[FM18] Southampton rebooted, let's become Ajax!

[tajj7]

(Yes I really did say Ajax, don't laugh.)

 

Southampton are my local and favourite club, in real life after several years of rapid progress up the leagues and to the heady heights of 6th and Europa league qualification in the 15/16 season we have since stalled a little bit.

Years of selling off our best players (mainly to Liverpool) and the remaining squad stagnating have seen our progress stall, last year was ok but dire football at times got Claude Puel sacked, only for our new manager to bring much of the same. 

So I thought for my FM18 save I would go bald and reboot the 'Southampton Way', do a massive clear out and bring in fresh faces to start moving back up the table and challenging the money bags clubs. 

Along the way I spotted this great thread -

https://community.sigames.com/topic/372887-johan-cruyffs-3-4-3-diamond-very-fluid/

This inspired me to try to replicate the great total football sides of Ajax and Barcelona that Cruyff played and managed, not only that I will try to bring through the youth system the complete footballers needed for this system.

Southampton do have a few things in common with the Amsterdam giants, they have a great academy system that has brought through players like Bale, Shaw, Walcott, Oxlade Chamberlain, and going further back the likes of Shearer, the Wallace brothers and the great, the legend that is Matt Le Tissier.  This academy also tries to instil an ethos throughout all age groups instilling a certain way of playing and focusing on good technical skills and footballing brain. I believe that Southampton academy coaches have in fact visited the great Ajax academy on several occasions to learn and share ideas. 

Also like Ajax, Southampton tend to lose their players to better clubs and both clubs play in red and white, in fact this year we have the 'reverse ajax' kit coming back from early 80's -

 

Objectives

• Over haul the playing staff and coaching staff.
• Attempt to create an Ajax total football system, preferably the 3-4-3 inspired system.
• Win the Champions League with as many youth prospects as possible. 
• (Don't get sacked first season because you've changed the whole team and broken the dynamics!)

 

[tajj7]

The Squad and Transfers

I have combined these two together because essentially the squad is the transfers.

As you can see, there has been quite an overhaul:

This is an advantage that Ajax do not have that will hopefully allow me to keep some of my players for longer - Premier league spending power. I started with around a £30 million budget and around £40 million in the bank as well. Added to the sales I have stretched that out quite well.

 

Sales

A lot of the sales I was a little disappointed with in their values, Bertrand was supposed to go to Stoke for £21 million but rejected the contract and there were no takes aside that Chinese side. Similar Austin had agreed a £15 million move to Lyon but again turned down the wages (the reverse issue of selling players from the PL, you can offer high wages but it means players you want to sell also expect high wages). 

In hindsight the Cedric, Bertrand and Romeu sales were a mistake. Romeu would have worked well as the deep lying playmaker I have used and Bertrand and Cedric could have been re-trained to defensive wingers and thus allowing me the option to use a secondary formation with full backs for some of the bigger games. 

But hindsight is a wonderful thing, the sales gave me a massive kitty to re-shape my squad.

 

Purchases 

As inspired by @Ö-zil to the Arsenal!'s Ajax/Cruyff thread (fascinating read btw, go check it out) this is the shape we were looking to create -

We also had an underlining principle that was needed for all players, we needed total footballers.

Particularly players with good -

• Work rate
• Stamina
• First touch
• Passing
• Technique

As well as other well rounded mental, technical and physical attributes depending on their position. 

This meant we basically had a template of the type of player we needed and this was going to be difficult as whilst I had the money Southampton's reputation is not stellar, we had no European football to offer so we were going to have to pick up players from the lesser leagues around Europe. (no different to how Southampton scout in real life). 

Where better to go if you are looking for total footballers than the best creators of them, Ajax! 

Probably one of the highest rated young defenders in the game, De Ligt suits my aims perfectly, he is comfortable on the ball and will complement his Dutch international counterparts at the club Hoedt and Van Dijk. As I am playing 3 centre-backs I felt I needed 5 good ones to rotate for injuries/fitness, plus there was always the chance VVD would force a move as he has tried to do in real life.

Another top rated prospect from Ajax, Dolberg represents everything I need in a lone striker, good physicals, ability to pick and see a pass, work rate and an ability to finish chances. His stamina is a little lacking but we'll work on that

Aside from Gabbiadini, the strikers at Southampton were not really suited to lone support roles, hence why they needed to be shipped out. Dolberg will fight with Gabbiadini for a first team slot and has bags of potential to develop into a top level player.

Not a product of Ajax's academy, the dutch born Moroccan has been one of the key performers in the Dutch league over the last 3-4 years banging in goals and amassing loads of assists for Heerenveen, Twente and Ajax. I am actually surprised he hasn't made it the the PL earlier to be honest. The key for me signing him was not only his very good playmaking abilities but also his work rate of 13 and decent stamina. It is hard to get attributes in flair attacking mids, and hopefully as he still has a little potential these will go up a little. He also offers extra ability on set pieces to complement James Ward-Prowse. 

He actually took quite a bit of persuading to join, hence the £140k a week and promises were made about silverware for 18/19.........

The final player of the Ajax quartet is brought in to play one of the two CM positions. Reading through Ozil's thread he highlights how key ex-Ajax, now Everton midfielder Klaassen was to his team and to me Donny looks like the new version of him. He is a 20 year old midfielder with very little weaknesses and fits the idea of the system perfectly with good technique, passing, first touch, work rate and stamina.  Hopefully as he matures his mentals will develop even more. 

What to say about this player, he is basically perfect for the formation and even has many of the PPMs you need. He was a later signing of the window. My chief scout had to watch him 8 times before he could be tempted to discuss a contract.  

We needed a sweeper keeper and I very much wanted shot of Forster who has been terrible IRL, whilst in game is about as far from a sweeper keeper as you can get. Horn represents the best available, that was interested and I could afford as he has a £15 million release clause. Sweeper keepers are hard to find and the regen system also struggles to produce them, I am hoping long term to develop one or find one from other teams I can develop one but Horn is likely to be my keeper for the next few years. 

Sisto fills my wide right slot, key here again was his decent work rate and tackling, as well as passing and vision (which I find are often poor for a lot of wingers) as well some scope to mould him. Both wingers are going to be trained as defensive wingers so hopefully these key areas will improve.

Scarpa comes in as the left winger, I was actually scouting him as an alternative to Ziyech for the attacking midfielder role until I realised he was left footed. Again note the very good stamina and work rate, perfect for that hard wing role. He also has decent marking for a winger, and enough room to improve that I think those tackling and positioning attributes can at least be increased to around 11. 

 

The Remaining Squad. 

Not many players were left from the cull, these were -

Gabbiadini - who is good enough to act as the lone striker in a complete forward role.

Hojberg and Ward-Prowse - who will compete for the DLP-D spot. JWP also offers an alternative option on the right wing with his good crossing, work rate and stamina. 

Heodt, Yoshida and Van Dijk - 3 solid centre back options, with Virgil being the teams star player. I fully suspect his head will be turned during the season and long term I would like to upgrade all of these players, with De Ligt likely to take over from them once he starts hitting his potential. 

Josh Sims - One of the main youth academy prospects, IRL last year was his breakthrough year producing some good displays on the wing. He will be Scarpa's back up option and already has solid attributes for dribbling, pace, first touch, crossing, composure, technique, along with very good determination and decent work rate.  Southampton's youth prospects over the last few years have been generally quite poor with only Ward-Prowse really making it to a decent level, hopefully future youth intakes will be better.

Mario Lemina - Signed from Juventus in the summer, he is also a very good all round midfielder, rated as a box to box by the game. He will compete with Van de Beek and Savic for those CM roles.

 

Staff

I won't go into much detail here but we have basically upgraded everyone we can with what is available.  Speakman in particular has been brought in as Head of Youth development because of his determination of 19 and his professional personality which will hopefully rub off on my regens.

[tajj7]

So far so interesting.....

Second top scorers in the league as we approach March, comfortably 6th in the table and not completely out of the running for a Champions League place. 

We also have one of the worst defences as well, certainly can't say we are boring! Especially if you look at the results -

We have been absolutely hammered by some of the better teams, the lack of wingers giving space to the likes of Mane, Sane, Hazard etc. has been punishing so I need to develop a second tactic to combat the 4-2-3-1 that many of the top teams play and hopefully improve the defence.

This is how the tactics have developed over the season -

I am still trying to work out the roles for the defenders to get a better balance, a lot of the goals we have conceded IMO should have been avoided and the lack of a decent partnership at the back is worrying. 

I also may try the wingers on support roles to see how they do defensively, but hopefully that won't dent our excellent attacking play -

As you can see our attacking players have been superb, Ziech and Dolberg in particular have been on fire.  Dolberg was also named European Golden boy.

 

Hopefully we can finish the seasons decently and secure at least 6, which should be enough for the Europa league as long as one of the top 5 wins the FA cup. Annoyingly the League cup is between Leicester and West Ham, even though I got knocked out by Utd in the quarters in extra-time playing their full team so I thought they would go on and win it. 

Aim for the summer is improve the defence and also get a left back and right back who can also be trained to fill in at the wing positions which should enable me to play a more defensive formation against the the bigger teams. 

 

[john1]

Great start with Southampton  Some high scoring wins  

Looking forward to more updates  

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

Good luck with Southampton.

Maybe try putting De Ligt and Yoshida on stopper duties. They might drift out further and close down wingers.

[DavidBeckham]

Already 10 points ahead of Spurs, keep up the good work mate! 

[tajj7]

So first season finished, we managed to keep hold of 6th place thanks to a very crucial away win against Tottenham, we had some tough away games towards the end of the season which saw them close the gap on us. 

We should have had 5th, Liverpool lost something like 6 or 7  league games in a row, amongst a run where they got knocked out of the Europa league by Arsenal and lost the FA Cup 6th round, a run of around 10 games without a win I think that got Klopp sacked after the final game. Liverpool actually ended up beating Spurs on the final day and I only needed to beat Brighton at home but we missed a host of chances to end with a disappointing 0-0.

Still 6th was achieved, which after a pre-season expectation of top half, a mass overhaul of the players and an experimental tactic, is I think a very good finish -

I was a little panicked I had missed out on Europe but it must be a bug or something it doesn't display on the table because we are in the Europa league group stages.

Dolberg had quite the year -

For a supposed injury prone player I was very lucky, he barely missed a game and those seemed to be cup games, his longest injury was about two weeks which fell over an international period.  Poor old Gabbiadini barely got a look in, mainly coming off the bench and playing the cup games, every time he asked for more football I was like 'well look at Dolbergs form' and that is not a point he could argue with. He eventually asked to leave and has moved back to Italy I think.

Keeping Dolberg at the club and fit next season is going to be crucial to our chances, but I will have to get a decent back up/rotation option as the added strain of European games is likely to test my luck with injuries (I had no real serious injuries in the whole squad). 

It was also a pretty decent season for me as manager as well getting this unexpected award -

As you can see from the table we conceded a lot of goals, more than anyone in the top half so my main aim for the summer is to get some solid full backs that can also play on the wings, this will allow me to operate a 4-1-4-1 formation for those tougher games against the bigger teams that play 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 or 3-2-2-2-1 (the wingback system Chelsea use) as those wide AML and AMR positions, if they are good quick players like Hazard or Mane just destroy me.

The rest of the squad is pretty solid and they are all improving as they are young (De Ligt in particular has shown immense improvement) so unless there is an obvious upgrade to a position I won't spend too much. 

[Deego619]

In my own flirtations with Ozil's system I found myself being decimated down the flanks so badly. I think it's a great system for when you are a "superior" team as it chokes the opposition, but defensive players at top teams can ping the ball out wide to destructive wingers with ease and that really hurts. 

The only way I found to "lessen" the damage is to switch to a back four and 4-4-1-1 like Ozil's Sacchi thread for the big games. 

Great progress so far! That first transfer window looks crazy. 

[tajj7]

21 hours ago, JDeeguain said:

In my own flirtations with Ozil's system I found myself being decimated down the flanks so badly. I think it's a great system for when you are a "superior" team as it chokes the opposition, but defensive players at top teams can ping the ball out wide to destructive wingers with ease and that really hurts. 

The only way I found to "lessen" the damage is to switch to a back four and 4-4-1-1 like Ozil's Sacchi thread for the big games. 

Great progress so far! That first transfer window looks crazy. 

Yep found exactly the same, and have done exactly the same as you, I have switched to a variation of his 4-4-1-1 that he exampled in his Sacchi save.  I think him playing Ajax meant most teams he was better than so he destroyed them and then playing in Europe faced less formations with the two attacking wingers. In the prem it seems almost every other team plays the 4-2-3-1 or a variation similar to it. 

We are a lot more solid and the philosophy and principles are exactly the same so my total footballers work very well and my forward two combination of Ziyech and Dolberg are the same in both formations. 

[mark1985]

Good start mate! As a Saints fan I will be following this!

[tajj7]

Season 2 Update

After our excellent first season I planned for the second season knowing I needed a bit less upheaval in terms of transfers, I had good young players with the right attributes to fill my first team. Strength in depth was a bit weak so I needed to get a few more bodies in to provide competition/rotation, especially as we had the Europa league. Plus I was very scared Dolberg was building up for a major injury as I seemed to get away with it first season and he is rated as injury prone.

I also needed some fullback options so I could use the 4-4-1-1 I was planning to use to supplement our 3-5-1-1 because I wanted to be a bit more solid on the wings against the better teams. 

 

Summer Window

A bit less crazy than last year with slightly more going out on sales than incomings.

Gomes was listed, so I thought he could provide a decent back up to Ziyech and also provide another options as a deep lying playmaker. Sadly I forgot to get Barcelona to pay some of his wages and he's not got the game time he wanted so far.

Zappacosta was also listed, I needed a decent full back and he has all the attributes in the right areas, he is also able to fill in at right wing if needed. He isn't a superstar and I will be looking to upgrade him as soon as possible but at the moment we need to Champions League football to attract that next level player. For the price I was very happy, but yet again I should have got some wages from Chelsea. 

Byram is Zappacosta's back up, he's solid if unspectacular and is another home grown option for the Europa league squad.

Wilshere was not a planned signing, I was looking at England's performance in the World Cup (where they were knocked out in the Semis to Holland, who had about 5 of my players) and he was performing well but had no club, after seeing his attributes I decided to go for it.  Ideally I didn't need him as i had just got Gomes, but Wilshere can also play well as one of the centre mids as he has very good all round stats for the total football system (passing, technique, vision, work rate, stamina, decisions, first touch etc.) as well as the PPMs (plays one twos, gets forward whenever possible etc.) 

Robertson was the biggest signing and I was very pleased to get him as he's a very complete full back, he is pretty much 14-16 in every attribute you need. Liverpool seemed to rotate him and Moreno, so accepted a fee that was basically his value. He is also only 24 and has a bit of room for improvement. I don't think I will be able to upgrade on Robertson until I can spend like £50-60 million on one player and have a higher reputation. His back-up is the returning Targett who spent last year on loan and is a solid full back.

Pellegri is Dollberg's back up, he is a little off that level so I might struggle a little if Dolberg has a long spell on the sidelines but I wanted a player that would improve either to become a regular rotation option or to sell on, rather than an older player who would just stagnate. Pellegri has great potential and very good stating stats for his age. He has already picked up a few goals even though he is not completely suited to the system.

Svendsen is a young midfielder who has gone back on loan for the season to Molde, he was recommended by my scouts and was cheap. 

Oxlade-Chamberlain, again he was listed and at about half his value so I couldn't resist bringing the Ox back home. He is still only 24 and has potential to improve. (I have no idea why IRL he has gone from Arsenal's bench to sit on Liverpool's bench, such a waste of talent). He is brought in to challenge Sisto on the right wing, this time I managed to remember to get Liverpool to stump up some of his wages. 

 

Sales wise it was mainly clearing the dead wood and players who wanted to leave. Gabbiadini had been stuck behind Dolberg all year so wanted more football.  Hojberg just hadn't really performed and I had multiple players who could play that DLP role.

Fernandes was a silly signing, we lost like £5 million here and a lot of wages. I bought him in January fairly last minute as I wanted cover for Ziyech, I should have negotiated the deal better and he ended up getting several injuries and barely playing. With Wilshere and Silva in he had dropped down to like 4th choice AMC so I shipped him out for a big loss.

The rest of the players were shipped out as they were either needing more football or were younger players like Reed and McQueen who were never going to be good enough. Clasie was a nice bonus as he was on loan all last year and I'd forgot he was there.

The U23s is now mainly clear for my younger players to play there and mainly has 17-19 year olds prospects in it. With most of the older players out on loan. I have cleared out the U18 and U23 teams of all players not rated at least 3 star potential, so both squads are much smaller and this will make sure the good prospects get more game time and coach focus. 

 

Table and results so far 

Very pleased with the results so far, mainly have switched to the Sacchi 4-4-1-1 and we are shipping less goals. 

Not bad, we were top at one point but lost to Spurs away in a poor performance from my young team. Of those 12 games, we have already played Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Spurs, and Man City so basically half the games against the top 6 (though some of them are not performing like that, look at Liverpool LOL).

A couple of notable results -

We played some lovely football in those games and really controlled the game despite the possession stats, neither team threatened us and mainly they resorted to long shots. The Liverpool game got added gloss as we scored 3 from set pieces, though looking at our team report compared to the league we have the best set piece takers in the league on average so maybe that shouldn't be a surprise. Granted Liverpool had Mane and Coutinho injured so that certainly helped, though as they had sold Salah to Man City they should have got more cover. 

 

Player Development

We had one decent player through the youth intake, but I will show him after he had some more time to be shaped, Ward-Prowse has just turned 24 so will be tutoring him. 

Our three young purchases from Ajax are developing fantastically -

De Ligt had just come back from an injury in that picture hence the down arrows but he has progressed rapidly and is easily my most consistent centre back, even above Van Dijk.

 

Dolberg is just turning into the most complete of complete forwards He is not quite scoring as many this year as last year, I think this is due to him switching from a False 9, to a Complete Forward on support, but his assists and average rating have gone up a lot so and on the pitch you can see him creating lots of space for his team mates to exploit. He is basically nightmare for defenders as he works hard closing them down, has pace to get in behind, can challenge them in the air and muscle them off the ball. 

 

van De Beek has developed very nicely, he has all the attributes we need for our all round centre-mids and pretty much embodies the total football concept. He has also nicely picked up the PPMs needed as well, though seems reluctant to pick up simple passes. His performances on the pitch have been average, but have picked up this second season and he is starting to score a few goals as well. 

 

Aside from James Ward-Prowse, who I think is close to maxing out his PA, Sims is the main youth academy product I have been working on developing. He got decent game time last year, around 30 odd appearances including sub games and I think he is coming along nicely. He is never likely to be a world beater, but according to my coaches still has a decent amount of potential and he is starting to get decent attributes for his position. He has also just become natural in the ML position as well which should help his consistency. Tutoring has also got his determination up and changed his personality to resolute. 

 

Summary

Overall it is going very well, we have just won our Europa league group as well and mainly progressed through that with rotation players.  I have agreed to sell Lemina to Seattle Sounders in the MLS as the switch to the 4-4-1-1 meant we only had 2 MC berths not 3 and he has slipped behind van De Beek, Savic and Ward-Prowse for these roles. 

The main aim has to be Champions League football, we have promised this to both Dolberg and Horn to keep them from wanting away, plus lots of our players are expecting silverware this year so that may cause us problems at the end of the year though overall we have a very happy, tight knit dressing room and I have a lot of support from the players so we might be able to whether it especially if we can finish in the top 4.

Finances though may be an issue, we have had to start paying some our clauses on the first window transfers, plus our wage bill is very high meaning we are currently £8 million in the red at the moment. Not a giant problem at the moment as PL money should sustain us and the board have still given me a £40 million transfer budget, but we may have to cash in on a star player if it gets worse.  Main candidates for this would be Ziyech who is our highest earner, has reached his PA I think and I have Wilshere and van De Beek who could slip into this role or Van Dijk who was wantaway a lot last year. 

 

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

You're doing very well so far. Brilliant result vs. Liverpool.

[tajj7]

17 hours ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

You're doing very well so far. Brilliant result vs. Liverpool.

Thanks was very pleased with that, though considering they are still in the bottom 3 in January it is a little less special! No idea how Enrique is not getting sacked, they have won just 3 times in the league. Klopp got sacked for finishing 5th! 

---------------------------------------------------------

I am top in January, but it's precarious, about 8 teams are within 6 points of each other, it's shaping up to be a very odd league this year (Liverpool are 17th, Man City 14th and Spurs are currently 12th, Utd are down in 7 or 8th I think).  The media are asking me about the title and being top but I'm deflecting those questions with the 'we only look at the next game' type responses. Our aim is top 4 and that would be a great achievement, I don't want to get carried away. 

The finances are also a big worry, the yearly wages rises, the new contracts and the future few payments are all taking their toll (who'd have thought Dolberg would have hit 50 league goals in 18 months!), we are now sitting £30 million in the red, with a zero transfer budget and the board have started squeezing wages for my staff, several physios and data analysts had to take a pay cut and some won't renew, including my head physio. 

I just accepted then cancelled a £58 million offer from Arsenal, for Gustavo Scarpa, my versatile left winger, who can even fill in at left back now and I have moulded into basically a complete wing back.  It was £40 million up front, plus another £10 million in installments of 6 months so would have wiped out our money issues pretty quickly. It also was a decent offer for a 3 star overall rated player, but he is currently the top assister in the league with 7 from 15 games, has 3 goals as well and is averaging around 7.4, whilst also being an influential player in my tight knit squad.  So I basically sat there for like 10 minutes deciding whether to accept. 

Then I later realised I couldn't replace him as none of the money would be made available for transfers, which would leave Sims as my first choice on the left or having a right footer there. 

So I have gambled that we can somehow make it through the rest of the season and then hopefully finish top 4, with the prize money and champions league football easing the debt problems, or maybe we get a takeover.  

 

 

[DavidBeckham]

Fantastic results against Liverpool and Man City! Only two points behind the leaders too hope you keep your good form going! 

[tajj7]

So............................

That was a surprise, we were incredibly consistent in the latter half of the season. I think we only lost 1 league game away to Man Utd and picked up some credible away draws to the bigger teams. Chelsea & Man City were pretty much level with me going into the last 6 or 7 games but fell away meaning I wrapped up the league with 3 games to spare.

We were actually very lucky to draw that game, we got a dodgy late deflected goal but I was resting players because of this -

Yep EURO Cup picked up as well, to be honest the teams I faced in this were not great. The bigger better teams seemed to get knocked out somehow (like Liverpool lost to Besiktas), so we beat Valencia, then Athletic Bilbao in the Quarters and Semis, both of whom were languishing mid table in La Liga at the time, before getting Galatasaray in the final.

We dominated the team of the year awards for both competitions -

And Dolberg picked up a lot of individual awards -

 

Here is the final league table -

Only 3 defeats all year, top goalscorers and joint second best defence after switching to the 4-4-1-1. 

Here is the final squad screen for the year -

As you can see the goals were more spread out, 4 players aside Dolberg into double figures, including both right wingers. It is interesting to see that the wingers do very well to get into the box and score goals.  Also Serge (Milinkovic-Savic) excelled as the CM-S, making late runs into the box and then smashing them in. 

[tajj7]

Season 3 update. 

After the successes of last season we had Champions League to look forward to and as you can see from all the 'Wnt' my biggest job for the summer was going to be keeping my players from the vultures that were circling. Little Southampton had put some bigger club's noses out of joint and they clearly wanted to pick my team to pieces.

Finance wise we are now very healthy, we were though, at one point £48 million in debt.  It was so bad that our proposed stadium expansion got cancelled, our scouting budget was cut to nothing, our staff wages were dramatically reduced and I couldn't even fund a £56k compensation fee for a youngster I was trying to get on a free transfer.

And then suddenly it was all fine. The Chairman injected about £25 million into the club, we got the prize money from the various competitions and out of nowhere the balance was over £60 million.  However we were projected to be £25 million in debt in another two seasons, at current rate, so I had to be aware of that when making my signings. 

I got the scouting started again, got upgrades to my youth coaching and recruitment (so hopefully the youth intake this year will be better, as this years intake was terrible with not even a 3 star potential player) and got the stadium expansion back on, but sadly for less seats, we were originally expanding to 40k, this has dropped to 36k. 

Transfers

Two pretty obvious ones there. 

Obviously I had a lot of my players wanted, most I was not willing to sell as I am unlikely to be able to replace them (the likes of De Ligt, Serge, Dolberg) as I would need top level players that are unlikely to interested.

However others like Ziyech and Van Dijk I was more open to selling if the offers were big and that is what happened to Ziyech. Man City made bids for him, I negotiated it to a flat £80 million all up front and they went for it.  £80 million for a 3 star rated player I got for around £25 million is a pretty good deal. Especially as he isn't that suited for the role I have him in, his finishing, off the ball and pace are all around the 12-13 area, so whilst he got a good 30 goals over the two years, he did miss a lot of chances. 

So I went big on an upgrade, that Dele Alli deal is massive but a lot is on his and my success (goals. champions league wins etc.) He was unhappy because Spurs had finished outside the Champs League places for the last two seasons and his wage demands were actually slightly lower than Ziyech's wages. For what I what I want in that role he is perfect, pretty much 15-16 for every attribute including finishing, long shots, work rate and acceleration/pace. He is pretty much Ziyech's equal in the playmaking abilities (passing, vision, first touch, decisions etc.) but basically has as good striker abilities as Dolberg.

The three youngsters there are all 5 star potential players picked up by my scouts and were cheap. Azenha, the last signing there is particularly exciting as he is already rated at a championship level at only 16, has a driven personality and has a work rate of 16, so I am looking forward to seeing how he develops as he has all the right characteristics for my tactics.

Milner and Kompany were brought in as mainly tutors that could also act as squad depth. Kompany still has excellent stats but his pace/acceleration have dropped to 11, so I will have drop the defensive line when he plays. 

Luke Shaw I just couldn't resist, he was listed by Utd and it was a chance to bring back another youth product, plus he is still only 24 so can reach his PA. He will challenge Robertson for that left back spot and is an upgrade on Targett who I shipped out to Leicester. He also is another home grown at club player, which means I fill all 4 of the required slots with first team squad players (Shaw, Sims, Ox and JWP).  I also got Man Utd to pay nearly £50k of his wages and £1.5 million of his fee cam back to me because of the sell on clause from the original sale! 

Lemina, Hendrix and Gomes, all wanted to leave because they didn't get enough football. I essentially had 7 centre-mids/attacking mids for 3 spots and this meant they didn't get much game time.  Yoshida wanted a new challenge and Byram was wanted so I thought I'd make a little profit here, Kompany and Milner also provide the cover in these positions. 

 

I've not played many games yet but we won both the Charity Shield and European Super Cup (Man Utd won the Champions League but Mourinho still got sacked!) and then we started the league campaign with this result -

Not bad, sadly we have followed this up with two 1-0 defeats the Liverpool and Chelsea where we were the better team and had more chances. 

Next update I'll update on the youth development progress, including the my only main youth academy prospect who appeared in the first youth intake and is a Welshman, is left footed and is called Giggs! (that is where the similarities end though sadly). 

[Deego619]

Congrats on winning the league! Even if it did come at a cost of almost doing a Leeds 

I like the idea of bringing in more experienced heads. Both should do wonders for tutoring whenever that academy decides to churn out superstars.

[tajj7]

12 minutes ago, JDeeguain said:

Congrats on winning the league! Even if it did come at a cost of almost doing a Leeds 

I like the idea of bringing in more experienced heads. Both should do wonders for tutoring whenever that academy decides to churn out superstars.

Thanks, almost but the sugar daddy + some premiership millions bailed us out it seems. Future fees and bonuses for reaching certain milestones (goals, league appearances etc.) from the first season overhaul caught me out a little so I need to watch that. 

We had an average age of 23 then 24 for the last few years so tutors was an issue, so Milner and Kompany, plus a few others that have now turned 24 will hopefully correct that.

James Ward-Prowse is one of those just turned 24, and he has determination of 18 with a resolute personality, so is very useful. He is also my magic button for dealing with player issues, if someone comes knocking on my door for a new contract or a move away, JWP has a little word and 9/10 he turns them around.  

I also think my success shows how valuable it is having a tight knit squad, with good morale, good mental attributes and influential players in this years FM. On paper my team is not the best, behind the likes of Man City or Chelsea or Man Utd who seem to buy another world class player or two every transfer window, whereas my squad is mainly 3 star sort of level, but collectively they punch above their weight.  

[DavidBeckham]

Unbelievable achievement winning the premier league in only your second season! Congrats mate!! 

[tajj7]

2 hours ago, DavidBeckham said:

Unbelievable achievement winning the premier league in only your second season! Congrats mate!! 

Thanks man. 

[tajj7]

Player Developments Update

A key to my progress and the club's is developing young players, not only is it a club philosophy but it also matches the Ajax approach of developing from within. 

Furthermore buying the 'total footballer' ready made is very expensive (Dele Alli says hello) as few examples of these types of player exist and clubs often want huge fees for these players. Often as well the AI development is lacklustre and these players lack in key areas that are crucial for the way I want to play.

So whilst in the short term I have had to buy the best I can, long term we are not going to be able to keep up with the spending and wages of the likes of Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, Real Madrid, PSG etc. (Pretty much these 5 clubs constantly want my players) I have done long term more general Southampton saves and the commercial/fanbase side of the club has just not grown quickly enough to sustain the £4 million plus weekly wage budget and the £250k - £300k wages that elite players expect. At the moment our highest wage is £150k a week, with most of the first team on around £100k a week and it is doubtful whether we can sustain much more than this. So even when these sort of players become available, realistically I can't afford them (for example at the moment in my save due to Liverpool's poor league finishes Mane, Coutinho and Naby Keita are all listed by request but all require up front fees of around £70 million and are on wages of like £250k a week).

So developing youth players, either direct from the academy or regens picked up cheaply is what this save is really all about.

However, we will have to spend big occasionally to try to maintain the first team quality before our youngsters can step up so I thought I highlight just why i went big on Dele Ali -

Just look at those complete stats, he'd be a solid centre-back, a very good wing back, and an an excellent complete forward.  He is definitely an upgrade on Ziyech and is proving to be just that as he has scored 10 goals in his first 10 games. 

Anyway, onto the youth development -

Bought Wonderkids

First season we raided Ajax for 3 of their best youngsters, Dolberg is doing fantastically and has developed into a very complete forward but De light and Van de Beek have also developed very well with targeted training and tutoring. -

Much like Alli, Donny is just developing into that all round player. I am still a little disappointed with his performances but being a natural in the DMC, MC and AMC positions has meant he has been shifted around quite a lot. Plus there is a lot of competition in those midfield areas with Serge, Alli, JWP, Wilshere also all able to play in those three spots.

Again developing very nicely, I doubt there are many 20 year centre-backs as accomplished as this, I am currently working on his quickness as this is important for the way we play with a high line so I'd like those attributes up to 15 at least and hopefully as he matures his mentals like anticipation, decisions and positioning will improve as well. 

Another top European prospect we picked up is Pellegri from Genoa -

He has largely lived in the shadow of Dolberg so far, only coming in for 1-2 game runs or cup games so his performances have been a little inconsistent. He has however this season started to kick on, already bagging two hat tricks, including one against Man Utd in the league.  Since I bought him I have been training him as a complete forward as we need that lone striker to work the defence with his movement and work rate. Pellegri is more naturally suited to a target man role but his passing, vision and pace/acceleration have all increased and this has started to show on the pitch. I think by the end of the season it will be a much tougher call as to who starts regularly. 

 

Academy players already at the club.

Southampton's youth academy production line in real life has dried up a little, but there are still a few starting prospects that have potential. The main one I have been working on is Josh Sims -

I am really pleased with how Sims has developed and it's starting to really show the benefits on the pitch as he is really pushing Scarpa for a first team slot.  He is never going to be a world beater but his attributes are nicely distributed into key areas so that he is not really wasting CA on attributes he doesn't really need. Whilst not the most complete player he has the right attributes for his role, namely decent enough stamina, good work rate, determination, anticipation and decent tackling meaning he is able to close down and win the ball well. He then has the attacking attributes to find a pass or beat a ban, hopefully his crossing will improve as well as my coaches tell me there is still some potential there.  He has already bagged 3 goals and 3 assists in just 6 games this year and I'm hoping his form might push him into England contention.

 

Jones is a player I have not really paid attention to aside making sure he was on loan at the right places and getting games. But his development seems to be coming along nicely. If some of those 12 and 13s, start becoming 14s and 15s I think at the very least he could become a solid back up option for the club.

 

Regens

My youth intake from the first two years has largely been disappointing, there are currently just 4 players in the U18s team and only another 3 academy regens in the U23s. 

The best one is this guy -

Rated potentially 5 stars by my coaches he appeared in the first seasons intake. What the game thought he was supposed to be is a bit of mystery to me as he was a midfielder who started with a passing of 7 (he has been working on passing for the whole time) and then had him down as a ball winning midfielder who one of his best mental attributes was vision. I'm currently training him as a Carrilero, so he is basically working on all round midfielder attributes with a specific focus on passing as this needs to at least get to 15 for him to be viable for the first team. Physically he is becoming a bit of beast and I have managed to get his determination up to 16 and his personality to resolute, after a succession of tutors after he started with just 9 determination.  His starting work rate was 13 which was nice as this is an attribute you can't train and is crucial to our pressing system.

This guy was picked up by our scouts and as soon as I saw 5 star plus an expected fee of just £350k I immediately took notice, after further scouting by my best scouts confirmed the 5 star potential I snapped him up. 

Not sure what it is with Portugal in game but they seem to start with a plethora of wonderkids and then produce great regens as well.

I am very excited about this guy's potential, not only does he have 18 determination and a driven personality so needs no tutoring but he is a winger with already very good work rate, first touch and technique, key attributes for our style of play.  He also has decent pace and acceleration already, good stamina and good vision. 

Granted his dribbling, crossing and passing all need some work, but I think this guy could be a superstar for our right wing position. 

[mark1985]

amazing achievement mate. Congrats

[Deego619]

A lot of great talent there coming through. What's your strategy for the 16/17 year olds? Game time or send them out on loan for a season? 

[tajj7]

30 minutes ago, JDeeguain said:

A lot of great talent there coming through. What's your strategy for the 16/17 year olds? Game time or send them out on loan for a season? 

I don't tend to loan them until 18-19 depending on their progress, before that is tutoring and specific role/attribute training.  I give game time where I can and plan for their role into the team so try not to have a too bloated first team squad. So most of the time they are already 3rd/4th choice players in the squad.  Both those regens have had a couple of 30-40 minute sub appearances in the first team already.  But both are playing regularly in the U23s which is above their age level and from what I have read game time becomes more important from age 18 upwards, so for the moment training, tutoring and youth football seems to be doing the job. Also as you can see Giggs is getting game time for the Welsh U21s as well, probably playing against guys 4-5 years older than him. 

lesser prospects like Jones I tend to loan if I can find a club that will play them often, in the right position and have decent training facilities. 

Giggs is planned to to challenge for the DLP spot in the first team and Azenha the right wing spot. I am hoping by next season Giggs will be good enough to that back up option and I will probably move on Wilshere to make space for him. 

I like to focus on specific regens and have plans in place as to where they will get into the team long term. 

Considering Sims is only rated 2 1/2 stars but is still challenging for a first team spot I think both these guys could easily be at that level at 18/19 so hopefully they won't need a loan. 

[Mattyskilz]

What does the 4141 tactic look like and which tactic have you been using more often to more success?

I'd assume you use the 4141 against more difficult sides and the 3511 in games you should win?

[tajj7]

13 hours ago, Mattyskilz said:

What does the 4141 tactic look like and which tactic have you been using more often to more success?

I'd assume you use the 4141 against more difficult sides and the 3511 in games you should win?

I'll post a screenshot later.

We mainly use the 4-4-1-1 against most sides because the majority of teams I face use AMLs and AMRs and my centre-backs just are not good enough to deal with them from the wide areas.  Pretty much 90% of the teams in the league either use a 4-2-3-1 or the 3-2-2-2-1 wingback system that Arsenal and Chelsea have used a lot IRL, which again has the wingbacks. 

You are basically right though, at least for the first season we played the 3-5-1-1 against teams we should beat and then variations on the 4-4-1-1 or 4-1-4-1 against better teams. 

I'm also experimenting with an inverted winger on the left as we have a signing coming due to arrive in January that wasn't planned but that I couldn't pass up. 

[Mattyskilz]

3 hours ago, tajj7 said:

I'll post a screenshot later.

We mainly use the 4-4-1-1 against most sides because the majority of teams I face use AMLs and AMRs and my centre-backs just are not good enough to deal with them from the wide areas.  Pretty much 90% of the teams in the league either use a 4-2-3-1 or the 3-2-2-2-1 wingback system that Arsenal and Chelsea have used a lot IRL, which again has the wingbacks. 

You are basically right though, at least for the first season we played the 3-5-1-1 against teams we should beat and then variations on the 4-4-1-1 or 4-1-4-1 against better teams. 

I'm also experimenting with an inverted winger on the left as we have a signing coming due to arrive in January that wasn't planned but that I couldn't pass up. 

That would be handy thank you!

Yeah that makes sense I guess the 3 back just gets shredded out wide especially with the high calibre of wingers in the prem. I've been looking into doing something similar (huge squad overhaul) with Everton and you have had great success so far it and I look forward to future posts, keep it up

[tajj7]

2 minutes ago, Mattyskilz said:

That would be handy thank you!

Yeah that makes sense I guess the 3 back just gets shredded out wide especially with the high calibre of wingers in the prem. I've been looking into doing something similar (huge squad overhaul) with Everton and you have had great success so far it and I look forward to future posts, keep it up

Thanks.

Others have said they have success with the 3-5-1-1, but have said you need really good centre-backs who can anticipate and deal with the threat out wide, so ideally you are looking at the two wider centre-backs having at at least 15-16 for pace, positioning, acceleration, stamina, work rate, anticipation, decisions, marking and tacking. 

Not many of those exist, certainly on Southampton's budget. Though I still did ok the first season using it, 6th is not bad especially after getting over the initial 2-3 months months of them learning the tactics, gelling as a team, getting the dynamics right etc. I reckon I could still probably get in the top 4 using that tactic.

But like Ozil says in his threads, the very fluid, total football system is very much about the players and getting the right ones for the system so squad building is massively important in getting the tactic right.  If you don't have players with work rate, stamina, decisions, positioning, first touch, passing etc. throughout the team, then it won't work.

Throughout all 3 systems I have used, the 3-5-1-1, 4-1-4-1 and the 4-4-1-1, the instructions etc. are all pretty similar, very fluid, standard/some times control mentality, pass into space, high line, lots of pressing.  So you need a team that buys into that way of playing and moulds well. 

Hence the clearout! 

That actual bit, the selling a load of players and bringing others in was not as painful as I thought it would be, if anything it helped because it seems easier to win over players you have signed than ones already at the club. I would also suggest you start at a high reputation as manager, at least the default for the club if not higher as that seems very important in FM18 with the dynamics and with an overhaul you really need the players gelling and listening to you quickly. 

[Mattyskilz]

1 hour ago, tajj7 said:

Others have said they have success with the 3-5-1-1, but have said you need really good centre-backs who can anticipate and deal with the threat out wide, so ideally you are looking at the two wider centre-backs having at at least 15-16 for pace, positioning, acceleration, stamina, work rate, anticipation, decisions, marking and tacking. 

Thanks for the tips. I do really enjoy clearing out a side and making it my own so I'll try and look for CBs with those stats if I can afford them or see if there are any gems I can mould into the perfect defender. It's usually with the team instructions that I struggle or try to over complicate things so I'll see what I can do.

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

On 21/11/2017 at 09:48, tajj7 said:

The best one is this guy -

He looks absolutely immense. Get the tackling and decisions up by the time he's 20 and he could be a rotation option/first teamer.

[tajj7]

16 hours ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

He looks absolutely immense. Get the tackling and decisions up by the time he's 20 and he could be a rotation option/first teamer.

Yeh he's coming along nicely, his passing is up to 12 now and most of those lower mentals have hit double figures so I think he might be in the first team squad next year if he continues this progress. 

Especially as I need to juggle the wage bill because I have lots of players wanting new contracts and at the moment I'm fobbing them off but some are approaching their last year. 

[tajj7]

January update and tic tacs. 

I honestly thought that retaining the title would be harder this year as we were quite lucky with injuries last year and the other big clubs continued their spending, whereas our main change was Ziyech for Dele Alli. But so far it is looking quite comfortable -

No idea what has happened to the big clubs, I just had a top of the table clash with West Brom at the end of December, which was quite surreal, could you imagine a Sky Sports festive title clash being between those two teams?. To be fair Man Utd do have two games in hand because they won the World Club Championship, but Chelsea, Man City and especially Liverpool have been poor (yet 3 of my defeats are to those three teams, though all 3 I essentially got FM'd having more chances by far in those games)

Champions League progress has been fairly smooth -

Again Napoli were very lucky in those games, those 5 goals were basically 5 shots on target, I also won the home leg first time around but my game crashed, so I had to replay it and battered them only for them to create 2 chances all game, score them both and get a stupid own goal.

We are also doing quite well in the domestic cups so far, even though it is mainly the back up players and the youth players, though it helps not getting Man Utd and Arsenal away playing their full teams like previous years.

 

Transfers

My biggest January signing I forgot to take a screen shot of, but it's Ezequiel Barco, who I picked up from Sevilla. I wasn't planing to sign anyone but my scouts highlighted him and after seeing his attributes, and the fact he had a £32 million release clause when he was already valued at over £47 million, meant I couldn't resist.  He is a 20 year old Argentinian wonderkid and in my game has superb all round attributes to the point where he rivals someone like Thomas Lemar.  He is a natural AMC or AML/AMR, so can provide a rotation option at AMC and I am also training him up to play MR as he has excellent attributes for a winger (crossing, dribbling, pace, acceleration, stamina, work rate, vision are all 15 or 16) so he will challenge Oxlade-Chamberlain for that spot.

This leaves me over subscribed with wide players, so I have been training Pione Sisto and Oxlade Chamberlain to play ML spot and have been trialing using an inverted winger in my tactic as this is where we have the attacking full back to bomb past and overlap. 

This means that Gustavo Scarpa may get sold, I almost sold him last January and Monaco are sniffing around him. He's been an excellent player for me but I don't want him to get unhappy and upset the squad and as a 3 star rated player if I can get £60 million for him that is a good deal. Barco also can take over freekick duties from him. 

I also picked up another Portuguese starlet recommended by my scouts -

He is already looking pretty solid and right back is one of my weakest areas as I have not been able to find am upgrade on Zappacosta (who has been nothing but solid for me) so this guy might be good enough in a year or so with tutoring to maybe even take over.

Another player I picked of the Portugal factory line was signed on a free in the summer but I forgot to mention him in my youth development update -

He's not a regen, I believe he starts the game at Academica. He is currently on loan at Rangers and performing very well and his attributes have shot up to the point where he could be challenging the first team squad, though I am pretty well stocked in those areas. He may be a player I can play for a bit and cash in or will enable me to get someone with higher wages off the wage bill, like Wilshere. 

 

Tactics

Since the second season this is the main tactic I have been using -

As previously mentioned it shares a lot in common with the 3-5-1-1, with the total football system ideals being very key, so it's a very fluid system with all members of the team expected to contribute to all aspects of our play.

Team instructions can be seen here -

We close down well and often win the ball back in midfield to start new attacks. As there is a focus on complete players and a lot of my players have good decision making our build up play and passing is quite mixed, I let the players decide what is best rather than forcing a particular style of play.

We have plenty of pace going forward, so if a long ball is on then my players will take that option, De Light in particular now has this as a PPM as he has passing and vision of 15, so often pings balls from the back to start counter attacks. I have trained 'plays one twos' and 'plays simple passes' PPMs on several of my midfielders so that tends to influence their passing and I think last time I checked we have the highest average possession in the league despite not having short passing or retain possession instructions.  Our pressing game also contributes to this because we often force teams to go long and then regain the ball pretty easily.

I am also not too bothered about going a bit more direct because our forward most central players, Dolberg (or Pellegri), Alli and Serge are all good in the air, and our high work rate means we usually get the second ball. 

The defensive line is very high, I tweak this depending who we are playing and the state of the game, most of my defenders have 14-16 pace, so they are not super rapid and this can sometimes catch us out. 

I supplement those team instructions with 'always on' opposition instructions like this -

So those are not particular to Watford, we just have every position set to close down and showing wide players onto their weaker foot as this forces players to play rash passes or come inside and surrender possession. 

From reading through the tactics forum, one of the things I see consistently said by people like Cleon is about getting variety in your attacking play. I think this graphic highlights that -

As you can see we get shots on goal from passes that start all over the pitch and I think that highlights the variety of our attacking play, typical ways we score goals -  

1. We have a traditional winger on the right who gets crosses in to our CF(s) (both of whom are good in the air) or our onrushing a AMC(a) or CM(S). The FB (s) offers a an out ball behind him that the W(a) can go back to either re-start the move or the FB(s) can cross from deep. 

2. Our CF(s) drop deep dragging out centre-back, which creates space to allow our AMC(a) to run in behind, and often even if he is closed down and held up, the CM(s), because he has the 'gets forward whenever possible' PPM, bombs past him providing a second overlapping run.  This double play is quite effective as it creates an overload against two centre-back systems, especially ones that lack that traditional DM (like the 4-2-3-1)

3. The WM(a) on the left often either comes inside slightly to open up an overlapping channel for the FB(a) to move into, or he attacks the left hand edge of the 18 year box himself looking for the CF(s) or AMC(a) with either a diagonal ball into the box, or he gets to the by-line for a cut back. Sometimes he also crosses from deep, often resulting in the W(a) on the other side getting on the end of it at the far post. If I play an inverted winger here, then this is likely to be more exaggerated with the wide player coming in more and attacking the box more aggressively. I need to watch whether he finds his own space or gets in the way of the AMC(a) 

4. The CF(s) has the pace to run in behind and into the channels giving us a good option on the counter, with the other attacking players bombing forward to join him.

5. During most of these moves, the DLP(d) positions himself usually around the edge of the centre circle in the oppositions half, either ready to intercept the oppositions clearance from one of our attacks or to be be the easy ball that allows us to recycle possession and start the attack again.

Basically we have different attacking options that create lots of different angles of attacks and threats, the formation also seems to create lots of triangles on the pitch, with players on the ball often having 2-3 options at least for a pass.

Having complete players, with good decision making opens us up to play different ways, sometimes we are direct, sometimes we counter, sometimes we work small passes round the edge of the box, sometimes we get crosses in as well. It's hard for oppositions to cover all these avenues. 

If I can I will try to get some videos of different sorts of goals we score.

All credit must of course @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! who developed this style of play and these tactics.

[tajj7]

2019/20 End of Season Update

Well, that was easy, not sure I have had a more comfortable league campaign in a long while -

100 points hit, only 1 draw, 4 narrow defeats, a little disappointing not to cross the 100 goals mark. 

The second half of the season in the league we were basically unstoppable -

 

We won the league with about 5 games to spare and this gave me a good opportunity to bring in some of the younger players for some valuable league experience. 

Not surprisingly plenty of records were broken and many awards were won -

Oxlade-Chamberlain was a revelation, 13 goals and 21 assists in all competitions and averaged 7.70 for the season. Sadly that performance has meant he now wants £195k a week and we are already over our wage budget which I am struggling to control as player's success means they constantly want more wages and the club is just not growing enough to keep up.

Overall the players performed excellently throughout the squad -

I am now a lot less reliant on Dolberg and he he probably had his worst season since joining us. Pellegri at times took over from him and kept him out of the team and now offers a real challenge to him for the main striker spot.

Barco was a great January signing, contributing 9 goals and 11 assists in just 19 games, and as you can see has great all round attributes -

The only real disappointment of the season was another poor youth intake - 

This means in three years we have only really produced one potential first team player from the academy, with maybe one/two that might be good enough for the squad. This makes it difficult for me to achieve my goals of building the team from academy and tackling the Champions league with a 50% academy produced team. But we do at least have JWP, Sims, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Shaw as academy products. 

Cup Performance 

We took home the League Cup, which was pleasing as plenty of youngsters played in the games before the final, we managed to beat Chelsea over two legs with a largely rotated team before smashing Man City 6-0 in the final. Both were playing their full line ups.

The Champions league was more disappointing, poor defensive displays (including some dodgy ME errors IMO, like my defender playing a pass back to the goalkeeper from just 5 yards but only managing to hit the ball about 2 yards and then both just stand there as the striker taps it in, even though he was about 15 yards away) cost us dearly. We battered Napoli and Inter in all 4 games, having two/three times the chances but just didn't score.

Similar happened in the FA cup where we lost away to Reading who had one shot on target all game and we wasted about 4 clear cut chances including a penalty. 

 

I'll do a player development and transfers update for the new season shortly. 

[tajj7]

Season 20/21 Transfers and Player Development Update

First off, transfers update, overall a fairly uneventful window, with more outs than ins -

To be honest I didn't even really want Passlack, he has a marking of 10, positioning of like 10 and tackling of 11 which worries me as a full back, but I had promised to Zappacosta that I would accept reasonable bids for him and Atletico Madrid stumped up the cash. He only had a year left on his contract and was only really bought as a stop gap until I found better. He wanted like £150k a week and a 5 year contract, I wasn't going to pay a barely 3 star rated full back, who is approaching 29, that sort of money so I think I got a decent deal all round. Considering he was signed for just £9 million, that is some healthy profit.  So I needed a right back and Passlack was listed and cheap so I went for him as I couldn't find a better option without paying like £60-70 million which I simply can't afford to do (even though we had the budget). 

Stones however appeared later and was listed for £15 million, which I managed to get down to £13.25 million. Yet again I forgot to get wage contributions for him from City, which is annoying as he is on fairly high wages. He is not exceptional and I have plenty of centre-backs, but I realised aside from not being able to cross he would make a very solid full back on the right and unlike Passlack he can actually mark, tackle and be in the right position. Plus he is English and we are now under Brexit rules so have to be careful with the number of foreigners plus work permits are a problem. This likely means barring injuries Passlack will be surplus to requirements so £12 million I can't really afford to waste as we are hemorrhaging money.  

Aside from Zappacosta, the other two big sales were Wilshere and Scarpa. 

Wilshere wanted more football, he had slipped behind Barca and Alli for the AMC slot, and also couldn't get ahead of Serge or De Beek for the other centre-mid slot. He was valued at like £50 million but I couldn't get anywhere near that amount but £19 million for a guy I got on a free is not bad.

Gustavo Scarpa had been a great signing for me, performed very solidly on the left wing and has contributed plenty of assists but finance wise the last 2 years we have been struggling.  I have had two stadium expansions cancelled because of the finances and we were predicted to be in debt again in two years even if I made no signings. So I felt if I got a good offer for him then I'd take it, as I felt he was most expendable of our first teamers, he is only 3 star rated and Sims's performances had forced him out of the team towards the end of last season anyway.

So getting £53 million for a player and then filling his spot with an academy player I thought was a good deal and very much in the spirit of the save as well.

I also made two other signings that are future transfers, a couple of gems found by my scouts -

Probably one of the best young keeper regens I have seen for his age, he has some really funky stats (really likes a punch), has very good vision and passing on a keeper, which present some interesting options, he is also not bad at freekicks either.

Some issues there to work out, like first touch and anticipation if I want him to play that sweeper Keeper role and a bit annoying I don't get him for a year but plenty of potential there. He is getting plenty of game time at Hammarby and is fairly professional so should keep developing before he joins. 

 

I just really liked this guy's mental stats for a youngster, first touch and technique need plenty of work and I have no idea what the PPM 'static target man' means but I took a punt on the guy with the hope I could polish this rough diamond. I think he could become a pretty interesting defensive forward with those teamwork, work rate and anticipation attributes.  The Czech Jamie Vardy? 

Player Development

First up is Sims, as mention above over the last season he has stepped up to make the left wing spot his own and has developed nicely -

I am also really pleased he got called up to England squad as well, it's always nice to see your home grown academy players get international recognition, it's like a vindication of your development work.

Sims is a player who is clearly using his CA points wisely, as there is not a lot of attribute waste there, he has the attributes where he needs them. He is quick, can beat a man, cross a ball and pick out a pass. Despite his low finishing he does manage to bag a few goals as well, probably largely down to his good technique and composure.

Mbaye was signed last January and is already looking a very solid full back. He needs to get a bit quicker, but overall he has solid attributes in all the areas you need and is already a very good tackler. His performances are good as well and he might even end up being my first choice right back for the year. (hence why Passlack was a mistake) 

Giggs is continuing his development and is now rated a decent PL player, I am also amazed at the amount of midfield roles he is comfortable playing, though none of them are the position I ultimately want him to play. He is being lined up as my long term DLP(d) to take over from JWP, so he still has some areas he needs to work on to excel in this role.  Physically he offers a lot more than JWP but some his mental areas like positioning and anticipation need more work. 

Azenha has struggled with injuries over the last 6 months and this has meant he has missed some key game time (Giggs has probably played a good 15 first team games in that period) but he is still developing ok despite that. Really needs to work on that passing, dribbling and crossing though.

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

Given the Brexit rules and Stones' ability, you got a great deal getting him for that price. Sedlacek looks like a solid striker at 17. Imagine what he'll look like at 21. 

[tajj7]

11 hours ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

Given the Brexit rules and Stones' ability, you got a great deal getting him for that price. Sedlacek looks like a solid striker at 17. Imagine what he'll look like at 21. 

Yeh Stones is not bad, he's very comfortable on the ball but as a centre back he lacks top level attributes, especially his physicals which are all around the 13-14 area. But for the price he is a solid buy to add squad depth and he has already proved useful so far this season. 

Sedlacek is an exciting prospect no doubt, not quite there in what I look for in a striker because his first touch, passing and vision is all poor but if he has the PA then they can be improved with focused training and he already has a good character so won't need tutoring.  But for the price and those starting mentals at 17 I had to snap him up. If he excels then I might be able to cash in on Dolberg, who is constantly wanted by the big clubs all the time and this unsettles him. 

Especially as my own academy has been poor so far.