we are down one man and I'm afraid we'll struggle. After 25 minutes we have had 12 shots, Granada has had 1. Scoreboard says 1-1. 

But now starts the Rufi-Nacio show. Rufi sends a bullet of a cross to the far post and guess who shows up. Nacio. 2-1. We go to half time and the first minute of the second half the same things happen again. Nacio passes the ball from one side of the pitch, runs to the far post and gets a perfect cross from Rufi. 3-1. Granada scores after a corner in the 65th minute and now I feel the pressure. I take Pablo out and send Xurxo in and he quickly starts feeding off solid crosses from the Rufi-Nacio wings. 4-2, 6 minutes before the last whistle. Xurxo with a one-on-one with the GK after a good pass from Nacio. Money.

10 half chances and 7 CC-chances in a game we are one man down for 80 minutes. Against a top 5 team. Massive. I feel confident going forward. I don't think we can repeat the freak season just a year ago and win the league, but we can compete and I think we're gonna get a CHL spot!

 

[Benjoe]

14th of December 2020

As we edge closer to the winter window we have already made a lot, and I mean a lot of signings. Is this needed with our recent form in mind?

Probably not. Nevertheless we have 7 players joining and so far 2 leaving. Tutors and talents joining mostly. 

Francisco won't be joining us, but wow what a mohawk!

I'm also considering taking the only player worth money from Deportivo as he is out of contract this summer and he looks really solid. Stealing him from a fierce rival would be fun and seeing it as Depor is on there way down this season he probably won't stay anyway and don't feel to comfortable about him joining another top 4 team in Spain. He does lack some better reflexes and needs to improve his one-on-one, but I believe that goalkeepers can improve even after turned 23 or that might just be how I find it irl. Anyway, I like him and some of his mental attributes are just really fitting for a keeper of a top club. Composure needs to be raised but his concentration and decisions, positioning and anticipation are just really f***ing good. I might pull the trigger on him. I like him a lot better than any of the goalkeepers in our squad that's for sure - and only one of them are from our own academy, and he is far from being half the keeper. 

Also we've been drawn up against Köln in Europa. We are getting their best player this winter for a good price, and they shouldn't be able to win over two games. I feel confident. 

 

[Benjoe]

 

Don't remember the last time I ever saw a player without any weaknesses addressed. He's also been immense in his last 5. 8.44, 4 goals, 2 assists.

Comparing that to Rufino even a player like he has weaknesses despite being described as being world class -which he is! 8.32 in his last 5 games with 2 goals and 5 assists. 

I am really surprised I almost missed out on this duo of destruction. I mean, Rufino was a LB for us a season ago and Ignacio was used centrally and only just now getting time on the wing. I don't know if it'll last forever or pass soon but as long as they do what they're doing now I am hyped!

[Benjoe]

Staff adjustments.

As you can see, we don't exactly follow the same policy when assigning staff as we do when we buy players. I want the best personnel as possible, and it just doesn't seem to be the Spaniards. I do feel it is somewhat ruining the concept, however. Therefore I will try to find the very best possible Spanish staff members and add them and remove some of the current staff, that I find are the least important. Some are untouchable though. Vladimir  Gudelj is both an icon, and a professional man. He is a good utility coach as well and an important member overall.

He does an important task in reducing workload off of the coaches who have specialities and considering his professionalism I want him to stay no matter.

Sylvinho has just recently been assigned - the reason why he has no duty atm. But he can contribute with 4 star training in either of ball control, attacking and shooting aaand he is a model professional with a past of being a Celta player for 3 seasons. He won't be going anywhere either. 

A general rule; I won't be removing staff who have a good personality and are having plus 4 star training. They are simply to useful to the club as a whole.

I decided to say goodbye to 2 of our coaches: Fulvio Pea and Massi Catini. Neither were irreplaceable in terms of coaching, and neither had desirable personalities. 

I found 2 good candidates to take over from the departing italians.

David Albelda is really good at a lot of things and also good with young players and considering the young average age of our current squad that could be needed. He is also resolute with a decent determination as well.

Miguel was actually just promoted from our u19 department. He is a professional with a good determination, brilliant with youngsters and generally a good coach. I like that addition a lot to the first team. 

All in all the training ratings look good, and with good personalities as well I feel we are good to go. 

[Benjoe]

New HoyD

I've decided to mutually terminate the contrsct we had with Chuti Molina. I liked the players that were brought through in his 5-year period but I want a HoyD with a better personality as Chuti's Jovial personality just doesn't cut it. 

Being on the lookout for a resolute HoyD who was Spanish as well I searched far and wide but couldn't find the completely perfect person perhaps, but I found what I'd call the next best thing. 

This guy. Herrera comes in with a lot of ability about judging player talent and is good at motivating and managing players. This isn't the most important part, but I like to be able to trust the evaluations I get when we get our YI to be correct, so this was important. He is also a determined person, and this is really good. And I don't mean just his determination is high, but 'Determined' personality means he has Determination (18-19) and Ambition (10-20) so he would even in worst case have Ambition at least at 10 which wouldn't be the end of the world. His media handling style is level-headed which iirc means in this combination that his professionalism sadly could be below 10 but I am not sure and don't have time to check the Personality and Media Handling Guide Thread just now. Maybe I'lll do it another time with a lot of staff and players too. 

As you can see from the screens posted the date has also hit the 31st of December. This means that I can offer a contract to previously show Mateo González. Which has successfully been done! Now I must await his answer and hopefully acceptance. 

 

[Benjoe]

Looking at Santamaria's goals tally and amount of assists it makes no sense to me that he won Golden Boy of the year. F*** Sake. 

The way my young guns here have performed and not only this first half season but also much of the end of last season I don't understand it. In this season alone both have outperformed Santamaria heavily. He has scored 9 in 36 games. Rufino 10 in 17. Santa has assisted 5 times in 36 and Ignacio has 8 in 18. And then theres the averages.

I'm infuriated!

He is, however, a serious talent so there's that.

Brutal player really, but not deserving of this award this year. 

EDIT: 

This offer just came in. That's not a bad price for a 21-year old with that talen. Sadly, I cannot buy him for multiple reasons but wouldn't I like to have him and his helmet of hair on our team.

In other news;

We got him! Next Galician derby will be fun. He has 6 months left in A Coruña before the change. He is by far their best player at they're fighting for survival and can't spare him. Looking forward to seeing how that goes. 

 

[Benjoe]

The Window is open!

"...as Emile Heskey radically re-shapes his squad."

I bought 1 player, who is to be a first team player instantly. Then I bought 2 youngsters, one of them is a returned son. And then there's 4 guys whose sole or primary purpose will be tutoring.

Álvaro Bustos was bought as he is a professional winger with some nice PPM's and got a good age as he can tutor for many years. He was and is cheap and can actually contribute in the league should we need the depth. Nice signing. 

Some of you guys might remember Nestor Salinas. I have no clue why I decided to sell him, and can't be bothered to read back in the thread. Maybe he was unhappy? Anyways, he is a Model Professional and got high determination too. Arrives Late in Opponents' Area is a PPM that has to be tutored iirc so that is nice to have on a player in a tutor-age. It is also a nice PPM for a supporting midfielder to have. 

Mikel Rico and Javi Paredes are the oldest players bought this window and are solely for tutoring purposes and potentially later on staff. 

Dani "Dani-Boi" Conde is returning to familiar grounds after an unsuccessful 2-year trip to Tottenham where he earned exactly 0 first team appearances. He really shouldn't have gone, but his rc got triggered as it was ridiculous (4.1M) but now he'll get the role he was about to have right before he left us. Backup RB. That's where I see him get the best results atm at least. Also, I'll never call him "Dani-Boi" so don't worry about that becoming a thing.

Andoni López is perfect for the supporting midfield role I feel. He could also easily turn into either a fierce wingback or a winger in general. He can do a lot and ambidextrous asf. I like him and have been eye-balling him forever and now he was at a discount since his contract was soon expiring. 

I am considering selling Canales. Marco Asensio was suddenly available - that means I realised his rc was at 11.75M. STEAL. He'll be a first team star and a valuable tutor. Resolute with Curls Ball. Yes pls. 

[noikeee]

Brilliant deal on Asensio!

I personally find it a little unrealistic the whole tutoring system, specially these veteran players who are clearly nowhere near good enough to be starters for you, like Javi Paredes. I'm surprised you can actually use him for tutoring, I thought there was a system now where you get a message of the likes "this player doesn't have enough of a senior role to be a tutorer"?

[Benjoe]

7 hours ago, noikeee said:

Brilliant deal on Asensio!

I personally find it a little unrealistic the whole tutoring system, specially these veteran players who are clearly nowhere near good enough to be starters for you, like Javi Paredes. I'm surprised you can actually use him for tutoring, I thought there was a system now where you get a message of the likes "this player doesn't have enough of a senior role to be a tutorer"?

Thank you! Looking forward to seeing him in action soon.

I agree that it can ruin the realism but in both of Javi Parede's and Mikel Rico's case they also function as u19 coaches. Actually don't know if that is ruining realism even more haha, and also, it is correct that you can get those kinds of messages. I wanted to tutor guys with Javi as he is one of the only professional defenders in the entire club. I only get one 18-year old player to tutor. That player refuses, and then there were no more options due to his role being too low. So his wage might be wasted as a player but not completely as he still trains the u19 and has his personality affecting both overall squad personality and coaches personality.

[Benjoe]

The new year got presents for us.

I had completely missed the fact that our 5 first games in January would be ludicrously hard.

That's.. that's just not fair, is it?  

Also there are (more) changes happening to the squad this window.

A  legend has returned to the club. 

I've brought an RB back from Milano and sold or loaned a lot of the players I either felt weren't good enough or would be behind some of our own products in the line for game time. 

Some players, however, have some sort of twisted way of making my plans of selling them impossible.. 

Happened the same day as I offered them both out to clubs. Same. Day.

Also these British clubs better back off!

 

[Keano16]

Those new revolving doors that you had installed are dangerous....also, I'll see you in rehab on the 25th on January! 

[Benjoe]

34 minutes ago, Keano16 said:

Those new revolving doors that you had installed are dangerous....also, I'll see you in rehab on the 25th on January! 

Guess we should have bought the 'Injury-free guaranteed edt.' anyways, goddamnit! 

Cliffhanger: We might have won more than we lost of these 5 games. 

[Benjoe]

Whoops.

[Benjoe]

The dust has settled after January of Doom. 

And we survived! I'm still manager of Celta Vigo and we are still going strong. Except for in the Spanish Cup. Atlético was too much over 2 games.

Rufino and Bouza scored in our first game against Atlético in the first leg in a game we'd win 2-1.

A good match that had intense moments and occasionally dominant displays from either side. 

Real proved a too big task to meet right after the first leg against Atlético.

Total decimation. Once again we commit a dumb penalty.

After the game against Real we stayed in the capital as we had our second leg against Atlético. 

Yeah.. Third game in a row where we commit a penalty. Nice streak we got going here. We lose 1-nil and are out on aggregate. 

Just 3 days later we meet Barcelona. At Nou Camp. Great. Tired players and a lot of injured guys too. Not exactly what you'd wish for prior to a game against the Catalan giants. This was the settings for what would be a dominant performance from Los Culés. 

This was the match stats after 83 minutes. They didn't create big chances and took a lot of long shots but still, we were under an unpleasant bombardment. Each possesion was a struggle to survive until Gerardo Prieto, who was playing a Limited Full Back role to aid our defence, broke possesion and passes it first time to Rufino (17). Notice Silveira staying deep in enemy territory.  

Rufino receives the pass and finds Garcia driving forward in a bid to break from Barca's number 6.

He can't break past number 6, but after shielding the ball will dribling he finds Pablo Silveira who had just cut back after testing the off-side trap.

Silveira fights to get past Kostas Manolas and manages to get daylight in the penalty box.

Wonderful strike from our young striker and we manage to keep the clean sheet as well. Strong team effort and disciplined too. 

Coming home to Pontevedra we had more than entire weeks rest before 1st placed Valencia would visit. What luxury those 8 days felt like for sore legs. Valencia, having only lost once prior to this day, would never be an easy task - not even with 8 days rest. However we felt confident. Having shown what our team could accomplish even when pushed to our limit we felt unbeatable. First half was a dull affair for all that pompous attitude we'd brought upon us. Second half would bring more highlights on the other hand. 

 David Costas soared the highest following the confusion created by a precise corner from Rufino. 1-0. 

Ten minutes later it would once again start with Rufino's corner precision. This time not as precise though but still, chaos ensued and the ball ended some way outside of the box. Here Asensio was ready to fire a bullet.

 In the last 10 minutes of the game Valencia really showed teeth as they pushed forward. Suddenly the had reduced our lead. José Gayá with a shot from very far out as he was chasing a missplaced pass heading for the sideline. Domenech doesn't look too good on this one.

Luckily we had the coolness to close out the game despite Valencia taking control of possesion.

The last game of this brutal month was a game against Málaga, a game that seems easier on paper than any of the other fixtures we'd been through. 

But at half time we weren't in the lead. We were actually a bit shocked I'd say. 2-2 was the score and we'd looked really clumsy at both of their scores and it was only due to Silveira's coolness in front of goal and Rufino's class winger-work that we'd scored.

7

Impressive from Silveira to be that quick off the mark though.

Second half would prove to be a very different performance from us without regard to our first half struggles. 2-6 would be the final score. Silveira x3, Ignacio Gómez x2, David Costa x1 and Rufino with 4 assists. Incredible showing in second half.

Standing tall we passed through January.

 

The league looks good now too.

 

[Benjoe]

The remainder of our season actually looks really good.

Not a lot of top teams left in here. A trip to Estadio de Madrid and a visit from Sevilla and Real. That's basically all I really fear. I know were going to lose stupid points against the others - were not that sublime but I don't fear them. Köln shouldn't be the biggest threat either as we stole their best player. We'll see what they got ready for us.

[Benjoe]

In the dying hours of the English transfer window Man Udt got dangerously close to triggering Ignacio's RC. I'm glad they didn't. I have no idea how we would have replaced him and his value in our pursuit of CHL positions and contending for the title. Add to that, that the transfer would have happened AFTER the Spanish window had already closed, so we'd have to find a replacement from within straight away. Luckily that isn't necessary now.

The registration messed up for the Euro Cup, however. As I was trying to registrate there were problems seeing some of the players and it wouldn't go away even after reloading. After spending way too much time I decided to hit auto and hope for the best. Who was left out? Oh, just Marco Asensio...  At least Iago Aspas got registrated and as we couldn't get a decent fee for Sergio Canales we also have him on our books too. We have an immense off firepower for that AMC position.

[Benjoe]

Köln clearly had a lot ready for us..

[Benjoe]

Phew. 

[Benjoe]

So my attempt to make Luis adopt Rico's professional personality, sadly. 

That is not hindering his development, it would  seem. Getting along really nicely. He's gotten 17 games in total so far this season with an avg of 6.93. I think that's very much acceptable. 

[Benjoe]

Ouch. 

And we are so unstable...

[Benjoe]

This is what all our training accumulates to.

 

[Benjoe]

4 injuries in a draw against 13th placed Numancia just a week before our international games against Real.. 

[Benjoe]

I completely forgot to talk about the last days of the transfer window!

Aside from the players who joined the 4th of January, who I've already shown, I ended up buying a further 3 players. Let's start with the prospect.

Ramón has good anticipation and decisions and I like that in a defender. He still has some parts of his game that needs work and he is already 23 so I might not see him improve significantly but for just 325K I felt it would be worth the gamble. He hasn't gotten his debut yet but we're only 2 injuries in defence away from seeing him start. As we bought Ramón I felt it was a good chance to loan out Alain Calle.

We also got the chance to bring back Hugo Mallo who I had the pleasure of having as RB for my first 2 seasons with Celta. 2.9M was Milans price to let him return, a price I gladly paid. He is rotating as RB with Javi Manquillo and I've also tested him as a CM(D)/DLP(D) in midfield mostly with succes. 

And here comes the legend!

Iago is back. He's aged 4 years since we last saw him in the skyblue jersey and he might not be the same player completely but he still got some very decent attributes for a 33 year old. It was mostly for sentimental reasons that I paid the ridiculously low 170K to Everton to get him back. He won't be cutting the line to get ahead of our younger guys but he'll rotate and get games from time to time. It's good to have him back no matter the outcome of his homecoming.

Of outgoing transfers we had a few:

A lot of these guys were unhappy with lacking game time and I just didn't want to prioritize them as opposed to my younger guys or homecoming own academy players like Hugo Mallo. Therefore this bunch left and I think we're going to be fine. We might lack some depth but we have a lot of young players ready to get their chance to prove themselves. I didn't care to push the prize to the highest. Our finances are fine, and I don't spend huge amounts on transfers so I'd rather just cut the deadwood quickly. Makes for a smoother transition in this situation. 

[Benjoe]

Visiting Bernabeu in the Euro Cup 2nd Knockout Rnd 1st leg

Heading into the first game we felt pressured. Pressured to prove ourselves. During my tenure we had never gotten past the 2nd knockout phase of any international tournament. Olympique Lyonnais defeated us with 7-1 on aggregate back in 16/17, and last season we fell at the feet of Olympiakos. Now we've been drawn up against league rivals Real Madrid, who incidentally gave us a 3-0 beating just a couple months ago. As if this weren't causing enough disstress we would be without Rufino, Javi Manquillo, Iago López and Pablo Silveira for the first leg. Seeing as our registration for the tournament messed up Asensio wouldn't be able to face his former club either. As we knew Madrid would come flying with a lot of strong attacking moves we wanted to play a three-man midfield that would support offense but mostly stay compact and help our defensive players. We ended up adjusting our 4-1-4-1 into a 4-3-2-1 moving our DM into midfield and pushing our wingers up a notch. As we did this we gave support and defend instructions to our fullbacks and midfield players and told our wingers to help build up play as they needed to occasionally drop back and get possesion. As injuries had stricken our team we also had problem finding players who were completely fit and would be able to run the entire match. Our search had to delve into our u19s where we found Dani Olmos who would get his debut as he'd play a supporting midfield role. Next to 17-year old Olmos we would have another 17-year old, who joined our ranks the same season as Olmos. Luis Fernández. Quite a young and inexperienced midfield to throw at the Lions that was Madrid. We didn't plan on controlling the game or even venture forward that much. We just wanted to survive and these guys were diligent players to have in midfield.

Starting XI's

Real Madrid's Players

Spoiler

Celta Vigo's Players

Spoiler

 

As the game started we quickly felt the pressure from Madrid's dangerous offense, but we dropped deep, and we stayed that way. They couldn't drag us out of our shape and after the first ten minutes you could already feel their frustrations as they took one long shot after the other. 

11 minutes into the game Ignacio Gómez made a clever pass cutting through defence and Garciá cam running for it. At the farpost we had Ibaibarr and sprinting to the box we had Dani Olmos.  

Garciá received the ball and quickly sent it towards the penalty spot where Olmos had ended his sprint.

Olmos first timed a shot...

And it's good! Perfect finish from the debutant! 

Five minutes later Madrid pushed on again.

Following a corner Toni Kroos crossed the ball.

Samir was standing ready to receive the well placed cross and slammed it towards the farpost!

Hugo Mallo was standing ready and Domenech came flying for the ball.

Domenech missed the ball but Hugo was composed as he slammed the ball out of the box.

The rest of first half ended with a compact defence from us and frustrated offense from Madrid.

Second half was much the same. Madrid rarely came through on goal and their long shots were no threat to Domenech. Late in the second half Iago Aspas, who'd just came as a sub, had the biggest chance of the game as Levin Öztunali made a bad defensive header. 

 

But Iago missed a huge chance to score.. 

 

The game ended with a 0-1 victory!

If it isn't a beautiful story to have a 17-year old debutant, who was born in Vigo and supports Celta Vigo, to score the winning goal against Madrid... then I don't know what is. 

 

[Benjoe]

The first title was **** so I wanted something new. Couldn't come up with something. New title is result of that.

 

 

[Benjoe]

Real Madrid visit Balaídos in the Euro Cup 2nd Knockout Rnd 2nd leg

Leading up to the return we were confident that we could do the same at home. Stay back, frustrate Real and then slam them on transitions. Therefore we sticked to the 4-3-2-1. The only major changes came due to annoying injuries. Carles Planas and Vallejo went down the day before the game. No worries, Gerardo Prieto and David Costas were ready to take their spots. 

Starting XI's

As the referee whistled the first whistle of the game we started our tactical gameplan and fell deep into our own half. Soon we realised that Real Madrid's players weren't pushing forward. Where they scared of our strong counter attacks or did they want to lure us into a trap? I decided not to alter the tactics and allowed my players to play the game the way we planned and practised. 

After 5 minutes play we had the first chance as Toni Ibaibarr and Hugo Mallo combined from the side line.

  

Having played a cunning one-two with Hugo Ibaibarr found himself with a lot of space and confidently decided to take the shot!

  

Sadly Vardin was calm as he caught the tame finish.

10 minutes later Canales decided to reveal he has eyes in the back as he received the ball with back to the goal. 

He takes one touch and instantly turns with the ball and passes in the same motion. Gerardo Prieto had already taken a optimistic run into open space and Canales knew this.

  

Prieto found himself through on goal but as he is no goalgetter and was getting closed down by Varane, would he be able to get a precise finish off in time?

He would. But sadly it just barely grazed the crossbar and went out for goalkick.

Just 8 minutes later Hugo Mallo and Toni Ibaibarr decided to combine on the right flank again.

  

Hugo Mallo somehow got past Carvajal after some tremendous fumbling skills. Ibaibarr had taken a similarly dangerous position as earlier in the game. Hugo had spotted this.

  

Ibaibarr decides to take one touch and slams it towards goal. 

  

And it's good! Verdin is chanceless as it goes off the post and in! 2-0 up on aggregate, and we end the first half. Shot statistic read 10/6 to our favor and Madrid's chances have been toothless.

Second half starts the same way. Madrid has some long shots but they don't bother and only once they get through on goal but it was offside. 

In the 65th minute Ignacio lobs a near perfect through ball over the defensive line to Iago Aspas who had made a clever run. The ball hits the ground once and then he hits it on the volley!

The volley hits Verdin and despite being over the rebound quickly with a new finish it gets saved once again. Commotion ensued but in the end the ball was sent away.

We weren't finished creating big chances as Ignacio decided to hammer a shot at goal. 

  

The shot was hard, precise and flat. A difficult shot to save but Verdin managed to get it parried to the side. Unlucky, 'cus Ibaibarr had sniffed blood.

  

And he was cold-blooded as he finished off the encounter with his second score.

Real Madrid had nothing to offer. 

Bon voyage.

[Benjoe]

It's the 17th of March in-game so I'm close to the youth intake since it happens sometime in March, but I don't know when I get it and when I have time to write about it. For now, league table is all I can give. And it looks good!

[Benjoe]

Sixth Youth Intake year 2021

So, it turns out, when I left for work earlier today I was on the exact date the YI would arrive, I just hadn't advanced enough. But now it's finally here! Having just brought in new staff, thereof a new HoyD, and having some nice affiliates I am eager to see how it went this season. Will we get a new Ignacio or Silveira or maybe even a defensive anchor? 

Looking at the announcement it looks both promising and worrying. Promising as we see some local Vigo boys, some exotic players from affiliates in Mexico and Ivory Coast, a not so exotic german from Chemnitz and 3 Brits probably picked up due to my manager being British Emile Heskey. 

No more fumbling around. Let's see the youngsters!

Spoiler

Ahhh.. sod it. 

Guess it wasn't the right choice. Chuti was good and reliable. He always provided something. This.. I think it's the worst YI since I got here, at least from just looking at this screen. 

Well. Maybe it looks better when looking at the players. Let's start with some of the worst rated players who still have interest.

He can run a lot. Can't do much else. ****e technique and is a CAM. Nah.. Concentration at 2, Positioning 4, Off The Ball 4, Technique 4... BALANCE AT 2?! Combine all his stats and what do you get? A talentless German who can feck back to Chemnitz. You know what?

What have you ever given us - except for chlamydia that one summer? Nothing. Goodbye or should I say, Hasta la vista ****s!

So.. Where do we go from here? 

Let's go look at another regen from an affiliate.

Durán Durán from Mexico! Whoooo a player who can throw the ball like a handball player! And he actually has nice physical stats too. I kinda appreciate his stats. He is quite average at everything. But apparently no potential. We'll see. Mexican affiliate, you bueno enough.

We got ourselves a big ****ing British defender! Will he become anywhere near good enough? Not certain, not even sure he can run 10 metres without fainting due to his horrible stamina.

Narvaez might be able to develop into a mediocre at best Limited Full Back. But hey, that ain't so bad necessarily. We don't have many fullbacks coming through so maybe he is worth a shout.

Anxo Soñora with the delicate name. He actually looks really good! 2½ * PA must be a joke. He got thhe makings of being a great full back here! I really like him actually and we have no other youngsters except for Adama Sylla from last year, but he doesn't look as good at his age as Anxo does. 

This guy might become a decent striker, but we have some way to get there. He is good at finishing but lacks the technique and first touch combined with mental attributes to really excel even at this age, but his physical side looks good although week. 

Quick and can cross. Nothing much else to say. Decent decision making though. 

I like Birch's mental attribute by and large. He is decent technical and physically as well. Not too shabby this guy. 

He is quite okay. I'm not blown away, but he is not bad! He is technically quite good, and quick enough at this age. He could become something but is behind the line of a lot of talented strikers. 

 I've quoted the third post in this thread with players who've come through the intakes throughout these 6 seasons. Some nice changes with a lot of the players.

On 6/9/2016 at 00:35, Benjoe said:

A Fábrica - The Factory

Here you'll be able to find all the talents that come through our own academy, which I very creatively have chosen to call 'A Fábrica'. And a factory is exactly what I want our academy to become. I want it to just spit out talent left and right, that the youth staff will then be able to form until I decide it's time for their chance in the first team. I'll update it annually when we take in new youth players. This post will only contain screenshots of the players that are in any way interesting This post will contain screenshots of all the players who have come through our academy and I will keep track of their development, wether at our club or another, however all talk about the players will be in specific 'academy players' posts in the future. 

Sometimes I will, however, stop updating a certain player as some of them are very untalented and no longer with us. 

 

 

Real players from day one:

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Alexis Alejandro Fernández

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November 2016

April 2017

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Carlos Pérez

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November 2016

April 2017

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Pablo Salgueiro

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November 2016

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April 2018 

Martín Fuentes

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November 2016

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Luca Giovanella

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November 2016

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April 2019

May 2020
https://gyazo.com/c8b0512b059c97d53af2ccd5a47652ac

Javier Sanmartín

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Oscar Martinez

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José Sobrido

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First batch of regens 2016

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Factors

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HoYD

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Club Reputation

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Last League Position

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8th. place 2014/2015 

European Adventure year before

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None.

 

Daniel Miguel Nevado

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November 2016

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Hugo Arbelo

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Iago López

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Antonio José

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Iago De la Cruz

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Pablo Sáez

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Javier Calvo

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Second batch of regens 2017

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HoYD

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None.

 

Gabriel

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April 2017

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Saúl Álvarez

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Jonathan Sánchez

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Dani Conde

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Sergio

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Mario

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Ignacio Gómez

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Souleymane Dao

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Xurxo Bouza

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Third batch of regens 2018

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HoYD

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Last League Position

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European Adventure year before

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Champions League Group Stage: 3rd Place, Europa League Second Knockout Round.

 

José Ignacio

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April 2018

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Juan Francisco Acevedo

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José Luis

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Rogello

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Adrían

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José Luis Huertas

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Pablo Muñiz

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Fourth Batch of Regens 2019

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None. 

 

Hugo Méndez

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April 2019

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Francisco

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Tomás Aquilué

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Pablo Silveira

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Fifth Batch of Regens 2020

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Increased by half a star since 2019

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None. 

 

Adama Sylla

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May 2020

 

Luis Fernández

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Hugo Paz

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Dani Olmos

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Lee Forster

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May 2020
    

 

[BoxToBox]

Birch, Lamelas, Romero and especially Sonora look like they could well outdo their current predicted potential

[Benjoe]

Our road to the final has been drawn up! 

Anderlect should be possible to defeat, but we tend to struggle against the smaller teams and beat the big teams I find. 

Their squad doesn't look to threatening and considering how many talented Belgians we see irl I'm surprised that Anderlect only have 2 Belgians in the entire first team squad - and one of them is a 32 year old Steven Defour who is retiring. 

[Benjoe]

2 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Birch, Lamelas, Romero and especially Sonora look like they could well outdo their current predicted potential

Completely agree. Sonora is really a treat to get although he is no David Alonso.

Also thanks for the comment, mate! 

[Benjoe]

Our wonderkid, Ignacio has already broken through to the NT-first team!

He is really coming along nicely. His composure and Technique are slowly rising even further due to focusing on it and his physical attributes just keeps on rising. Massive player. 

This trio is also returning and immediately Rufino is thrown into the NT's games. And is MOM.

All in all we had Vallejo, Rufino, Ignacio, Asensio and future Celta player Mateo González with the Spanish NT. Not bad.  

Edit:

It was also Asensio's first NT-cap of course.

[Benjoe]

Early April Update

We haven't lost in what seems like ages.

And it shows on the League table.

I'm starting to believe it! We might be able to pull it off. Despite our holding midfielder being 17 year old Luis Fernandez as I sold about 3 holding midfielders in the same window. What these guys are doing is incredible. Ignacio just keeps on performing as well.

We are also almost completely out of injuries as we head into the closing stages of the season. 

 

This looks as a fairly reasonable set of fixtures. I don't understand why the colors on the skin keeps changing from blue to red and red to blue, however. Confusing. (I mean the color for euro cup games. Sometimes it is blue as seen above, sometimes it's red as seen last time i posted about fixtures)

 

[Benjoe]

Honestly I got no clue why the kid is apparently the leading contender. He's been above average but not by a lot. 

He is coming along nicely though but he needs to improve his heading. I am sick and tired of watching him head any cross either at the crossbar or wide of the post. His mental game is getting strong and he is strong in general too so I like him still. If his technique rises a bit he can be fierce as well with his finishing and first touch.

Pablo isn't necessarily better but he is a different type who fits our game in other fixtures. When we dominate possesion and use wide players and cross a lot to open space I like Bouza, but Silveira is more dangerous when we have some open space to chase from the start.

 

Ignacio is the quick and enduring striker who is a good technician but lacks some coolness. Therefore I prefer the other two guys as striker for most games and having seen the succes Ignacio has on the flanks I see no reason to permanently move him central again. Even when he doesn't assist or score he gets a 9.0 rating. 

All three also from our own academy! 

Later (or tomorrow) I might talk about some of our midfielder talents and our defensive players and my future plans for most of our academy players. 

Ignacio and Rufino also in the mix for Player of the Year.

 

 

[BoxToBox]

That's some academy production!

Gotta love the big man, despite his dribbling he's quite technically gifted.

[Benjoe]

1 hour ago, BoxToBox said:

That's some academy production!

Gotta love the big man, despite his dribbling he's quite technically gifted.

Yes it's been quite good - especially producing lots of talented strikers - a bit too many for a one-stiker formation to be honest.

He really is gifted, yes. He just needs to consistently score but I am really considering having a two-striker formation as a backup as both he and Silveira performed better personally when they were playing off each other. Problem what the rest of the team struggled. Maybe I can find some golden middleway. 

[BoxToBox]

Some kind of trident of those three has got to be the base of a monster setup.

[Benjoe]

8 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Some kind of trident of those three has got to be the base of a monster setup.

I agree, I just need to find the right combination and formation.

If we didn't have good wingers as the likes of Rufino and Ibaibarr I'd probably gone with a narrow diamond with 2 strikers. Maybe Rufino and Ibaibarr could actually fit somewhere in the diamond.  

[Benjoe]

Eh.. What? 

 

[BoxToBox]

Jesus what the hell happened there?!

[Benjoe]

3 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Jesus what the hell happened there?!

All that really was different was that all 3 of Vallejo, Rufino and Ibaibarr were injured for the last 2 games but that is no excuse. I tried nothing new concerning tactics and didn't expect this to happen.

If we lost a third in a row now it'll really be a sad way to celebrate my 300th game. 

[Benjoe]

10 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

All that really was different was that all 3 of Vallejo, Rufino and Ibaibarr were injured for the last 2 games but that is no excuse. I tried nothing new concerning tactics and didn't expect this to happen.

If we lost a third in a row now it'll really be a sad way to celebrate my 300th game. 

We have hit the biggest slump of the season, at the worst time possible.

5 games left. Valencia are 5p ahead of us, we are likewise 5p ahead of Barcelona sitting in third. We'll see what we can do with the last 3 games..

[Benjoe]

tT

This nightmare won't end.