[FM19] We are not very Athletic, so instead of playing the Gegenpress, we are instead going to be trying the Catenaccio, and when that doesn't work we are going to be playing something using wingers because at first glance we have some decent wide players

[Jimbokav1971]

Absolute Madness. A.Bilbao. Jan 2019.

I've got form for resting players against the big boys and concentrating on the games where points can be more easily be earned. It's a tactic that has served me well over the years and I have no intention of changing it at the moment. 

Looking at this save, I know for sure that I have done it a few times already with reasonable results. 

Away to Barca in September I completely rotated the whole squad, (except the GK), and we kept the score at 0-0 until gone the hour before Messi created the opener on the counter and then spanked in a direct free-kick to seal the game. 

Away to R.Madrid, again in September, (and buoyed by our decent Barca performance), I rotated the whole squad, (apart from GK again), and somehow came away with a 1-0 away win. 

I don't do this unless the circumstances demand it and the next time I did it was an away game to league leaders Atletico. We had a Cup game 3 days later, (which we won so I feel vindicated), and as before, I rested/rotated all outfield players. Atletico beat us, but it wasn't about this game. had I tried to win this I think we would have probably lost both games. By prioritising the Cup game, i at least won what we were capable of winning. 

"Capable of winning" is a strong statement though. We held Barca for an hour and then beat R,Madrid, so who is to say that we wouldn't have beaten Atletico had we gone strong? The next games that I "rotated" were the 2 Cup games against Atletico. In a one-off game I might have gone toe-to-toe with Atletico, (although unlikely), but in a tie over two legs, the numbers just didn't add up for me and I again rotated. We lost away and then lost narrowly at home, but as previously, this decision was not vindicated by these results, but by the point earned away to Leganes between them, and the point earned earned after the second game at home to Eibar. We kept clean sheets in both these games with a much weakened side and I am absolutely positive that we would not have remained unbeaten in the league without this tactic. 

You might think to yourself, "he's making a big deal of this on the basis of 4 losses and 1 really lucky win against a below-par R.Madrid where we had to rely on our GK making 9 (NINE) saves to allow us to escape with all 3 points and you would be completely correct were it not for the 6th occasion that I have used this tactic this season. 

It was only the 2nd time we did this at home, (it's more often than not an away thing and we only did it previously at home because it was a two-legged Cup game), but it worked in spectacular fashion. In a game dominated by set-pieces, Busquets opened the scoring from a corner, and then our GK (11) Álex Remiro (F.Det) spanked in another free-kick to level things. We then scored not 1 but 2 goals from corners to win the game 3-1. 

Apologies for the speed of play in this video, but a goal from a GK from a direct free-kick is impressive whatever speed you watch it at. 

So while we have beaten R.Madrid and Barca now this season, (which personally I think is a big deal in itself), we have done so while actually playing a weakened team designed to not lose too heavily. I know my tactic is quite conservative by design, (and @Makoto Nakamurahas shown what can be done with a more attacking mentality and the very same players). I just thought that I would highlight these results because they are particularly interesting, (or at least are to me).

[Jimbokav1971]

Transfer Policy. A.Bilbao. Feb 2019.

I'm already thinking about next season and with that in mind I'm very aware that we have an ageing squad and the next generation are either a long way off being able to step up, or will never be ready to step up. With that in mind there is going to have to be a period of re-structuring over the next few season and I'm not entirely sure how competitive we will be over tyhis period. 

I've already sold 2 players. 

Iago Herrerín (F.Det) was flogged to Marseille for £2.3M. I didn't care how much I got for him. He was a negative influence, a poor trainer and was never going to start if I had anything to do with it, (and I do), so he had to go. He was also 31yo and our starting GK is only 23, so time was not on his side at all. That we got a few quid for him was just a bonus. 

(07) Mikel San José (F.Pro) is a 29yo DC/DM and while I didn't really want him to go, his age coupled with the decent fee involved suggested that I might be well served taking the cash and re-investing it in some young blood. 

I've been giving some thought to what I want the club to "look" like in terms of the playing squad and while it will of course include some experienced heads, I want it to be very much youth based and unless a player is going to be kept through the latter stages of his career as a tutor, I want to cash in on him while I can. In order to do that I want to try and sell players before they turn 30. 

I didn't want 37yo TM Aritz Aduriz (Perfect) to leave, but he wanted a new contract and his terms were quite steep, so I thought I was being clever when I noticed that he had a clause in his existing contract as follows. 

It's pretty simple, but my plan was to just make sure he played 25 league games and this would trigger another year on his existing terms and I probably wouldn't want him in the 3rd season because his legs would be gone. If I really wanted him to stay, (I might), then I would at least be able to get him on significantly reduced terms. There was only one problem though. Nobody had told the player what my plan was, and if we had, I doubt he would have been very impressed. 

About as impressed as I was when he agreed to sign for Napoli at the end of the season. 

How does that work? If he plays 25 games then his contract gets extended. How then does he join Napoli? (or is the transfer delayed)? He will likely be getting his 25 games because he's significantly better than anything else we have, but I have resigned myself to the fact that he is just gone no matter how many games I give him this season. 

Looking further at the older players in the club, (and struggling to get my head round the new tutoring/mentoring), I have a number of players who are shortly going to be surplus to requirements. The question is a balancing act between making sure that I don't leave the squad too short on experienced heads, and selling them before they lose their value. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Boring. A.Bilbao. Feb 2019.

We've only conceded 1 goal in the last 10 league games, but we've only scored 8 during the same period and 3 of them game in the Barca match. 

Despite my recent infatuation with clean sheets, deep down I know that a draw is points lost in the long-run and 4 draws in 5 games is lots of points lost. Despite that, R.Madrid only gained 2 more points than us this month, and Barca collected the same amount of points as us, (despite losing twice). Atletico Madrid and surprise challengers Levante were the real winners though. Barca do have 2 games in hand however. 

[Edit]

I lost the last 2 games of the month through a crash and have had to replay them.

I didn't even select the squads in these games and instead just used quick pick.

My Ass Man seems to be just as adept as me at selecting a team to defend, but he can seemingly also get the best out of my TM who hates me. 

It means that the league table looks like this. 

When I lose games through crashes, I don't try and replicate the original results, I just start again and take whatever the new result is. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm getting lots of crashes after the 9.02 update. 

[Edit]

Keeps crashing on 2nd Mar 2019. 

I'm going to try and holiday past that day and on to the date of the next game. 

[Jimbokav1971]

On a roll. A.Bilbao. Mar 2019.

I feel a bit dirty because 1 of these games, (I can't remember which one, but it was a game that later ended up 0-0), was a 1-0 loss the 1st time I played it. As a result of one of multiple crashes though, the game was replayed and we drew the replay. (I think it was the San Sebastian game but not 100% sure). 

We are still not setting the World alight, far from it in fact), but as 11 clean sheets in in 15 games suggest, we are not only hard to beat, but we are hard to score against. There are three 0-0's and a 1-1 result in these run of games, and I think that typifies everything that we are about. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Day. A.Bilbao. Mar 2019.

In FM18, almost every intake I had at whatever club I was managing, always seemed to be a "Golden Generation" this or "Golden Generation" that. In fact, they were invariably far from a Golden Generation and whatever triggered that Golden Generation tag wasn't working as it should and was being used far to frequently. This wasn't the case in FM17 and obviously I have little experience of FM19 youth intakes other than that of @Makoto Nakamura, (although he happens to be managing A.Bilbao too, and he received a "Generational Talent" intake. 

So what have we got...... well what we have is a "Generational Talent", allegedly. 

7 players are from Bilbao, (which I like), and the name of the Generational Talent is Ander González and he looks like this................................. 

What the actual hell.  Excuse me why I save.  And now excuse me while I go and make a 2nd save. 

Is this a joke?  A very very very very very good joke? 

That's astonishing! He could play anywhere he wants other than centre-half or GK. 

Hang on a minute. This just doesn't seem right.  I know he's brilliant,  but this just isn't right. He's 16 years old. Let's look at his physicals. 

That just doesn't look like a 16yo Newgen to me. 

If his physicals look extreme, now let's look at him mentals. 

This just looks wrong. It's too good if anything. 

Now let's look at his technicals. 

They don't look quite as bad, (in a very very very very good way), but he's even got 14 for Long bloody throws. 

This bloke isn't just going to be good, he;s going to be Puskas, Maradonna, Messi & Ronaldo all rolled into one. 

I haven't even looked to see what personality this bloke is yet. If he's a Model Pro or something I think I may have to bang one out!  

Fairly Loyal Loy 15-20, Pro 1-14, Det 1-14, Amb 6-14

So while (F.Loyal) sounds good, and his visible determination is 13, his Pro levels are going to be maxed out at 14, (which isn't great). (I'm not asking much am I. I just don't want to screw this up and I'm very aware that I haven't managed to work out Tutoring/Mentoring yet).

Oh. I have just noticed that he is not actually top of the pile in terms of PA, so he won't be this season's Kriss.  (For an explanation of what a Kriss is, it is a nickname given to the best player rated by PA of each Youth Intake in memory of someone who used to post/Mod on these boards. It doesn't mean anything, it's just a term that I started using ages ago and has kinda stuck).

Ok. Time to calm down and do things properly now. 

What jumps out at me, other than (19b) González (F.Loyal)?

• As mentioned, he's not the best player rated by PA. On that note, I fully expect that to change over time. I think (19b) González (F.Loyal) will end up having the best PA of this group. 
• If I say that I have 2 very good players in this group, (17a) Aitor Rey (Det) (2019) * and (19b) González (F.Loyal), I need to see how injury prone they are likely to be. The 1st one is low and the 2nd is average, so no problems there. 
• We don't have any 2nd Nationalities, (other than Basque). In real life A.Bilbao have started bringing through some African players from their Academy, (Williams brothers for example), and I was hoping to see more of this. Actually, what I'm looking for is now classed as a 3rd Nationality so I might have missed it so let me go and check again.  No, there are no 3rd Nationalities. 
• There are 2 players with the same surname. Unfortunately there is nothing to suggest that (19g) Josu Goñi (Unamb) and (19h) Eduardo Goñi (Bal) are brothers. (Gutted). 
• We have a new personality in the game I think. (19n) Rubén Ruiz (Merc) has a Mercenary personality and that's not something I have ever seen before. 
• We have 4 players with (L.Det). (3, 2, 4 & 3). I really need to work out how tutoring/mentoring works, (which reminds me that I need to go and check up on the 2 groups that I created). 
• We are getting WB's come through the intake, so it will be interesting to look at the preferred formation of my HoYD, (I haven't even looked at him yet). 

This is my HoYD. (He has to go and go soon). 

How have I not checked him before now? Having said that, he has just delivered me one of the best individual players I have ever seen from any Youth Intake ever, (so perhaps I should leave as is. 

[Jimbokav1971]

 How much is he worth? A.Bilbao. Mar 2019.

(19b) González (F.Loyal) is immediately worth £475,000 after signing his Youth contract and still hasn't "popped" to 5.0 PA, (and possibly never will).

(17a) Aitor Rey (Det) (2019) * has also signed a Youth contract and is worth £250,000.

[Jimbokav1971]

How do you train tackling as an individual attribute? A.Bilbao. Mar 2019.

I've been looking at the Individual Training - Additional focus section and trying to work out how you train the tackling attribute, but I can't seem to find it. Does anyone know? It's not any of these. 

[King Cactus]

Haven't delved too far into training this year yet, and probably won't until I arrive at a team that is at least professional, but what a player Ander is - where do you see yourself utilising him?

[Jimbokav1971]

4 minutes ago, King Cactus said:

Haven't delved too far into training this year yet, and probably won't until I arrive at a team that is at least professional, but what a player Ander is - where do you see yourself utilising him?

He looks amazing. I'm just waiting for him to break a leg or be poached or something. 

I suppose to start off with I would look to play him on the right hand side. but if he's as good as I hope he is then maybe in an AP(a) role centrally. Alternatively, you can play an AP(a) role from out wide too so that might be the answer. He's not a winger I don't think, (or should I say not JUST a winger), so maybe playing from the AMR slot but as an AP(a), a Treq or even a Ramdeuter although I don't have much experience with them. 

He seems to be able to do everything except play as a TM at the moment. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Training and Mentoring. A.Bilbao. Mar 2019.

I've come to a bit of a halt after Youth Intake day because I don't want to screw things up. I have some light reading for you. 

In particular I'm going to quote the stuff that related to the questions I have asked. 

This is from @Seb Wassell via @herne79and isn't my work. I'm still reading it for the 1st time but it's just what I was looking for. 

Mentoring

Mentoring is how more influential players in the squad pass on their experience to younger players.
Mentoring allows the manager to group players together for the purpose of sharing Player Traits (PPMs) and passing on desirable (or undesirable) personality traits.
Players must be in the same squad to mentor one another and each group must consist of at least 3 players.
A good starting point is one experienced professional that is a social leader grouped with several younger up-and-coming players that play in a similar position.
It is also possible to set up a short period of one-on-one mentoring via the 'Welcome to club' interaction on signing a new player. This will invite a current player to mentor the new signing off the pitch for a short period of time and ease his transition into his new group of teammates. This affects personality and settling at the club only, no Player Traits (PPMs) are passed.

Individual Training

Individual training has moved in a more realistic direction.
Complimentary attributes are now grouped together, where it would be impossible to train one without influencing the other.
Some attributes are no longer available under individual training. This is because it is not realistic to be able to train these on a one-on-one basis. They are included in the team and unit training sessions however.
Goalkeepers have no Individual > Additional Focus. Instead they have their own bespoke training sessions available in the schedule.
Explanation on some of the attributes that are no longer available for individual training:

• Crossing - this is more dead-ball crossing, so Free Kicks and Corners. Open-play crossing is prevalent in quite a few of the team/unit training sessions.
• Dribbling - dribbling around cones in isolation isn't reflective of actual in-match dribbling and not something that is done in reality to improve dribbling.
• Tackling - this isn't the lack of another player to tackle but rather that tackling is something of an innate ability and not a skill that is directly improved with individual work. It is more a player's positioning, marking, decision making etc. that is worked on and improved one-on-one.

[rodesire]

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

We have a new personality in the game I think. (19n) Rubén Ruiz (Merc) has a Mercenary personality and that's not something I have ever seen before. 

That was introduced at least a couple FMs ago. Only applies to regens, obviously, I think it makes them want more money and have as little loyalty as possible. Maybe someone else has more info on that?

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, rodesire said:

That was introduced at least a couple FMs ago. Only applies to regens, obviously, I think it makes them want more money and have as little loyalty as possible. Maybe someone else has more info on that?

Cool. I have never seen it before. (At least I don't think I have). 

[Jimbokav1971]

How Many Players? A.Bilbao. Mar 2019.

I'm only full starting to appreciate what running a club like Athletic Bilbao involves, in comparison to the likes of HK in Iceland or Red Imps in Gibraltar. This is an enormous undertaking just to do the admin that I want/need to do. 

I've basically got too many players and because of that I'm spending valuable time on players that aren't worthy of my time. What I should have done is put a lot of the dross into the C Team and ignored them, and taken an interest in the B Team and U19's Team.

Senior squad, (ranked by PA). 34 players.

Please note that these are not all Senior Team regulars, but players have to be in the same squad for the purposes of tutoring for example.

B Team, (ranked by PA). 17 players. 

This squad has been significantly under-powered this season and as a result performances/results have not been good and we sit just above the relegation zone. I'm not going to start micro-managing them though. If we go down then my solution will be to develop better players for them. So far this season my focus has been all about the Senior Squad, and to that end although there has been a pathway from other squads, this pathway has not been through the B Team but direct to the Senior Squad. I will look to change that over time. 

The problem with that is that if we get relegated then we go into an unplayable league and when that happened to me with Partizan, they never came back up. 

C Team, (ranked by PA). 50 players. 

The C Team aren't in a playable league, so I'm nor sure how to utilise it really. I'm guessing that I have players in here who are too old for U19's but not good enough for B Team and who I can't get out on loan. Any suggestions here with regards to use of C Team in non-playable league?

U19's squad, (ranked by PA). 33 players. 

Not that it matters hugely, but we are currently in 2nd behind Real Sociedad aka Real San Sebastian. They are doing well anyway so no issues there. 

I think that gives me a total of 134 players at the club. 

[Jimbokav1971]

I always seem to have a drop in form after Youth Intake Day. A.Bilbao. Mar 2019.

I don't know if it's because my focus is taken away by the new Youth players, or even more basic that I just often throw them straight in at the deep end, but I've just picked our strongest possible side and still ended our unbeaten run. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Run over. A.Bilbao. Mar 2019.

Our GK missed a penalty with the score at 1-0, but I'm keeping the faith. We've had more than our fair share of luck and sooner or later someone was going to score 2 goals against us in a league game. It's almost a relief the run is over actually. 

We're in 3rd and more than doing ok, but you might notice the 5 green bars indicating R.Madrid form who are now level with us on points, while Barca are slowly clawing Atletic back at the top. To my mind, it's Levante who we are competing against for 4th because I don't think we can finish above any of the big boys. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Strange game. A.Bilbao. Apr 2019.

I suppose we were do at least one of these with the results we have had against the big boys. 

[BoxToBox]

14 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

(07) Mikel San José (F.Pro) is a 29yo DC/DM and while I didn't really want him to go, his age coupled with the decent fee involved suggested that I might be well served taking the cash and re-investing it in some young blood.

Jeebus... I wouldn't have sold San Jose for triple that...

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, BoxToBox said:

Jeebus... I wouldn't have sold San Jose for triple that...

The thing is, he was 29 and I was asking him to play in a very limited DM(a) role. I've worked out that I don't need a player with his ability in that DM(a) role and can get away with a far more limited player. 

At the moment we are very much a selling club and 29 years old is sort of the tipping point for me. 

We've got £26M in the transfer kitty, but we only have £16M in the bank and I don't want to have to worry about money and and and and I'm a little bit worried about the wages for such an enormous playing staff. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Finally some mentoring success. A.Bilbao. Apr 2019.

I wasn't sure this was working because I was looking for more immediate changes in terms of personality.

Maybe the changes have been more subtle, (and I now know where to look for the feedback to).

Player Development advice Summary - Player Personality Changes. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Debut. A.Bilbao. Apr 2019.

I couldn't throw (19b) González (F.Loyal) straight into the starting line-up because he took a knock, but a few weeks later and he is in. He started against Espanyol as we won 1-0 (another goal score by our GK), and he lasted an hour before he was subbed off. 

He completed 14 of 16 passes, (which is decent), won the only tackle he attempted and made an interception. It's a start, (literally).

 

[Jimbokav1971]

In it for the money. A. Bilbao. May 2019.

While the Big 2 obviously made big losses, this seasons big success was Atletico Madrid who actually made a transfer profit. We completely dominated things here thanks to some dubious dealings in the transfer market. Time will tell if this was sense or folly on my part. 

[Jimbokav1971]

It might have taken a while, but the fans are catching on. A.Bilbao. Apr 2019.

In other news...

And...

Deep down the fans are right though, and we all know it. #Boring 

[Jimbokav1971]

Relegation, (for the B Team). A. Bilbao. Apr 2019.

I'm not really sure what the long-term implications are here. Hopefully we will just get promoted again based on reputation and I can send the lads to a playable league again. 

We well and truly deserved to go down. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Goal #4 for the season for our GK. A.Bilbao. May 2019.

24yo GK (11) Álex Remiro (F.Det) has scored 2 free-kicks, (with a 3rd lost through a crash), as well as 2 of 4 penalties this season, (so he could easily have scored 7 this season).

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Finish. A.Bilbao. May 2019.

It would appear that (12) Asier Villalibre (Bal) has some sort of reputation, (at least within the FM Community), but with only a reasonable PA rating I haven't felt inclined to give him many opportunities. 3 goals in the last couple of months of the season didn't really make me doubt that decision. It could be that he plays a starring role next season though. 

(08) Iker Muniain (Bal) on the other hand spent much of the season either injured or more accurately recovering from injury. he scored 3 goals in the last month and he should be scoring at rate all through the season. he's a very good player and he is a sight to behold when in full flight with defenders backing off from him terrified of his pace and trickery. 

As already mentioned, (11) Álex Remiro (F.Det) notched his 4th goal of the season to win us the last game of the season. Only Aritz Aduriz (Perfect) with 10 goals, and (08) Iker Muniain (Bal) with 5 goals scored more. 

The final league table looks like this, meaning that we have qualified for the Champions League. It remains to be seen whether this was a good decision or whether I should have thrown some late season games to ensure qualification for the Europa League instead.

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season 2018/19.

Best XI.

Transfers.

Finances.

Confidence.

Best player at club, (rated by CA).

Under-soil heating.

Training Facilities downgraded.

Training Facilities upgraded again.

Junior Coaching budget increased to excellent, (which is level 17-19).

Youth Facilities upgraded. 

[zlatanera]

With regards to the C team - on my Bilbao saves (and my Sociedad saves, actually) I've always just dumped low PA youngsters in there to run out their youth contracts, particularly if they had terrible personalities and I didn't want to waste time tutoring them yet also didn't want to risk them rubbing off on the good ones. I'd probably double down on that logic now they removed tutoring though. If you want to go that way, I also sacked most of the staff - if there's any club legends down there I'd find them a new job, same if somehow there's an actual decent coach, but anyone else could go. 

Sucks about your B team getting relegated though - I hope they do come back up for you, but I remember in my FM17 save in Norway I had a squad good enough to win the top division as my u21s (We won back to back CLs early, everything got crazy, I had basically Czech Republic + Scandinavia u21s combined as my reserves as I had so much money) yet they didn't come back up into a playable league 8 seasons.

[King Cactus]

So what happened with Aduriz in the end? Did the extension get triggered?

[Bobby_Zamora]

Where's Aitor Rey?

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, King Cactus said:

So what happened with Aduriz in the end? Did the extension get triggered?

Well there are a few different questions to be asked with regards to Aritz Aduriz (Perfect).

Did he play the 25 games required to trigger the +1 year on his contract? Yes. He started 23 league games and came off the bench in 2 more, (so that#s 25 league games in his final season. 

He could still do a job for us next season, (although I would want toi see him from the bench rather than starting. 

It wasn't to be though and he decided that he wouldn't let something as silly as a signed contract get in the way of his dreams and he preferred to go and live in Italy for a while. 

That's fine I thought. He doesn't like me, (he REALLY doesn't like me), so let him go because I know just the replacement who is in a similar mould but a little but younger. 

This is what he did for us during his 1st stay.

He is going to be very much a sub rather than a starter, but I think he will be a really good fit. 

There was only 1 problem..... He said something along the lines of "the fans don't like me!". That seems a strange thing to say of someone who has scored 103 league goals in 311 games for them. Either way, Fernando Llorente would rather retire from playing football and become an unemployed HoYD, (and a runnish one at that), than sign again for us. 

So not only did I lose out on what I thought was a contracted player, but I lost out on his replacement too. 

 

[WillHoward42]

Following 

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, Bobby_Zamora said:

Where's Aitor Rey?

(19a) Aitor Rey (Det) (2019) * didn't feature in any of the senior games towards the end of the season. (08) Iker Muniain (Bal) is one of our best players and when he's fit he plays on the left flank. 

(19b) González (F.Loyal) on the other hand started  3 league games towards the end of the season but wasn't great in the first 2 and was ok in the 3rd.. Interestingly, his best performances have come for the (ESP) U21 side and in particular when he was played as a defensive winger, (which is an option I hadn't considered), although he also performed well as a DR for the U19's.

A.Bilbao. 

U19's.

Spain U21's.

[Jimbokav1971]

HoYD. A.Bilbao. Jul 2019.

I know that my HoYD seems to have played a blinder in bringing through at least 2 decent prospects in his 1st intake, but it wasn't enough to save him from the sack. I just didn't think he was good enough. 

There is some discussion as to what exactly makes a good HoYD in terms of attributes, (and I largely accept that), but at the same time there are some things that are known. 

1. The HoYD personality DOES play a part in influencing the personality of the players coming through, (or at least some of them). 
2. The preferred formation DOES play a part in the positions of players that he recruits.

If all things are equal, then binning my old HoYD off for a new HoYD with better attributes AND a better personality would seem to be win-win.

Although he's not Basque, (or Spanish for that matter), he is French at least and they can theoretically be Basque so that fits with the overall direction of the save. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad management. A.Bilbao. Jul 2019.

I'm very aware that we had 134 players t the club even before the Youth Intake and I'm trying to trim the numbers at least to a more manageable number and get a grip on who is at the club and what level they are at and importantly what my plans are for them for the future. 

With that in mind I have been, (slowly, really slowly), going through each and every player at the club and deciding are they going to be making an impact on the Senior squad in the coming year. What I don't like about Spain is that there are only 23 outfield slots in the Senior Squad available, although U19 players don't need to be registered. With that in mind I need to be quite firm about some players. An added consideration is that because the B Team were relegated last season, (I'm hopeful that they will come straight back but it is by no means guaranteed), I'm not going to have the same level of control over them playing games in an active league that I might have had. 

With regards to "What makes a Bilbao player?" and the "Club DNA that many go on about", the reality is that I don't really know. I know what I want it to be, (at least the basis of it, but we are a long way away from that. 

What makes a Bilbao player. 

• Professional personality.
• Basque (obviously).
• Under 30 years old, (I will look to generally sell players on or before 29 years old, although there will be exceptions to the rule).
• Determined (the jury is still out for me with regards to the benefits of Det in player development, but even ignoring that, there are significant on-pitch benefits).
• Low Injury susceptibility. I am going to weed out those players who have higher than above average injury susceptibility and I'm even going to try and do away with above average too. 
• Preference will be given to Academy products
• Workrate. I'm not sure what tipping point I'm going to use, but I'm thinking something like 15 for a senior player. 

It's taking me a LONG time to go through all this, and unfortunately I'm busy at the moment so not getting as much time to play as I would like. (Close season has taken an age).

[MadCatPT]

13 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

(19a) Aitor Rey (Det) (2019) * didn't feature in any of the senior games towards the end of the season. (08) Iker Muniain (Bal) is one of our best players and when he's fit he plays on the left flank. 

(19b) González (F.Loyal) on the other hand started  3 league games towards the end of the season but wasn't great in the first 2 and was ok in the 3rd.. Interestingly, his best performances have come for the (ESP) U21 side and in particular when he was played as a defensive winger, (which is an option I hadn't considered), although he also performed well as a DR for the U19's.

A.Bilbao. 

U19's.

Spain U21's.

The player position there is a nice touch, nice to see if you move a player around where his best performances where.

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, MadCatPT said:

The player position there is a nice touch, nice to see if you move a player around where his best performances where.

It is isn't it? 

The reason I posted those was that it was something I hadn't actually considered until I saw it, despite posting in here about my own thoughts about where he might best be suited to playing. 

I also think that I selected him to play at least 1 game at AMR AP(s).

In fact, when I have checked, the personal tactical instructions that have been saved for (19b) González (F.Loyal) in the AMR slot are as follows.

So I was actually asking him to play in an AP(a) role, but my Ass Man was over-ruling me and was playing him in a W(s) role with is the pre-set. I might have to change the pre-set in future and see how that works. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Big bid. A.Bilbao. 8th Aug 2019.

I fully appreciate that we are still a selling club to a certain extent, but there is a difference between selling ageing players and selling your current stars. It's great that Barca are in for him. It means both he and I are doing something right, but there is no way I'm accepting this offer. What I'm also going to be doing is working out a way to give him the ball more in attacking areas. There has got to be a way to use that pace better than I did in Season 1. 

His physicals are excellent, even if his technicals are a little lacking. 

 

[ElCuriosoJr]

First of all. Great lecture. Thank you for that. 

 

Second. I don't know if you already mentioned it above. I didn't find it. I've seen that you play with a 4-1-2-2-1 (4-3-3 DM). What are the roles of your midfielders?

I started a save with Atl. Bilbao too, but I struggle a bit. Can't find the right pairings in the midfield. After 12 games we are in 12th position, last in average possession (45%), last in pass completation ratio (74%), last in cross completation ratio (8%). So I'm really curios how are this stats in your save. 

 

Keep up your work. 

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, ElCuriosoJr said:

First of all. Great lecture. Thank you for that. 

 

Second. I don't know if you already mentioned it above. I didn't find it. I've seen that you play with a 4-1-2-2-1 (4-3-3 DM). What are the roles of your midfielders?

I started a save with Atl. Bilbao too, but I struggle a bit. Can't find the right pairings in the midfield. After 12 games we are in 12th position, last in average possession (45%), last in pass completation ratio (74%), last in cross completation ratio (8%). So I'm really curios how are this stats in your save. 

 

Keep up your work. 

Thanks. 

With regards to the roles, they are not static and change depending on what players I have playing. 

The general tactic is as follows though. 

It's a work in progress though as while I think we are decent defensively, I don't think I am getting the most out of the team going forward. I have previously enjoyed playing with a RGA(s) in the DM slot and might look to use that again, but I want to try something new and particularly wanted to try an A(d) or a HB(d) in this save. 

Going forward though, I don't think I am getting nearly enough out of Iñaki Williams (F.Det) and in particular his athletic ability. 

[Edit]

What I would really like to do is play with a 3 at the back, WB's and someone in the AP slot in a role that I am not familiar with, (such as SS(a) or maybe even an ageing EG(s) role). I know about AP's and not overly keen on a Treq, (although again that would be new to me so maybe). I just want to do things differently, but at the same time I want our ficus to be on not conceding goals rather than scoring one more than the opposition.

[Jimbokav1971]

New Start. August 2019.

We came up against Barca in the 1st league game and we were nowhere near as competitive as we were against the big boys last season however a decent performance against S.Gijon got us up and running. A major goal this season is to be more attacking and especially get more out of our attacking wide players. Williams (F.Det) started well with a goal and an assist in a MOM performance, but (08) Iker Muniain (Bal) wasn't great on the other side which is something I will have to keep an eye on. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apologies, but I'm just not feeling this save for some reason. I don't know if it is because I have started off at too big a club or what, but there is something missing and it's spoiling my enjoyment of the game. I'm going to try and get into another save. 

[BoxToBox]

On 22/10/2018 at 15:31, Jimbokav1971 said:

There was only 1 problem..... He said something along the lines of "the fans don't like me!". That seems a strange thing to say of someone who has scored 103 league goals in 311 games for them. Either way, Fernando Llorente would rather retire from playing football and become an unemployed HoYD, (and a runnish one at that), than sign again for us. 

Oh yeah, Bilbao fans despise Llorente, very messy separation.

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Oh yeah, Bilbao fans despise Llorente, very messy separation.

I guessed as much when I saw that he left on a free. 

[Edit]

Brilliant that it's in the game though. 

[withnail316]

8 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Apologies, but I'm just not feeling this save for some reason. I don't know if it is because I have started off at too big a club or what, but there is something missing and it's spoiling my enjoyment of the game. I'm going to try and get into another save. 

No point plodding on for the sake of it. Good luck with your new game.

[Jimbokav1971]

I think what happened here is that I was so keen to start a long-term save, that I forgot what the demo was all about. Learning. 

I don't know how to tutor players effectively and I need to learn stuff like that before I delve into my main game. 

So with that in mind I have taken over the team I support in real life, and rather than playing properly I am going to learn a little about the game. 

First up is Tutoring/Mentoring, whatever it is called now. 

Tutoring/Mentoring. 

I have 23 players in the Senior squad, but the way that FM works is that many low rep players just have random personalities, (actually, random isn't quite right), let's call them base-line personalities set. The game is saying we don't haven't got enough info, don't really know, not really sure, so we are going to group all under a standard personality. 

The players at the club that aren't (Balanced), are as follows. 

At first glance this doesn't look great, especially when I need a minimum of 3 players to go in a Tutoring/mentoring group, (but more about that in a minute). 

What we do have however is 2 mentions of Professionalism, or (Pro) as I call it. 

GK Cousins (Pro) has a (Pro) personality, and full back Cheye (F.Pro) has a (F.Pro) personality. 

Still using Cleon's old Ajax thread, (which I will post in a minute), the attributes for these 2 personalities are, (or at least were), as follows. (Please note that there is a slight variance between how real players and Newgens are calculated, so if you see me using different templates at time progresses, that's why. 

The only thing I care about in this instance is the (Pro) level of each player, because that's largely what I'm interested in, but I have to at least keep an eye on the Determination (Det) levels. I don't want to spend time boosting a players (Pro), but at the same time decimate his (Det).

So what I know is that Cousins (Pro) has a (Pro) level of 18-19 and his (Det) is 17. That's excellent. I don't like him as a player, but there is nothing wrong with him as a tutor. 

Cheye (F.Pro) has a (Pro) level of 15-20 and his (Det) is 9. The (Pro) level is still really good, but while the (Det) is a little low, let's hope that it will be off-set by the high score from Cousins (Pro)

In previous FM's you used to just tutor 1 player with another player, but you also couldn't be a tutor if you were under 24 years old unless you were also the club captain. Now though it's different. (Cheye) (F.Pro) is only 23 and isn't the club captain, (I haven't set a captain yet but let's just assume that it won't be him). 

How it woks now is that you create a Tutoring Group, (that must contain 3 players), and these 3, (or more players), "learn from eachother". Well that's a little general so let's try and break it down. 

I've created a Group and I have called it "Pro" because in this instance, that's what I am trying to improve in other players. I have added both these players to the group as follows. 

I need to add at least 1 more player, (because remember it says that "A group must contain at least three players to start working together".

What's not ideal in this instance is that both players mentioned are recent signings and are in the "Other Players" social group. That's not ideal at all because, (and I'm completely guessing here), they will be less effective as tutors than they might be if for example they were Team Leaders or Highly Influential. This is all we have got in the (Pro) area though so we are sort of stuck with it and have to make the best of it. 

One thing that isn't mentioned on this screen, (to my surprise) is player position. Cousins (Pro) is a GK for example. Is he going to be adept at influencing a striker for example. The truth is I don't know. 

So I need a player to add to this group and I am going to pick a player who is already determined and who I want to become more professional. (Actually we have some really low levels of (Det) in the squad so the best candidate in this instance is Jack (Bal) who had a (Det) attribute of 9. The way I see it his (Det) attribute is already as good as that of Cheye (F.Pro) and still way short of that of Cousins (Pro), so he (Det) should still be influenced positively while his (Pro) should definitely be influenced positively. 

This means that the group now looks like this.

In this instance, while I am completely making this up as I go, the 2 senior players have an Average influence over the group and this is more than the Light influence exerted by youngster Jack (Bal). With the limitations that I have available, this would seem to be pretty reaonable. 

What I'm going to do now is create a 2nd group, and this time label is (Det). and I'm going to use Reynolds (F.Sport) and Boucaud (TRI) (F.Amb) (who have (Det) levels of 14 and 12 respectively to form the basis of the group, that I am then going to add Wes (Bal) to. He only has  a (Det) attribute of 3, and my hope is that the more determined players in the group rub off on him. 

Something that I like doing is asking the Ass Man what he would do when the option presents itself. 

If I press this button, then the Ass Man completely deletes and ignores all the Groups that I have created and instead comes up with this. 

Let's have a look and see if we can work out what he is doing and why. 

Now he has gone for 2 groups, (just as I had planned to do), but of course he hasn't named them so it's not as easy to identify his strategy. I have ranked the players by "Estimated Influence on Group" which is over there on the right hand side and the reason I have done so is because it's the only column that is new. I knew all the players names before and their hierarchy and which social group they were in together with their age and their personality, but what I didn't know was their "estimated influence on group". 

If that's new information, then it's not there by accident. The SI guys have put it there for a reason. At first glance you would think that it's obvious and just relates to Hierarchy, but actually if you look at Cheye (F.Pro) for example, he is only in the "Other Players" hierarchy tier, but has the same "estimated influence on group" as Reynolds (F.Sport), who is a Highly Influential Player. I think that's interesting. What is it about (Cheye) (F.Pro) that makes him more influential that might otherwise be expected based on his hierarchy position and his social group? 

In any case, I have over-ruled the Ass Man in this instance and reverted to my 2 Groups and we will see how things progress. We receive an update in the training feedback, (not sure of the exact title but I will show you when it arrives), and this will hopefully indicate if this is working or not. 

The Cleon thread I mentioned is his Ajax thread. It's an old one, (from FM14), and while some of the personality attribute templates are out of date, it's still an absolutely phenomenal thread.

 

[Toffle]

Il y a 9 heures, Jimbokav1971 a dit :

Apologies, but I'm just not feeling this save for some reason. I don't know if it is because I have started off at too big a club or what, but there is something missing and it's spoiling my enjoyment of the game. I'm going to try and get into another save. 

HK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFLhGq0060w

[Jimbokav1971]

Tutoring/Mentoring Jul 2018.

Training Advice Summary. 

There hasn't been any feedback yet in terms of the success of the mentoring groups that I set up, but the Ass Man is suggesting new players to add to the existing groups. I'm not going to do this because I want to stick with what we have for a while. 

[Jimbokav1971]

August 2019.

score

A bit of a mixed bag in our 1st month of competitive football. We spanked 5 past the opposition twice, but these were the only games we won. 

Shaq (Bal) * scored 2 hat-tricks, (the 2nd from the bench), as he scored 8 goals in all during August. 

GK Cousins (Pro) scored twice, (both penalties), but also missed a penalty. 

We only kept 1 clean sheet and we especially seem poor defending set pieces. 

Our 2nd month was less pleasing on the eye, but we won 50% of our games compared to 25% in our 1st month. We kept 2 clean sheets this month, but we are still susceptible to set-piece goals. We have conceded 5 penalties in 14 games so far. 

September.

[Jimbokav1971]

Goal-scoring GK watch.

Cousins (Pro) scored his 4 goal of the season.