[FM18] It's time for a revolution: we're shipping up to Boston

[Timetxu]

INTRODUCTION

I'm having a lot of fun with my recent Alemannia save, but there's something that I've always wanted to do. I wanted to do a US save, but with a more American feel to it. I've thought it through and I got so amped up, that I'm giving it a go: we're going to the MLS.

I'm a huge fan of American sports and I dare to say that I understand all the rules on acquiring players, wage budgets, drafts and so on fairly well, but to actually manage these rules has been something else. Up until now. This will be a trial and error save written to not only learn, but also document all the moves as thorough as possible for anyone who wants to manage in the MLS, but has never really dared to delve into all the rules.

Who else to do that than...

Enter Timothy Ferguson, my Boston-born Irish-American alter ego. I'd say we almost look alike.

THE SETUP

Having played OOTP (Baseball's alternative to Football Manager), I've quite enjoyed fulfilling the GM role. You don't manage the games specifically, but you're responsable for acquiring the team on the field. You can have a specific philosophy, ideas and goals, but once the players get on the field, it's up to the manager to decide what happens next. I want to emulate that in this save. I've thought this through, so here are my rules and goals in General Manager 2018:

 

- My assistant manager, Tom Soehn, will effectively be the manager of my team. 

- Before preseason, Tom will decide which formation fits the current squad the best. This will be the formation through the postseason and the first month of the regular season. The only thing I'm allowed to adjust are the team and personal instructions

- I will not manage the games themselves. In fact, I will holiday all games. I will be in the VIP box, drinking piña coladas while wearing flashy sunglasses only American frat boys wear

- Every month, I will have a meeting with my manager. In practice, this means I will consult whether Tom thinks a new formation will be necessary. The only thing I can change are, once again, the team and personal instructions. That's it. Only once a month.

- With this setup, I'll need to focus as much as possible in acquiring a competitive team. With all MLS restrictions, that means not only thinking about the current team, but also the years ahead. For education's sake, I will try to be as concise as possible in how and why I'm building my team the way I do. Because that's the only thing I get to do. I'm the GM.

- The eventual goal is winning the MLS, the CONCACAF Champions League and eventually the Club World Cup

- In real life, New England Revolution is playing its games at the immense Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, 30 miles southwest of Boston. As it's effectively an NFL stadium and I actually want to manage a team FROM Boston, I'm hoping to build a soccer-specific stadium in Boston. I don't know if this is possible in FM (will a potentially new stadium be built in Boston or Foxborough?), but as this is one of the biggest goals of the current management, I thought it'd be cool to add this as one of my own challenges as well

 

Me fanboying at Gillette Stadium, not only the home of the New England Patriots NFL team, but also the New England Revolution (albeit with a limited max. capacity of 20.000

----

So that'll be that for now. In the next update I will analyze my team and my short-term and long-term goals as GM. I'll also explain a little thing about MLS squad rules and team building.

Leaves me with this:

 

[BoxToBox]

This should be fun, good luck!

[Timetxu]

9 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

This should be fun, good luck!

Thanks! I'm really looking forward to it!

[cerud]

This looks fun. Will definitely be following

[Timetxu]

TEAM OVERVIEW AND GOALS

I will start this save by briefly outlining both the team I've inherited as well as what my possibilities going ahead are. This means that this update will focus on the team. The next update I'll try and explain to my best the registration rules in the MLS.

For now, let's meet our manager:

Tom Soehn, born in Chicago, Illinois, played over 100 games in the MLS for Dallas and Chicago between 1996 and 2000. He's mostly fulfilled coaching and assistant mangers roles all around the MLS since then after which he joined New England as the assistant manager under Jay Heaps in 2014. Tom's stats aren't hugely impressive, but it'll do. After this season his contract expires, so we'll see if we'll continue our cooperation after that.

Anyway, the most important thing Tom has to decide already is which formation we will be playing.

Whenever I think of 4-2-2-2, I think of Brazil at the 1970 World Cup, but for some reason FM calls this a 4-2-2-2 as well. I guess we're going defensively then. Not my favourite, but it's Tom's choice.

---

SQUAD ANALYSIS

GOALKEEPERS

Both Cropper and Knighton have very good stats, although Cropper does have the upperhand if it comes to the physique. If it were up to me, I'd go for him.

DEFENDERS

I think we're ok with the depth here, except at the left back position. Chris Tierney is one of the bigger names in MLS: he's played in New England since 2008. It's my job to give Tom some depth options, though.

MIDFIELD

I get what Tom's hinting at with those two DM's. MC's don't look that great. Herivaux could be fun.

ATTACKING MIDFIELD

Well, that's one spot where we don't need too many additions. Maybe something on the left to help Donnie Smith out as Németh (who played at my favourite Dutch team) is more of a false nine than an inside forward I would say.

ATTACK

Well, that's poor. Definitely need some upgrading there.

Our shopping list:
- A leftback
- Options at MC/ML. Preferably someone who can play both
- A striker

---

AFFILIATES

I've downloaded a database from the workshop by a user named MASTASMASH, who's been able to include many extra leagues where most affiliate teams play. This gives my Academy players the possibility to actually play games (unlike in the normal MLS file). I also have an affiliate in Rochester whose players I can easily loan in and can send my players to to gain some experience, although I know they generally reject those loans.

New England Academy

These are the only non-grayed out players. I've heard that these guys go to college when they turn 18, so if there's something in here I like, I'll need to give them a contract before they reach that age. I'm not entirely sure if this actually happens, so I'll come back to this in a later phase.

Rochester Rhinos

They are a team in a league with mostly other MLS affiliates and some teams who are in real life trying to be the last two expansion teams in the MLS. The quality of the players is not too far of from the MLS. For now I'll let them do go their way. If they manage to get some cool players in, I might poach them. The only thing I wanted to highlight is:

This was the only position where they had players somewhat close to our standard, and that's mostly because we suck at leftback. But it gives a bit of an insight in what the quality is.

THE LEAGUE

Alright, what are we playing for?

This is always a bit of a nag when playing MLS in FM because it sees the Supporters' Shield and the MLS as two different things. Which they're not. For those of you unfamiliar with the MLS, it goes like this:

There are 22 teams, divided in a Western Conference of 11 teams and an Eastern Conference of 11 teams. We're in the East. Roughly put, all teams play 34 teams of which 2 games against teams in their own conference and 1 against teams from the other. The remaining 3 games are played against teams within your own conference you are geographically more or less the closest to or with which you have a rivalry. At the end of the season, the best 6 teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs. In a knock-out tournament of 4 rounds, the winner of the final, named the MLS Cup, will be the champion of the USA.

The Supporters' Shield is simply the table of all 22 teams together, no restriction to conferences. The team with the highest amount of points, wins it. It also helps when it comes to CL qualification. There are 4 teams which qualify for the CL: I believe it's the MLS Cup winner, the two conference winners and the US Open Cup. If there's a team who's won multiple titles, then the best team in the Supporters' Shield table not yet qualified, will go to the CL.

Which brings me to the goals set by our illustrious owner Robert Kraft. We're expected to be competitive in the MLS, but have a top half finish in the Supporters' Shield. It depends a bit on which conference is the strongest, but it means we need to be one of the best 11 teams in the US, while at the same time having no pressure in the conference itself. I'll just translate this to "try and play for a playoff spot up until the final day of the regular season schedule".

 

Both Minnesota and Atlanta are two new expansion teams, so why there's only a P in front of Minnesota, I have no idea. Anyway, with a 14th spot predicted, it's fair to say the board is slightly optimistic.

NEXT UP

In the next update, I will talk about contract rules, the salary cap and all the shenanigans that come with building an MLS squad. Stay tuned!

[BoxToBox]

13 minutes ago, Timetxu said:

ATTACK

Well, that's poor. Definitely need some upgrading there.

Hopefully short term he'll play Agudelo up top.

[Timetxu]

Him and/or Németh. The deep-lying forward role hints that he's probably up to moving an AM up to that spot. We have way more talent there, but just in case I'll try and see if I can provide Tom with an extra striker. Just one. We can't have him wasting that which we already have.

[cerud]

Where is Koffie loaned out? He was always a solid defensive mid for us in Vancouver. Was disappointed when he left.

 

Also: Winner of the MLS Cup is best in USA?? Not where I live!

[mark1985]

Will be following this! They're my local team over here in the states so hopefully can get to a few games once the season starts.

[r7rok]

Always fancied trying the MLS but I'm genuinely baffled by the rules. 

I've played a fair bit of OOTP myself and really like your GM idea. 

Looking forward to watching this all unfold. 

[Timetxu]

17 hours ago, cerud said:

Where is Koffie loaned out? He was always a solid defensive mid for us in Vancouver. Was disappointed when he left.

I wikipedia'd Koffie and apparently he was discovered by Tom Soehn personally when Koffie he was still playing in Ghana. Hence why he was brought from Vancouver to New England, I guess. In real life, he played 23 games for New England last season and at the look of it, he'll probably get quite some playing time in our squad as well.

17 hours ago, cerud said:

Also: Winner of the MLS Cup is best in USA?? Not where I live!

Woops! I meant: the best in the USA, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto?

17 hours ago, mark1985 said:

Will be following this! They're my local team over here in the states so hopefully can get to a few games once the season starts.

Cool! Where in the US are you from? I've toured New England for three weeks last September/October, mostly because I'm a huge Red Sox fan, but I loved the entire region in general. Trying to do something in return with this save!

9 hours ago, r7rok said:

Always fancied trying the MLS but I'm genuinely baffled by the rules. 

I've played a fair bit of OOTP myself and really like your GM idea. 

Looking forward to watching this all unfold. 

I'm still baffled by it to be honest, but I think it makes the league the most competitive league I know in world football. This save is going to be a huge learning curve for me as well with all those rules, but I think if I write down the way I'm trying to build a squad as precise as possible, it'll make it clearer for both myself and the readers.

[mark1985]

1 hour ago, Timetxu said:

Cool! Where in the US are you from? I've toured New England for three weeks last September/October, mostly because I'm a huge Red Sox fan, but I loved the entire region in general. Trying to do something in return with this save!

I'm actually from England, but I moved over to the US a few months ago. I live in Chelsea, MA (nothing like the Chelsea in England, trust me) which is a stones throw from Boston and literally just over the other side of the Tobin Bridge (the big green one in Boston). I've been to Fenway for a few drinks in the Bleacher Bar and hopefully can see a few games there as well this summer. Good luck with this save as you'll need it when you're competing with the Patriots/Red Sox/Bruins/Celtics.

[Timetxu]

1 minute ago, mark1985 said:

I'm actually from England, but I moved over to the US a few months ago. I live in Chelsea, MA (nothing like the Chelsea in England, trust me) which is a stones throw from Boston and literally just over the other side of the Tobin Bridge (the big green one in Boston). I've been to Fenway for a few drinks in the Bleacher Bar and hopefully can see a few games there as well this summer. Good luck with this save as you'll need it when you're competing with the Patriots/Red Sox/Bruins/Celtics.

That's really cool! I'd love to be able to live over there to be honest. I stayed on the border of Arlington and Cambridge, while we were in Boston. Visited two games in the final week of the regular season back in September. Fenway is such a cool place to hang out, you keep discovering new things everytime you go there.

This was my view from the Bleacher Bar just before the game. As a Dutchman, I actually wasn't at all disappointed by the beer prices. 

[mark1985]

Yeah, that's the bar! Good little bar that, and love the window in the gents so you can still watch the game. Boston is pretty pricey, but the Bleacher Bar wasn't so bad. Lots of good breweries here in Boston (Sam Adams, Harpoon, Mystic - which is a 5 minute walk from me). This is the view of Boston from maybe a 5 minute walk from my flat:

[Timetxu]

SQUAD REGISTRATION AND RULES

Alright, one of the more difficult things to grasp while managing in the MLS is the squad registration system. Unlike in most other countries, where you sometimes have to field u-21 or homegrown players in your team, the amount of rules in an MLS squad is way bigger. I thought the most effective way of explaining this is by simply going down all rules while using the current squad as point of reference. By the way, I learned a LOT from @Uncle_Sam's MLS Guide, which can be found here

First up, the easy things: an MLS squad has to have a squad size of between 15 and 30 players. If you have more than 30 players at anytime during the season (i.e. when you acquire a new player instead of trading for one), you NEED TO waive players until you reach max 30 players again. These waved players are then free agents for other teams to pick up. We currently have 26 players, so no worries there.

Even though maxing out your team selection to 30 players may seem like a sensible thing to do, it's not always the case. MLS has a salary cap in place, that prevents any team spending more than $3,850,000 per year on salaries. This amount changes by the years, with the level of play rising and inflation and economy and what not. But this is the number I'm working with in this 2017 season. Mind you, all players are actually owned by the MLS itself and not by the clubs. The clubs pay the MLS to make use of the players, so effectively players could receive more salary than the $3,850,000 threshold, but as a club, we will not be spending more than that amount on players' salaries per year. How come? I'll explain later.

 Another pretty straightforward thing to understand is the amount of international players you're allowed to have on your team. You can have no more than 7. As you can see, actually 13 of my 26 players are born outside the US. However, after living for a consecutive period of 5 years in the US, you gain dual citizenship (don't know if this works like this in real life, but it does in FM). This dual citizenship is enough to count a player as a non-international player. I underlined the players' nationalities who count as international players with a red line under them, which means we actually still have a spot left for another international, if we want to. I believe the amount of internationals grows from 7 to 8 in the 2018, but I'm not sure whether that's built in this FM. We'll see that in a year.

---

THE SENIOR ROSTER

Between 18 and 20 players of my squad form my senior roster. Clearly put, these are the only players I actually need to pay a salary and count toward the cap. These are all players who are on a senior contract (I have 13, green) who are DPs (I have 3, yellow) or in on a loan (I have 2, blue). My senior roster currently consists of 18 players. 

Senior contract players are simply your standard players of which you can have, like I said, between 18 and 20 (this includes the DPs and the loanees). Their salaries count toward the cap.

DP is short for Designated Player. This term was introduced when David Beckham came to play in the MLS years ago. The MLS wanted to improve the quality of the league, but as Beckham was too expensive for his current team Galaxy to pay on their salary cap, the league offered to pay a fair amount of his salary. As you can see, Kei Kamara has an $800,000 contract, but we only need to pay him $475,000. You can have a total of max 3 DPs in your team, who you'll always pay this $475,000. If you have a DP under the age of 23, you even pay less for their salary. It's really worth the effort to get some talented Latin American players in.

OFF-BUDGET PLAYERS

As I said, 18 to 20 of your players are in the senior roster. The rest, i.e. the players who aren't really in your regular game day rotation, are your off-budget players. You can have at most 10 of these. I underlined these guys in white. They're either on Senior Minimum Salary contracts (SMS) or on Reserve contracts.

The difference between those two contracts are, I believe, an age thing. Reserve contracts are only handed out to players 24 years or younger (and you can only have 6 of these of which at most 4 players cannot be home-grown, i.e. from your own academy. I currently have 3 reserve players of which none from my academy). SMS contracts are given to players over that threshold. Important side info: the amount of contracts you're short of the 20 with your current senior roster is the amount of SMS salaries that do count toward the cap. So, as we have 18 senior roster players, this means 2 of our players' SMS contracts are hit toward our cap.  

---

Now, all this might seem as hugely difficult and complicating. In reality, don't worry too much about it. Most of the time, you start your save with a squad that's already passing all the restrictions and if there is a problem in your squad, it can often easily be fixed. In our case, everything is fine and we actually have quite some room left on the cap as well as players. We can hand out two huge contracts to senior players and we're not even on our international players max. 

I see some things in my roster overview that could confuse some people: like why some players' salaries count less toward the cap. I'm a bit worn out by explaining everything (and I'm sure you are by reading too), so I'll leave how to manage your salaries and acquiring players to another update.

[Timetxu]

2 hours ago, mark1985 said:

Yeah, that's the bar! Good little bar that, and love the window in the gents so you can still watch the game. Boston is pretty pricey, but the Bleacher Bar wasn't so bad. Lots of good breweries here in Boston (Sam Adams, Harpoon, Mystic - which is a 5 minute walk from me). This is the view of Boston from maybe a 5 minute walk from my flat:

Awesome! I must say that New England was a heaven for anyone loving some good breweries. Apparently there's been some kind of a boom in craft beer recently and every bar across the region managed to sell at least a handful of locally brewed beers. I thought America was only deluted Bud, but I stood corrected!

[cerud]

1 hour ago, Timetxu said:

SQUAD REGISTRATION AND RULES

Alright, one of the more difficult things to grasp while managing in the MLS is the squad registration system. Unlike in most other countries, where you sometimes have to field u-21 or homegrown players in your team, the amount of rules in an MLS squad is way bigger. I thought the most effective way of explaining this is by simply going down all rules while using the current squad as point of reference. By the way, I learned a LOT from @Uncle_Sam's MLS Guide, which can be found here

First up, the easy things: an MLS squad has to have a squad size of between 15 and 30 players. If you have more than 30 players at anytime during the season (i.e. when you acquire a new player instead of trading for one), you NEED TO waive players until you reach max 30 players again. These waved players are then free agents for other teams to pick up. We currently have 26 players, so no worries there.

Even though maxing out your team selection to 30 players may seem like a sensible thing to do, it's not always the case. MLS has a salary cap in place, that prevents any team spending more than $3,850,000 per year on salaries. This amount changes by the years, with the level of play rising and inflation and economy and what not. But this is the number I'm working with in this 2017 season. Mind you, all players are actually owned by the MLS itself and not by the clubs. The clubs pay the MLS to make use of the players, so effectively players could receive more salary than the $3,850,000 threshold, but as a club, we will not be spending more than that amount on players' salaries per year. How come? I'll explain later.

 Another pretty straightforward thing to understand is the amount of international players you're allowed to have on your team. You can have no more than 7. As you can see, actually 13 of my 26 players are born outside the US. However, after living for a consecutive period of 5 years in the US, you gain dual citizenship (don't know if this works like this in real life, but it does in FM). This dual citizenship is enough to count a player as a non-international player. I underlined the players' nationalities who count as international players with a red line under them, which means we actually still have a spot left for another international, if we want to. I believe the amount of internationals grows from 7 to 8 in the 2018, but I'm not sure whether that's built in this FM. We'll see that in a year.

---

THE SENIOR ROSTER

Between 18 and 20 players of my squad form my senior roster. Clearly put, these are the only players I actually need to pay a salary and count toward the cap. These are all players who are on a senior contract (I have 13, green) who are DPs (I have 3, yellow) or in on a loan (I have 2, blue). My senior roster currently consists of 18 players. 

Senior contract players are simply your standard players of which you can have, like I said, between 18 and 20 (this includes the DPs and the loanees). Their salaries count toward the cap.

DP is short for Designated Player. This term was introduced when David Beckham came to play in the MLS years ago. The MLS wanted to improve the quality of the league, but as Beckham was too expensive for his current team Galaxy to pay on their salary cap, the league offered to pay a fair amount of his salary. As you can see, Kei Kamara has an $800,000 contract, but we only need to pay him $475,000. You can have a total of max 3 DPs in your team, who you'll always pay this $475,000. If you have a DP under the age of 23, you even pay less for their salary. It's really worth the effort to get some talented Latin American players in.

OFF-BUDGET PLAYERS

As I said, 18 to 20 of your players are in the senior roster. The rest, i.e. the players who aren't really in your regular game day rotation, are your off-budget players. You can have at most 10 of these. I underlined these guys in white. They're either on Senior Minimum Salary contracts (SMS) or on Reserve contracts.

The difference between those two contracts are, I believe, an age thing. Reserve contracts are only handed out to players 24 years or younger (and you can only have 6 of these of which at most 4 players cannot be home-grown, i.e. from your own academy. I currently have 3 reserve players of which none from my academy). SMS contracts are given to players over that threshold. Important side info: the amount of contracts you're short of the 20 with your current senior roster is the amount of SMS salaries that do count toward the cap. So, as we have 18 senior roster players, this means 2 of our players' SMS contracts are hit toward our cap.  

---

Now, all this might seem as hugely difficult and complicating. In reality, don't worry too much about it. Most of the time, you start your save with a squad that's already passing all the restrictions and if there is a problem in your squad, it can often easily be fixed. In our case, everything is fine and we actually have quite some room left on the cap as well as players. We can hand out two huge contracts to senior players and we're not even on our international players max. 

I see some things in my roster overview that could confuse some people: like why some players' salaries count less toward the cap. I'm a bit worn out by explaining everything (and I'm sure you are by reading too), so I'll leave how to manage your salaries and acquiring players to another update.

Good outline of MLS rules. A few things:

DP contracts are still paid by the club. The $475K you mention is the portion that counts against your salary cap and the remainer is just what the club pays over-and-above. The league doesn't contribute. For Beckham, it may have been different, but it's changed since then.

There are slightly different squad rules for Canadian clubs in MLS. They have to have a minimum of 3 homegrown Canadian players on their active roster. In addition, (and to the chagrin of many Canadians...), Canadian player count as internationals for American clubs but Americans don't count as internationals for Canadian clubs. This was slightly changed last year, but the rules for a Canadian to actually count as Canadian for MLS as so convoluted that most don't qualify.

[Timetxu]

1 hour ago, cerud said:

Good outline of MLS rules. A few things:

DP contracts are still paid by the club. The $475K you mention is the portion that counts against your salary cap and the remainer is just what the club pays over-and-above. The league doesn't contribute. For Beckham, it may have been different, but it's changed since then.

There are slightly different squad rules for Canadian clubs in MLS. They have to have a minimum of 3 homegrown Canadian players on their active roster. In addition, (and to the chagrin of many Canadians...), Canadian player count as internationals for American clubs but Americans don't count as internationals for Canadian clubs. This was slightly changed last year, but the rules for a Canadian to actually count as Canadian for MLS as so convoluted that most don't qualify.

Ah cool, I actually wondered where MLS HQ got their big bag of money from  .

And luckily I don't have to worry about the Canadian aspect then

[cerud]

46 minutes ago, Timetxu said:

Ah cool, I actually wondered where MLS HQ got their big bag of money from  .

And luckily I don't have to worry about the Canadian aspect then

They get their money from continually adding new franchises and charging expansion fees  

MLS will soon have 100 clubs and no promotion or relegation..... at least, it they continue how their progressing.

[Timetxu]

Good boy Tom will be a better manager than I am one day.

Speaking of a tactical mastermind. I don't know whether I didn't pay attention or Tom has changed his mind, but his current advice on the team's formation has changed to

As I'll be mostly in my office during game day, I need some extra pairs of eyes. That's why we've been adding some personnel:

[Timetxu]

PRE-SEASON PART 1

I've started things of getting some extra personnel in and assigning them to their scouting duties. The players, in the meantime went on training camp without me and played through their first set of preseason games, which resulted in this:

Mixed results. We were better in every game, but scoring hasn't been our strongest point yet.

In the meantime, we've added two new players:

Mike was the only New England Academy prospect worth offering a contract. Luckily he's a striker, so I gave him a shot. He didn't dissapoint: scored right away in his first preseason game against Portland II. He's both a homegrown player and on a reserve contract, so his salary doesn't count towards the cap.

Constant is known for playing in the Bundesliga for some mid-tier teams. He's in the prime of his career and we tied him up for three years after which we'll try and get rid of him. Just an experienced addition for the short term. Interesting to note is that he's earning $215,000 right now, but he actually hits us $245,000 toward the cap. All transfer, signing and agent fees are halved and added onto the wage bill. In total, we had to pay $60,000 on fees, so that's why his contract is now as it is. He'll also be our last international player. If we want more, we'll need to trade for spots or trade an international player. I hope he can be a good addition, at least he was Player of the Match in his first preseason game right away.

In other news:

Our CB Delamea Milnar injured himself for about 3 months. Whenever a player gets injured for an extended period of time, this message will appear. In North American sports leagues, you have something called a "Disabled List". The advantage of this is that it places the injured player on some kind of a reserve list, which frees up a roster spot. Players on that list can't play in the upcoming 6 games (whether they're injured for that period or not). Downside is that their salaries still hit your cap.

In this case, however, it's the last sentence that caught my attention. Apparently, I can't include him on the team roster when he's on the DL at the start of the season. If I'd put him on the DL now, that would be the case, so I'll refrain from doing that. To be honest, I probably won't be putting any players on the DL anytime soon as I really don't think I need to replace a player when you already have a 30 man squad.

 

[Timetxu]

[Timetxu]

PRE-SEASON PART 2 ½

We've finished off our pre-season with the last couple of games. We really need to learn how to score.

In addition to adding Navarro and Djakpa, we've been trying to get a player who's capable of playing both wings as well as central midfield. We've found quite a lot, but offers on 5 MLS players were all rejected. I was a bit amazed actually, because most of them were backup players with contracts ending after this season. I was offering draft picks, but only Seattle didn't reject right away. However, they wanted our first round draft pick in 2018, so not gonna happen.

In the meantime, I notice that Tom is playing our AMCs as strikers, so I loaned out Navarro back to our Acadamy. He's now ours and he's not counting towards the cap anyway, so why not let him play on a weekly basis in the NAL in stead of being a backup player at our place.

For now, we have 27 players on our roster. All teams will have to confirm their selections on 28 February. All players who are not included in those selections, will be waved and participate in the waiver draft, so we'll try and see if there's someone interesting out there.

 

 

[Timetxu]

PRE-SEASON PART 33 1/3

It's the waiver draft and apparently 5 players have been cut by their teams. We are 12th and only if other teams decline an option, we get to pick. To be honest, only Venegas is of any interest to me, so if he's available, we'll take him.

11 picks later and only Jacobson has been picked by Atlanta, so we'll take Venegas. No other players were picked after our pick. Venegas was on a $90,000 Senior contract, so no real risks there.

This leaves our squad ready for the league with these players:

Upping our season prediction a little bit:

NEXT UP:

The season gets underway with the first games in March! Only Western Conference teams so far with some long away trips to Denver and Dallas.

[Timetxu]

MARCH 2017

Opening day! Tom's first lineup was as follows:

GAMES:

COLORADO RAPIDS - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
5 SCORE 0
9 SHOTS 22
6 ON GOAL 5
1,47 EXPECTED GOALS 2,52
47% POSESSION 53% 

FC DALLAS - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

1 SCORE 1
14 SHOTS 7
6 ON GOAL 2
1,94 EXPECTED GOALS 0,80
45% POSSESSION 55%

ANALYSIS

Scoring continues to be the issue here. Based on the expected goals, you would expect 3 points from these two games, but we're down with only 1. I'm still confident in the capabilities of our strikers, but we need to find a way to get them in front of goal better, because most of our shots have been from outside the box.

TABLE

The Minnesota game was moved to early April due to the high amount of players on international duty in both our teams.

We're in 18th spot for the Supporters' Shield

WHAT ELSE?

He was whining after Djakpa arrived, so good luck in Californiyay.

Together with Mlinar, that's already 3 of our Starting XI players injured for long sets of time...

COMING UP

Busy, busy month!

 

[Timetxu]

Hmmm, I think this GM experiment isn't really working out I'm afraid.... Next update isn't going to be pretty.

[Timetxu]

APRIL 2017

GAMES:

PORTLAND TIMBERS - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

1 GOALS 0
19 SHOTS 9
9 ON GOAL 1
2,04 EXPECTED GOALS 0,77
48% POSSESSION 52%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - MINNESOTA UNITED

3 GOALS 4
15 SHOTS 14
4 ON GOAL 8
1,45 EXPECTED GOALS 2,07
49% POSSESSION 51%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - HOUSTON DYNAMO

0 GOALS 1
11 SHOTS 14
5 ON GOAL 7
1,20 EXPECTED GOALS 1,37
46% POSSESSION 54%

CHICAGO FIRE - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

2 GOALS 1
14 SHOTS 5
6 ON GOAL 2
1,58 EXPECTED GOALS 0,43
48% POSSESSION 52%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

2 GOALS 4
17 SHOTS 14
5 ON GOAL 6
2,19 EXPECTED GOALS 1,92
46% POSSESSION 54%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - D.C. UNITED

0 GOALS 4
4 SHOTS 16
2 ON GOAL 9
0,45 EXPECTED GOALS 2,38
52% POSSESSION 48%

SEATTLE SOUNDERS - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

1 GOALS 3
19 SHOTS 7
5 ON GOAL 5
1,93 EXPECTED GOALS 0,96
57% POSSESSION 43%

ANALYSIS

Well, as I mentioned just before this post, I think this experiment isn't really working. Admitted, we have a ton of injuries and suspensions, and with all the losses came the low morale etc. etc., but it seems like Tom doesn't really process what I want him to do. I have a had A TON of players complaining that they're not getting any game time. I noticed Tom hardly rotating anything. I was getting utterly frustrated by how everything went, so as a last resort, I did actually go into the pre-match screen before the Seattle game and switched the completely appalling 4-4-2 Diamond Narrow to a steady 4-4-2 and I picked the players myself. It feels like a big amount of cheating on my GM target, but I sort of made up for it by using the Instant Result button, so I didn't the manage myself. The result was great though, winning the potentially hardest game of the season after a losing streak of 6 games.

I'm contemplating on how to run this save now. I feel like completely GM'ing doesn't really work, because players come to me nagging for playing time. Therefore, I'm forced to at least pick the starting XI. And I'm 100% sure the 4-4-2 Diamond Narrow thing is something that will bring the entire club down to the grave, so I'm vetoing Tom's suggestion. He's allowed to manage in game but the work up front will be mine from now. I'm curious to hear what you guys think of this, because I'm feeling a bit guilty.

TABLE

Anything to play for!! We're actually 21st in the Supporters' Shield, because Salt Lake only has 1 point.

NEXT UP

First three games could potentially bring us back in the race.

[BoxToBox]

You clearly have to do something, as it's a downright disaster otherwise.

[cerud]

Unfortunately, FM just isn't set up for this type of save. You will probably need to take a bit more control over matches. Otherwise, it will continue.

[Timetxu]

GM Intermezzo

Alright, after realizing that holidaying all matches simply doesn't really work while expecting your manager to stick to certain guidelines, I've decided to alter the rulebook a little bit.

From now on:

- I will handle tactical instructions before the game

- Tom will be responsible for the team selection. I can only use the "pick squad" option and therefore only give Tom guidelines to follow (i.e. best XI, rotation, youth squad), but the entire starting XI will be his choice. I can't go out and substitute one specific player for another if Tom has made his decision

- Matches will be played using "Instant Result". It'll be Tom managing the games and me hacking old fashioneds with Robert Kraft in the Samuel Adams bar

[Sheriff7]

Good luck mate.. Those weird American rules!! I remember Dielna from Olympiakos (well actually he didn't  play much here)  and Watson from Jamaican National team.. 

[Timetxu]

MAY 2017

Alright, pretty pivotal month if you ask me. Switcharound with the setup of this save, so let's see how that worked out.

GAMES:

COLUMBUS CREW - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

4 GOALS 2
20 SHOTS 14
8 ON GOAL 9
2,18 EXPECTED GOALS 1,72
51% POSSESSION 49%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - REAL SALT LAKE

1 GOALS 1
5 SHOTS 17
5 ON GOAL 4
0,75 EXPECTED GOALS 1,56
51% POSSESSION 49%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - COLUMBUS CREW

4 GOALS 1
18 SHOTS 14
7 ON GOAL 5
1,65 EXPECTED GOALS 0,96
52% POSSESSION 48%

NEW YORK RED BULLS - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

3 GOALS 2
24 SHOTS 10
9 ON GOAL 6
3,49 EXPECTED GOALS 0,96
51% POSSESSION 49%

NEW YORK CITY FC - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

4 GOALS 2
27 SHOTS 15
13 ON GOAL 8
3,48 EXPECTED GOALS 1,43
62% POSSESSION 38%

ANALYSIS:

It was like walking on egg scales, this month. I had the "Ferguson might be sacked with a bad result after the next game" message three times during this month. Luckily no sack yet. I was pretty disappointed with the first two results although we've become a bit more clinical. The Columbus game came at the right moment. Unfortunately, our schedule is very hard at the moment with two hard away games in New York as well as two confrontations with MLS juggernauts Toronto in the next four games... I feel like if I manage how to close down our defence, we could build some momentum. For now, though, it's a huge grind. It's very hard to work around the pressure and the low morale with just "instant resulting", but we're pushing through. Luckily, there's an easy cup match coming up in June.

TABLE:

Down 21st in the Supporters' Shield.

ALSO:

I forgot to mention we've loaned some players. Zachary Herivaux (to Red Bulls II) as development, Daigo Kobayashi (North Carolina FC) because he's old as crap, London Woodberry (SF Deltas) because I have no place in the team right now and Donnie Smith (Sacramento Republic) because he, well, basically has the stats of a 16 year old prospect. At age 26.

NEXT UP:

A momentum shift month. If we could get a result at home against Toronto and win the Fresno Cup game, there might be some positive morale going that could help us against Chicago. Fingers crossed.

 

 

[Timetxu]

Still clinging on and we're not the first to be sacked!

Not even the second one to be expected to get sacked! And my name is mentioned in one line with Patrick Vieira, so I guess things could be worse?

[Timetxu]

As the draw has already been made and we're supposed to play the fifth round already this month, I included our result in the cup:

FRESNO FUEGO FC - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

0 GOALS 2
10 SHOTS 18
5 ON GOAL 8
0,91 EXPECTED GOALS 2,52
49% POSSESSION 51%

The draw for the final four rounds of the cup has been made in its entirety:

We'll face our rivals from New York in the Round of 16.

[Timetxu]

JUNE 2017

An important month coming up. Can we get some good results in a row and get the morale back up?

GAMES:

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - TORONTO FC

5 GOALS 1
19 SHOTS 12
13 ON GOAL 6
3,16 EXPECTED GOALS 1,47
49% POSSESSION 51%

FRESNO FUEGO FC - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

0 GOALS 2
10 SHOTS 18
5 ON GOAL 8
0,91 EXPECTED GOALS 2,52
49% POSSESSION 51%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - CHICAGO FIRE

3 GOALS 1
16 SHOTS 3
5 ON GOAL 1
1,55 (+ 1 PK) EXPECTED GOALS 0,33
52% POSSESSION 48%

TORONTO FC - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

4 GOALS 0
12 SHOTS 10
8 ON GOAL 3
1,27 EXPECTED GOALS 0,87
55% POSSESSION 45%

ANALYSIS:

The month pretty muched went as I hoped in my previous post: I altered our defense setup a little bit and suddenly our opponents' goals dried up. The first game against Toronto was ridiculous: I did not expect a lot there. Everything went right and as you can see in the expected goals, it wasn't even a very flawed scoreline. We used that momentum in the games against Fresno and Chicago. Our rivals managed only one shot one goal in the entire game (obviously it went in), but we were never in trouble. I really hoped for something in the last game against Toronto and if you look at the expected goals, we probably would've walked away with a point about 7 out of 20 times. 1-0 being the most realistic result, 4-0 was absolutely undeserved.

Despite the good results, the traditional FM sacking vibe glitch was running wild. Before every single game the "needs to get a result or gets sacked" message showed up. I managed to get great results every single time and the board confidence was starting to climb when suddenly the confidence in my tactic completely plummeted to 14%. This was because of the lack of faith in the original 4-4-2 Diamond Narrow tactic which we haven't been using for the last 10 (!!) games. This dragged the refound confidence in me back into dangerous regions, which led to the president interviewing me after the Toronto defeat.

I managed to make my way out with the run-of-the-mill 7 points out of the next 5 games promise. So that's going to be fun I guess. Anyone knows if that counts for cup games as well? I'm pretty fed up with this situation because obviously the results are going a lot better now, but because of an FM glitch I'm on the wire now.

Anyway, TABLE:

I'm not making too many illusions here, but we've managed to shrink the gap between us and a playoff spot from 13 points to 9. We were up to 18th in the Supporters' Shield, but the Toronto defeat dragged us back to 20th.

OTHER NEWS:

I'm not the only manager in the sack race. The managers of Columbus, Salt Lake and NYCFC (yes, Patrick Vieira) have all been sacked. Highly unrealistic for an American save, but anyway.

NEXT UP:

We'll finish off June with the Round of 16 Cup game against the Red Bulls. Speaking of New York, we'll face them again in the league, surrounded by two games against a Philadelphia team of which I'm usually inclined to think that they're beatable, but for some reason they're in 2nd position in my save. Did I mention our schedule has been horrendous so far?

[Timetxu]

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - NEW YORK RED BULLS

3 GOALS 1
15 SHOTS 5
7 ON GOAL 2
1,51 EXPECTED GOALS 0,52
50% POSSESSION 50%

Despite our board being run by blind ballsacks, our great form continues as we manage to beat our rivals in the Cup. Another round we go!

Tough tough away game.

[Timetxu]

Nguyen is racking it up this month: 8,07 rating in his last 4 goals and even an 8,28 rating if we included the Cup game.

[Timetxu]

Thought I was getting the sack here for a minute...

[Timetxu]

Obviously, this happened.

Yes, suck them again.

[Timetxu]

ATLANTA UNITED - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

1 GOALS 0
14 SHOTS 10
4 ON GOAL 1
1,36 EXPECTED GOALS 1,28
56% POSSESSION 44%

Some sloppy finishing prevented us from taking something in this very even game. You can say that Atlanta deserved it a little more and with us already surpassing the board's expectations, I couldn't be all too worried about this. Also, I rotated the squad because of a very big game with LA Galaxy only three days after, which luckily payed off, as you will see in the next update.

One of these four MLS sides will qualify for the Champions League. Surprise package Jacksonville are out.

[Timetxu]

In the meantime, Leicester City defeated the MLS All Stars in a horribly lackluster game at the Los Angeles Coliseum. In a game where not a single Revolution player was called up for, the Man of the Match award went to Harry Maguire, who received a 7.2 rating. Yes, you read that right.

I'm sure they've made a lot of soccer fans down in LA.

[Timetxu]

JULY 2017

Down to the pivotal fifth month of the season. Remember that we left June with the board demanding 7 points out of the next 5 league matches. As we had managed to win 9 points out of 6 games (excluding the cup games), I judged that as doable, but still hard. Well, was I wrong:

GAMES:

PHILADELPHIA UNION - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

0 GOALS 0
15 SHOTS 11
7 ON GOAL 6
1,50 EXPECTED GOALS 1,25
55% POSSESSION 45%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - NEW YORK RED BULLS

5 GOALS 2
16 SHOTS 13
10 ON GOAL 4
1,83 (+1PK) EXPECTED GOALS 1,72
51% POSSESSION 49%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - LOS ANGELES GALAXY

4 GOALS 0
14 SHOTS 7
7 ON GOAL 0
1,59 (+1PK) EXPECTED GOALS 0,49
48% POSSESSION 52%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - PHILADELPHIA UNION

2 GOALS 1
12 SHOTS 8
4 ON GOAL 2
1,34 (+1PK) EXPECTED GOALS 0,90
51% POSSESSION 49%

ANALYSIS:

This month couldn't have gone any better nor come at a better moment. We've absolutely refound ourselves completely. We've already smashed the board's demand with 3 points and a game to spare. Our offense has been creating heaps of chances and our defense is looking stronger by the week. Just an indication of how well things are going: 

Before his injury, Nguyen Lee was on an 8,10 average rating 5 game streak. Diego Fagúndez and Krisztián Németh are having a 7,50 average rating over the last 5 games and at least 11 players in our team who have played at least 5 games have an average rating of 7 or higher. 

Our current home streak.

I think I've never had a month in which everything changed for the better as quickly as this one.

TABLE:

We're completely back in it. We were trailing 6th place 13 points at the end of May, 9 points at the end of June and only 3 points at the end of July. We've shown we're capable of beating teams above us, so a playoff spot is officially our goal now. We've also moved up to 15th place in the Supporters' Shield, with 7 points behind 11th place. Absolute scenes.

COMING UP:

We've been lucky with playing quite some home games so far. Now we'll have to show what we've got away. Luckily we don't need to fly as much as we could have, as the Canucks are headed for Boston.

 

[Timetxu]

THE LUSITAN CONNECTION

As the season is slowly creeping towards the deciding phase, I've decided to overthink our long term goals. First, let's look at the short term:

These are the players whose contracts will run out at the end of the season. Obviously Koffie and Angoua will return to their clubs when their loans are done. Of the other players only Caldwell, Tierney and Knighton are the ones I absolutely want to keep. Kamara has been great for us too, but he's getting pretty old and there's a ton of good strikers on the market. On top of that, he's a DP so if we let him go, we have quite some money to spend. In that regard, we can start looking for some American reinforcements, hopefully with some good draftees from US Colleges. Navarro will be back from loan who's been doing great in the New England Academy, so everything's looking well there.

However, it's the international slots I wanted to talk about with you guys. As I mentioned before, all MLS teams have 8 international slots. These can be traded around as much as teams like and as long as teams like. This means not all teams have 8 international slots at any give time, but there are 176 slots spread out over the league at any time.

Now, currently we have 7 slots. Why is that? Apparently, in real life New England has traded one of its slots to Columbus until the end of the 2018 season. This means that for the next year and a half, we will only be able to have 7 international players in our team. This is important because:

This is something I didn't pay too much attention to at the start of this save, but now I'm kicking myself why I haven't before. I started noticing I received quite some interesting scouting reports of talented young Portuguese guys based at Sporting. This led me to reading up on the partnership. Apparently, we have huge dibs on loaning in Portuguese youngsters. Not only will this be free of charge, but it will also massively boost our finances. On top, it's quite a risk free investment as I can always send these kids back to Portugal if they don't succeed.

This got me thinking. I remember driving in the Gillette Stadium area while on holiday and there was a huge Portuguese influence in the area. I've been playing with the idea of turning Foxborough into a Little Portugal, with Sporting loanees as well as other talented players from the Portuguese diaspora. Thanks to the partnership, my scouts have a ton of knowledge on Lusophone African players.

THE PROJECT:

With 8 international spots, I want to work towards having at least 6 Portuguese speaking players in my team in the foreseeable future. If that works out positively, I might even go all out and fill all my slots up with Portuguese guys. This is obviously dependent on the end date of some contracts as currenty, all our slots are filled up:

Slot 1 - Eligible at the end of the 2017 season, Gershon Koffie loan ends
Slot 2 - Eligible at the end of the 2017 season, Benjamin Angoua loan ends
Slot 3 - Eligible at the end of the 2018 season, Columbus Crew International Slot trade ends
Slot 4 - Eligible at the end of the 2018 season, Xavier Kouassi out of contract
Slot 5 - Eligible at the end of the 2018 season, Claude Dielna out of contract
Slot 6 - Eligible at the end of the 2018 season, Antonio Delamea Mlinar out of contract
Slot 7 - Eligible at the end of the 2019 season, Krisztián Németh out of contract
Slot 8 - Eligible at the end of the 2019 season, Constant Djakpa out of contract

Obviously, I can speed up this process by terminating some contracts, but I'll think of that at the end of this season. But for now, this means that with the Koffie and Angoua loans ending, we'll have 2 open slots for Portuguese players at the end of the season with 4 more a year after. 

Obviously I wouldn't be a real GM if I wouldn't wheel and deal around a bit, so to Lusodify my team already, I've made a trade with Chicago Fire 

Now, in real life, I'd say Chicago got the better end of this deal as Superdraft picks are pretty valuable (and you only get 4 of them a year). On top of that, they receive quite some General Allocation money. However, if we are to loan in Portuguese youngsters on an annual basis, I don't feel I have to rely on Superdraft picks too much. Besides, I've given up a pick in the 2020 Draft, when my team will probably already be filled with 8 Portuguese players. The Allocation money thing doesn't worry me too much as we're currently underspending $100K on the cap and I believe I get more GAM by the league at the end of the year.

This means I freed up an international slot. Bring in

I believe Bragança is already a bit of a celebrity among FM players, and he was the best out of 5 Sporting youngsters who were available for loan. He's joining us until the end of the season and we're not spending a single dime on him!

(Apologies to all Portuguese members, but this was the cutest and most on-topic GIF related to Portugal I could find)

 

[Timetxu]

The 2017 US Open Cup will be played in Georgia. Fun fact: only two days prior to the final, Atlanta United will open its new shared stadium with the Atlanta Falcons, so quite the home opener!

[Timetxu]

Ah, FM, and your impenetrable logic:

What?! I did not!

 

[Timetxu]

AUGUST 2017

Can we keep the good run going?

CHICAGO FIRE - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

1 GOALS 0
12 SHOTS 8
3 ON GOAL 1
1,06 EXPECTED GOALS 1,19
53% POSSESSION 47%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

1 GOALS 1
14 SHOTS 11
3 ON GOAL 1
1,90 EXPECTED GOALS 1,52
53% POSSESSION 47%

NEW YORK CITY FC - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

2 GOALS 0
15 SHOTS 11
5 ON GOAL 3
1,58 EXPECTED GOALS 1,25
60% POSSESSION 40%

D.C. UNITED - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

1 GOALS 1
16 SHOTS 18
5 ON GOAL 10
1,76 EXPECTED GOALS 2,10

ANALYSIS:

Well, we're back down to earth with some frustrating results. We've had the better of the expected goals scoreline in three of the four games this month. Especially the games against Vancouver and D.C., two teams who had been in absolutely dire form before meeting us, should've resulted in six points. D.C. was on an 1-point-in-8-games-run and we we're actually beating them with 0,8 XpG difference, until they scored a goal in the final minute. Six or seven points would've been a realistic reflection of the last month, but unfortunately, we only got two.

TABLE:

This inevitably led to us slipping up in the hunt for the wild card spot:

What a difference this month could've made. Down 17th in the Supporters' Shield.

TRANSFER NEWS:

End of the season for Djakpa, who'll also miss quite a chunck of next preseason. He's been placed on the season ending disabled list, which freed up an international slot. We've filled this up with a loan of Brazilian youngster Edson Luiz from Santa Cruz from Recife.

COMING UP:

With only 9 more games to go this season, I'd say this month will decide our faith for 2017.

[Timetxu]

In the meantime, Team USA did qualify for Russia.

's Gonna be a wicked ahsome pahty, gah.

[Timetxu]

Atlanta cruising to a trophy in their first ever year in professional football in front of 71.000 people in the newly opened Mercedes-Benz Stadium. And a Champions League spot for that matter.

[Timetxu]

SEPTEMBER 2017

Were we able to stay alive in the playoff hunt?

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - MONTREAL IMPACT

1 GOALS 0
11 SHOTS 10
5 ON GOAL 3
1,17 EXPECTED GOALS 0,90
55% POSSESSION 45%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - ORLANDO CITY

1 GOALS 1
15 SHOTS 18
9 ON GOAL 6
1,57 EXPECTED GOALS 2,15
48% POSSESSION 52%

SPORTING KANSAS CITY - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

2 GOALS 0
12 SHOTS 3
5 ON GOAL 2
1,42 EXPECTED GOALS 0,35
50% POSSESSION 50%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - TORONTO FC

0 GOALS 0
11 SHOTS 10
5 SHOTS 1
1,42 EXPECTED GOALS 1,46
57% POSSESSION 43%

ORLANDO CITY - NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

0 GOALS 1
5 SHOTS 14
1 ON GOAL 5
0,48 EXPECTED GOALS 1,41
46% POSSESSION 54%

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - ATLANTA UNITED

0 GOALS 2
11 SHOTS 12
2 ON GOAL 4
1,10 EXPECTED GOALS 1,00
54% POSSESSION 46%

ANALYSIS:

2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses, it couldn't be a more up-and-down month than that. For a team in our position, I'd say that's not too bad of a result, especially given that we've finally succeeded to win an away game for a change. What's more, we've only scored 3 goals this month, so getting 8 points out of them, is pretty decent.

TABLE:

I think this is pretty much the end for our playoff aspirations, given that we probably need to win all our last games to creep into 6th. We're in 17th in the Supporters' Shield

NEXT UP:

The final month of 2017 MLS in Boston, I reckon. I really want to finish the season with a win in Montreal.

[Timetxu]

Four games before the end of a perilous season, the board showed its trust me by offering me a new 2 year contract, which I gladly accepted.