[FM18] The Dynamics of telling you to shove your transfer request up y- a journeyman career

[noikeee]

Heeeeello and welcome to my (first? only?) FM18 thread!

 

It's the good old journeyman type of career here, as I've done so many times. Whilst the last time round I tried to be over-ambitious and aimed at José Mourinho's scalp for beating him to worldwide glory, this time I'm just aimlessly trying to have some fun by touring the globe. For now, I have selected a bunch of exotic and not-so-exotic destinations to keep me busy at the start of this:

 

And these are my elite managerial skillZ, yo:

 

My alter-ego, as used a few times before when I want to play as myself, is Portuguese manager Henrique dos Santos. Say hello to him (for some reason the face creation has gone godawful and looks nothing like myself):

 

As I've done a few times before, whilst starting unemployed has its own charm, I prefer to handpick a starting place. This shall soon be revealed although it's not hard to make a proper guess based on the screenies above.

For this career I'm expecting to play pretty slowly so am at the moment aiming for monthly updates to keep the thread busy (but potentially shortly written). This may change.

Right, let's get on with it. The next post will be a nostalgic rundown of all my previous careers, and the next next post shall present my first challenge.

[noikeee]

Previous careers
 
 
This is getting long but the good thing is now I can just copy-paste this from previous threads!

 
1. [FM11] Barcelona’ing the way through the lower leagues – is it even possible? (May 2011 - March 2012)
Praiense, Kettering, Venezia, Dresden, Belenenses, Portugal U19s, Krylya Sovetov, Celta, Roma, Portugal
 
My original FMCU career and probably still my favourite, this was also the longest (22 seasons). A successful start in the Azores turned into a nightmare in England, and after about a decade of more ups and downs throughout Europe, success finally came in Spain with an Europa League trophy with Celta. But the end was the most satisfying, as I built an all-conquering Roma side on top of the incredible partnership of Bagayoko and Duval, winning back-to-back Champions Leagues, whilst also winning the World Cup with Portugal, held in Portugal.
 

 
2. [FM12] The complete world encyclopedia of insults shouted at virtual football players (March 2012 - December 2012)
Delémont, Westerlo, Torino, Real Madrid, Tottenham, Turkey, Ajax, Porto
 
Another 18-season saga. A short start in Switzerland led to an entertaining few seasons in Belgium, where I survived rumours of getting sacked to eventually taking Westerlo to the title. A brief stint with Torino led to a big job in Real Madrid, where I spent 463 million euros in a single season to revamp an aging squad. We became European champions but the pressure was too much and it remained the same in a tycoon-owned Spurs. I rediscovered some fun after going to Ajax, witnessing 4 seasons of relentless goalscoring by super-striker Volker Rahlfs, and my previous Spurs side knocking us out in a memorable Champions League semi-finals. A send-off season with favourite club Porto finished this with an Europa League trophy before crash dumps ruined this save.

 
 
3. [FM13] The Third Journey, by noikeee (November 2012 - December 2012)
Touggourt, Johor FC
 
An overly ambitious plan to start in the Algerian third tier led to only frustration for a long 4 seasons. Moving to Malaysia didn't help neither - horrendous football and finishing in the bottom half of the table somehow led to promotion under weird rules that I never figured out. I decided I didn't enjoy FM13 and went back to '12.
 

 
4. [FM12] One more time - moonwalking my way through 'mo clubs (January 2013 - June 2013)
Torns IF, Independiente Rivadavia, Bastia
 
My FM12 return started on the Swedish 4th tier but soon we were all the way up to the top division. Regardless I abandonded Sweden after 6 years, and embarked on one of my most entertaining FM stints ever in Argentina. For another 6 years I constantly rebuilt the team with new youngsters as I kept on selling players under strict rules, taking Independiente Rivadavia from the 2nd tier to winning all possible competitions including the Club World Cup. A move to France wasn't as fun and I dropped it after 1 season.

 

 
5. [FM13] Please bring me my coat - it's Chile in here (June 2013 - August 2013)
Curicó Unido
 
I decided to give another chance to FM13 and started in Chile's 2nd division. This was starting to prove quite entertaining with a promotion on the 1st season and another good year next, but then computer problems and a fading interest in FM led me to stop playing for a while.

 
 
6. [FM14] Back once again for the renegade master (December 2013 - February 2014)
São João de Ver
 
Another short-lived adventure. I started in Portugal at the bottom again and whilst I managed to get promoted after 2 years, a difficult season in the 2nd tier and other interests beyond FM at the time led me to stop playing again.

 
 
7. [FM12] Trip to Nostalgia Lane (November 2014 - March 2015)
FC Eindhoven, Nacional da Madeira
 
I returned to FM and my most trusted version of the game again, but again didn't commit to it for long. I did play 8 seasons with FC Eindhoven under extremely strict rules for transfers and homegrown players, but having reached a ceiling in the Eredivisie, I turned back to Portugal only to decide to ditch this and move to FM15 after a single season.

 
 
8. Barcelona'ing the way through the lower leagues part II - FM15 edition (April 2015 - November 2015)
Compostela, Kayserispor, Lyon
 
A slightly longer career lasting 13 seasons. The first 9 years were spent building up Compostela from the 3rd tier to La Liga, eventually breaking past what seemed like an impossible ceiling in Liga Adelante. But this suddenly exploded into success when I moved to Turkey, winning back-to-back titles with Kayserispor in 2 seasons packed full of goalscoring madness. Another 2 years with Lyon were much the same under Ballon d'Or winner striker Igor, but despite domestic domination we struggled to register as a force in Europe.

 
 
9. noikeee's FM16 Euro/LatinAmerican Journeyman (November 2015 - July 2016)
Berwick Rangers, Loughgall, Municipal Turrialba, Dolny Kubin, Austria Wien, Dundee Utd, Sampdoria, Sevilla
 
One of my longest as I fell just short of 20 seasons, but not as good a journeyman as the old FM11/FM12 days. This started wrong with disasters in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but I relaunched my career with an enjoyable few years in Costa Rica. My reputation was then made in Slovakia and Austria, but whilst I won the Austrian title, the peak of this career was a return to Scotland with a fun Dundee Utd side that eventually won the title as well. I finally moved to the top leagues but couldn't make things work in neither Italy or Spain, and decided I overall just didn't like FM16.

 
 
10. [FM15] noikeee goes East - A CSKA Sofia career(s?) (July 2016 - October 2016)
CSKA Sofia
 
Returning to FM15, this was my first career dedicated by design to a single club. Committed to a policy of only signing Eastern European players, the first few seasons proved remarkably difficult and I got sacked after 4 years. Regardless, I re-added myself as a new manager, and after another poor season, we bounced back with 5 consecutive Bulgarian titles, a Europa League semi-final, and a Champions League quarter-final. I moved on before acheiving the ultimate challenge of winning the Champions League, as FM17 came out.

 

11. [FM17] noikeee does the Dafuge Challenge: The Glassboys (October 2016 - March 2017)
Stourbridge

For FM17's release, I started off with my first attempt at the Dafuge Challenge. The beginning proved extraordinarly difficult, as by season 7 I was still in the National North, after a very fleeting early 1-year promotion to National League... only to be relegated back again. Finally after tactical failure after tactical failure something clicked and we even got back-to-back promotions from the National League to League 2 to League 1, which I'll consider to be the first time ever I got some success in the lower levels in UK & Ireland. This success led to a lack of interest though, as I abandoned the save after 12.5 seasons.

 

12. [FM17] A Journeyman Story: Knocking José Mourinho Off His Perch (March 2017 - September 2017)
Central Español, Nacional, Twente, Ivory Coast U23s, HSV, Portugal U23s, Costa Rica, Iran, Monaco

This would become my most entertaining journeyman career since the FM12 days, spanning 20 years of gametime. Very quick early success in Uruguay granted me a shock Libertadores title with Nacional, only for a bug to prevent us playing in the CWC. A move to Holland proved difficult at first but I turned it around with Twente winning back-to-back titles. The bulk of the career would be spent with HSV, which was initially successful with a Bundesliga and a Champions League title, only to then languish for 5 essentially barren years, haunted by a poor move to sell world class Mexican striker Tinajero to Bayern. Then in Monaco I'd achieve final redemption with my 2nd Champions League. In the mean time, there was also an Olympics title with Portugal.

 

13. [FM17] How to cheat at a youth challenge (September 2017 - October 2017)
Novigrad

A quick lived career that looked initially promising, built on the unusual premise/voluntary limitation of buying 1 single player per year, to focus on youth development without completely abandoning the transfer market. Our beginning was really rather spectacular - promotion in the 1st season, then a shock Croatian title in the 2nd season as we leapt past Dinamo in the final day, and quality youngsters developing everywhere. However a few minor steps back led to me losing interest and abandon this midway through the 4th season.

[withnail316]

Best of luck, mate. 

[noikeee]

 

Serres, Greece - 26th of June, 2017

 

There was quite a bit of thinking here as I searched for my first club. I wanted to start off at a not-horrendous level, to not have to endure unwatchable football, but not quite top level neither - at least definitely not a top tier anywhere, so I can have a bit of road to prove myself. There were several attractive destinations around and Greece emerged as a likely place - I've never had a proper go at Greece. I also wanted a club with some sort of history or likeability and my first idea was OFI Crete. They have had much better days and they are an island club which fits an islander like me, they're sort of the Marítimo of Greece. However something put me off badly from OFI: they were favourites in their division, predicted to finish 2nd. I don't want that kind of pressure to start off.

 

After considering a few other destinations - nearly started off in Italy or Switzerland - I found what I believe to be the perfect club for me, back to the Greek 2nd tier. That will be Panserraikos FC. Whilst hardly an historical club packed full of glory, formed in 1964 as a merge of former local clubs Iraklis and Apollon, and never having finished higher than 8th in the Greek top league, they have been yo-yoing between divisions 1 and 2 and sometimes 3, ever since the 1960s. They deserve to move up and settle properly in the top league. For now they are merely predicted to finish 10th in the Football League OPAP (2nd tier) - absolutely fine for me, this is a club with a good mix of decent finances, no pressure, a tiny bit of history and potential to build, with lots of fans and a stadium for 9500 people. They also have a nice red-and-white vertical stripped kit, which reminds me of my local club.

 

 

 

 

A quick look at past positions will show our yo-yoing nature:

 

 

 

 

And finally a glance at finances.

 

 

 

 

This ain't reassuring but at least the status is "okay" (not true for some of our rivals), and we still have a little to play with the wage budget. The scouting budget is alarmingly low as I'm paying 5,25K€ for a senior package (top 3 divisions in Greece) and 3,5K€ for a youngsters package (just my division), which leaves almost nothing left for individually scouting players.

[noikeee]

 

Squad overview

 

Now that we've had a nice good look at the club, let's take a look at the squad:

 

 

I was optimistic about the club... until now. There's some talents here but I don't like the balance one bit.

 

Let's do things differently this time and cover the squad in depth in each area.

 

 

Goalkeepers

 

 

 

Ristic is superb and rightfully named by my staff as the most talented player in the whole squad. I question the very long contract though - he's 33 yet contracted for 5 more years! Might be an issue in the long run if he fades, as he's highly influential in the dressing room.

 

 

Fullbacks/wingbacks

 

 

 

 

 

There's not much depth here but Ioannidis is hands down one of our better players at LB, and Stevic ain't bad at all for RB neither, both are pretty quick, so both our 1st choices here look very good.

 

 

Centrebacks / sweepers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite possibly our strongest area, even more so if you include a couple of other players that will appear in the DM category. This combined with the 2 quality fullbacks leads me to think I could play some sort of 3-5-2 variation here, however I'm not really keen on the 3-5-2 for arbitrary "not feeling it" reasons, plus it won't fit in my only good attacking player, which you'll see later, which is a winger. There's also a very big problem here that our better CBs are slow!

 

 

Midfielders / defensive midfielders / attacking midfielders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still a bit of depth here but it's biased towards the more defensive minded players. Fosu could easily play as CB for example but I think he's just too slow so I'm thinking of slotting him as a DM instead. In Tsimikas I've got a good playmaker and in Routsis a well-rounded "does everything" kind of guy (box-to-box) but I'm missing a proper quality runner here. At least we have Giaxis, a 16 year old kid who seems a major prospect?

 

 

Wingers / wide forwards / wide midfielders

 

 

 

This is where the problems start showing up. Oh boy. Pozoglou is too good not to play, in fact he's our only good proper attacker, the only quality player upfront with pace, but I don't like the fact he's better suited on the left flank where I already have my most attacking fullback, Ioannidis, one of the team's best players allround. Not quite sure how this is gonna fit. Also, I simply have no other options for the wings at all and Gekas for the right flank seems a bit crap. Reinforcements badly needed.

 

 

Strikers

 

 

 

 

This is pretty bad too. I don't like none of my 3 strikers. Gourtsas is in pole position here but his physicals are poor and he doesn't excel at linking up neither, which doesn't bode well for the single-striker system I'm planning to create. Doumtsios is quick but not that good. Problems here.

 

 

Conclusions

 

• Very talented defence but very little talent or any pace in the final third except for a single left winger
• The defence despite talented, lacks pace too at centre-back
• We do have excellent pacey fullbacks that could be given the freedom to attack
• I think the best fit will be a deep, wide 4-3-3 type system prioritizing defence over attack, and trying to cynically exploit any little openings, with the fullbacks bombing forward as a 2nd wave in case our opponents stiffle our 1st quick break.
• For this to work though, I desperately need a new right winger. This is top priority ASAP
• I would also like a better striker, a runner for midfield, and possibly even a guy that can playmake out on the wing to add some variety
• The good news is we've got 3 completely free non-EU slots, so I can just poach free South Americans/Africans/etc
• Bad news is roughly 3.5K€/month left of wage budget is definitely not enough to hire all the players I want, unless I can somehow get rid of unwanted players for free

 

 

Goals

 

I'm definitely aiming to beat the media's 10th place pre-season prediction. Promotion might be a pipedream (the squads of OFI and specially Aris seem far too strong for us) but I want to start making moves towards the higher end of the table.

[noikeee]

42 minutes ago, withnail316 said:

Best of luck, mate. 

Thank you!  

[noikeee]

And we suddenly make a pile of money.

 

 

This is the most profitable feeder club arrangement I've ever seen. 

[noikeee]

 

WTF!!!!!!!

 

I'm now suddenly feeling very stupid for this choice of club.  

Well, I guess it's a challenge now then.

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, noikeee said:

 

My alter-ego, as used a few times before when I want to play as myself, is Portuguese manager Henrique dos Santos. Say hello to him (for some reason the face creation has gone godawful and looks nothing like myself):

You are of course a rather dashing young man, but what the actual **** is that on the end of your nose! 

[noikeee]

3 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

You are of course a rather dashing young man, but what the actual **** is that on the end of your nose! 

That's the bit that does resemble me. I didn't want to confess this, but I'm part of the lizard people and my face is red.

In other news, there's a bug and the embargo is forbidding me to hire any players at all, even under 23 players. So this has turned into a transfer-less first season with a horribly unbalanced squad for what I want to do. Fun times.

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2017/2018

 

Despite the bug, which seems to come and go intermittently, I somehow managed to hire 2 new players on loan (under 23s, of course):

 

These two lads improve our right flank, as I most needed:

Becomes the 3rd highest paid player on the squad, which I took as a leapt of faith on as I couldn't scout him properly, but he's been a very nice reinforcement - performed great in pre-season scoring 3 goals and getting 1 assist, in our inherently low scoring system.

 

A very similar player, but doesn't seem to be performing as well yet. Atromitos is paying his wages though, so I don't really mind, he adds much needed depth.

 

 

Our pre-season matches:

 

 

This might not look particularly good, but given that half of these matches were against teams from the division above us, and that in every single match we looked like a very tough side to break down, I'm pretty happy with how things are clicking at the moment.

 

And this is the system I've built through pre-season:

Added player instructions:

DL - Dribble More, Cross More Often, Run Wide With Ball

ML - Dribble More, Get Further Forward, Roam From Position, More Risky Passes

MCR - Get Further Forward

 

I pretty much almost clicked with this from the beginning, with the general idea playing much like expected. Standard is a nice mentality to play with, as it's not too rushed like higher mentalities and not too tamed like I found Counter to be. Structured is because I get the feeling that's generally working better in FM18. In '17 you hardly got punished for going fluid at all, yet now it seems a team can very easily get spread too thin if not good enough to play that compact.

The trickiest thing here was to get the Pozoglou role (ML) right. I want him to create things for the striker and the other winger, but none of the advanced AML roles fit - a winger stayed too wide, a IF refrained from crossing, a Trequartista was too high up. I wanted something more generic, more complete. After a lot of experimenting a WM/S with lots of aggressive PIs seems to work well.

Another interesting variation is the fullbacks, initially I had the more talented and more complete Ioannidis (DL) on attack role, but he just ran forward far too soon, partially due to having the "gets forward whenever possible" PPM. Eventually I settled on the same role for both FBs but giving more expansive instructions for Ioannidis.

Overall I'm pretty confident but one area of concern is we can lack goals and fail to create danger, this is kind of by design as I'm prioritizing defence. There were two concerning 0-0s in friendlies in which we looked very tame, perhaps the forward needs more close help. Another concern is the number of corners we conceded in some matches, I might have to download some set pieces as this is an area of the game I'm not very good at, I've not touched the default routines.

[noikeee]

"The Panserraikos board remind you".... I don't like being "reminded" of bad news I didn't know about in the first place.

[john1]

Good luck  

[noikeee]

6 minutes ago, john1 said:

Good luck  

Thanks!

Meanwhile,

Our prodigious midfield kid is going places.

[Rikulec]

This looks promising.

[noikeee]

1 minute ago, Rikulec said:

This looks promising.

Giaxis is the one who looks promising.

Becomes the league's youngest ever player in match 1. Gets a goal and an assist in match 2, becoming the club's youngest ever scorer. 

A switch from BBM/S to CM/A for him has done wonders to our game.

[noikeee]

 

 September 2017 

 

 

A pretty pleasing beginning sees us kick off the league with 3 straight wins without conceding goals, including a 2-0 over promotion favourites OFI who I nearly started my career with, and a massive 5-0 smashing of Sparti. We did lose in the cup to Larisa but that was to be expected as they're 1 division above us and we fielded a bunch of 2nd string kids; however we were poor for real against Doxa Dramas which was the first time I wasn't really happy enough with our performance.

Nevertheless, it's a promising start here.

 

[noikeee]

It's so much sweeter to beat the AI like this.   Really enjoying our style of play, we can be dull as hell but stay in position to frustrate the opposition all match, and then pick our time to shoot for when there's a proper opening.

Reminds me of my Westerlo side in FM12! Those were the days. 4-1-4-1, park the bus in formation, keep sterile possession as much as possible, hit long ball to Remi Naert when there's an opening, 1-0 win. 

[noikeee]

 October 2017 

 

 

An unbeaten month, but not a particularly great one. We've been taking this "grinding out results" mentality a bit too seriously and have looked toothless recently. A series of injuries to important players - such as goalkeeper Borivoje Ristic and the surprisingly important forward Kostas Doumtsios - hasn't helped. Regardless, we continue high up on the table if no longer on a promotion spot, and retain a chance of continuing in the cup, if we can surprise Lamia of the Superleague.

 

[john1]

Not bad, only conceded 1 goal  

[noikeee]

12 hours ago, john1 said:

Not bad, only conceded 1 goal  

We've gotten worse since.  

[noikeee]

 November 2017 

 

 

A pretty bad month, as we're now on a run of 7 matches without winning in the league. It's all the most frustrating that in both matches against Panachaiki and Aris - the league leaders - we conceded very late equalisers. We also crashed out of the cup, although hardly a surprise against Lamia. The good news is we're still beating the pre-season prediction of 10th as we're still 8th in the league, but quickly dropping back. Goalkeeper Borivoje Ristic will also soon be back.

Meanwhile, whilst I still think our main tactical system is good, I'm starting to think we could benefit from adjustments in some matches. I've noticed that our success (or lack of) is highly linked to who controls what Portuguese pundits call the "second ball": who wins the ball that's just been cleared by the defence after a sustained attack. In our better matches, when we're attacking, our 2 MCs win these balls and launch a 2nd attack. In our worst matches, like against Ergotelis' 3-4-1-2 in which we were awful, we're beaten to these balls when attacking; and when we're defending, the ball falls into the "hole" between our striker and our midfield which is too far back. So I'm experimenting with an alternative midfield setup, with 2 DMs and 1 AM instead of 1 DM and 2 MCs.

Another issue is the Pozoglou role at the left-wing - despite all that pre-season tweaking he's been nowhere near as influential as I expected, and I'm wondering what to do here. An alternative has been to field a right-footed player there, like Tsatsopoulos or Kritikos, so he can cut inside and link with others.

 

[noikeee]

 December 2017 

 

 

Finally the bad run is over! Should've been against Apollon Pontou, as we were unlucky to lose that having had the better chances, but finally we nicked a 1-0 win over Kallithea's narrow 3-6-1 diamond, after a few tweaks to be a bit more expansive down the wings - a cross from a roaming Giaxis found Pozoglou on the other side.

This was long overdue as we were starting to get dragged down to the relegation fight.

 

[noikeee]

 January 2018 

 

 

We looked at the edge of a cliff here with an horrendous first half of the month. Playing worse and worse, with morale tanking and dressing room problems looming, and with nothing at all working on the pitch, I ditched all versions of the 4-2-3-1 I've been tweaking lately, and went back to the 4-3-3(ish) we were using at the start of the season. Crucially, it got us a big win over OFI. 

Frustratingly against Acharnaikos despite keeping them under siege all match, they scored on a set piece and we only got a point. That's the point that keeps us above the relegation zone...... even if we're 4 places above it in an epic fight between roughly half the league!

Transfers-wise there were none in January although our 16yo prodigy Kyriakos Giaxis got a bid from Kobenhavn(!), and some of our backup guys are considering bids.

 

[noikeee]

This appears to be the name of a real, non-parody, non-made-up player in Greece.

[noikeee]

 February 2018 

 

(Transfers)

3rd choice striker Charalabos Zygeridis was let go to Almopos.

 

 

I feel like we're getting every roll of the dice against us here. The team has looked much improved lately but were unable to turn draws against Sparti and Doxa Dramas into wins, and the final 2 matches we were wildly unlucky to get beaten.

I am in trouble now. The squad has turned against me to some extent and the board is also unhappy and has given me the ultimatum of 8 points in the next 5 matches or I am sacked. There is a very, very high chance my first job in management will end in an unfinished season.

 

[noikeee]

 Youth intake 2018 

 

 

Well, I am pissed off now that I'm about to be sacked, because I've just gotten a "golden generation"... Antonis Barbas is amazing!

[noikeee]

 March 2018 

 

 

Could a comeback from the dead still be on??!! With two rather dominant performances against Karaiskakis Artas and Ergotelis, we got 2 wins, and we were yet again unlucky to lose against Panaigaleios, in a very even match. That's 6 points. If I get 2 points from the next 2 matches I save my job!!

Frustratingly, teams around us are getting points too, and those 2 wins weren't enough to get me out of the relegation zone.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Barbas does indeed look the business. Let's hope you hang on long enough to make the most of him. 

[noikeee]

33 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Barbas does indeed look the business. Let's hope you hang on long enough to make the most of him. 

Well.... maybe??

2 points in 2 matches and I get exactly the points I needed.  This was a tense night of FM.

Now all I need is to make this side stay up... that's another challenge altogether to come still!

[wynter]

Barbas looks brilliant. 

 

Looking like you might just survive as well, here's hoping you can keep your head up.

[noikeee]

4 hours ago, wynter said:

Barbas looks brilliant. 

 

Looking like you might just survive as well, here's hoping you can keep your head up.

Thanks. It's looking like a coin flip, can easily go either way. Really didn't expect or want a relegation fight this year, but it's turning out quite exciting!

[noikeee]

 April 2018 

 

 

With 2 points needed from the next 2 matches, we had to fight like hell to get them. Both times our opponents leapt ahead, and both times we had to turn the game around tactically and equalize. Against Apollon Larisas it was extraordinarily tense, with both goals coming early and then a very cagey even match playing out for the rest of time, with any goal potentially coming at any moment.

Nevertheless we did it and I saved my job... for now.... and was it worth it? Against the already promoted Aris we were awful and very lucky to leave with just a 1-0 defeat and then against Apollon Pontou it was all or nothing in a major relegation fight decider. It was a very heavy 4-1 loss as we played appalling and we looked doomed now. 4 matches to go and I need to turn around a 4-point defficit...

 

[noikeee]

The final fixtures in May...

[noikeee]

 May 2018 

 

 

An away match against Kallithea, the team right above the relegation zone, was pretty much last chance to still salvage this season. To my horror, a sequence of early goals from set pieces meant we lost 3-1. The season was over there.

With little to lose now, I decided to stick with a wacky, assymetrical, open setup I had used at the end of that match, partially inspired by @wynter's Slavia Sofia tactics. It made for an entertaining and rewarding 6-3 win over Trikala. It looked to be going the same way against Veroia as we opened a lead twice, but a goal conceded in minute 82 made it a draw. And mathematical relegation. And I got sacked.

 

 

Well, at least I still managed to leave on a high with this fun system for these last 2 matches. Might be something to use with the next club...

 

[noikeee]

Panserraikos - 2017/2018 - Season review

I'm sorry Panserraikos fans - it's a terrible season as the club drops to tier 3. We did show a bit of early season promise, but then...

Statistics, best 11, and top 5 players of the season

 
5. Stelios Pozoglou (ML, AML, AMR, MR) - Occasionally influential, but a big disappointment. I focused so much on his role when setting up the early tactics and I think it was a mistake. Just 5 goals and 5 assists.

4. Dusan Stevic (DR, WBR) - High-ish average ratings (6.91, the third highest in the squad), but never contributed anything spectacular.

3. Kostas Doumtsios (ST, AMR) - A surprise starter as Gourtsas looked ahead of him in the pecking order early on, but his pace proved useful. Joint top scorer with 8 goals... which is still a little low for a striker, specially when most of the time I was only using 1...

2. Stergios Tsimikas (MC, AMC) - A solid season from our playmaker.

1. Kyriakos Giaxis (MC, DM) - A shock star. Aged 17 (just became 17 in April!!!), he was genuinely our best player overall, AND became our joint top scorer... whilst playing as a midfielder. No wonder he got interest from Kobenhavn, despite playing in a very ****** underperforming 2nd tier Greek side.

Career progress table

Season   League                  Cups                              Continental                    Other
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panserraikos (Greece)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17/18    League - 15th           Kupello Hellas - 1st round                                       Relegated, sacked 1 match to go

[Hootieleece]

Will you continue this save? Maybe in another league.........

[noikeee]

8 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

Will you continue this save? Maybe in another league.........

Of course! This is a journeyman save, the journey is far from over.  

[wynter]

14 hours ago, noikeee said:

Partially inspired by @wynter's Slavia Sofia tactics. 

Oh Hey! 

14 hours ago, noikeee said:

And mathematical relegation. And I got sacked.

 

But seriously, unlucky man. Hopefully something good comes along to keep this going

[noikeee]

2 hours ago, wynter said:

But seriously, unlucky man. Hopefully something good comes along to keep this going

I think it will. I'll soon present my tactical monstruosity along with my new club.  

[noikeee]

Næstved, Denmark - 12th of July, 2018

Moving into unemployment I ran into a slight technical issue, as I didn't have enough active leagues for the (low) level of my reputation. So I activated Belgian tier 3, Danish tier 3, and both divisions of Hungary. I would analyse job offers in all 3 countries plus my home Portugal, and eventually moved to Denmark although this is rather out of character for me! I've very rarely managed in Nordic countries as I didn't particularly enjoy it in the past. Let's hope this goes differently!

I've actually never managed in Denmark specifically so that was a plus, then I realised what kind of club this was. Naestved BK came up randomly to me and only after applying for it did I notice this is actually a bit of a minor fallen giant! (I'm using the word "giant" liberally). Whenever possible I prefer picking clubs with history so that's great. Despite languishing in the lower levels these days, and having just fallen from the 2nd to the 3rd tier (the 2.Division) in my game world, Naestved has a long history of playing in the Danish top level, most spectacularly finishing 2nd (!!!) twice, in 1980 and 1988. This led to a few European appearances, invariably laughably bad, including a 7-0 defeat to PSV in 1981.

That explains why the hell do they have a stadium for 17500 people, although that seems a bit oversized for a town of 42000 inhabitants!

Recent seasons are depressing - around 2009 there was a push to try to return to the top level, but it was short-lived. 

Finances aren't appalling which is good enough for me:

And the only important thing I'm yet to mention, is that these club's kits are very green - something new for me as well:

[Rikulec]

Looks like a nice place for a fresh start. Good luck.

[kidthekid]

Good luck in Denmark

[noikeee]

Squad overview

"What the flying ****", Henrique dos Santos was quoted saying in his first meeting with his new Danish squad:

That's.... by a very long distance, the most versatile squad I've ever had. To the point I'm actually a bit confused and struggling to memorize who's who. And I don't really know how to divide players into categories because it seems everyone's a fullback-wingback-CM-winger-false-nine-inverted-libero.

Goalkeepers

Rosenorn is pretty good, I think that's sorted.

 

Fullbacks/wingbacks

Jesus freaking Christ just how many left-backs do we need? Thankfully all of them can also double up as wingers, or strikers, or whatever can I possibly dream of. I'd like an actual decent attacking right-back though: I'm considering maybe using a IWB so left-footed Haarup could fit, but I'm still pondering on that one.

 

Centrebacks / sweepers

Problem area. These 3 guys are all pretty decent and all, but just 3 centre-backs isn't gonna cut it. I need at least one more surely?

 

Midfielders / defensive midfielders / attacking midfielders

The area where all my prayers have been heard. Munksgaard-Olsen are an almost perfect for the AP/S-CM/A roles I'm intending to use. That being said my new tactics seem to be all about the wings so I'm wondering whether I'll waste them?

Also, there's one slight issue. Munksgaard, the team's superstar, his contract runs out MID-SEASON (!!!). And he wants to leave. **** me.

 

Wingers / wide forwards / wide midfielders

Not a very good area with just 2 players available (although any of the left-backs can play higher up, indeed Khayat's a left-back), but the thing is, currently I'm intending to use just ONE winger, as Raumdeuter on the right wing. That seems to suit Kaljo.

 

Strikers

Some decent depth here but I'm concerned there's no killer top forward, or anyone particularly good in the air. Not sure wtf do I do with Grosen who would be a nice fit for Raumdeuter on the wing except he's got the PPM of "static target man"... uh? With a jumping of 7?

 

Conclusions

• Extreme amount of versatility.
• Short squad despite players covering so many positions. Definitely need a 4th CB.
• Excellent attacking midfield pairing, with 2 stars capable of both creating and finishing.
• Excess of left-backs although they're all very good going forward and can play as wingers.
• Lack of recognized major threat as striker.
• Slight lack of pace in the defence.
• Major issue brewing for midseason as the team's star Munksgaard's contract runs out, along with a couple other players like Moos.
• Very few influential players could hurt the dressing room (?).

 

Goals

The board wants to be "near the top of the league". This is a league that splits so I'm definitely aiming at the top half and then probably a promotion push.

[noikeee]

Tactics

So that's the thing still missing. My new crazy tactical system.

As proven by the 6-3 and 2-2 results in the 2 matches I used this in Greece (although I was using the inverse system with a Raumdeuter in the left), there's goals here. Lots of them. Just not necessarily all in the right end. It's essentially a high risk high reward system, very direct, mildly exploitative of how the AI can't deal with 3 men forward, except I'm hipster and don't want to use 3 central strikers and prefer to use a Raumdeuter as the 3rd man just to be different.

Things I'm considering to maybe change:

• IWB instead of WB on the right? Specially since my man there is left-footed? I'm concerned that some people have said there's a bug playing a HB+IWBs though! And it might kill off some of the directness of the system.
• Perhaps pushing the 2 CMs to the "proper positions" to see if it improves defensive stability instead of having a "hole" there. Pushing the fullbacks back is another option - though I've noticed they win the ball high up and this can be very dangerous in our favour.
   

[noikeee]

49 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

Looks like a nice place for a fresh start. Good luck.

 

17 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

Good luck in Denmark

Thank you lads. I will repay your good luck wishes in goals. Just can't promise in which net will they go in!

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2018/2019

I did exactly what I'd done last season in Greece: picked up 2 kids on loan. The 3rd player is some mediocre kid the HOYD decided to hire on his own:

That's one for CB and one for ST:

Immediately becomes our best CB although I'd like a inch more of acceleration and better tackling, to be a proper top CB.

Also imediately becomes our best ST - not sure he's particularly outstanding though. Just a tidy poacher-esque player.

And our pre-season run:

I'm actually a bit worried now, this pre-season was worse than I expected, even ignoring the 7-1 defeat to Kobenhavn, which was silly as they're the best team in the whole of Denmark and we were on godawful fitness. The last 3 matches were against teams inferior to us, and only winning one of those 3 - even if by 5 goals in dominating fashion - was a major red flag to me.
 

[Hootieleece]

Jakobsen might make an interesting replacement for Munksgaard.  

[noikeee]

10 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Jakobsen might make an interesting replacement for Munksgaard.  

Dunno, don't quite see him as midfielder which is where I'm using Munksgaard.

Anyway I've got bigger issues here as the tactics aren't going to plan - back to the drawing board again...

[john1]

Harsh to see you got sacked with a game left!! Good luck in Denmark