rodesire Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 3 minutes ago, deltablue said: How did Zalgiris do in Europe? They started in CL with a trip to Gibraltar, then got knocked out by Austrian champs. In EL they got a nice draw in Estonian Flora and then, amazingly, defeated Molde over two legs. In group stage they somehow got 3 wins and that was enough to get out of the group. They finally fell to Sevilla in the 1st knockout rd. Usually I would have expected them to have just failed to qualify for the group stage, so this is quite special. Oh, almost forgot, this euro exertion cost them the league title, so they'll start in EL this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 I knew they'd have fall at the first knockout hurdle. Still fantastic for them to make it that far. I've always been the sort of Fm player who enjoys seeing that sort of thing happen over things remaining 'realistic'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 Pre-season 2021/22 And we're back for the first season in third level of Lithuanian football. I got slightly overexcited about last year's intake and asked board for another youth coaching upgrade... which was approved. We're up to adequate YC now I also noticed I finally made it to favourite personnel in the club We were not the only ones active in the pre-season. Lots of clubs tried to poach our best players. Luckily, they're all on youth contracts, so I was able to reject their transfer offers of 0. Unfortunately, most guys will come of age around mid-season and I might lose them then T_T. We're also the only amateur side in the league and that got reflected big time in the bookie predictions The board agrees with bookies asking to avoid relegation. I also think anything better than relegation would be awesome. The pre-season fixtures were mostly against higher level clubs with only last two against our stature opponents. I was fairly happy with the outcome even if we did ship 5 goals multiple times. The squad is a lot better this year but it's incredibly unbalanced. In goal, Mantas 3a is an absolute star attracting interest form top/2nd division clubs. Behind him Andrius is a sub-par backup and Vilius will be covering emergencies. We have last year's intake goalie in U21s, hopefully, he'll get lots of playtime and challenge for backup spot next season. Defensively, we have lots of cover on left side but our centre and right-backs are awful. There are no other decent prospects in U21, so it's a major concern for me. Similar issues in midfield. Our defensive mids do not look particularly great, centre-mids are very offensive in their skillset, overlapping very heavily in what they offer. The wings are great though with minimal (10-12) pace on them pretty much forcing me to use wing formations. Attack-wise Lukas 3b is a star. His only weakness is he's a bit slow but that's true across the whole frontline. Rimantas and Rokas are good understudies and I expect Gudaitis to provide some backup for multi-striker formations. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 12 minutes ago, deltablue said: I knew they'd have fall at the first knockout hurdle. Still fantastic for them to make it that far. I've always been the sort of Fm player who enjoys seeing that sort of thing happen over things remaining 'realistic'. Same here, for me, it adds an extra level of challenge, since their euro campaign brought them extra 4mil cash that they splashed on facilities. They're going to be real tough to catch any time soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Good luck with the new season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Good luck mate it will be a very difficult season but you can make it.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 4 hours ago, deltablue said: Good luck with the new season. 3 hours ago, Sheriff7 said: Good luck mate it will be a very difficult season but you can make it.. Thanks, guys. It has indeed been a tough start. Round 1 2021/22 I've managed to convince the board I needed more badges - it's the only real way we can improve training since our rep is so low we can't attract anyone half decent The first round of games was definitely tough. We played quite well and would often outshoot our opponents but we just couldn't score whereas we would get ripped to shreds from all angles. In first 6 matches we picked up 2 points and the fans started turning against me whilst team morale was real low. I tweaked the tactics a bit to be more counter-attacking and it seems to have helped a bit. We needed some luck to get through second round in the cup but then we bested Top Kickers comfortably and repeated the trick with Sirvena, counterattacking them to death as they kept piling on forward. These victories lifted us into P6 in the league on goal difference and importantly, we have drawn or beaten everyone below P4. I am very happy with that as that bodes well for survival. In the cup, A lyga outfit Dziugas will visit us, so that will be the end of cup journey for us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 Winter break 2021/22 The tactic I came to using at the end of round 1 really turned things around. It's nothing fancy as you can see but it does generate a lot of movement, especially on the break, whilst remaining solid at the back. I might be horribly wrong but shorter passing with passing into space creates this amazing ball movement where we keep the ball moving until there is an opening and the ball gets pinged there. Our results have improved dramatically, especially our second half performance. We came back from 3 goals down against Panerys and 2 goals down against both Babrungas and Panerys. Overall, very pleasing robust performances with only Utenis and Dziugas shredding us to pieces with their superior squads. All this propelled us way up the table to P3. Don't be fooled though, we're only 8 pts off relegation zone and only top2 teams are safe, really. The rest of the league is going through different patches of form as teams keep bouncing off the bottom of the league. Our little cup run helped finances a little bit, bringing in almost 4k and arresting the slide just a bit. We also found a new parent club, Trakai, paying us 3.3k instead of 2k from Zalgiris. Overall, we should finish the season just in positive and, hopefully, turn semi-pro for 2022/23. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 I wouldn't be too worried about the gap to the relegation spot being 8 points, unless you have a really bad run I tend to find at the sort of level you are at you'll get 2/3 that above everyone else and then a whole group that are around the same with 2/3 really struggling so you're doing well Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 3 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said: I wouldn't be too worried about the gap to the relegation spot being 8 points, unless you have a really bad run I tend to find at the sort of level you are at you'll get 2/3 that above everyone else and then a whole group that are around the same with 2/3 really struggling so you're doing well Yeah, seems like the team has gelled enough to stay in the division Youth intake 2021/22 Last off-season the board upgraded the youth coaching and some of you may remember the great intake we got in 2020. This year? Not so much but it's nothing to be sniffed at. I'll be signing the nicknamed guys, 7 in total, so fairly happy with the yield this year. There are a few standouts that should go right into the first team: Raimondas is a great backup goalkeeper who might get a bit of action once we mathematically secure the survival. His mentals are a bit weak but ok for a 15yo. Tomas is now our best central defender. He needs work, however, he should slot right in and stay in the team for at least a few seasons. Donatas is a major upgrade on our best right back. I like his physicals and look at that teamwork and work rate Finally, I want to retrain Renatas as a defensive forward, he could be a solid rotation player once he had a few training sessions. Unfortunately, it's the transfer season and having rejected no fewer than 30 bids over the break, we finally lost a player. Not just a player, our best goalkeeper, Mantas HG 3a. This is a major blow as he departs for a top division side Panevezys promoting Raimondas to a main goalkeeper role. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 Round 3, 2021/22 Armed with a new youth intake and excellent winter break friendlies we started blowing the teams off the pitch. Anyksciai were quite tough but we got a last minute winner, then Hegelmann were easily disposed before they score a consolation. babrungas match was a tepid affair where we faced no shots on target but just couldn't break our opponents down. Utenis game was surprisingly similar, except we got our two goals fairly early. Then we put on a swashbuckling performance against Top Kickers with 3 gorgeous team goals. And then the disaster struck. That's us losing our top 2 goalies within a span of 5 weeks. Kavaliauskas is out until the turn of year, and 31yo Lukosevicius who's only in the squad by miracle will take his place. Since then we have been labouring to draws whilst getting more injuries on the way. The league table is a bit surprising. Both Panerys and Utenis had major meltdowns which means we have a two-tier league. Top5 sides are all within a shout of championship with just 8 games to go whilst bottom 4 sides are desperately battling relegation. We're second on goal difference but losing goalkeeper will be a major blow to any ambitions of going up this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 End of season 2021/22 Last time round we were joint top of the table, just behind on goal difference and 8 games to play. The rest of our fixtures went like this A defensive performance against Panerys gave us a very importnat win early on. That was compounded with an undeserved 3 points against Anyksciai. We then played an awful match against Hegelmann, lucky to even get a goal there. Babrungas gave us a roller-coaster match where we went up 1-0 just to be losing 2-1 before prevailing 3-2 thanks to a late late goal. Gargzdu Pramogos held us to a bore draw and complicated our title push. However, a crunch win against Utenis put us right in the mixer. We followed that up with two good wins against relegation threatened sides. In the meantime, I was approached to join Panevezys, who just got relegated from the top division. Thanks, but no, thanks. All of this meant that at the end of the season the league table was this We had done it! Utenis bottled it and rest of the contenders faded even worse in the run in and we're going to 1 Lyga next season! The board and fans were chuffed to bits and no wonder.. These are without any doubt the steepest odds I had overcome in recent memory. The team just gelled at some point and started producing goods every week. Arguably, some fans enjoyed our rivals, Top Kickers getting kicked down to fourth division. A lot of players contributed to the success this season. The youth intake did change a lot of things and I still can't believe we promoted having lost two goalkeepers in quick succession. End of season awards were rightly dominated by our new right winger who scored numerous important goals in the second half of the season. Our best elevens got a major upgrade due to major player turnover this season. Finally, around Lithuania, Zalgiris struck back with vengeance capturing every single domestic trophy. They won top division by ridiculous 22 points and are set to dominate for at least a couple years. Notably, it was their 8th league title in 10 years, so they're quite a dinasty. In 1 Lyga, Atlantas, the fallen giant, has rebounded right away, however, Tauras was unable to win the promotion qualifier. Lithuanian divisions also enjoyed a large boost to their rankings which is going to mean a lot more money at the top end. In random bits and bobs Brazil got FM'ed by Ireland, whlist Serbia, Montenegro and Albania all join EU. Finally, our finances look really good considering the youth coaching expenses and we're set to turn semi-pro. It was confirmed just before the start of the new season and I cannot wait! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 Good work mate .Winning promotion so soon is amazing achievement.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 33 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said: Good work mate .Winning promotion so soon is amazing achievement.. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I am shocked too. The teams in front of us happened to fold badly and we were just in the right place of mind to capitalise on that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 Preseason 2022/23 Back-to-back promotions. If one was to believe bookies, a 600-1 and 550-1 shots in a row. Not content with the results, board and myself started preparing for a new season, hoping to survive. Doubled income from sponsorship was a nice starting point. The chairman then followed this up with a contract offer for me, which I gladly accepted having negotiated the wage down as far as I could on a one-year deal. We then got another major boost in the form of TV money for the division. Originally, it was 20k at the beginning of the save for this level. Now... Holy shirtballs, that will pay for everything and there will be leftovers for sure! Maybe even training facilities that are awful atm. First things first, I asked for extra badges and my assman followed the suit. The bookies are once again predicting us to finish bottom and this might be the first time I will agree with them. This is going to be a tough tough year. This does mean the board has mild expectations and even provides wage budget. MInd you, players can only be offered non-contract terms, so it's all for staff then, I guess. The final expenditure this month was getting youth recruitment upgraded. I am very very excited about this, just as long as it doesn't balloon youth setup costs even more. Pre-season friendlies were mostly against slightly better teams and we did very very respectably. I was happy with the results until the injury curse stroke again, reducing me to a single GK in the whole club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 7 games into 2022/23 Bit of a random cut-off, I really should either do monthly or bi-monthly updates. Anyhow, the step up to the new division feels very similar to last year's start. We're stuttering in attack but playing okay overall. Our attackers have completely forgotten how to finish and keep blasting CCC's out of stadium. In the meantime, we got our first u19 call-up I mean, I guess he's okay but still feels a bit overhyped. Just look at his attributes, no defence whatsoever. League-wise, we are either getting completely outplayed by simply better teams or just not finishing enough chances. The fixture list says it best, really. This mediocre start to the season leave us in relegation places, however, note that there are a few more teams above us with very similar records, so I am not too worried. In the cup we will be facing third division Juventa-99. Should be a piece of cake to get that morale up. Meanwhile, the mad men of Zalgiris have done it again. They qualified for the Europa League group stages for the second time in three seasons. This time round they got a group of Death, good luck getting out of that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 End of round 1, 2022/23 The biggest revelation over here is learning how to take screenshots properly. No, I am not joking. No more awful jpegs, roll-in uncompressed pngs In-game, did I mention that we don't have many goalkeepers available? Well, yet another injury to my current no 1, really hope for a goalie in this year's intake. Fixture-wise we did better. The squad dispatched Juventa-99 in the cup with some crisp football. The form did not continue in the league, though. We're playing well but just don't create enough and our defence is a bit leakier than I would like. A crunch match against Vilniaus Vytis (P14 v P13) went in our favour and pushed us out of relegation spot for the first time in a while. We then faced Panerys, the original amateur super club, in the Cup. Once again lower league amateurs were comfortably pushed aside and this time we even bounced the league leaders Tauras away straight after. Yet the familiar issues with finishing resurfaced as we could only limp to 1 point in 2 matches. Getting to Cup round 4 is very exciting and we got a favourable draw in Panevezys who we just faced in the league. There, we got 7 points in last 6 games and we finally got our heads just above the relegation zone. We're playing good football, so I expect us to stay lower mid-table until at least winter break. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted April 30, 2018 Share Posted April 30, 2018 Surprised Koralas is so high and Palanga so low in your league table.. I believe you will have a safe season.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 5 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said: Surprised Koralas is so high and Palanga so low in your league table.. I believe you will have a safe season.. Koralas has had a decent squad for a while now whilst Palanga released about 40 players off season and had to scramble to get even the base eleven in. My surprise of the season so far is Pakruojis being so high up having promoted with us. I don't think they'll promote this year but they might have a go next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 Winter break 2022/23 At the beginning of November we received our affiliate fee from Trakai... So we dumped them as our senior affiliate in favour of Suduva who promised us 4k pa, improvement on 3.3k pa we had previously. Glorious Zalgiris finished their European adventure at group stage but not before defeating Zenit at home Yet another great peformance by them and they're set prime for another title in A lyga. Back in less glorious second division we opened the month with a casual win over Nevezis courtesy of late goals. We then defeated Panevezys to book our first ever Cup QF against A lyga side Atlantas. That's when my strikeforce disintegrated. We dominated pretty much every game but couldn't score half of our CCCs whilst getting torn apart by silly mistakes at the back. We only made 5 points in 6 games. What does this mean in terms of table position? We're still just above relegation zone in the group of 4 teams who might all go down. There is a mighty battle at the top of the table still involving Pakruojis, who seem to hellbent on buying every single quick Lithuanian winger/forward. Koralas look mighty whilst Silute is quietly grinding out results. We got 7 more games before the split and then 6 more to save ourselves from relegation. There is also a small business of entertaining Atlantas in the cup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 Youth intake 2022/23 Around the turn of the year I have received a new contract for an extra year that I was super pleased about. It gave me a chance to reduce my wages and more stability at the same time! This might yet prove to be a great decision, especially since we're about to have a board takeover.. A more pressing matter was a bunch of Lithuanian clubs after my youngsters. No-one left, luckily, but one of nation's finest talents left for Udinese in a sizeable deal The youth intake itself was a bit of a disappointment, especially compared to the last two editions where we got a whole bunch of first teamers. This time we got a very wing-heavy intake. None of them are outstanding but Rukas might challenge for the first team gloves before too long, Mirauskas should slot in at the back eventually and Eliosius might force his way into first team before too long. I am still going to sign vast majority just to provide depth at U21s and maybe some of them will come good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted April 30, 2018 Author Share Posted April 30, 2018 Pre-split, season 2022/23 26 matches have come and gone and now the league will split into two. Each team will play 6 more matches to determine its faith. How did we do? Well, before you get know that, we got some things to go over. We had a takeover. A fairly quick one, only took a month or so and the new local business man chairman is okay, I hope. He does not want to fire me, so that's a bonus We got 7k injected which is always nice and no loan to cover the 40k that the takeover cost. Shame that my youth philosophy is gone but I'll live. In terms of fixtures we had a busy time going 2-2-3 in the league, taking points off teams around us which is good but falling painfully to anyone flying high. In cup we got destroyed by Atlantas as 1-3 scoreline flattered us a lot. I am not quite sure how far my current squad can take me. It seems like they won't develop much with crappy facilities and the best they can do is mid-table in this division. We really really need some gems in youth intake whilst keeping everyone away from our stars. All in all, we're doing okay in the league. We're 4 points clear of relegation zone, so beating Nevezis after the split is probably the most important task there is. Palanga has insecure finances in what is a disgraceful financial mismanagement of a club. They were in A lyga just two years ago and next year they'll struggle in third division with their debts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 1, 2018 Author Share Posted May 1, 2018 End of season 2022/23 Boy, that was a tough one. 6 games to save ourselves form relegation and consolidate at least for one more season. We got a crappy split draw playing teams in P11-P14 all away Dunno, how is it balanced, it's all rigged, if you ask me. We drew with Vytis having created so much more than the opponents before faltering curelly at Dainava. Palanga match should have been ours but we just couldn't score. A freebie from Panevezys lifted spirits as we were out of the relegation zone by just goal difference at that stage. Crunch game with nevezis was another draw. Luckily, we got 3 points at Suduva to close the season. We just stayed in the division but boy, was it close. Nevezis choked and lost their final game making it look a lot more comfortable than it would have been. Vytis also stayed close to relegation zone but pulled themselves up at the last moment. Palanga is the biggest shock of the year, going down just two years after gracing A league. Up the table, Silute is back in top division and Koralas lost their promotion game :/ Fellow promotees Pakruojis almost made it to play-offs but fell just short. Overall, it's been a strange year. We played fairly well but I feel a distinct lack of good centre midfield/forward options is costing us as we're unable to finish what we created. No-one did amazingly well, only two strikers hit double digits and there was distinct lack of leadership at the back. Post-season awards were a bit moot but we did celebrate the best of the mediocre bunch. I am also pleased to announce that our frenemies Top Kickers suffered second consecutive relegation and are out of the league system! Financially, we're doing great, thanks to the massive TV contract but still not particularly close to our competitors. Look at Zalgiris, they're miles ahead of everyone! The league situation is being dragged up by Zalgiris, I wonder if any other teams will follow the suit of if Zalgiris will run out of ideas and collapse under wages in 3-4 seasons. The plan for next year is fairly simple, we need to consolidate and develop our youth. I am not sure we're good enough to be promoted within a couple of seasons but I sure am going to try and get us to at least mid-table. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 1, 2018 Author Share Posted May 1, 2018 Pre-season 2023/24 It's been a busy pre-season for us. Mostly keeping other clubs from our players. Yet I failed with that, losing the crown jewel of my team Poskus 4a To add insult to the injury, Dziugas is not even playing him, instead he's going to be rotting in U21s, just like Kazlauskas 3a who went to Panevezys and is still in their U21s. Meanwhile, I started doing another set of badges and hired a couple of coaches to shore up our training. We're up to 2+ stars in every category and might even start seeing improvements soon. The media and board agree that we're prime suspects for relegation and I cannot blame them, we look ****. At least we cannot underachieve, right, right? Financially, this is going to be yet another lucrative season, so I am taking full advantage of the situation peppering the board with requests. If only fans knew about all the work behind the stage, surely they'd appreciate it a bit more.. Finally, the friendlies. We did okay this year, I tried a few tactical tweaks but nothing seemed to work so I will stick with last season's formula. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 1, 2018 Author Share Posted May 1, 2018 Squad update It's been a while since I have done a squad update, so I am going to do a quick run down the first team at the beginning of the season. Lukosevicius is hopefully a backup at this point but he has been consistent if unspectacular when called upon. Rukas just edges the no.1 from Kavaliauskas due to not being injured all the time. They will both get 10+ games this season and hopefully get a bit more rounded. In defense we got a couple outstanding youngsters and lots lots of depth Among the right backs, Stazys is the star of the show and I hope I can keep him for a bit longer and witness him bloom. Romanov is a very capable understudy who will push for first team place too. In the centre, Zagurskas looms large. My coaches are raving about him but he goes between amazing and awful in the matches a lot. The rest of the guys are all fairly pacy but need lots of training to be decent defenders. On the left, we have Alisauskas providing cover for two youngsters. Paukste is rated slightly higher but has awful personality, so I might give Levsinas a run in the league. He's also capable of playign on both sides, so I am very excited if I can develop him. Midfield is a funny area for us. We have lots of okay players but noone really stands out with their play or coach recommendations. On the right wing, T.Butkus is a fans' player of 2021/22. He's got good mentals and would normally be a surefire starter. However, last season I got a very promising winger in Eliosius. His only problem is height, he's 157cm (5ft2) tall and weighs under 50kg. If he grows to at least 162-165, he could become one of team's greats. Down the middle we have a bunch of players who can pass but not do much more. The only different guys are Jarmalavicius, who can also tackle, and Baranauskas, who can't do either. On the left, Paskevicius is a 22yo club icon. He'll back other guys up this season but might steal the first team spot if they don;t impress me enough. Cerniauskas and Dambrauskas have bags of potential but they're not amazing right now. Upfront, we just lost Poskus. We still got plenty of depth there after last year's intake though. Malinauskas will have a point to prove, having done Benzema last season. Poskus and Juska were amazing last year will need to continue their amazing work. Slavickas might get a couple games and will likely get more U21 games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 2, 2018 Author Share Posted May 2, 2018 August 2023 Dunno if it's just me but I find draws incredibly frustrating. You get a single point and are left with a major meh point. This month we had four of those meh days. We led all of those times 1-0 in every home game and also 2-1 in third game but just couldn't keep the advantage. Very very frustrating. Still early in the season but we already got some breathing space between bottom sides and us which is nice. In the cup we've been drawn to fourth division Orfa at home, so that should be an easy one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 2, 2018 Author Share Posted May 2, 2018 September 2023 Due to funky scheduling we played all competitive games in the second half of the month. We opened them getting rekt by Vytis. Our young striker scored his first three goals for the club against Trakai to improve the mood a bit. We then got battered by Dziugas and lost despite scoring first. In the cup, the performance was awful, think RM vs Bayern but we just squeezed through. The month finished with a bore draw vs Koralas. Overall, our games are terrible, all the cohesion from last season is gone, I blame lack of anyone over 18 in the team on that. We're still mid-table despite only averaging a point a game. Bottom two sides are awful, so we're now 4 points clear. We'll be meeting one of these torrid sides in the cup next month. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 October 2023 We only played 3 league games this month, getting 4 points there. In the cup we just about defeated Trakai B team, once again requiring extra time to score the winner. The league table is incredibly tight, only 3 points separating P6 and P13 as you can see. We're in the middle of this pack, hopefully we can stick around P10 for a bit longer. In the cup we'll be facing our parent club Suduva and I expect that to be the end of our cup journey this year. The only consolation is the payday we're gonna get going there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 November 2023 This month featured 4 league games and a cup match vs Suduva. The cup game didn't go too well, we had our chances but Suduva was far too clinical running out as deserved winners. In the league we did really well, drawing 2 and winning the other two, thus consolidating lower mid-table position. I injected a bit of width into the line-up and it seems to have worked so far. All in all, doing alright this year. P9 at the moment, the clubs are dispersing at last and we got 7 point cushion to relegation now. We're nowhere near good enough to challenge for the upper half but I am enjoying this good run of form. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 I've just caught up so firstly well done on the promotion and then staying up the following year and it looks a good start to this year too The keeper injuries sound frustrating, I dread having a keeper injured as it usually means the 2nd will follow soon I wouldn't worry too much about not getting too many first teamers straight from your intake mate You've got to take in to consideration that some players are older and are obviously much better with each improvement so eventually you get to a point where the intake can't match the first team to begin with but the fact that you are still getting plenty of 4/5 stars is the key here as it means in the long term you'll find a lot of those will end up better than your current crop, it's when you get to the 3 - 3 and half stage where you are going to start finding it tougher and even then remember it's only a guide, i'd still be getting 3 stars on contracts just in case the ass man is wrong as from what i've seen in other youth challenges these can still turn out to be decent, or at worst a possible revenue stream as there'll be other clubs lower than you that would snap your hand off for them Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 47 minutes ago, Dexter_Morgan said: I've just caught up so firstly well done on the promotion and then staying up the following year and it looks a good start to this year too Thanks, buddy. We are indeed overachieving a little bit and playing better than last year, that's for sure 47 minutes ago, Dexter_Morgan said: The keeper injuries sound frustrating, I dread having a keeper injured as it usually means the 2nd will follow soon I reckon I had at least one keeper injured for the last 18 months straight now At least my first teamers got a grip now. 48 minutes ago, Dexter_Morgan said: I wouldn't worry too much about not getting too many first teamers straight from your intake mate You've got to take in to consideration that some players are older and are obviously much better with each improvement so eventually you get to a point where the intake can't match the first team to begin with but the fact that you are still getting plenty of 4/5 stars is the key here as it means in the long term you'll find a lot of those will end up better than your current crop, it's when you get to the 3 - 3 and half stage where you are going to start finding it tougher and even then remember it's only a guide, i'd still be getting 3 stars on contracts just in case the ass man is wrong as from what i've seen in other youth challenges these can still turn out to be decent, or at worst a possible revenue stream as there'll be other clubs lower than you that would snap your hand off for them I see, that does make sense. It just feels like I am handicapped by lack of training facilities as most of my players really struggle to grow even a bit since their intake. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 December 2023 We only had 3 league games in December and went unbeaten in them. Our whole team is starting to click now and whilst some of the goals may have been lucky, our performances were anything but. 5 points in 3 games propelled us even further up the table and we have pretty much avoided relegation already, I think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 Winter break 2023/24 It would have been a marvelous break if it wasn't for a certain team called Dziugas. They stole not one, not two but three of our top players in one transfer window This is outrageous and we better put 8 goals past them next time we meet them. The winter friendlies were okay but I could definitely feel the missing players' creativity, so I am still going to be bitter about it for months :/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 Youth intake 2023/24 After last transfer window disappointment, we really needed a lift here and the game didn't disappoint for once. What an intake this is! This could provide the spine of the team for years to come and the best thing is, they're only 15, so they can't be poached until at least the end of next season Cesnulis is a top top striker for this level and it's scary to think what he can develop into. I got a 23yo fairly-pro backup about to turn 24, so hopefully i can get some tutoring done. Kloniunas is a raw AMC with bags of potential, I can see him becoming our creator in chief if i go 4231 or even 4411 My staff is raving about Stazys and I can see why. He's got good mentals for a 15 yo and if his reflexes improve, we could have a good backup for years to come. Cepkauskas would be my dream defender if he had any teamwork or work rate. Other than that, he's a rock at the back at 15. Imagine him in a few years Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 1 hour ago, rodesire said: Winter break 2023/24 It would have been a marvelous break if it wasn't for a certain team called Dziugas. They stole not one, not two but three of our top players in one transfer window This is outrageous and we better put 8 goals past them next time we meet them. Yeah,I've been there my friend..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 4, 2018 Author Share Posted May 4, 2018 March 2024 We had 5 league games this month. First, we faced off with my newest hated club - Dziugas. We were down 2-0 at half-time but throwing a boot at my striker's head worked out as we roared back to snatch injury time victory. Take that, professionals! The rest of the games were more of the same, we create chances but can't finish and then get punished heavily at the back. Utterly frustrating, as this team is a good run away from top half. Speaking of league position, 5 points in 5 games is not great and we slipped to P10. Still, we're only 5 points off last year's mark with 9 games to go, so we're definitely making progress and I don't think we'll be getting into any relegation battle. Only 3 more games before the split and we're just 2 points behind Pakruojis, so we could still make it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 4, 2018 Author Share Posted May 4, 2018 April 2024 Having seen my guys dominate the games but unable to finish the off, I made some tactical tweaks. Basically, my defense is quicker now, so I can push up which means more support for midfielders. That idea proved fruitful as we grabbed 10 out of 12 possible points this month. The only issue we drew with Tauras that meant we were left in the bottom half after the split by just 1 point. We have pretty much mathematically guaranteed survival, so I'll try blood some youngsters and get as many points on the board as possible. After all, we have only lost 5 times this season! Finally, I have celebrated 200 games in charge, here's to celebrating 400th in Europe! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 4, 2018 Author Share Posted May 4, 2018 End of season 2023/24 We finished the season with 5 last league games which were very open and the results swung wildly. I am just glad we had no draws in this period, though we did finish the season with two loses. All this meant we finished the season with 46 points (11 point YoY improvement) and P9. Very happy about this as I targeted 40points before the start of last season. We're not far off playoffs if we continue the trend next season. As a sign of thanks, my board squeezes my wage budget for next season down to 750ppw down from 3kpw. Idiots! Our end of season awards were fairly dull this year, nothing unexpected, really. Our best eleven features now mostly regens and we're starting to get 7.0 averages at last The media thought we were overachieving hard but I disagree, I think we did just as expected. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 5, 2018 Author Share Posted May 5, 2018 Pre-season 2024/25 One thing I forgot to mention in my last update is our U21s finishing third in their division, which is quite an achievement! The season opened with new financial deals and we've got about 30% increase in both TV rights and sponsorships So I instantly started asking for improvements and got a youth recruitment upgrade Meanwhile, the board and media think we will go down this season, yet again, so there aren't many expectations. I asked the squad for mid-table and they threw a fit :/ Just to remind you guys, this is a summary of what we have achieved so far as a team: Matchwise,we seem to be very dependent on our new striker from last intake and we're very very average going forward in friendlies. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 5, 2018 Author Share Posted May 5, 2018 August 2024 Just 4 league matches to open the season. We opened the season with a hard-fought draw with Vilniaus Vytis. Then something clicked and we blew Dainava away before half time just to concede injury time penalty. Atlantas B match was really boring and uneventful though we did miss a couple big chances. Finally, Silute just folded in the final match of the month. This unbeaten run got us to P3 early in the season. Note that both teams above us are B teams, so they can't get promoted anyway. Silute, who just got relegated from top division and last season's promotion playoff contenders Vilniaus Vytis are both in relegation zone atm. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted May 7, 2018 Share Posted May 7, 2018 Good season last year for you, clear improvement and a good start to this, well done Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted May 7, 2018 Share Posted May 7, 2018 Very good start.. You look very good in defense and this is the key for me.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 On 5/7/2018 at 11:44, Dexter_Morgan said: Good season last year for you, clear improvement and a good start to this, well done Yeah, the youth intake was solid and addressed our needs, so pretty happy there. On 5/7/2018 at 14:07, Sheriff7 said: Very good start.. You look very good in defense and this is the key for me.. Thanks, buddy. Well, defence won't last but the points are already on the board so I'll take it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 September 2024 Bit of a mixed bag in terms of performances and results. We opened the month witht a brace of friendlies where we did rather well but then we just couldn't get any consistency. Our defence looks incredibly vulnerable and seem to concede quite a few late goals now. In the cup, we just about squeezed past bottom division side having played a heavily rotated side. In the league we're in P3 but there is only 1 point between us and P10. In the cup we got drawn away to Silute, so it's a tough one but one that should show if we have any play-off credentials this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 October 2024 Lithuania's U21 squad got knocked out early in the qualifiers, so the coach left the position. I applied cheekily and got offered a position. Now, normally I would have accepted it but I am still early in my club career and there are no youth players in my club that could benefit/deserve to be in the squad yet anyway. Some of my first tutoring sessions are coming to the end. They've mostly gone fairly well and as a result the squad personality is now professional, up from ambitious. Competition wise I suffered a humbling at the hands of Koralas and switched it up tactically. It seems to have worked as we went unbeaten the rest of the month, winning in extra time in the cup and looking genuinely dangerous most of the time. Once again we are third in the league. The table is starting to stretch a little bit and Koralas is running away with the title after early struggles. We got Zalgiris B squad in the cup, so an excellent chance to progress to quarters for us! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 November 2024 I honestly don't know what to say, we're creating chances and playing well but we just can't finish anything. Defensively we get punished so much it's infuriating. At least we're through to QF in the cup. We absolutely nosedived in the league all the way to P9 and are now only 4 points above the relegation zone. Looks like the play-off dream is over and we should focus on not getting relegated instead. In the cup we also got the most difficult assignment in Zalgiris away. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 December 2024 Just 2 more games before the winter break as I am starting to give up on understanding this team. We blasted opponents away after a winless month in the league. We're back to mid-table, even P5 on goal difference. Relegation is 8 points away but we're in the top half just by 8 goals scored. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 What an weird season mate but i believe this is normal for a youth save.Your position in league looks very good now and in cup........well good luck there you are going to need it... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 16, 2018 Author Share Posted May 16, 2018 10 hours ago, Sheriff7 said: What an weird season mate but i believe this is normal for a youth save.Your position in league looks very good now and in cup........well good luck there you are going to need it... Thanks, buddy. Young players are indeed very inconsistent and I don't have anyone over 20 in the squad atm Winter break 2024/25 I finally saved up a bit of money and going to get my first training facility upgrade! Shame it's only a youth upgrade but still a step forward! We also played a few friendlies and I left my assman to take care of those. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted May 16, 2018 Author Share Posted May 16, 2018 Youth intake 2025 Now this is probably a joint worst intake I've had with year 2. We only have a couple good prospects and the rest will be signed just to provide numbers. We get yet another decent goalkeeper and an AMC that I don't really use in my tactics. I might have to stick to 4-4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1 soon. Here's the two standout prospects Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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