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[FM17] A Journeyman Story: Knocking José Mourinho Off His Perch


noikeee

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February-March 2021
 
 
I loaned out left-back Aleksa Amanovic, and terminated the loans of Achraf el Bouchataoui and Lutsharel Geertruida who weren't getting any game time.
 
 
Competitions
 
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My first win as Twente manager came over Groningen, we scored two early goals but still had to suffer after conceding one. However, we wouldn't concede at home vs Utrecht - our first clean sheet of the season in the league, in round 23!!! Granted, we didn't win the match, but at least that was a positive. Then there were two highly difficult matches, away at Vitesse and AZ, the top 2 in the table. We did magnificently getting a point at Vitesse and beating AZ with a spectacular 2nd half turnaround.
 
Upcoming matches vs NEC and De Graafschap were a great opportunity to get moving as both are teams around us in the table. Frustratingly, we tied both matches - at home. And then it was 3 draws in a row as we went to Eindhoven to get a late equaliser vs PSV, definitely a better result.
 
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This is better but not great neither. At least we're not losing (and we've had some really tough fixtures, away at 3 of the top 4). The bad news is we're not winning much either. We seem to have built a nice 7 points buffer over the relegation zone, so that's a net positive already over the situation we were in when I arrived, however there doesn't seem to be much potential for climbing further in the 6 remaining fixtures.
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Youth intake 2021
 
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This clearly isn't the Nacional talent factory but it's not too terrible neither. The keeper Johannes Tempo looks like this year's serious highlight - he's perhaps a little level below what I had with Matteo Roberto in Nacional, a superb keeper prospect, but I think he could still be a potential future starter for us?
 
I'm quite a fan of Rutten too but he needs a personality brainwash.
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1 hour ago, Rikulec said:

How is Klich doing for you so far?

Underwhelming. Looked my best midfielder on paper, had the best ratings in the team prior to my arrival, but has been utterly unremarkable for me.

And he's 30, too. I'd seriously consider getting rid of him if I didn't have other 3 or 4 midfielders I'd rather get rid of first.

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2 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Underwhelming. Looked my best midfielder on paper, had the best ratings in the team prior to my arrival, but has been utterly unremarkable for me.

And he's 30, too. I'd seriously consider getting rid of him if I didn't have other 3 or 4 midfielders I'd rather get rid of first.

Ouch, that doesn't sound good. Hope he'll be able to find some form for you.

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14 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

No worries about the clean sheets - remember, you can't lose if you outscore your opponent!

And we don't lose often, it's true! The problem is we don't win often either.. 

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Just caught up with this. The bug in Uruguay was a bit devastating, but you did a magnificent job out there. Twente looks a good move, even if they were in the sticky stuff when you took over. A decent summer window and you'll be in the European hunt next year. :thup:

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1 hour ago, withnail316 said:

Just caught up with this. The bug in Uruguay was a bit devastating, but you did a magnificent job out there. Twente looks a good move, even if they were in the sticky stuff when you took over. A decent summer window and you'll be in the European hunt next year. :thup:

I need a very decent summer window... season review coming soon.

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April-May 2021
 
 
Competitions
 
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We were back to wins and continuing our long unbeaten run with a 4-1 smashing of Cambuur, my biggest win so far. This was great but the contrast to the next match couldn't be any steeper - humiliated 0-3 away at Heerenveen. A disappointing 0-0 goalless home draw with Heracles then preceeded another defeat, this time to Ajax, so rather more understandable. The good news is we had mathematically clinched survival. The bad news is that now the teams ahead and pulled away and we had to make with a lowly 13th at best. Striker Wout Weghorst came back from an injury that stopped him for most of my time at the club here, to score a brace away at NAC that marked my 4th Eredivisie win, before scoring again in the absolutely insane show we put for our fans in the final day: 4-4 draw with Feyenoord!
 
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At the end, I managed to finish the season 5 points ahead of danger, which is a small improvement over the 2 points gap we had when I arrived... but certainly not spectacularly so. We also only climbed 2 positions on the table. Most alarmingly, after averaging out my points per match since I arrived, over the whole season, it would've just barely been enough for... 12th place.
 
I have a lot of work to do here. I look at my entire squad, and I'm happy with probably about 2 players. The main issue is probably the lack of suitable holding midfielders which can put pressure on the opposition, regain the ball quickly and let us camp on the opposition area. We also do not have truly gifted attackers that can cause damage on the counter. Our wingbacks, even after hiring 1 for each wing, are not performing at a high enough level neither. And then there's our defence... dear god. 3 clean sheets in 34 league matches.
 
My hope is that I can start sorting things out properly by resorting to the transfer market, now that I have a good idea of what to expect of my players (read: not much). But there's an uphill battle here. It's not even entirely inconceivable that I could quickly jump ship to something else, although I now have some signings lined up already and am preparing the next season.
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Season review 2020/21
 
A pretty poor season for Twente, finishing on the bottom half of the table and also having an early cup exit, before my mid-season arrival. The 38 points total is the club's lowest ever since the Eredivisie runs on 3 points per win, although the club has repeated the 13th place recently twice, in 2015/16 and 2017/18.
 
 
4.3M€ in the bank and we've just dropped from "Secure" to "Okay". We also have a cripling 22.72M€ debt remaining, to be paid through the next 4 years at the asphixiating rate of 454K€/month(!!).
 
 
Statistics, best 11, and top 5 players of the season
 
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Statistics include the entire season of course, and not just my time at the club, which will explain why my picks for best players aren't very correlated to the average ratings.
 
5. Matheus Padilha (WBL, DL) - This is a bit hard to pick 5 players. The Brazilian wingback appeared to be the least crap of my signings and got 3 assists in 14 matches.
 
4. Blessing Eleke (ST) - Top scorer! It was just 10 goals, but still. Often useless.
 
3. Pelle van Amersfoort (AMC, MC, ST) - 4 goals and 4 assists during my time at the club. Hey, it's SOMETHING. He was very good on occasion, but those occasions were fleeting.
 
2. David Jensen (GK) - Not entirely faultless for the comical defending stats, but this impressive Danish keeper actually did quite well on average through my time at the club, despite being annoyed for a while that I blocked a move to Ajax.
 
1. Mike van der Hoorn (DC) - Our defence was horrendous and my pick for player of the year is a centre-back? What is going on? I don't know neither. He did very well on average, despite the Benny Hill theme playing on loop in the minds of his 2 CB partners (including to my dismay, the hugely promising - on paper only - 19 year old Wim de Jong).
 
 
Mourinho watch
 
Uh-oh, I've got problems. Mourinho won something! Just the League Cup, but still. Most alarmingly, he's in the Europa League final too, and has an outside chance of overtaking Wenger's glorious Arsenal in the final Premier League day (yes you read that right). I feel under pressure and am too afraid to press continue and witness my gap in the Hall of Fame records increase further.
 
 
 
Career progress table
 
Season   League                  Cups                              Continental                    Other
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Central Español (Uruguay)
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2016     Segunda Div - 4th       
2017     Segunda Div - 1st                                                                        Champions, promoted
2018     Camp. Uruguayo - 2nd (Ap. 4th, Int. finalists, Cl. 3rd)                                  Qualified for Libertadores
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Nacional (Uruguay)
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2019     Camp. Uruguayo - 1st (Ap. 4th, Int. Grps 2nd , Cl. 1st)   Libertadores 1st Pre. Rnd      Lost Champions Playoff
2020     Camp. Uruguayo - 1st (Ap. 2nd, Int. winners, Cl. 1st)     Libertadores winners           League+Int+Libertadores treble
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Twente (Netherlands)
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2020/21  Eredivisie - 13th                                                                        Joined in December

 

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Oh, by the way, yes, Vitesse winning the league followed by PEC Zwolle in 2nd place (!!????) is very strange.

The Eredivisie is going through a strange period. Heerenveen were champions last season.

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23 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

It's already 14th on mine, and I'm in the 2nd season.

:\

The general level around the league just isn't what I was expecting. Even still, we managed to be worse than the average!

20 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

You think you're feeling the pressure, but Mourinho is ****ing himself watching you build the foundations at Twente. He can hear the footsteps.

That's the spirit!

5 hours ago, DB08 said:

Just can't believe Mourinho has lasted at a single club for so long. :D

Indeed! Unrealistic! Sort it out SI!

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1 minute ago, noikeee said:

:\

The general level around the league just isn't what I was expecting. Even still, we managed to be worse than the average!

I thought it would be much higher too. Still, one season later and we jumped up to 9th, so I bet in that region below the top 5-6 countries it's very close.

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June-July 2021 - Pre-season transfers
 
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I don't know where to begin. Just... everyone came and went. I shopped for a new team and basically sold everyone. There's 14 new signings plus I recalled a guy that was out on loan last season (centre-back Peet Bijen). The outgoing transfers don't include all the loans we had last year that I decided not to renew, too. Oh and I'm still trying to get rid of more players. And I hired and sacked a whole lot of staff.
 
So here's my 14 signings. *takes a deep breath*
 
 
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New backup keeper.
 
 
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A better backup keeper.
 
 
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Has "fairly inconsistent" trait which I avoid as much as possible, and isn't as technically gifted as I like my CBs to be, but with some serious potential at the age of 20 he looks one of my best signings.
 
 
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Contrary to Liçaj this is a more well rounded defender, although lacks the spectacularly gifted skills of the younger Austrian. I think Gonçalves is slightly ahead in the pecking order, he looks a grown up player already.
 
 
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First of 4 new loans. He doesn't quite fit the CWB role that well, but was too good to pass up and is now rated as the best player in my squad (4* of CA). I've found that sometimes immense pace like this can be even more effective at dribbling than dribbling.
 
 
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First of 2 Portuguese right-backs that I intend to play as WBR. Far too cheap to pass up.
 
 
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And here's the other one. Although this guy is on much higher wages, I think it was worth it selling all our RWBs and turning it into an all-Portuguese position.
 
 
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Yet another Portuguese. This guy might play less than the other 3, he was a bit of a hopeful punt for MC/DM but perhaps not quite at the level I need.
 
 
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This more experienced Brazilian looks slightly superior. First choice on paper now for holding midfielder (either DLP/D or CM/S in the 3-4-2-1, or the DM/D in the 3-3-2-2). He can also do a decent job at attacking.
 
 
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Another potential holding midfielder, on loan, he could be even better (my staff don't think so), the only problem are the PPMs which I don't think quite fit him - I hired him before knewing them.
 
 
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On a more attacking note, I am seriously pumped up to see this guy playing for us in competitive matches. He's only on loan from Santos but I did manage to sneak in a 3.6M€ future fee if he plays as good as he looks like (although I'm not sure I can raise the money).
 
 
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Onto the forwards and here's my final loan. He looks IMMENSE on paper. The problem is, just before I hired him my scouts found out he was "very inconsistent" - a massive red flag for me. I toot the gamble anyway, and he also has a 6M€ future fee option, although I really really don't think we have the money.
 
 
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Hey, look who I am managing again! I tried - believe me, I tried - to bring all the best Nacional players, but Nacional wants a ton of cash for all of them. The best I could get was the biggest future prospect - the leader of class of '19. I probably still overpaid though: he's my most expensive signing at 1.3M€. And he still needs to improve his finishing.
 
 
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Kind of arrived on the same package as Acosta, as my scouts found in South America available on a free. This is one forward too many but I suppose on a free he won't hurt.
 
 
This means our squad has very little resemblance to last season's:
 
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I certainly think all the new faces has made us a step better in theory, but I still see a few potential issues. For example, whilst we now have 6 good forwards, none of the 6 looks a truly excellent, fully developed, reliable talent that could make the difference for us.
 
Board wants a top half finish - I think I can go along with that for my expectations. I'm thinking we'll probably be fighting for the lower positions in the top 10, perhaps making an outside bid for European positions. My main concern for now is to try to get all these new players gelling together, and avoid any early season problems arising from that, that could drag morale down for later.
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14 hours ago, noikeee said:

I've found that sometimes immense pace like this can be even more effective at dribbling than dribbling.

I've noticed this as well, especially for wide players that don't have to dribble in tight spaces. Basically, "knock ball pass opponent". Although sometimes, I have my wingbacks push the ball too far goal kicks. :lol:

Good signings though

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45 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

I've noticed this as well, especially for wide players that don't have to dribble in tight spaces. Basically, "knock ball pass opponent". Although sometimes, I have my wingbacks push the ball too far goal kicks. :lol:

I'm teaching him that PPM from the very beginning!

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August-September 2021
 
 
The transfer mess continues, as 3 South Americans left and 1 arrived. Centre-back Oidel Pérez was sold for 925K€, making it a total 10M€ profit in sales this season, whilst youngsters Gustavo Palacios and Enrique Gallardo went on loan to gain some experience. Meanwhile, I hired this guy on loan too:
 
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I'd been following him since my Uruguay days - as I noticed Chelsea poached him from Fénix then loaned him to my then rivals Peñarol. He is quite simply a fantastic holding midfielder.
 
 
Competitions
 
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The league started with a hugely promising 3-1 win over Go Ahead but that would be a fleeting feel-good moment. PSV destroyed us in the next match even if we hadn't quite deserved such a defeat, and then we squandered two winnable ties at home, the 2-2 vs De Graafschap particularly frustrating as we were 2-0 up then witnessed our former forward Enis Bunjaki, who I just sold, score twice to equalize... As if this wasn't bad enough, we again let the opposition take away our points from a leading position as Sparta turned around a 1-0 to a 1-2.
 
This all further threatened to get worse as we went to Utrecht and found ourselves losing 2-1 midway through the 2nd half.. we tied and then out of nowhere, got the winner in the 92nd minute! It still wasn't the pivotal turnaround moment as we were on the reverse position in the next match - allowing a 87th minute winner to go through to defeat us.
 
The real pivotal moment came in a lesser fixture - a cup tie vs Den Bosch which we easily won 3-0 (our first clean sheet of the season...). Spurred on by a sudden patch of great form by loanee Glauco Fischer who we just agreed to sign permanently, the Brazilian kid went to repeat the fantastic performance away against Eindhoven and against NEC - we ran clear winners 2-0 and 3-0, and suddenly climbed to 6th in the table.
 
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I was starting to get some seriously bad vibes here but I think we're past the worst already and starting to look good. I figured something out that I think made the difference - I started playing on a slightly modified version of my 4-3-1-2 (which used to be the plan C) most matches. The reason is here in Holland almost everyone plays a 4-2-3-1, and whilst I remember occasionally facing this in Uruguay and not having any special problems, it's not been the case here with my usual 3-at-the-back tactics. The 2nd and 3rd centre-backs mark nobody whilst the opposition throws attacking fullbacks at us, and the whole thing capitulates starting from the wings. The diamond-esque 4-3-1-2 seems to fare much better.
 
The sudden amazing form of Glauco Fischer has helped, too. I think we've got a pretty special player here and I'm delighted to have activated our clause on him and agreed to sign him for good. He insisted on a 20M€ minimum fee clause but that's a rather decent fee actually. For now, the kid's our top scorer with 6 goals in 10 matches from the AMC position...
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Some nice signings! 

Especially liked the two Brazilians! At first sight Glauco looked like quite the catch and is fully living up to it! Good to get the deal sealed.

Also, nice with one of Nacional's products and Michel is quite the catch even on loan. 

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October-November 2021
 
 
Competitions
 
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We hosted Ajax in one of toughest matches of the season and capitulated after going down to 10 men with Nakayama sent off. Against Vitesse, reigning champions, we were a man down again with De Jong this time seeing 2 yellows but remarkably we beat them - Glauco Fischer scoring for the 5th consecutive match. We then decimated lower league UDI '19 6-0 in the cup before returning a very tough calendar in the league. However, we would not repeat the win over Vitesse, and would endure a sequence of very bad results. Home draw with Groningen (they were top of the table), away losses to Feyenoord and ADO, away draw with Heerenveen, home loss to AZ after being 2-1 up. That's 5 games without winning. Ouch.
 
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I'm in trouble, this is not good enough. The calendar was tough sure, and our attack is pretty acceptable, but I'm getting pretty sick of this monstruous amount of conceded goals. We've got the 2nd worst defensive record in the league. I'm starting to think the main culprit is the goalkeeper David Jensen. Our defenders aren't that good (in fact it looks the weakest part of the team in the "team comparison" screens) but every shot on target I'm shaking - the amount of them that go in is staggering, he barely keeps anything out. Right now he's our captain which complicates things, but I'm already looking at options to hire a new keeper in January.
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On 13/04/2017 at 01:57, Benjoe said:

Some nice signings! 

Especially liked the two Brazilians! At first sight Glauco looked like quite the catch and is fully living up to it! Good to get the deal sealed.

Also, nice with one of Nacional's products and Michel is quite the catch even on loan. 

Two Brazilians? I hired three. :D

I think you were talking about Romário the striker not Eurico the DM. Sadly Romário has proven hugely inconsistent (like my scout warned me) and doesn't play as good as he looks on paper.

The Uruguayan kids (the Nacional youngster Acosta, and the DM Michel Ruiz) aren't living up to it neither.

On 13/04/2017 at 08:51, Rikulec said:

Fischer looks really good. Certainly not the worst of starts altogether, good luck in the European push.

It's gotten worse now. :( 

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11 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Two Brazilians? I hired three. :D

I think you were talking about Romário the striker not Eurico the DM. Sadly Romário has proven hugely inconsistent (like my scout warned me) and doesn't play as good as he looks on paper.

The Uruguayan kids (the Nacional youngster Acosta, and the DM Michel Ruiz) aren't living up to it neither.

Haha, oh **** me - I like the look of all three! :D 

Good guess, I liked the look of Romário, sad to have him proving his inconsistency though. Eurico looks solid too. 

Damn. But both are young and might need time to settle. They have loads of potential so would surprise me if they don't soon start finding form. 

That league form looks dire. :( How the mighty have fallen too. From being last seasons second best player, David Jensen has quickly become the one to replace. 

Last thing. How about Wim de Jong? He looked really interesting last season, how's he doing as second fiddle this season?

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49 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

Haha, oh **** me - I like the look of all three! :D 

Good guess, I liked the look of Romário, sad to have him proving his inconsistency though. Eurico looks solid too. 

Damn. But both are young and might need time to settle. They have loads of potential so would surprise me if they don't soon start finding form. 

That league form looks dire. :( How the mighty have fallen too. From being last seasons second best player, David Jensen has quickly become the one to replace. 

Last thing. How about Wim de Jong? He looked really interesting last season, how's he doing as second fiddle this season?

Jensen's ratings are fine, I suspect they don't quite relate to how well he's really playing though. I tell my keepers to distribute to my CBs which inflates their passing % which inflates their ratings.

De Jong has strangely won his place back in the team in the last couple of weeks, since he looked awful last year. He's starting to play more like his potential but is still inconsistent sometimes. I just generally don't trust my back line.

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December 2021-January 2022
 
 
 
There was a bit of movement again, in order to raise some money for signings I let go 3 experienced players: striker Wout Weghorst, Polish midfielder Mateusz Klich, and centre-backs Peet Bijen and Mike van der Hoorn who had been my "player of the season" last year but had lost space this season. A lot of youngsters also went on loan. Meanwhile we completed the permanent signing of Glauco Fischer at a fee of 3,5M€, and recalled teenage forward Enrique Gallardo from loan, whilst also adding the following 3 players:
 
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At first look he doesn't look that amazing a keeper and inferior to David Jensen, however I've got reasons to place some good hopes on him - much higher agility, reflexes, slightly better handling, much lower eccentricity, and not as slow neither although still slow. I just think he can be a much better shot-stopper, was also fairly cheap at 1M€ for a promising 21 year old. However he's been out at the African Cup of Nations so I haven't tried him yet.
 
 
 
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I haven't had the chance to try him much neither and my staff don't like him but I think he can be a very solid CB if a bit slow.
 
 
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Kind of a last minute addition just to add depth to the squad after I sold Klich to raise money for the new keeper. He's promising but probably won't play much for us.
 
 
 
Competitions
 
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We went into the away match at Heracles on horrible form but it was as if something suddenly clicked and the month of December would be insanely good. 2-0 win at Heracles, 4-0 win at Go Ahead, and then that utterly ridiculous 8-1 win away at the Hague for the cup. What??? The run wasn't even over as we smashed another 4 past Sparta. Basically in November we had looked like a Sunday League side and now in December we were Barcelona.
 
On this incredible form it was probably bad timing that we went into the short winter break. We won all the friendlies but when we came back for the league we were surprised by Cambuur including a goal by our own player Gustavo Palacios who is there on loan. Continuing our theme of either being crap or amazing, we then smashed 4-1 past Ajax with an hat-trick by Enrique Gallardo (it was a good idea to recall him from loan...) to claim a place in the cup semi-finals!!! ... only to then throw away in the 85th minute a point vs De Graafschap, another 3 conceded goals, another highly dodgy performance by our keeper David Jensen, sigh.
 
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This season is becoming extra bizarre, we appear capable of being amazing, but not consistently so, and we're also now on the ridiculous situation of having the very best attack in the league, having broken the record for most goals in the cup too, and having the league's 7th worst defence. I really do hope the new Nigerian keeper can improve us. Meanwhile the good news is we're in the cup semi-finals, so there's some success in something this season, although we'll have to face reigning Dutch champions Vitesse away there.
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17 hours ago, noikeee said:

Jensen's ratings are fine, I suspect they don't quite relate to how well he's really playing though. I tell my keepers to distribute to my CBs which inflates their passing % which inflates their ratings.

De Jong has strangely won his place back in the team in the last couple of weeks, since he looked awful last year. He's starting to play more like his potential but is still inconsistent sometimes. I just generally don't trust my back line.

I was just referring to your own top 5 from last season, not to his ratings.

Hopefully he'll grow consistent over time. 

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2 hours ago, Benjoe said:

I was just referring to your own top 5 from last season, not to his ratings.

Hopefully he'll grow consistent over time. 

Well yeah he's not really been playing any different, I just kinda started watching my keeper more closely and changed my opinion.

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15 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Well yeah he's not really been playing any different, I just kinda started watching my keeper more closely and changed my opinion.

Haha, I know that feeling. In Celta I usually thought my keepers were solid, then I started noticing how they sometimes got saved by defenders and poor striking and decided to replace. 

The new GK-lad looks promising - just like his description! Good mentals, although short passing to defenders might prove tricky with passing of 1. :lol:

 

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38 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

The new GK-lad looks promising - just like his description! Good mentals, although short passing to defenders might prove tricky with passing of 1. :lol:

Ha, I didn't even notice. It's a bit of a recurring problem with regens (keepers with terrible passing) so that just registers as normal. :idiot:

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February-March 2022
 
Competitions
 
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Our inconsistent form continued. We beat Utrecht, but let a lead go vs PSV to lose at home, and then again vs NEC to concede a draw. Things looked bleak but we recovered with two excellent away wins - 3-1 at Zwolle and 3-2 at Ajax (we've had some great luck against Ajax this season!) with Eleke on fabulous form scoring an hat-trick then a brace.
 
The big cup semi-final was next but sadly we couldn't bother Vitesse and ended up losing 1-0, beaten by a late goal. We recovered again with a 2-0 win over FC Eindhoven, that guy Eleke scoring both goals, but we had a difficult calendar for this stretch of the season and lost 1-0 to both Feyenoord and Vitesse, in a repeat of the cup semi-final match.
 
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The results don't look great on paper with 4 defeats these 2 months, and I'm sad at losing the cup semi-final, but we're now past the worst part of the calendar and we've actually improved a little on the league table to a 7th place. 7th is exactly the last position that qualifies us to the European playoffs so reaching those playoffs is my goal now. Unfortunately we won't be counting with Glauco Fischer who has a damaged achilles tendon and will stop for 4 to 5 months, so that's very bad news, but he'd been on poor form recently anyway.
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Yeah, let's praise the guy that called you up now, and not the manager that trained you carefully from day 1 in Uruguay, broke the bank to bring you from Uruguay to the Netherlands, and keeps on giving you first team chances even through your several goal droughts.

#hurt #jealous

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April-May 2022
 
Competitions
 
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We still had a difficult fixture to complete our tough stretch, and that ended with a pretty heavy defeat, 1-3 at Groningen. I was now counting on the next 3 matches that were at home. The first went well, win over ADO Den Haag even if the goal only came very late. However, we wasted our chances for points as we lost to Heerenveen and failed to break down the Heracles bus for a disappointing 0-0 draw.
 
This put us in 8th place for the final match, with an outside chance of grabbing 7th - the final European playoff place - if we got a better result than Utrecht. Problem is they were hosting Zwolle - on a terrible season after last year's surprise 2nd place - whilst we went away to AZ who were fighting for the title. We kind of did our part managing to get a 2-2 draw which was a good result, however Utrecht and so did De Graafschap, who overtook us, so instead of climbing to 7th we dropped to 9th. Weirdly the draw with us was enough for AZ to overtake Feyenoord to the title.
 
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I'm disappointed with this finish, and overall not very happy with the season. I suppose 9th is a small improvement over last year's 13th but this club is capable of better.
 
My suspicion is the tactics we face in Holland - almost every match a 4-2-3-1 or sometimes a wide 4-3-3 (4-1-2-2-1), both with attacking fullbacks - are much better at picking apart my narrow setups by killing us from the flanks, than anything I faced in South America. I've done some limited progress trying to adapt my tactics, but am still a bit stuck. I could switch to something that would shut down the wings like a 4-1-4-1, but I've done that in previous careers, it was a bit boring, and it would force me to completely re-do my squad again to bring in wingers, too.
 
I could also move to some other club but I've put so much effort here, I'd be starting from zero again. I think for now I'll keep on insisting with this and hope I find a break.
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11 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

I often find the 3 at the back is a man wasted, especially against sides that are happy to stand off, leaving both teams at a stalemate.

I've already figured that out a while ago and switched permanently to the 4-3-1-2 earlier in this season, abandoning my 3-at-the-back variants. Problem is it leaks tons of goals. I've since tried to solve it by upping my defensive line (the theory is that by defending higher I leave less space for the opposition fullbacks to overlap, which I find the most dangerous thing against everyone in this league), but weirdly as soon as I did that I stopped scoring.

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0xZcq6N.png
 
Season review 2021/22
 
A slightly better but still unremarkable season for the club. 9th place in the Eredivisie is pretty much par for the course, whilst a run to the cup semi-finals was happier but not historical for a club that has won the competition 3 times.
 
 
We made money this season, up to 8.4M€ - a large reason was the massive clearout of players I did, which generated money in sales. Most of the players I hired to replace them were on frees.
 
 
Statistics, best 11, and top 5 players of the season
 
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You might notice I'm fielding my players in a 4-3-1-2 formation rather than the usual 3-4-1-2, because this is what I used most of the season.
 
5. Kôdai Nakayama (DL, WBL) - The 3 red cards were a huge pain, they were all early in the season and for accumulation of yellows which made me nervous all year long whenever he picked up a yellow, and he just can't defend, but 8 assists was a good return.
 
4. João Oliveira (DR, WBR) - The guy on the other wing also did well although there wasn't a clear difference between him and the other right-back Luís Pinheiro.
 
3. Wim de Jong (DC) - Finally starting to live up to his potential. A huge improvement over last year as he became my best defender.
 
2. Blessing Eleke (ST) - A great season by the Nigerian striker with 21 goals. Top scorer of the Eredivisie.
 
1. Glauco Fischer (AMC, MC) - He was on course for a superb season with some incredible performances early on, but then faded out with some incomprehensible poor performances, and then picked up a bad injury to stop him for a long time. Still, on average, 11 goals and 13 assists was a very good return for the AMC position.
 
Mourinho watch
 
I'm in massive trouble. At the time of writing Man Utd has mathematically won the Premier League AND is also on the Champions League final. Meanwhile I'm cruising around in Dutch league midtable.
 
Career progress table
 
Season   League                  Cups                              Continental                    Other
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Central Español (Uruguay)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016     Segunda Div - 4th       
2017     Segunda Div - 1st                                                                        Champions, promoted
2018     Camp. Uruguayo - 2nd (Ap. 4th, Int. finalists, Cl. 3rd)                                  Qualified for Libertadores
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nacional (Uruguay)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019     Camp. Uruguayo - 1st (Ap. 4th, Int. Grps 2nd , Cl. 1st)   Libertadores 1st Pre. Rnd      Lost Champions Playoff
2020     Camp. Uruguayo - 1st (Ap. 2nd, Int. winners, Cl. 1st)     Libertadores winners           League+Int+Libertadores treble
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twente (Netherlands)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020/21  Eredivisie - 13th                                                                        Joined in December
2021/22  Eredivisie - 9th        KNVB Beker semi-final

 

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On 16/04/2017 at 10:18, deltablue said:

Hopefully you can push on soon.

I hope so too! :D

I did most of pre-season last night. It's not quite been last year's crazy revolving door, but I've brought in 2 future superstars on loan, and the return of another of my former Nacional players.

I'm struggling to find another centreback though, I wanted to sign one.

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Last season awards. Fischer and Emeke seem popular despite our unremarkable season:

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Meanwhile, my quest to overtake Mourinho's career records has been further complicated after he grabbed the double and his 3rd Champions League trophy in this explosive tie, on the Bernabéu of all places to avenge his lack of European success at Real Madrid:

8PnpfAy.jpg

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