[FM19] Not all that glitters is gold.

[_Ben_]

2034 Youth Intake

Yeah, that experiment didn't work...

 

[_Ben_]

Player Development - Cristian Medina

Cristian signed on the 27th July 2033 and with the date, in game, now being 25th March 2034 - my development plan takes a much shorter time span than most, just eight months. However, when Medina signed, he was a central midfielder and occasional left back. Here he is now:

A few of his attributes dropped when he began training as a centre back - finishing, long shots and crossing, for example - but I feel that this may be due to the 're-allocation' of important attributes based on CA for his designated role. That is minute compared with the gains he has made! He dropped a point in Determination, as have most of my squad sadly, but the general personality had a great impact on him and that tipped him from Pro to M.Citizen - the best (in my opinion) personality you can have as a footballer. In the eight months since he has signed, he has gained 1 point on his workrate and has made 'slight' positive changes overall to technical, mental and physical attributes but the main difference is that he has gone from ineffectual to accomplished at CB in that time, whilst being trained as a Libero. He has yet to 'perfect' that role (and by that, I mean reach natural, move to fluid on the tactics screen and fill the circle in green) but that, alone, is phenomenal. He has also learnt the 'brings ball out of defence' trait which is the first time I've ever had success with that. Watching him in game is a fantastic thing and he's fast becoming my (joint) favourite player (can't disregard Folha that quickly!)

[_Ben_]

March 2034

A little stutter with two draws against weaker teams but we are hot on the tails on Benfica, even if Porto are probably out of sight right now. I think, catastrophe aside, we have locked up third place and a return to Champions League football next year - plus, we also face Lazio in the Quarter Final on the Europa League after a decent win over Bilbao. Sadly, we have been proven as still a selling team as winger Mendoza has had his release clause of £30m activated by Inter. He'll move on in the summer and I really want to replace him from within - as we've lost our way somewhat with bringing players through and have, on paper, the weakest U19 side in the past ten years.

[_Ben_]

April 2034

The month started with an absolute pasting in Rome - where I really underestimated the quality of Lazio. They currently sit third in Serie A, just five points behind big dogs Inter and have some quality players. Unfortunately, our run ended as we could only muster a draw in the home leg. Aside from that - we've had a fantastic month, topped off with a great win over Benfica that has been us all but tie up 2nd place (it is on head to head and we have the better and our goal difference in significantly better, too). We also face Braga in the Taca de Portugal final.

[higgins]

Wow! Great run so far, maybe a little recap at the top of the thread could help a bit new readers like me 

[Mandy42]

breaking into the top 2! getting there  

[_Ben_]

End of 2033/34 Season Review

Despite a resounding 5-0 win over Portimonense and a 1-0 win away at Braga, we couldn't secure the title due to Porto just being too good. However, a tally of 84 points would have won the league in 11 out of the 16 seasons that this game has been running for. Once again, we were the record scorers, notching 85 times this year and Andre Folha winning another top goalscorer award, his third in four seasons. What we did this year though is reduce our goals conceded, from 36 to a mere 19 - just one more than Champions Porto let in. 2 defeats, a 0-2 at home to Benfica and a 1-2 at home to Guimaraes blotted our copy book, with Porto only losing once, to Benfica. One win in six has put Diego Costa's job at Benfica under pressure, with them falling behind Sporting who will have a chance at qualifying for the Champions League. Rio Ave started really well but faded a little at the end but certainly have enough about them to be perennial contenders.

The squad performances have been pretty fantastic, as you'd expect from a team with deep runs into cup competitions and a great offensive record:

Once again, rotation has been the key to keep this group of players fit and I have tried to share out the minutes wherever possible. Mendoza will be a huge miss as he moves on to Inter this summer but I do have plans afoot for this and Pedro Tinoco, the opposite-side winger, was the highest AR in the whole league. Raposo is giving me a headache as his continually good performances (and the fact that he is left footed) makes it hard for me to drop Medina, who is becoming the complete package. 'Midfield orchestrator' Valderrama seems to be in and out of form, leading to a relatively low AR but, when he is on form, is a joy to watch. Plenty of minutes for youngsters Marques, Silva and Furtado as they continue their development into the first team.

I have no spending plans for the summer but one game-play move which may allay some fears I have over the perceived potential of this team.

 

[_Ben_]

3 hours ago, higgins said:

Wow! Great run so far, maybe a little recap at the top of the thread could help a bit new readers like me 

 

2 hours ago, Mandy42 said:

breaking into the top 2! getting there  

Thanks both! 9 seasons now in the top flight but we are getting closer!

[_Ben_]

Developing the next generation of (probably average) Beira Mar players

I want to make a small game play change that will help me in the long run of this save. We are at a point where, compared to the rest of the league, we have a very very good set of players. This, annoyingly for me, has a knock on effect on the star ratings of my players. Whilst I don't pay a huge amount of attention to them - they do catch my eye and, to be honest, I do base a lot of judgement on these stars, which can be a hindrance. Take Andre Folha, for example:

He is the best striker at my club and, whilst I am under no illusions about him being world class, is very good - 196 goals in 341 games in the top flight of a decent league shows that. However, my staff rate him at just 3* - because I have stronger players elsewhere in the team. I don't mind that rating but he is my key starter, and I dislike the fact that he's only classed as 'good' by them. Therefore, my plan is to remove the stars from every screen (profile/comparison/coach report/team depth) etc and look at other things:

These dark green pros immediately make that look better, and, when I add in the others below (likes big matches, consistent, fairly pro etc) I am reading about a top player who is perfectly suited to the job at hand, rather than just a good player in my team. Again - the stars are just an 'indication' but I can't help but feel that they don't fully represent the big picture, nor do they take into account what I see on the pitch - and that is a top quality striker who not only can do it in the league, but has scored 42 times in 6 European seasons - meaning he can do it on the big stage too.

This will obviously have a knock on effect, and one that I want to focus on for the future of my team. I feel that I have lost a grip on bringing through academy players - 8 of my first team are products of the academy but only one third of those under 21 in my first team have come from the academy. I know that I cannot produce stars year after year but I feel that the coach reports are making me write off prospects immediately. Take Elson Paulo, below:

According to the star rating system - he has 2* CA and 2(+1 black)* PA - meaning that he's never going to be a great player. Normally, I would think that there is little point pursuing his development as he'll never be as good as what I have in the first team but, when looking at his coach report, you can see that there is hope. Only one more star of (possible) potential but could improve 'a lot' - I know what I would believe, from an optimistic viewpoint. Despite being 2* CA, he's already reasonably well suited to the top tier of football, and has scored twice in his three appearances in the league to date - so needs time off the bench. He's consistent, which means I won't have the issues of youngsters getting an 8.0 one game and a 6.3 the next and, with some work on some of his attributes, could be a solid player. He's got two years left on his deal and, previously, I may have sent him on loan and just let it run down, knowing that his star rating means he won't really ever be good enough. Now - I'm looking at his attributes (specifically those for my DNA) and, whilst he lacks work rate and some strength, could be a decent winger for my system with the correct training regime. He'll move from the standard Winger (s) routine to a WTM because that trains more of his weaker attributes and I'll look at adding traits to get the best of his game as an agile, small and reasonably pacy winger - maybe even moving him to the left as an inside forward.

My aim always has been to develop players for my first team and, if they don't reach that level, ensure that they can continue their development at other professional clubs. I shortlist all ex-academy players who move on, as seen below:

There are several more who are below these players and, if I'm honest, this list should be significantly bigger and include a lot more players playing at a higher level. That is my aim from now on.

[Mandy42]

interesting, I will be keeping an eye on this as I must admit that star potential is a huge part of how I process players at U18 and U23 level

[_Ben_]

New Signing - Claudio Santos

Despite making a concerted approach at developing the youth at the club, I have made a signing of an aging player who wasn't from our youth academy. However, as seen by the biography of Claudio - he is not only an asset because he is a good player (I haven't got round to deleting stars from everywhere and he is actually only a 2.5* rated player) but has the experience that we are really missing. He becomes the eldest player by a huge eight years but the personal and team accolades as well as playing for a very strong Atletico team, scoring 134 league goals, brings something to the squad that we don't have. Even excluding the star rating system, we are quite short of attacking players and some depth was necessary.

He'll more than likely play the 5 matches needed to extend his deal for another year but that is fine. I had a similar situation when I signed an aging Gabriel Jesus, but his attributes literally fell off a cliff - I am hoping that this ends differently.

----

I've signed a couple of youngsters, too, but that is probably the end of my dealings this summer as I look to work with what I have got.

[_Ben_]

Squad Depth

As I look to move forward with a squad (and not just a team) that can challenge for the league and, in future, European competitions, I need to keep an eye on the next four to five years. With the removal of the rating system, I'm looking at attributes more in depth, coach reports and actual performances on the pitch. Below are my three squads, and I'll write a bit about each one...

First Team

This is a strong squad. Of the 20 players, there is a good mix of youthful players, but those are relatively experienced (see G.Marques with 105 appearances by 18, A.Braz with 228 by 21) and some homegrown players who are entering the main years of their careers and are good first team/rotational options, such as Folha, Raposo, Bolas and Vieira. I have only one change that I would like to make to this squad - that is to find a left and right winger who can come in on loan for a year whilst Elson Paulo gets some more experience. He's good enough for this league so I would like to send him to another Primeira Liga side and hope he develops well.

Reserve (Under 23) team

This is where some of my concerns begin. Firstly - lets look at DNA attributes, alone. Out of this group of players - Andre Hugo, Cristian Luque and Vitor Rodriguez are probably the standout players, in terms of having the core group of attributes that are beneficial to our style of play. Hugo is somewhat of the odd one of this group - coaches say he's ready and good enough for this league even if he's not yet consistent and has just completed a loan at Braga, playing 24 games in this league with an AR of 6.79. His route to the first team though is blocked - Diogo Marques broke the record for highest AR in my team last year and Juan Ramirez's stock is rising as he was just named Young Player of the Tournament at the 2034 World Cup. Hugo is ready but will need loan time, again, to prove he can surpass one of those two. Both Luque and Rodriguez were part of a (short lived) attempt to recruit S.American's from amateur American sides - and they are both highly experienced in first team football - but all of that is at a poor level (IMG Academy and NRYB U23 sides, respectively).

This brings me to my next thought - if you've played that many senior games and, in Rodriguez's case, have won international caps, you shouldn't still be in the Under 23 squad of a team who aren't even the best in their league which isn't even the best in Europe. A huge group of players, Diaz, Francivaldo, Pahiama, Torres, Sotelo, Marcos and Torres  all fit into this category. They've played first team football but have returned in a position still not good enough for the first team so, realistically, need to be moved on. This process will take a few years as, ideally, I want a path that stems from youth development to one or two years out on loan and then straight into the first team.

Youngsters Fernando, Agostinho and, to some extent, Hugo Silva, will be the first of the 'new wave' whereby I will develop them as much as I can and then choose to loan them 'if' I feel that this will lead to a chance of them returning to the first team. Loan deals for a majority of the others are being negotiated as a) a last chance saloon and b) getting their name into the shop window to move on but hopefully remain in the upper echelons of Portuguese football.

Under 19s

I have written this lot off previous to this season but I am now planning to do my best with them and ensure that at least 75% of these remain in football at a decent level. I will be doing the majority of my 'changing' at this level - for example Rodrigues is being transformed into a tenacious midfielder as he's brave and works hard but not tall enough to be a centre half. Then I have prospects such as Carvalheira and new signing Guedes (he cost £300k from Penafiel) who I hope have enough potential to become reasonably rounded in the next couple of years.

With us securing a second placed finish, these kids will be playing in the Youth Champions League so it brings a great chance to play at the highest youth level and hopefully grow. Overall, I need to work on the very poor personalities but, with the way mentoring works, I don't want to move these to the first team as it removes from developing with their own group of team mates. I want to see how well the likes of Guedes (RES) and Carneiro (PRO) can rub off on the others in the squad.

[_Ben_]

Outgoing Transfer

On deadline day, too...

[_Ben_]

Depth Issues

The above forced sale of Ramirez came from nowhere - his minimum release clause that he insisted on signing expired at the end of the August 2034 transfer window. Guess when the deal came in? The last minutes of the August transfer window. This has given me no chance to replace him and, with the minimum 28 day spell that a loan can run, I cannot terminate Andre Hugo's deal to get him  back in time for the registration window and I sold off my other full back due to the perceived level of depth we had.

Step forward new project - Fabio Maciel.


He's pretty poor. But he's all we have. However - he now becomes my main project this season - what can I get from him and is there a need to rush out and buy a full back. With stars showing - I reckon he'd be about 1.5* CA - significantly below my first choice right back, Diogo Marques. Let's look at what he does have going for him:

He's consistent - he may be consistently below the level we need right now, but there will be nothing to worry about there. He is brave - that's not a key facet of our game but his bravery and decent decision making means that, despite poor-ish tackling and reasonable positioning, he'll get stuck in when needed. He can improve a lot in the future and already has improved - this, to me is significant, considering his awful personality. This tells me that there is potential there and, if I can get the mentoring right, can unlock a lot more in him. I was initially training him as a left back for some extra versatility but will re-focus that to solely a right back now he'll be playing first team football there. 

Looking at some of the other key defensive attributes, I can compare them to the rest of the defenders in the league:

Marking - 10.  Team Average - 12.78. League Average  - 12.15

Positioning - 11. Team Average - 13.44. League Average - 12.89

Decisions - 13. Team Average - 15.11. League Average - 13.8

Crossing - 8. Team Average - 8.78. League Average - 6.76

Concentration - 10. Team Average - 13.11. League Average - 12.72

This does include central defenders, and, to be fair, I have cherry-picked these attributes to compare somewhat. Again - looking at those attributes, there are several 8s and 9s that always 'look' better in double figures. He doesn't appear to be too bad for his age.

I don't mind his trait, at all, and has the decisions, stamina and positioning at a reasonable level to get back into position if he loses the ball and I may consider getting him to play simple passes - a) to hide his poor passing and b) to move the ball on to either Medina or the midfielders.

Below are his weaknesses:



Aside from his personality, which I hope can be resolved in a mentoring group with Medina (M.Citizen and 17 DET) and Santos (Pro and 20 DET) there are issues with his heading. In comparison with my full backs - he averages 6.5 in the heading (Heading and Jumping Reach) whereas outgoing full back Ramirez averages 9.5, Xuxa 13.5 and Almeida 5 - so, whilst he is below Xuxa, who has an abnormally good jumping reach, he isn't too far behind the others.

The big problem here is that his current ability is perceived to only be good enough for the third tier. I will counter that by saying that he was a top performer in the youth sides last year, as seen below:



This tells me that he deserves a chance in the first team. He'll play in the easier games and cup games but, with the amount of rotation needed and the busy jobs my full backs have - I need to trust him. From the above, I take about four or five positives (potential wise, anyway) and only the one negative. I'll have to box clever for the first few months with him in the team - but hopefully I can polish myself a diamond here!

[Mandy42]

I hope he's a diamond, because any way you polish it a turd will remain a turd 

[Deisler26]

I don't like his work-rate as a full-back tbh, or his acceleration

[_Ben_]

9 hours ago, Mandy42 said:

I hope he's a diamond, because any way you polish it a turd will remain a turd 

 

9 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

I don't like his work-rate as a full-back tbh, or his acceleration

To be honest, both, I don't really like him either. He's pretty poor now and the only 'saving grace/looking optimistically' is that those attributes you've mentioned @Deisler26 (which I 100% agree on) are not that much lower than the rest! I'm in the market for a new right back but I want to see what I can get from a player that I, and seemingly everyone else, would immediately write off!

[_Ben_]

August and September 2034

First blood to Beira Mar. With the manager merry go round of Espirito Santo from Porto -> Spurs, Tuchel from Spurs -> Man City and Ancelotti from Man City to retirement,I wanted to get one over on new Porto boss, Taulant Xhaka. Taulant  comes in from German side Hannover but I have a 100% record against him from his time at Braga - a 9 month spell in 2033 (although we only faced off once and I won 5-3). He favours an attacking 4-2-3-1 but doesn't press much - and my use of as many deeper lying play makers as possible really paid off as we dominated the game, particularly after they were reduced to 10 men in the 27th minute. Somehow, we outshot them 42-13 with 13 on target to their 3 and 57% of the possession - although the majority of this was deeper, with right back (at the time) Ramirez completing 105 passes and the two central midfielders with a combined 190. It somehow went to penalties with two fortuitous goals but we held our nerve to win the Supertaca for the first time in our history.

The rest of the two months has been very promising - I have afforded young players game time and Elson Paulo, in particular, is impressing - he leads the scoring chart so far with 5 league goals and is using an injury to first choice Tinoco to put pressure on his place. I want to look at his development though, so will do that in a future post.

My only concern is our form in our return to Champions League duty. A draw of Man City, Marseille and Olympiakos made me feel confident about second but we were wasteful in France and deserved to lose. It'll be a tough task to outscore them at home and hopefully see them slip up against sides we can beat.

[_Ben_]

Elson Paulo - Development

Above, we have a solid Primera Liga level winger who has now broken into my first team due to some injuries but has played well and, as mentioned, leads the scoring charts as we enter October. I, however, am not sure of where I see his best role and position. I'm going to go for my usual thinking-out-loud kind of approach to work it out - either considering a pro for one position or a con, meaning it's a pro for the other. Firstly, here are his performances this season:

2

Pros of IF(a) in the AML role:

1. Good finisher

2. Good Decision making means he'll end up choosing the right option to shoot or run, and he is fast and can dribble well.

3. Reasonably well composed, which when faced with being in the penalty area will help.

4. Low concentration - but he won't need to track back or defend.

5. Low work rate - I employ a high line of engagement so this will be negative everywhere but in his role - it's a pick the ball up and run with it rather than a cross or a pass if he was a winger.

6. Passing is relatively poor - he won't need to make more than a 5/10 yard pass.

7. Tackling is poor and on support duty he'll need to muck in when we are under the cosh.

Pros of W(s) in the AMR role:

1. He can run and dribble well and his crossing is decent.

2. He's small so won't be on the end of far post headers - a move I use for the AML slot.

3. Decent vision so can pick the cross or space ahead of him to exploit.

4. Poor concentration - could be a liability in from of goal.

5. Is natural in the AMR position so training would only focus on developing attributes and not positional knowledge.

6. Has played much better at AMR this season, even against bigger teams.

[_Ben_]

October 2034

A strange month - we have either been really good really bad! Awful against Maritimo, scraping a draw against Rio Ave after being two down at half time and somehow clinging to a draw against Man City despite scoring all of our shots on target and then having thirty plus at ours. On the other hand - we dominated Olympiakos, Oliveirnese and Leixoes but, then again, we should. We play Porto next month and I don't want us to lose ground in the early title race.

On that screenshot, you can't see giants Sporting Lisbon - they current reside in 17th under new manager Diogo Colho (who they poached from Portugal following the World Cup) and are not in great form...

[_Ben_]

Speed Issues

I know that I am now playing the game in far more depth than before but I am conscious that the game in slowing down (I was in 2030 in the second week of December but has since taken me two and a half months to play four seasons) and this is largely due to the extended processing times. This is my current set up:

I want to keep all of Portugal, for obvious reasons and have the big 5 in Europe for realism in club competitions. Argentina and Brazil were added as natural player movements for youngsters but then I added USA as part of the plan to sign amateurs, which has now slowed down to pretty much zero. I then added Chile and Colombia due to the quality of youngsters I was finding there and have since added South Korea as I have chosen Seoul as my feeder and wanted to see the impact that this might have on getting good newgens from there.

I am looking at moving back to a more youth-centred approach so I am strongly considering removing the South American nations plus the USA and South Korea, as I will just take the 1 or 2 youngsters than come through from a feeder every few years rather than make a point to sign any.

Hopefully this will speed things up!

[_Ben_]

November 2034

A poor month, to be fair, where we are really struggling with our Champions League hangover - something that didn't happen last year even playing a day later in the Europa League. A loss to Braga has seen us lose as many times in ten games this season as we did all of last season. A great win over Man City - a real back-to-the-wall performance at the end - sees us top our group with 10 points from 5 games. Man City also have 10 and Marseille 9, with Olympiakos out on 0. I can't foresee a way that we can go out in this situation as we face Olympiakos in the last game but we haven't 'mathematically' qualified.

[_Ben_]

December 2034

A perfect month - probably the first time I have achieved this, when playing more than two or three fixtures, in this save. We haven't always been at our best - we laboured past Pacos and second tier Carregado gave us more issues than they should have done, but we took the points and the progress and moved on. Elson Paulo has particularly impressed this season as he has made the move into the first team but I have also had to introduce youngster Andre Agostinho to the fold to deal with some injuries and he has impressed me. If his mentoring goes well and his unambitious personality can be turned around - I might be able to do something with this average attributes and turn him into someone that could do a job at this level, full time (although not necessarily for me).

Furthermore - my loans are nearing their half way point:

There are very few players here who I feel would be able to come back into the team at this point so the second half of the season will be key to decide whether they will be staying with me or moving on. Rodriguez, Francivaldo and Sergio Martins all have deals that expire at the end of the season so they are playing for their future in the game, too.

[_Ben_]

January 2035

A couple of hiccups here but we have put ourselves into a really strong position going into the second half of the season. A fantastic win over Sporting who, despite a resurgence under new boss, are still battle worn and may even struggle to make Europe, kicked off the month. We then had Andre Folha, now with 220 goals in 370 games, to thank for victories over Camacha and Portimonense before a dour draw at home to Chaves. Making the Taca da Liga final only added another game to our schedule but we weren't great and probably deserved nothing against Benfica.

A few years back, I handed a lot of things over to my DoF and HoYD - well they have been busy this transfer window, with four new faces coming in. I am excited by all of them -

Miranda and Bras were both signed on pre contracts, but, given the want to develop them, I paid the £10k and £95k respectively, to push through the transfers now. Miranda becomes the second centre half signed from Penafiel this year and he compliments Guedes well. I am training him as a Libero for now as I quite like his potential as a ball player. Franco cost £80k from Casa Pia of the third tier and his first job is to develop his weaker foot. He's well rounded and is training as a RPM.  Luis Gomes looks a good technical number 10 but needs to work on his personality and Bras is someone I've been following myself for a few years - I like a winger who works hard. He's in the first team which now gives me a solid amount of depth on the wings - Pereira and Paulo on the left and Tinoco and Bras on the right.

[siLKEAPE]

What a great and inspiring read this thread is. You play FM in an admirable way and I wish I was as systematic as you!
Keep up the good work.

[_Ben_]

On 25/02/2019 at 11:11, siLKEAPE said:

What a great and inspiring read this thread is. You play FM in an admirable way and I wish I was as systematic as you!
Keep up the good work.

Thank you, appreciate the kind words!

[_Ben_]

February 2035

Does anyone want to win this league? We've hit a tough patch of form littered with draws and lots of leaky defences. Armando Braz, who kept 21 clean sheets last season has 10 so far this season but we've let in 23 goals, already four more than last term. We struggled somewhat against Arsenal but I have hope that we can turn this around in the home leg thanks to the away goal. A couple of days after I took the screenshot of the table - Guimaraes also won their game in hand - which then elevated us to top of the league based the three-way head to head.

We play both Benfica and Porto in the coming weeks but both games are at home. I would say that we have the upper hand at this stage.

[tyler16]

This has got to be the most enjoyable FM thread I've ever read. 

I have a lot of thoughts, many of which I've forgotten after binging it in a single day. Good to know I'm not the only one who tries to turn every concept from FM into a spreadsheet.

My favorite player of the save has to be Medina, especially after seeing the GIFs of how he plays. Reminds me of Frenkie de Jong at CB last season.

Will definitely be following going forward!

[Sysiphus]

Been reading through all of this for the past two weeks (it is a lot to take in!) - and absolutely loving it. Keep up the good work and you'll do the league this year!

[_Ben_]

On 27/02/2019 at 19:56, tyler16 said:

This has got to be the most enjoyable FM thread I've ever read. 

I have a lot of thoughts, many of which I've forgotten after binging it in a single day. Good to know I'm not the only one who tries to turn every concept from FM into a spreadsheet.

My favorite player of the save has to be Medina, especially after seeing the GIFs of how he plays. Reminds me of Frenkie de Jong at CB last season.

Will definitely be following going forward!

 

10 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

Been reading through all of this for the past two weeks (it is a lot to take in!) - and absolutely loving it. Keep up the good work and you'll do the league this year!

 

Thanks both!

Medina is, possibly Folha aside, my favourite player on this FM and it's even sweeter for me that I've managed to retrain and change his game, too. 

As for the league - if I don't win, then this will be the closest we've come as it's been a good season so far.

[_Ben_]

2035 Youth Intake

So this is my first intake since removing the stars from the screens and using my own knowledge as a judgement of ability. This focus on stars for ability makes looking at potential much harder and, as such, means I need to delve deeper to look at what is best from here. I have several tools at my disposal and the first is the inbox message - that highlights the 'best' player and a few who have come through with the coaching 'style' of my HoYD. Matias Silvestre, my member of staff, is a defensive coach (and was a solid Serie A defender in his playing career, although only three of those years came in game) and he also has 16 for DET.

Firstly - here is the best player, Manuel Monteiro, who, given his preferred role, can probably be consider a good player already. The Enganche is what I would call a 'specialist' role (along with CWB, HB, RPM, T, CF, F9) and such requires a good spread of decent attributes to begin with. He also matches the club DNA reasonably well. I like Monteiro, he can already read the game pretty well and has the vision to make things happen and the passing ability to pull it off. I'm unsure why, repeatedly, player traits are given to players who really aren't suited - I will be stopping him from taking long shots in the future. I also want to work on his dribbling and finishing ability so that he can be of use in the final third.

Miguel Campino rounds off what appears to be quite a weak intake but we will give them all time to develop.

[tyler16]

Little do you know you've skipped out on a 200 PA late bloomer.

Monteiro looks quite good and easily moldable to whatever you want him to become.

[_Ben_]

March 2035

Something had to give this month - continue conceding goals or work on that, potentially losing a little bit of momentum going forward. I went for the latter and, the Arsenal result aside, it meant that we weren't really at our fluid best going forward. We didn't lose to Benfica, which could be great on head-to-head (we won the other game 3-1) and we still have Porto to come to us. We are still in with more than just a shout at this title.

[_Ben_]

April 2035

League form maintains its strength but sadly giants Real Madrid were a step too far. That being said, the quarter finals of the Champions League in only our second ever entrance to it is a fantastic achievement and I envisage that Real will run away and win it, being by far the strongest side left. The eight days between the 10th and the 18th could have made or broken the whole season but, despite the struggles against the Spanish giants, we held our nerves against Porto - a time where we normally suffer from a continental hangover. That result leaves the title race in the balance - we could finish top or we could crumble and come third - we need to hold our nerve. We play Cova (17th), Sporting (5th), Camacha (18th) and Chaves (8th) so could, conceivably, take 12 points from the last month.

We have also made the final of the Taca de Portugal, where we face Benfica, who beat us in the other cup final this season. A double is still on the cards!

[_Ben_]

May 2035

We executed a nearly perfect month and, even without a plucky Sporting draw, we still didn't quite have enough in us. The month starting badly, losing Folha to a torn groin in the same week I allowed Claudio Santos to leave for Vancouver (yeah, I presumed the MLS followed some kind of transfer window!) and then lost backup striker Pereira to a similar fate. We soldiered on but lined up with an unorthodox False 9 in our 3-4-3 shape against both Camacha and Chaves. We have finished 8 points worse off than last season but the same distance behind Porto - although I feel that this has been much closer run and, in another season, may well have completely ran away with the league.

A full run down will follow.

[_Ben_]

2034/35 Season Review

A really good season for us, even if we did give up top spot in the end as we add two domestic cups to our trophy cabinet. I feel that we are getting very close to Porto now at the top of the table and some good succession planning may allow us to leapfrog them for a considerable amount of time - when judging by our average age, current budgets etc. Our performance in the Champions League has been really impressive and this is the key facet to the growth of this league - which still remains in sixth place in the co-efficients. 

As for players - here are the stats of the first team:

A very solid performance from the team led by the heroics of Andre Folha - who continues to score heavily and now has 233 goals in 391 career appearances for me, as well as 3 in 2 for Portugal. Folha is also pretty clinical when in front of the goal - and that is a credit to the way we work the ball into him - with only inside forward Elson Paulo matching his shot accuracy. Further back, Guilherme and Furtado have rotated as they pose slightly different threats and both have played well - but the young Cape Verdean has edged it with more goals and assists. Tiago Silva, despite his poor-ish average rating,has done pretty much exactly what I wanted from him in the CM(d) role.

I am very happy with the first team this season but want to take a closer look at the reserve and under 19 squad over the summer.

[_Ben_]

2035 Transfers - OUT

I have moved a lot of players on over the course of the summer as I look to streamline my squad and use the more limited recruitment to really target players who will fit my system or spend resources more wisely developing those that I have. I have moved the below players on, largely for face below or below, but all including a 50% of next sale clause. Whilst these players may go on to turn into really good signings and prove my wrong - they have all been sold for one of three reasons a) not fitting into my approach for the squad b) not developing well enough over the last couple of years with first team football at the club c) performing really poorly out on loan at significantly weaker clubs.

I will go through each, one by one:

Has been unable to re-train his one-footedness and lacks finishing and passing ability to be a good winger for me. Two years ago, he went on loan to second tier Famalicao and averaged 6.92 from 33 games before moving to Primeira Liga side Gil Vicente last year - where he averaged over 7 with ten assists. This is a good return but his overall attributes and personality are not enough for me to be convinced and, at 21, with time in the top tier under his belt, should be a better player on paper than he actually is.

Signed from the USA at 18 so already behind those who had been at the club since 15 or 16. He spent half a season at Leiria where he only played four times but scored 10 in 24 for second tier Covilha last year. He is a good player, on paper, but is lacking any stand out attributes. Sacavanense will play him, as they are a mid-table team, and he may develop into a good all round striker.

Signed for £150k but has had two spells in the third tier, where he played very poorly. He's not a bad player, but very one footed and isn't enough of a grafter to fit in to the MC role I play. Porto won't play him and I envisage he'll rot in their reserve team.

A pittance for a wonderkid but he scored just twice in 25 games whilst on loan for Braga last season. He's got a great personality and has a really good skill set but just wasn't able to do it whilst playing in this league. Granted, I play a different kind of football to Braga and I didn't give him the chance but the ex-Padroense striker didn't do enough to warrant me wanting to keep him.

Cristian Luque has not developed the way I wanted him to and, after two loans and a combined 32 games in the third tier, moves on. He never retrained his one-footedness and also failed to develop his attributes too much. He'll probably get some football at second tier Maritimo and I'll keep an eye out for him.

Two very poor spells out on loan and a lack of growth sees academy product Pahiama move on.

I could have sold him for much more but he's really under performed on loan in the third tier and his attributes have actually taken a backward step. His heading is poor and isn't good enough on the ball for what I need at centre half.

Two years at Real Sociedad but ousted by others sees him move on too. Not a great technical player which has held him back.

Some more poor loan spells and an awful attempt at turning a competent DL to accomplished over two years sees him move on and back to the MLS.

Also moving back to the MLS.

[_Ben_]

2035 Transfers - IN

I have been fairly busy in the market this summer. I say 'I' but the above list is largely made up with signings made by my DoF, with only Eusebio, Tutinho, Tomaz and Mario Rodriguez being fully sanctioned by me. However - I am now developing 'teams' for the youth ages whereby I hope to directly promote into the first team. 

Firstly, Mario Rodriguez is the only player to directly join the first team. I have Pereira and Tinoco as first choice wingers and Elson Paulo was the standout last year, but with new signing Bras a little raw, I wanted some experience. Mario spent last year in Germany but is unhappy and wants a new deal. I was manage to snag a loan with only a 30% wage contribution. He's a classy player than can play anywhere in the final third. He won't be preferred to my own players but could be really useful. 

Carlos Azevedo was the first brought in by Angel Di Maria and I like his overall game if he lacks a little in both offensive and defensive play. Secondly, Carlos Sanha has a fantastic personality and that will hopefully help him develop as a striker and his all round game as a striker. Leo Jaime signs after a good season in the third tier and is actually a pretty solid looking defender and Di Maria closed the summer signings with a deal for Pedro Rosario who could be ok.

I have spent a lot of time analysing players that my scouts found but also looking at data that I feel would be available to 'real life recruitment teams' such as U19 league top scorers and the like. My first deal was for youngster Tutinho - not rated too well by the scouts (much better by my coaches) but performing well following his 'intake day' in the third division. He's got a really good base of attributes, as signalled by his best position being a wing back as opposed to a full back and he's got a great personality to boot. Next up came Joao Tomaz on a deal which can be seen as a snip from another, solid, Primeira Liga team. He's got a good all round game and he's being trained as a RPM. Lastly, and my best find is generational talent Eusebio - he's Leixoes Trabulo (if you remember that far back in the save) where he is clearly far far too good for the team who generated him. I have purchased him and will be making him into the best PF(a) I can.

I am always in the market for other players but really like the squad depth that we have now - more will be explained in the next couple of posts.

[_Ben_]

Building a squad capable to promote from within

One thing I spent the summer focusing on was whether I had enough players within the squads that I could, technically, stop signing players for the next few years and still get stronger. When I get to this stage within a game - I like to build 'squads' through my first team reserves and youth team. Below are the three, with all first team players shown and a Best XI for the U23 and U19 squad:

First Team

Under 23

Under 19

 

[_Ben_]

August and September 2035

One trophy and just one blemish to an otherwise perfect two months to the season. We look fantastic going forward and, despite a couple of silly mistakes, most notably at two up against Gil Vicente, solid at the back. The use of structured U23 and U19 squads has allowed me to rotate well, bringing a player to the first team for a week or two and directly replacing him with his 'understudy' - this has led to plenty of minutes for my youngsters, already. The below picture shows just how well a variety of my players are playing:

Rodriguez has nine goals from just four starts, Furtado has ten assists from his nine appearances thus far and even perennial slow starter Andre Folha has eight from his first ten games.

As seen above, we have Dinamo in our CL group, along with Liverpool and Bayern. Third could be a great shot at winning a European trophy but I might be able to sneak through if the giants take points off each other.

[_Ben_]

October 2035

We march on! 24 games unbeaten now and we are looking very strong in the league, albeit with a few defensive worries in the last three games on the month.

[kidthekid]

I took a couple months off but one of the first things I wanted to do when I came back was to see the progress of this save. I'm truly enjoying catching up. Like how you go into detail about your tactics, youth development and transfers.

[_Ben_]

On 20/03/2019 at 13:47, kidthekid said:

I took a couple months off but one of the first things I wanted to do when I came back was to see the progress of this save. I'm truly enjoying catching up. Like how you go into detail about your tactics, youth development and transfers.

Thanks for the kind words! I must admit that I have slipped somewhat in my updates of late - but, when I know people are enjoying the read, will work on writing down some more thoughts.

[_Ben_]

November and December 2035

Double month update as I forgot the last month. We are currently riding high on a fantastic bit of form - having last suffered defeat in a competitive match way back in April against Real Madrid. Whilst Porto have two games in hand, which would see them leapfrog us - we do have points on the board and to enter the new year at the top is a real sign of our ambitions this season. 

We also coasted through our CL group on 16 points, sending Liverpool out. We face a tough test in Atletico Madrid but I fancy our chances given our formidable home form of late.

Squad rotation, as such, hasn't really been happening of late - rather I have just been playing a first and second choice squad and then a youth squad for cup games. They have had a decent amount of minutes and this has helped their development:

[Fosse]

When/if you finally win the league I think it will be the most well deserved top flight win I will have seen on these forums 

[Sysiphus]

Great start to the season, keep it up!

[_Ben_]

22 hours ago, Fosse said:

When/if you finally win the league I think it will be the most well deserved top flight win I will have seen on these forums 

 

11 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

Great start to the season, keep it up!

 

Thank you both very much!

Hopefully the title win will see the next phase of the game begin - that is to make Portugal a dominant league in Europe. Never has it taken me this long to break the big teams.

[_Ben_]

Landmark

[_Ben_]

Transfer

The January transfer window has seen me strengthen my squad with two new recruits with only one senior member of the squad departing.

With Diogo Vargas, now in his third loan spell at Portimonense, behind Valderrama and Silva and Bolas and Vieira, the elder statesman of the team, not up to scratch - I really need some new blood in the middle of the park. £240k was enough to convince Leon to sell me this man, who stands out for his fantastic personality and reasonably well rounded game. He's got a bit of everything about him - he can win the ball back and then move it on. He is a little on the short side and lacks the ability to do something out of the ordinary but I have a good feeling that he could develop well for me.

The big one. A club with a previous record signing of just £3.7m and one that wants to win the league would indicate that such a meagre record wouldn't last too long. £9.5m was paid for the acquisition of Chilean Franco Gutierrez. Like his Chilean team mate Cristina Medina, he has arguably the best personality in the game and a great set of attributes to back it up. Whilst I always want to see my own players develop, I felt that Elson Paulo had probably reached his peak and was moved on for £2.6m. He's probably been undervalued by me given our weaker league rating to that of Germany but he offered too little in the team work and work rate area and his concentration (or lack of) was noticeable as he'd disappear out of games. Gutierrez offers me a much more hardworking attacker who is a little more robust and has world class decision making. His only major weakness comes when he gets to the player, as his tackling is awful. He could maybe do with some natural development on his concentration but there is little else I would change. I will plan to train him as an IF(A) and will give him chance to develop a finishing player trait, although I am unsure of which one yet.

My scouts and coaches came back with a glowing report on him - he's a current international, versatile, enjoys big matches and there was no red markers on his dirtiness, consistency or ability to settle in a new country.

The lad first came on to my radar whilst playing in Chile but I didn't feel that his attributes, at 18, warranted the £5m that took him to the east coast of the USA but I watched as he performed pretty well in the MLS, earning a move to Germany. I pounced as he became unhappy with his contract at Mainz and paid just over his market value to get him. I was surprised that such a low deal was accepted and, based on his current market value, feel that I have got a bargain and one that could continue to improve.

With the arrival of him - I feel that my best XI is as seen below.

I have put a lot of effort into developing players from my club and, unfortunately, there is a lack of those within my team - Guilherme Marques, Tiago Silva, Pedro Tinoco and Andre Folha are the only players who have come through my academy here so, whilst the signing of Gutierrez is fantastic - it does somewhat go against what I want to achieve in the long term. However - if he can be a protagonist towards my growth as a club, every penny of the £9.5m outlay will be worth it and he could, single handedly, fund the development of many many new academy graduates.

[_Ben_]

January 2036

Porto are scared of us buy just that little bit better than us right now. We dominated them - outshooting them 35/8 and they literally sat back in their 5-4-1 shape - scoring from a set piece. Howeer, we have dropped points against Leiria and Cova, giving them a two point cushion which could grow to five. We are still unbeaten and in fantastic form but so are Porto and we will go to them close to the end of the season. A tough month on the legs where we added the Taca da Liga to our trophy cabinet - once again showing that we can beat the big guns. A lot will come down to how we can manage our time between the league and our Champions League endeavours.