FM18: Athletic Club (Bilbao) - Los Leones

[bowieinspace]

 

Inigo Cordoba has been the most crazy surprise of this save for me...check out his form over the last few seasons. 

[dothestrand]

Wow, I loaned him a few times but knew he'd never get game time so sold him on. I should've started writing buy back clauses into player sales just in case they do well elsewhere and develop.

[Jean0987654321]

1 hour ago, dothestrand said:

Wow, I loaned him a few times but knew he'd never get game time so sold him on. I should've started writing buy back clauses into player sales just in case they do well elsewhere and develop.

He is pretty good. I also loaned him out. I just got too many guys that can play left wing. Hope he comes back next year improved

[OlivierL]

Most assist in la liga (ever) , best rating in la liga etc.. won almost every award.

 

Gave Garcia his last contract extension , updated Herrera

Sold Lekue for 10milj to burnley. I'll play Laporte as DL now , Balenziaga and/or Saborit as backup.

 

[Chappy2509]

A

 

Has you can see above Córdoba as been pritty good player for me took a while for him to make the spot is own but after 5 season iker Muniain moved on, and now he is my number 1 left winger.

jorge the goalkeeper and josu calvo come through my first youth intake with the golden generation tag and performing well 

[bowieinspace]

 

HE'S BACK! Monaco accepted my offer of 138million, which is 3 more than they paid for him last summer. Considering the central defence was a lot weaker without him, I'm pretty happy.

 

2021/22 Season Review:

La Liga - 1st place, 104 points, Goal difference of 93 (116 scored). Madrid scored 98 points and came second...bad luck boys

Champions League - Lost in the first KO round to PSG. It was one of those seemingly unstoppable situations where their manager nailed the half time team talk, and there's nothing you can do but watch the goals role in.

Copa Del Rey - Lost in SF (second string play the Copa Del Rey)

Supercopa - Lost vs Madrid

 

[dothestrand]

I had a bit of a volte-face in the way I play the game and decided that picking up u16 Spanish kids was playing liberties with the cantera policy. So I've sold on all those players. Most were way off first team football and luckily I was able to sell them to low La Liga or second division sides, so this may not bite me on the arse. Chacon, easily the most talented youngster, moved to Juventus. 

So why? Well we finished 2nd at the end of 2020-21 behind Real Madrid, won the Spanish Cup and made the SF of the CL. The game was starting to get a little too easy so time to make it more challenging. So Basque signings only from now on, no exploiting loopholes in the game. It's how I should have played from the start.

So signing players will be tough as there really are few first-team quality players. Again, offers for Oyazarbal will be accepted but be still won't move. We signed a young winger, Sergio Lasa from Sociedad for 5.25m. He may well be Williams' backup on the RW this season though he needs retraining.

A few other youngsters from our academy will play backup roles in the first team this season.

Fernandez (LB) and Munoz (AF) will also be around the first team too. We have 70m in the bank which is providing tough to spend!

[Chappy2509]

anders come through on the second youth intake and has formed a forbbidale partner ship with Laporte and the back

akinde was one of the u16 loophole buys cost me 1.2million and has gone on season to season has my box to box mid,

Nover player retraining to right winger having just sold a 31 inski williams for 51 million he has big boots to fill 

problem area for me in this save right back and full backs seem to never get any through 

[OlivierL]

Great la liga result(s) , bowie !

Just lost Villalibre in pre-season in the 5th season. After his great (topscorer, spanish international) 4th season , this will be a big blow ! 7 months out after a bad tackle on training.

[bowieinspace]

13 hours ago, Olivierlandman said:

Great la liga result(s) , bowie !

Just lost Villalibre in pre-season in the 5th season. After his great (topscorer, spanish international) 4th season , this will be a big blow ! 7 months out after a bad tackle on training.

Thanks Olivier! We were immense in the league all season, it's a shame we didn't back it up with a better performance in the Champions League.

To add some context to the Champions League stuff I mentioned in my previous post, we won our group and got a harsh draw against PSG in round one. We played the first leg at their place and we were 3-0 up at half time, dominating the game. Second half they came out fired up, put 5 past us to win 5-3, despite me going to a defensive, containing style as I realised it was one of those situations I was swimming upstream. After the game I had all the news reports praising the managers half time team talk etc...sometimes it feels like that just happens on FM and there's nothing you can do. Either way, I stayed positive as we battered them in the first half at their place so I figured we could overturn it at home. We had 20 shots (13 on target) to their 0 shots in the second leg at San Mames, but their keeper had a 8.7 game and we only won 1-0, losing 4-5 on aggregate. They then went on to win the Champions League. 

On balance, we could have gone on to win the whole thing ourselves, and the result could have been different against PSG. However that being said, our lack of quality in defence (Yeray/Unai Nunez is not really a world beating partnership albeit they're not bad) probably cost us. I'm hoping this year with Laporte back we'll have that extra bit of quality to avoid such a situation.

[dothestrand]

Iturraspe is in the final year of his contract but has thrown his toys out of the pram and said he's achieved all he can at the club and will leave at the end of the season. Must be all those transfers I've rejected over the years 

That said, a one year extension kicks in after 10 games apparently, so let's see.

Anyway, I couldn't get it sorted before the end of the August window but in January we will see the return of Javi Martinez! He's 33 but I'm confident he can do a job for the next 2.5 years. He'll cost 17.75m and will be on 125k per week but we can afford it. His physical stats are still good and can play as either a CB or CM so I reckon it's good value and experience.

[OlivierL]

I sold Iturraspe in my third season , for +- 15milj to Middlesbrough .

That is a crazy result against PSG , Bowie.

What is your full squad now ? number one and two for each position ?

I'll write down my a-squad tonight.

[bowieinspace]

3 hours ago, Olivierlandman said:

I sold Iturraspe in my third season , for +- 15milj to Middlesbrough .

That is a crazy result against PSG , Bowie.

What is your full squad now ? number one and two for each position ?

I'll write down my a-squad tonight.

Starting to get more and more regens filling the list now, but here's an overview with star ratings for a loose overview of ability:

GK's:
1) Kepa 3.5*/4* depending on the day
2) Inaki Gonzalez (Regen) 3* (4*++ potential) - will likely take over as number one from Kepa towards the end of this season

RB:
1) Odriozola 4*
2) Lekue 3*

LB:
1) Eneko Pena 4*, potential to be 4*++ (regen, two footed full back, although primarily a right back is our first choice LB)
2) We don't have an out and out second choice LB. He's covered by Lekue, Laporte, Jose Miguel Garrido (regen centre back) or Xabier Salinas (regen, B team full back who will only ever provide cover). We sold Yuri at the end of last season as I felt we had enough depth.

*I also have a left winger called Mikel Aranburu (2* with 4* plus potential), he's only 17 but has good potential and is a defensive winger, he's going to be retrained as an attacking full back. My plan is to use him this season to cover Pena however he needs to get used to the new position first. I'm not sure if he'll really adapt well or not but he's got some reasonable attributes to do it.

CB:
1) Laporte (4*)
2) Yeray (3*)
3) Ander Ruiz (2.5*, potential to be 4*++) (will become partner to Laporte full time by the end of this season)
4) Jose Miguel Garrido (2*, 3* potential) (solid regen who is a good covering option with a good attribute spread)

*We also have Asier Arana who is 2.5*, he has been loaned to Villarreal for the season following the return of Laporte
** Side note, Unai Nunez was doing pretty well last season, I sold him on to Southampton at the end of the season though as Ander Ruiz was improving quickly, and I wanted Garrido to get more opportunities). Within 3 weeks he was unhappy at Southampton and was sold on to Schalke...super weird.

CM:
1) Jon Martinez, world class DLP regen - 4.5*
2) Isusko Alonso, world class BWM regen, but I play him as a CM(S) as I don't use a BWM - 3.5*
3) Mikel Merino, has been replaced as first choice by Alonso, but is rotated in a lot and is a fantastic player 3*
4) Ignacio Rodriguez (regen) - Needs more time to fully develop, but he's a Gerrard type midfielder...he will sit next to Jon Martinez as the first choice CM(S) once developed further. 2.5*, 4*++ potential)

AML:
1) Muniain 3.5*
2) Cordoba 2.5* - amazing performances the last few years but is recovering from a broken ankle. The injury has significantly lowered his pace and bravery attributes, unsure how he will do on his return, so is now 2nd choice.
3) Imanol Agirre (regen 2*, 3-4* potential) - Primarily an AMC but plays better in an AML role. Currently covering for Muniain during Cordoba's injury and I can see him eventually being first choice wide left if all goes well.

AMR:
1) Williams 4*
2) David San Miguel (2*, 3.5*++ potential)

AMC
1) Oyarzabal 4*
2) Mikel Dominguez (regen) 3*

STR 
1) Villalibre 4*
2) Azcona 3.5*
3) Asier Garcia regen, 2*, 4*++ potential. He will be our lead front man eventually, but Villalibre and Azcona do a great job, so he's got some work to do!

[dothestrand]

@bowieinspace How did Youssouf Diarra do for you? I see you don't have him in your squad. In my game, he is seriously, seriously good and plays the AMC role for me (he could easily play as a Michael Owen-esque striker too). I haven't had the same luck as regens in my game, though Jokin Munoz, who I showed before, has become my main striker this season. Bautista was injured at the start of the season, so Munoz has come in and done well. 

[bowieinspace]

1 minute ago, dothestrand said:

@bowieinspace How did Youssouf Diarra do for you? I see you don't have him in your squad. In my game, he is seriously, seriously good and plays the AMC role for me (he could easily play as a Michael Owen-esque striker too). I haven't had the same luck as regens in my game, though Jokin Munoz, who I showed before, has become my main striker this season. Bautista was injured at the start of the season, so Munoz has come in and done well. 

He's currently a free agent, Segunda B player at best

[dothestrand]

Diarra developed really nicely in my game. I play him as an AMC but he really could play as a CF.

[dothestrand]

The 21-22 season has been a weird one. By January we're 2nd in the league but performances have been flatter than last season. We were dumped out of the CL (3rd in a group of Anderlecht - who won the group - Marseille and Zenit) and also the Spanish Cup (having lost at Gijon 1-0 we were cruising in the second leg 5-2 before shipping two goals at the end to lose on away goals). The big guns - Kepa, Laporte, Herrera and Muniain are all averaging below 7 in the league. Bautista is doing even worse with 1 in 9 league starts. Diarra, Williams, Munoz and Oscar Martinez are the only guys performing consistently. 

Finally, we broke Oyazarbal's resolve but only after Sociedad transfer listed him. He signed for just 2.8m but I made a lot of promises he will get upset about if I break, but he's getting 90k per week and a signing-on bonus of around 2.5m! He should help with backing up Diarra and Williams in the AMC or AMR positions.

Isma Lopez was also signed in January as back up for Yuri. He cost 350k and signed an 18 month deal. Martinez has come in from Bayern of course.

Current reports on the first team squad (there's some 4-5 star potential in the B and u19 squads but I'm going to ease them in slowly):

 

[OlivierL]

 

My squad in red . my 5th season is going to start, 18/8/2021 so i'm one season behind you.

U'll notice i'm quite loyal to most of the players from the first season, i'm trying to keep them till they retire.

21 hours ago, bowieinspace said:

Starting to get more and more regens filling the list now, but here's an overview with star ratings for a loose overview of ability:

GK's:
1) Kepa 3.5*/4* depending on the day
2) Inaki Gonzalez (Regen) 3* (4*++ potential) - will likely take over as number one from Kepa towards the end of this season

Kepa (3.5*) - Olanzabal (2 *) - Remiro (2 *)
RB:
1) Odriozola 4*
2) Lekue 3*

Odriozola (3*) - Capa ( 2.5*)

LB:
1) Eneko Pena 4*, potential to be 4*++ (regen, two footed full back, although primarily a right back is our first choice LB)
2) We don't have an out and out second choice LB. He's covered by Lekue, Laporte, Jose Miguel Garrido (regen centre back) or Xabier Salinas (regen, B team full back who will only ever provide cover). We sold Yuri at the end of last season as I felt we had enough depth.

*I also have a left winger called Mikel Aranburu (2* with 4* plus potential), he's only 17 but has good potential and is a defensive winger, he's going to be retrained as an attacking full back. My plan is to use him this season to cover Pena however he needs to get used to the new position first. I'm not sure if he'll really adapt well or not but he's got some reasonable attributes to do it.

Balenziaga (last season ? - 2*) - Saborit ( 2*) - planning to use Laporte OR Inigo Martinez as leftback.

CB:
1) Laporte (4*)
2) Yeray (3*)
3) Ander Ruiz (2.5*, potential to be 4*++) (will become partner to Laporte full time by the end of this season)
4) Jose Miguel Garrido (2*, 3* potential) (solid regen who is a good covering option with a good attribute spread)

*We also have Asier Arana who is 2.5*, he has been loaned to Villarreal for the season following the return of Laporte
** Side note, Unai Nunez was doing pretty well last season, I sold him on to Southampton at the end of the season though as Ander Ruiz was improving quickly, and I wanted Garrido to get more opportunities). Within 3 weeks he was unhappy at Southampton and was sold on to Schalke...super weird.

Laporte (4*) - San José ( 3*) - Inigo Martinez (3*) - Yeray ( 2.5*) - Nunez ( 2.5*)

CM:
1) Jon Martinez, world class DLP regen - 4.5*
2) Isusko Alonso, world class BWM regen, but I play him as a CM(S) as I don't use a BWM - 3.5*
3) Mikel Merino, has been replaced as first choice by Alonso, but is rotated in a lot and is a fantastic player 3*
4) Ignacio Rodriguez (regen) - Needs more time to fully develop, but he's a Gerrard type midfielder...he will sit next to Jon Martinez as the first choice CM(S) once developed further. 2.5*, 4*++ potential)

CML : playmaker : Benat (2.5 - last season ?) - Merino (2.5*) and Otegui ( 2.5*)

CMR : box to box : Herrera (4*) - Vesga (2*)

AML:
1) Muniain 3.5*
2) Cordoba 2.5* - amazing performances the last few years but is recovering from a broken ankle. The injury has significantly lowered his pace and bravery attributes, unsure how he will do on his return, so is now 2nd choice.
3) Imanol Agirre (regen 2*, 3-4* potential) - Primarily an AMC but plays better in an AML role. Currently covering for Muniain during Cordoba's injury and I can see him eventually being first choice wide left if all goes well.

ML : inverted winger : Muniain (3* - he is doing a great job ) - Ager Aketxe ( 2.5*)

AMR:
1) Williams 4*
2) David San Miguel (2*, 3.5*++ potential)

MR : winger : Santamaria (regen - won everything in his first season - 4*) - De Marcos ( 3.5*)

AMC
1) Oyarzabal 4*
2) Mikel Dominguez (regen) 3*

SCL - ADF Forward - Villalibre (topscorer last season, broke something in this pre season , i'll miss him for 6 months) ( 3*) - Raul Garcia (2.5* - last season) - Igor Alonso (16y - labelled the next Fernando Torres)
STR - complete forward - Williams ( 3.5) - Bautista ( 2.5*) - Eneko Alonso ( regen - 2.5 *)
1) Villalibre 4*
2) Azcona 3.5*
3) Asier Garcia regen, 2*, 4*++ potential. He will be our lead front man eventually, but Villalibre and Azcona do a great job, so he's got some work to do!

 

[bowieinspace]

1 hour ago, dothestrand said:

Diarra developed really nicely in my game. I play him as an AMC but he really could play as a CF.

Wow yeah he’s done really well there. He has a variable potential in the back end (I won’t spoil) so could range pretty widely. On my save he probably got the bottom end of PA and then subsequently didn’t get given opportunities to develop, yours the opposite. 

I definitely got lucky with Villalibre though!

[zlatanera]

So I've decided to start up a save with Athletic. I've only loaded up the full French and Spanish pyramids (have "view-only" for leagues such as England, Germany, Italy). 

I'm using Ozil's Bielsa recreation - link here - as I had tried in FM17 but botched due to skim-reading the post and missing out on a few PIs, not understanding how to choose between the two four-man defence tactics etc. as well as a huge injury to Aduriz making him retire in my first season :/ 

I've added my own set pieces but a surprising amount of 442 fielded by opposition has led to my best set piece taker Benat often being dropped for a 3rd central defender so unsurprisingly only a couple of goals from corners so far. 

Currently I've made no transfers - I renewed a hell of a lot of contracts, forcing up release clauses for many players. Although Aymeric Laporte's agent will accept marginally improved clauses and a £78m release on the same basic wage, when I try to force it up to £100m (PSG will happily spend £80m on a player and he's French so it's a real risk accepting anything lower) he goes beyond our current wage structure - luckily most of my best prospects belong to him so I renewed all their contracts which had a double effect of keeping him onside and tying down a lot of future prospects. 

Things started out a bit uneasy with extremely dissapointing results at Osijek, Celta and Betis where we dominated but couldn't finish and conceded to stupid errors. Aduriz in particular was playing appallingly. Luckily that all started to click once we dominated Malaga - the draw with Valencia was undeserved by them, as was Atletico's victory, and the Sevilla game was a bit mad so probably the most "Bielsa" game I've had. All 4 goals I conceded to Sevilla and Atletico were worldies, and Pontevedra was an unfit backup side but as we reach November the piece de resistance:

Luckily they didn't play Busquets as I know from managing Barca that he is key in-game as well as real-life. I played 4-2-3-1 to match their 4-3-3 in midfield, set Raul Garcia to man-mark Mascherano at the base of midfield with closing down always and hard tackling. Mascherano got a 6.5 whilst Garcia got a 7.9 so extremely well-done job I'd say. Beating Barcelona on possession whilst played Direct passing is something special for me - on previous saves with Bilbao I've had the occasional smash-and-grab 5-3 win but no absolute domination like this since my FM15 Sociedad save (definitely the easiest of the four FM I've played).

Aduriz is starting to come good too, of his 6 goals and 5 assists, 4 and 3 have come in his last five appearances. 

In terms of youth, so far I've promoted Inigo Cordoba:

Decent potential, great personality and so far he's doing so-so.

More youth:

Probably the best Bilbao Athletic squad I've had out of FM16,17 and 18. Unai Lopez and Villalibre will be top priority for tutoring next summer assuming I'm in a job, really hoping if I can keep up Aduriz' form he'll stick around at least one more year, and that if I keep playing him his physicals won't decline so far as to be a complete burden on our pressing game. 

Speaking of the pressing game - some people may say its cheating to copy someone else's tactic but Ozil's threads are all about explanation and my previous Bielsa recreations have had the same shapes and instructions in common, just different player roles. He found better resources than I had - mainly memory of them dominating United, and a lot of articles that go on and on about how he's "EL Loco" and plays "3-3-1-3" without any real tactical analysis. I'm finding it very enjoyable to make minor tweaks game-to-game such as adding "retain possession" if we're too open but have a goal. Surprised how solid the tactic is as well - Kepa currently has 10 conceded, 10 clean sheets despite this being a Very Fluid, Attacking, high-pressing direct-passing tactic.

Going forward I'm hoping to keep the form going and perhaps offload Kike Sola in January, preferably by selling him for money beforehand but I'm loath to ruin my dynamics - the team has one social group so any falling out could be disastrous.

I'm trying to keep the club as Basque as possible, and failing that Spanish so if anyone has coach recommendations let fly either here or in a DM as I've somewhat neglected them after spending over 30 minutes on player contracts alone.

[bowieinspace]

40 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

Speaking of the pressing game - some people may say its cheating to copy someone else's tactic but Ozil's threads are all about explanation and my previous Bielsa recreations have had the same shapes and instructions in common, just different player roles. He found better resources than I had - mainly memory of them dominating United, and a lot of articles that go on and on about how he's "EL Loco" and plays "3-3-1-3" without any real tactical analysis. I'm finding it very enjoyable to make minor tweaks game-to-game such as adding "retain possession" if we're too open but have a goal. Surprised how solid the tactic is as well - Kepa currently has 10 conceded, 10 clean sheets despite this being a Very Fluid, Attacking, high-pressing direct-passing tactic.

Going forward I'm hoping to keep the form going and perhaps offload Kike Sola in January, preferably by selling him for money beforehand but I'm loath to ruin my dynamics - the team has one social group so any falling out could be disastrous.

I'm trying to keep the club as Basque as possible, and failing that Spanish so if anyone has coach recommendations let fly either here or in a DM as I've somewhat neglected them after spending over 30 minutes on player contracts alone.

I don't think it's cheating at all, everyone has to start somewhere!

There are a few basque coaches out there, from memory there might be a good one at one of the small Basque clubs who's quite good, either at the C team or Barakaldo or someone. Sorry bit vague!

With Kike Sola, I'd say his importance to the squad is pretty minimal, so dynamics aren't likely to be a major concern there. I don't remember any dynamics issues from letting him go

[bowieinspace]

1 hour ago, Olivierlandman said:

 

My squad in red . my 5th season is going to start, 18/8/2021 so i'm one season behind you.

U'll notice i'm quite loyal to most of the players from the first season, i'm trying to keep them till they retire.

 

Yeah very loyal - generally I phase out older players fairly early provided I have good youngsters coming through to make sure they get minutes. I'd imagine Balenziaga, Benat, SanJo, Raul Garcia must be right on the brink though now? Then Herrera isn't super young either but will have a couple years left at a good level for sure. Have you got some good youngsters tracking to take over? 

I'd be loyal to a lot of players if they were still the best options, but if I have a player coming through who's reached a similar current ability level but is younger, I'm pretty ruthless! Generally I'll keep them as rotation options though until they come to me saying they don't think they're good enough anymore and want to leave.

[dothestrand]

I'd be curious to know what tips people have to improve youth development. In four seasons or so, I've had one home grown regen (Munoz) become a regular. Martinez came from Eibar and Lasa/Ujia came from Sociedad. We've upgraded youth facilities a couple of times but even now, as we get another batch of youngsters, only one has more than 3* potential, so I generally release the ones that are unlikely to make it. I know there may be some luck involved and some years are better than others, but you'd expect Bilbao to be producing talented youngsters.

[zlatanera]

2 hours ago, dothestrand said:

I'd be curious to know what tips people have to improve youth development. In four seasons or so, I've had one home grown regen (Munoz) become a regular. Martinez came from Eibar and Lasa/Ujia came from Sociedad. We've upgraded youth facilities a couple of times but even now, as we get another batch of youngsters, only one has more than 3* potential, so I generally release the ones that are unlikely to make it. I know there may be some luck involved and some years are better than others, but you'd expect Bilbao to be producing talented youngsters.

How good are your first team? Star rating is related to first team players so if you've still got Laporte for example, who is one of the best centre-backs in the game, it's going to make your newgen defenders look worse (I think he also decreases the start rating of the entire squad compared to him actually, but I'm not sure how it works fully). But also you can just have bad luck, I know in a Milan save on FM16 I had some of the worse youth I'd ever seen, and on my Fiorentina save in the last game we just produced too many strikers for me to play them all but had a dearth of centre backs.

I would start with replacing your HoYD. I found the guy at the start to be lacking so I recruited Wim Jonk who headed up Ajax's academy 2011-15. Alternately you could entrust it to your Director of Football (Louis Van Gaal at Barcelona on a save now-deleted provided one of the greatest sets of recruits I've ever seen, he was DoF not HoYD). 

I'm assuming you've improved your junior coaching, youth recruitment and youth facilities as much as is allowed? If not, do that as well.

[dothestrand]

26 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

How good are your first team? Star rating is related to first team players so if you've still got Laporte for example, who is one of the best centre-backs in the game, it's going to make your newgen defenders look worse (I think he also decreases the start rating of the entire squad compared to him actually, but I'm not sure how it works fully). But also you can just have bad luck, I know in a Milan save on FM16 I had some of the worse youth I'd ever seen, and on my Fiorentina save in the last game we just produced too many strikers for me to play them all but had a dearth of centre backs.

I would start with replacing your HoYD. I found the guy at the start to be lacking so I recruited Wim Jonk who headed up Ajax's academy 2011-15. Alternately you could entrust it to your Director of Football (Louis Van Gaal at Barcelona on a save now-deleted provided one of the greatest sets of recruits I've ever seen, he was DoF not HoYD). 

I'm assuming you've improved your junior coaching, youth recruitment and youth facilities as much as is allowed? If not, do that as well.

Bilbao's facilities are already excellent but I've been improving them regularly. I have replaced the coaches/HoYD as the transfer budget allows you to pay huge compensation levels for the best coaches out there. I didn't realise the star rating was relative to your strongest players so that's helpful. We have Laporte, Javi Martinez and Herrera in the squad! As a rule though, I don't produce better youngsters than say Eibar or Osasuna, and Sociedad produce better year on year. Perhaps it is worth looking into their coaching setup and pilfering their coaches.

[zlatanera]

5 hours ago, dothestrand said:

Bilbao's facilities are already excellent but I've been improving them regularly. I have replaced the coaches/HoYD as the transfer budget allows you to pay huge compensation levels for the best coaches out there. I didn't realise the star rating was relative to your strongest players so that's helpful. We have Laporte, Javi Martinez and Herrera in the squad! As a rule though, I don't produce better youngsters than say Eibar or Osasuna, and Sociedad produce better year on year. Perhaps it is worth looking into their coaching setup and pilfering their coaches.

I don't believe coaches affect - just HoYD (his judging ability / potential will somehow affect the quality of recruits), youth recruitment, youth facilities and junior coaching. Perhaps scouting packages affect it too? i.e. the youth scouting package? I'm actually going to ask about this in the stupid questions thread in tactics. 

Yeah Laporte, Martinez and Herrera will make everyone else look bad - I just signed Herrera in my first season and its downgraded my midfield (also its now telling me to sell everyone as they earn too much - I had to ask the board to sign him and amazingly they did! First time it's ever happened). He then single-handedly caused us to collapse from 2-0 up at Malaga but that's another story. You start to notice the effect of star ratings if you get deep into a save and have a world class player in your ranks. For example my Tromsø save last year - I signed guys who were 4.5 gold star potential, 6 months later we won the Champions League, were gutted for parts by the big guns and ended up bringing in a bunch of far better players who developed rapidly so that by the time my young players were 1 year into their contract, they were only rated 2 gold star 1 black star potential as they were being compared to talents who had a ceiling of the quality just below Messi / Ronaldo (your Iscos, Hazards of the world) rather than guys who were perhaps on a level with Inigo Lekue, to bring an Athletic player into the comparison.

[bowieinspace]

9 hours ago, dothestrand said:

I'd be curious to know what tips people have to improve youth development. In four seasons or so, I've had one home grown regen (Munoz) become a regular. Martinez came from Eibar and Lasa/Ujia came from Sociedad. We've upgraded youth facilities a couple of times but even now, as we get another batch of youngsters, only one has more than 3* potential, so I generally release the ones that are unlikely to make it. I know there may be some luck involved and some years are better than others, but you'd expect Bilbao to be producing talented youngsters.

As Zlatanera has said, star ratings are completely subjective, they're dependent on both the players in your squad, and the overall expectations of your team/club reputation. For example, if you took over at a Segunda B division team and had Mikel Vesga in your squad, he might only be 2.5* at Athletic, but he'd be a 5* star in your Segunda B team comfortably. 

With your youth players, you might actually have had a few decent ones come through without realising...star ratings are a guide, but don't rely solely on them. Look at individuals attributes and how suited they are to specific roles. Coaches also get potential ability ratings way off some times, I've had plenty of players come through my youth intake with 4*+ potential who never make it past playing in the second tier, as well as plenty come through with 2 star potential who become world class eventually. 

In terms of what you can do, aside from giving the right players the right chances to develop by not writing them off based on star ratings:

1) Amazing head of youth development with good ratings in: working with youngsters, JPA and JCA. Also your HOYD should have a good personality e.g. professional, fairly professional, determined etc etc.

2) Increase youth recruitment, youth facilities and junior coaching budgets at every opportunity. I'd recommend making youth development a club philosophy, as you naturally play a lot of youth products in the first team. This means that not only will you receive the positive of always maintaining the philosophy, but it also makes it easier to improve facilities over time. 

3) Luck - last year I had 3 consecutive youth intakes with world class goalkeepers in them and nothing else, no specific reason for it, just luck of the draw. 

[OlivierL]

On 27-2-2018 at 22:32, bowieinspace said:

Yeah very loyal - generally I phase out older players fairly early provided I have good youngsters coming through to make sure they get minutes. I'd imagine Balenziaga, Benat, SanJo, Raul Garcia must be right on the brink though now? Then Herrera isn't super young either but will have a couple years left at a good level for sure. Have you got some good youngsters tracking to take over? 

I'd be loyal to a lot of players if they were still the best options, but if I have a player coming through who's reached a similar current ability level but is younger, I'm pretty ruthless! Generally I'll keep them as rotation options though until they come to me saying they don't think they're good enough anymore and want to leave.

i'm planning to keep San jose till he crashes Garcia , Benat and Baleziaga only one more season.

I have good youngsters. Best La liga player was Santamaria (posted his attributes) so he is a key player . I have two great strikers , both named Alonso from my own intake.

Two good mc's, one good ML , one DR (regen bought from sociedad in season 3) and two or three U19/21 goalkeepers from my own intake. I don't have great central defenders or left back .. can't find any good one yet

Javi Martinez en Otegui will be in the squad for years , i loaned them out till this season. Otegui is in the A squad now, Javi is playing for bilbao as a inverted winger - ML . BIlbao plays for the second season in the second divions . This season i refused to loan most of my good youngsters (17-20 years old) out , they have to play for Bilbao.  I'll accept a loan offer from la liga clubs , so they can play on a higher level.

 

[bowieinspace]

2 minutes ago, Olivierlandman said:

i'm planning to keep San jose till he crashes Garcia , Benat and Baleziaga only one more season.

I have good youngsters. Best La liga player was Santamaria (posted his attributes) so he is a key player . I have two great strikers , both named Alonso from my own intake.

Two good mc's, one good ML , one DR (regen bought from sociedad in season 3) and two or three U19/21 goalkeepers from my own intake. I don't have great central defenders or left back .. can't find any good one yet

Javi Martinez en Otegui will be in the squad for years , i loaned them out till this season. Otegui is in the A squad now, Javi is playing for bilbao as a inverted winger - ML . BIlbao plays for the second season in the second divions . This season i refused to loan most of my good youngsters (17-20 years old) out , they have to play for Bilbao.  I'll accept a loan offer from la liga clubs , so they can play on a higher level.

 

Nice sounds very promising.

I've just moved on Javi Martinez (young) and Otegui. Otegui was actually doing pretty well and had come on nicely, but having had 3 excellent central midfield regens come through alongside Mikel Merino, there just wasn't any room for him.

 

[zlatanera]

Just to follow up on all the earlier talk of youth intake and the role of luck, per may HoYD Wim Jonk: 

Literally the best youth intake I've ever seen,. Looking like this may be the Athletic save that finally gets me hooked  

Hoping to bring through "2018ko klasea" or "clase de 2018" in the style of my hero SAF. 

 

[bowieinspace]

Just now, zlatanera said:

Just to follow up on all the earlier talk of youth intake and the role of luck, per may HoYD Wim Jonk: 

Literally the best youth intake I've ever seen,. Looking like this may be the Athletic save that finally gets me hooked  

Hoping to bring through "2018ko klasea" or "clase de 2018" in the style of my hero SAF. 

 

Wow. I heard they added the potential 'golden generation' this year, was waiting to see someone post one on this thread. That is amazing!

[zlatanera]

Didn't realise that was a new feature haha. Yeah between that and VIllalibre having a high potential, if I can get them all and him tutored, could be my version of Class of '92 and VIllalibre could be Giggs - the slightly older one who is associated with them through success. 

One fell out with Raul Garcia after just two days though so if Aduriz retires (he's scored 13 goals this season, appears to be the anti-flat-track bully, as 5 of those were against Madrid and Barca, hoping his £58k per week contract will dissuade him) I may struggle for tutors even with Herrera back already.

Had a reply about youth intake from herne97:

 

"Youth Recruitment, Youth Facilities and Junior Coaching all impact the quality (CA and PA) of Newgens.  Club and country rep also play a part.

The HoYD affects Newgen personality, position and technical ability: he can pass on some or all of his personality traits; his favoured formation can influence positional familiarity of Newgens; and his technical coaching style can affect the technical ability of Newgens.  Technical ability can also be influenced by the country you are in, so you may find more technically gifted Newgens in Brazil compared to England for example.

The HoYD can also influence the creation of those rare exceptional Newgens that crop up occasionally.

Bear in mind that nothing is guaranteed.  Even with the best facilities, coaches et al you can still get a naff intake - you just improve your chances of better quality Newgens."

[zlatanera]

So the bad weather and my lack of work ethic has led to me completing the 2017/18 season!

Despite losing two of our last three games after I signed a contract extension (to Eibar and Real Madrid) we eventually finished 3rd on away goals by virtue of having drawn with Valencia 0-0 at home and 1-1 away. Real Madrid were phenomenal, losing only 3 games all season - one of which was to me 3-1! Aduriz extended his record as our oldest scorer twice in that game. Scoring 69 (3rd) and conceding 40 (5th) was reasonable, given the Bielsa tactic you expect to score a lot (but I think it'll take me a 20 year save to get a +67 goal difference without using an exploit). We went out to Villarreal in the Copa 5th round with a decimated team due to the ridiculous January schedule and the violence of my bogey team Espanyol ridding us of most of our key players, and our in the 1st knockout of the EL to Sporting Portugal. This shows a complete inability on our part to deal with 2 man striker forces which I am not happy about - the 3-3-1-3 isn't quite working, although from memory half of the goals we concede using it are an inverted wing back trying to switch the player from the touchline and falling short leading to a counter weirdly. Still, we lost 9 games all season and 7 of them were against 2-man strike forces (a bunch of 4-4-2 and Sporting's 4-2-4) so getting round that will hopefully allow us to improve greatly. 

In terms of transfers we made 1 purchase, bringing back Ander Herrera for £6m. A few young players have had their contracts mutually terminated as we failed to find suitors and I've gained £500k loan fees for Enric Saborit who will be moved on in the summer.

In summer we do have Ander Capa obviously joining us, to be joined by Antonio Otegui and Julen Arellano. Unless I decide to shift on a number of players, its doubtful there'll be any others. I converted most of my 2017 starting transfer budget into wages in order to wack up release clauses for 80% of the first team and 50% of the B team - I even had to ask the board to sign Herrera as his £105k wages exceeded our limits, likewise to get Laporte's release clause up (now £110m but with an irritating 5% wage rise, but otherwise the same contract as before), so we're bleeding money as for some reason Athletic start the game with no tv deal and very little sponsorship. Only on around 60% transfer revenue as well so sales would have to be big. Real Sociedad have had a bad season so if someone came in with an outstanding bid for Laporte or San Jose I might just sell and get the transfer listed Inigo Martinez like in real life depending on how I'm feeling at the time. 

Although my "Golden Generation" may negate the need for transfers - I have someone of at least 3.5 gold star potential in every position I utilise (which is all bar Sweeper) in this years youth intake which is incredible.

It's my habit to list goal charts:

Aritz Aduriz (20g, 10a)

Inaki Williams (18g, 16a)

Iker Muniain (13g, 7a)

Markel Susaeta (13g, 7a)

 

A the rest of the players who played in the front 4 positions got 4-6 in goals and assists each, I think the fact that nobody is significantly biased towards goals vs. assists shows the team ethic coming through in terms of the style of play (Aduriz' 2:1 ratio is inflated by penalties, of which he missed one in each of the last three games of the season so might take him off them). 

So yeah, good season! If anyone has advice on how to deal with 4-4-2 within my playing style, let me know (I linked the tactic I'm using in my first post).

[dothestrand]

@zlatanera and @bowieinspace Thanks for your tips. Our HOYD is pretty good already but we didn't have a DoF so I found one with the right stats according to some of the guides out there. I also asked for improved youth facilities and improved youth recruitment so let's see if that comes good next season.

Sociedad had a very very promising RB who wouldn't sign for me, so Athletico Madrid nabbed him instead. However, with an 8.25m release fee, I've come in for him and he's signed on the dotted line. 

[dothestrand]

A snow day allowed me to finish the 21-22 season off. Halfway through we were in second but dumped out of the cup competitions, facing being squeezed back into 4th. Martinez had come in to offer versatility in CB or CM, as had Oyarzabal to offer more AM options. Form picked up from then on, and it quickly became a two-header between us and Real Madrid for the title. It was neck and neck and came down to the final day. Real were a point ahead, but had the harder of the two games. They were away to Sevilla, we were at home to Malaga. We raced into a 2-0 lead at H/T through Yuri and Munoz, whilst the news at Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán was good - 0-0. Malaga pulled a goal back with 15 mins left, and we went into defensive mode, to hang onto the lead, which we just about did. Players and supporters quickly switched attention and then we heard - it finished 0-0, which meant we took the title by a single point! Our second title in three years!

The board notified us of our budgets - 115m for transfers (8m for Alastuey) and 1.7m per week on wages (we're 200k behind). This should give us plenty of room for manoeuvre. 

 

[bowieinspace]

1 hour ago, dothestrand said:

@zlatanera and @bowieinspace Thanks for your tips. Our HOYD is pretty good already but we didn't have a DoF so I found one with the right stats according to some of the guides out there. I also asked for improved youth facilities and improved youth recruitment so let's see if that comes good next season.

Sociedad had a very very promising RB who wouldn't sign for me, so Athletico Madrid nabbed him instead. However, with an 8.25m release fee, I've come in for him and he's signed on the dotted line. 

He looks very tidy! Nice to see a full back regen who isn’t completely useless going forwards 

[dothestrand]

4 hours ago, bowieinspace said:

He looks very tidy! Nice to see a full back regen who isn’t completely useless going forwards 

Yeah it's more or less impossible to improve crossing on a FB, I find.

[zlatanera]

I actually went out in the snow today instead of just glaring at it from inside my room, so no progress bar setting up my pre-season friendlies (Susaeta testimonial with Barcelona and away trips to all affiliates with a friendly clause bar Zalla and Zamudio) and setting pre-season to start far too early (5 weeks). Thought I'd post up the "golden generation" screenshots. 

[dothestrand]

First business at the end of 21-22 was to let San Jose leave. He had a year left on his contract, was in decline and had been moaning about a new challenge, blah, blah, blah. So he went to Sevilla for 1m. So much for that new challenge. Of course there's only one other Basque CB of top quality in the game, and mirroring real life, we offered Sociedad the 22.5m release fee for Inigo Martinez, who is 31 but still in his prime. He wanted a lot of money AND the v-c position, which we offered. Unfortunately our v-c was Laporte, who was understandably unimpressed. Laporte had already slapped in a transfer request but with a release fee of well over 100m, good luck finding anyone paying that. Hopefully he settles back into the fold once the August window shuts. In an absolute worst case scenario, Javi Martinez is more comfortable at CB than CM, so if Laporte either leaves or acts up, he has competition (and Yeray is still around).

[zlatanera]

Alright so I'm just going to make it my thing to do updates for November and season's end. November 2018:

 

Slightly busier on the transfer front than I expected. Ander Capa was obviously set before I started. Julen Arellano came back from Osasuna because I can easily make more than his £0 buyback clause after having him in the reserves for a season - disappointing how bad he is now, I remember on FM16 he could overtake Balenziega within two seasons. Otegui and Javi Martinez are obvious buys if you have the money, Cristian Hernandez from our affiliate isn't great but Sevilla were sniffing around - I'm not paying any wages, and Calderon was free so why not, right? He will have a better chance of developing with us. 

Permanent transfers out were people with either low natural fitness or the "doesn't enjoy big matches" icon in their report. Inigo Vicente and Azcona have percentage of profit clauses, Boveda and Vesga are at St. Etienne with optional future fee clauses because they rejected the contracts offered when the transfer went through - the former is contracted until 2022 so at worst I make another £5m off him. 

Unai Lopez, Javi Rudi and Asier Villalibre have been promoted from the B team this year but other than that a pretty settled squad. Results so far:

Currently 2nd in the league, which is outstanding! Aduriz has 10 goals in the league as well - he's declared his retirement for the end of the season but I've asked him to reconsider just for tutoring if nothing else, yet at this rate he'd actually set a new personal best by around February. Qualifying our league position - we haven't played either Madrid or Barcelona yet, but we have scraped draws with Villarreal and Atletico and lost to our bogey team Espanyol. 

I decided upon seeing that group that I would just throw the Champions League - my reserves actually gave Dortmund a run for their money before capitulating - and Ludogorets beating me means hopefully I won't end up in the Europa League, so hopefully I'll be able to get further in the cup this time - I figure its my best chance to get our first trophy of the 21st century. 

One weird aside - the club decided to install undersoil heating during the summer, so for most of pre-season our stadium capacity was reduced to 49,066...and it's stayed that way! We only sell out for big CL games, Madrid, Barca and presumably Sociedad so I'm just not going to ask for an expansion yet. Still, its a shame it happened.

B team are currently 2nd in their league also which is cool - Jon Morcillo has 10 goals and we've also got the top two assist providers, just like the first team. No doubt they'll fall away at some point but I would love it if they could get up to Segunda. 

Lastly, as I posted over in tactics, training etc. forum the 3-3-1-3 continues to struggle - draws at Villarreal and Atletico were real smash-and-grabs - I'm going to experiment with turning the AM into a Segundo Volante and hope it still achieves the desired attacking shape. 

[Purple Frog]

5th season and I finally got a French basque affiliate:)

Hope French regens come in

[dothestrand]

Javi Martinez (Osasuna) went to City in my game. He hasn't really developed there and they won't sell except for ludicrous money. I don't have a need for a LW anyway.

Did you edit Pamplona/San Sebastian to Osasuna/Sociedad? 

[rfelix94]

Hi lads,

I'm starting my 4th season in Athletic and decided to share some things here.

This is my first post ever and I have no idea about how to organize the images in order - sorry about that - so they'll all go in the end. But here it goes:

1st print: the results I got these past 3 seasons. Reached the final or Top 2 of every competition so far, except the UCL in 19/20, when I got eliminated by Juventus in the 1st knockout round.

2nd print: the squad. All u19 are regens.

3rd print: my tactic. I got tired of using the 4-2-3-1 these past seasons, so from now on I decided to change the Advanced Forward into a Shadow Striker. This here was the inspiration to this 4-2-4-0.

4th print: the results I got so far in this season. I'm capable of trashing Real Madrid away and losing to Marseille home. Go figure.

Some notes here:

- Aketxe has been amazing. Loads of goals and assists, mainly because he's the main penalty and free kick specialist, but he can do it all in free play too.

- Can't say the same about Villalibre. Loaned to Almería this season in Second Division to see if he does something. Jon Morcillo (also loaned) seems to be better than him.

- Yuri and Córdoba has been nothing special so far. Although I know I have to give Córdoba more game time to see if he develops better. And I'm thinking about selling Yuri and making Lekue the starter in LB, because of the regen that I got on RB.

- I managed to keep Laporte, Williams, Kepa and Muniain by giving them high wages and absurd release fees.

- Both Unai's are amazing here. López is really good: capable of scoring and assisting, stole the RW starting slot from Susaeta. And Núñez is a rock in the defence, he also starts for the national team.

So there it is. Hope to help somebody.

[rfelix94]

5 hours ago, dothestrand said:

Javi Martinez (Osasuna) went to City in my game. He hasn't really developed there and they won't sell except for ludicrous money. I don't have a need for a LW anyway.

Did you edit Pamplona/San Sebastian to Osasuna/Sociedad? 

You can edit the names following these instructions. You can open these files in the notepad and editing to whatever you like.

I guess you don't have to start a new save to get the club and league names "correctly", but the German and Japanese national teams, for example, only appear on your next save.

[Jean0987654321]

7 hours ago, rfelix94 said:

You can edit the names following these instructions. You can open these files in the notepad and editing to whatever you like.

I guess you don't have to start a new save to get the club and league names "correctly", but the German and Japanese national teams, for example, only appear on your next save.

The German and Japanese national teams will appear on your current save if you apply these things correctly

[zlatanera]

8 hours ago, rfelix94 said:

Hi lads,

I'm starting my 4th season in Athletic and decided to share some things here.

This is my first post ever and I have no idea about how to organize the images in order - sorry about that - so they'll all go in the end. But here it goes:

1st print: the results I got these past 3 seasons. Reached the final or Top 2 of every competition so far, except the UCL in 19/20, when I got eliminated by Juventus in the 1st knockout round.

2nd print: the squad. All u19 are regens.

3rd print: my tactic. I got tired of using the 4-2-3-1 these past seasons, so from now on I decided to change the Advanced Forward into a Shadow Striker. This here was the inspiration to this 4-2-4-0.

4th print: the results I got so far in this season. I'm capable of trashing Real Madrid away and losing to Marseille home. Go figure.

Some notes here:

- Aketxe has been amazing. Loads of goals and assists, mainly because he's the main penalty and free kick specialist, but he can do it all in free play too.

- Can't say the same about Villalibre. Loaned to Almería this season in Second Division to see if he does something. Jon Morcillo (also loaned) seems to be better than him.

- Yuri and Córdoba has been nothing special so far. Although I know I have to give Córdoba more game time to see if he develops better. And I'm thinking about selling Yuri and making Lekue the starter in LB, because of the regen that I got on RB.

- I managed to keep Laporte, Williams, Kepa and Muniain by giving them high wages and absurd release fees.

- Both Unai's are amazing here. López is really good: capable of scoring and assisting, stole the RW starting slot from Susaeta. And Núñez is a rock in the defence, he also starts for the national team.

So there it is. Hope to help somebody.

You can drag the screenshots into the main body of text and it will upload them and insert them whereever you put them i.e. if you think it would go well after the sentence you've just written, press Enter to go down a line then drag the screenshot in, then continue typing below it.

14 hours ago, Purple Frog said:

5th season and I finally got a French basque affiliate:)

Hope French regens come in

Who did you get? Was it Aviron Bayonais? They're the only one I know of.

13 hours ago, dothestrand said:

Javi Martinez (Osasuna) went to City in my game. He hasn't really developed there and they won't sell except for ludicrous money. I don't have a need for a LW anyway.

Did you edit Pamplona/San Sebastian to Osasuna/Sociedad? 

 

7 hours ago, rfelix94 said:

You can edit the names following these instructions. You can open these files in the notepad and editing to whatever you like.

I guess you don't have to start a new save to get the club and league names "correctly", but the German and Japanese national teams, for example, only appear on your next save.

Using the think rfelix has linked to. Annoyingly it doesn't do the 3rd team names, so for example my 2nd string is "Bilbao Athletic" but 3rd string is "A. Bilbao C" still, same with Osasuna and Sociedad's 3rd strings. 

[bowieinspace]

At some point soon I'll update the guides on the first page to reflect the 18.3 update as there's been quite a few changes, spoilers below so don't look below if you don't want to know, also there's no specific CA/PA stuff below, just more general info without going into the numbers. Obviously only relevent if you're planning to start a new game:

Spoiler

Asier Villalibre has had his potential reduced

Unai Nunez has been buffed significantly in both current level and I think potential as well

Inigo Cordoba has had his potential increased

Enric Saborit is still ***** - not really a spoiler just pointing it out

 

[Purple Frog]

13 hours ago, zlatanera said:

You can drag the screenshots into the main body of text and it will upload them and insert them whereever you put them i.e. if you think it would go well after the sentence you've just written, press Enter to go down a line then drag the screenshot in, then continue typing below it.

Who did you get? Was it Aviron Bayonais? They're the only one I know of.

 

Using the think rfelix has linked to. Annoyingly it doesn't do the 3rd team names, so for example my 2nd string is "Bilbao Athletic" but 3rd string is "A. Bilbao C" still, same with Osasuna and Sociedad's 3rd strings. 

Yup aviron bayonnais

It was tiring watching all the regens being spanish

[rfelix94]

15 hours ago, zlatanera said:

You can drag the screenshots into the main body of text and it will upload them and insert them whereever you put them i.e. if you think it would go well after the sentence you've just written, press Enter to go down a line then drag the screenshot in, then continue typing below it.

Thank you, I will try that next time.  

[rfelix94]

16 hours ago, Jean0987654321 said:

The German and Japanese national teams will appear on your current save if you apply these things correctly

True. Haven't noticed that hahaha sorry