[FM19] Klopp that Mr Tuchel because I am always Rhine!

[Kingofcm03]

 

 After my really enjoyable save with CSKA Sofia was corrupt and died. I took a few weeks to find something new to get stuck into and here I am with FSV Mainz 05.

I am a Liverpool fan and big admirer of Klopp, I also have had my most enjoyable saves in the Bundesliga so it was a fairly logical choice to head to Mainz and start my new career.

I don’t have any major plans and aims to be a fair, I mainly just want to take the club further than both Klopp and Tuchel did, Jurgen managed Mainz from 2001 to 2008 and Mr Tuchel from 2009 – 2014, where they arguably had their best times after finishing 9th, 5th and 7th in 3 of those 5 years. Mainz have maintained their Bundesliga status since the start of the 2009/10 season and have always been a competitive midtable side but now it’s time for Die Nullfünfer to rise!

Basic and first goals of the save

Finish higher than 5th to achieve the best ever finish in the Bundesliga for Mainz

Mainz are heavily focused on youth promotion and my rule will be “if they are good enough they are old enough” so expect lots of kids running around the first team

Play and install a culture of gegenpressing to define the clubs identity

Club History 

Plenty of room in the cabinet for me to fill

Finances 

We have a decent little bank balance and I will look to boost the transfer budget with a few sales so we can bring in the targets that I desire. Were a small club so I will need to be careful to run tight ship on the finances until I can look at expanding the stadium above the 34k it is currently but luckily the Bundeslegia is a decent league for generating funds so with some continued success we should be fine.

 

Edited December 4, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Northernpilgrim]

Good luck

[SixPointer]

Good luck mate. Germany is great sure you’ll enjoy it!

[Kingofcm03]

Current Talent within Mainz

We have a couple of very interesting prospects at the club already, I have moved them all into the First Team and will try and develop them with lots of games. As I said earlier, I am not going to be afraid to throw a talented kid into the team and I will take some of the short term pain for the greater good in the long run and one of other things I have noticed is that there is quite a large amount of hardworking players at this club so that will suit me well. Here are some of the more interesting players I am most excited about and will look to build the club around for the future.

Barreiro

He could be the King of Luxembourg this kid.  Promoted from the Under 19s, we will get hims some games.

Eyibil

Another kid I found in the Under 19s, will promote to the first team and work on his physical stats. Looks like there is a decent player in there.

Kunde

I like the look of him and I love a good hard working CM, looks like he might start in my first 11 at the moment.

Burkardt

Another promotion from the Under 19s, will rotate as 2nd/3rd choice for now. He could be a superstar so I want to get him up and running ASAP

Mateta

Summer signing in real life, he will start upfront and was the club record transfer of 7.25m before one of the in-comings you will see soon

Gbamin

Looks like a bit of a monster, will be hoping to pair him in my all action and all energy midfield with Kunde and I've also thought about making him play CB but he will start in midfield

Baku

Promoted from Mainz 2 and will rotate around the middle. Could be something here and he plays lots of positions.

Muller

Mainz actually start with 4 capable GKs, we actually have FM favourite Adler on the books but hes injured for the season so have to use Muller as the number 1. Hes actually the #1 number for the German Under 21s so he must have some talent

Niakhaté

Another summer signing before I arrive, he will start at CB and will be my Ball Player Defender. Looks powerful and could develop more.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Carambau]

one of the worst puns I ever read.... will follow nevertheless

[Kingofcm03]

28 minutes ago, Carambau said:

one of the worst puns I ever read.... will follow nevertheless

hahahah...thanks!

 

[Cuomo10]

A few gems for you to work with. Good luck

[Kingofcm03]

Transfers

Fair bit of movement, It was interesting that on the first day I joined that there was already quite a bit of interest in some of my players so that helped with shipping some out to raise some funds. Nobody that was wanted or sold was near my plans anyway so it was a win/win and we generated a fair amount in money from those sales. Some are risky transfers out as they are mostly first 11 players in real life so the FSV Mainz fans will be very nervous but they need to trust the process.

I didn’t set out with any real rules on transfers, I had already decided I was going to sign Antonio Marin before I even started the save. I am a little worried that we are going to be fairly week at the back, I have 4 ok CBs but none are world beaters yet and my 3rd and 4th choice are a little week. The window is still open at the time of me writing this and I have cash in the bank so I will see what we can do to at least try and make it a little stronger but some of the targets that would have done this actually don’t want to sign.

I have mainly try to target high potential younger players and I am pretty happy with what I have done, all the signings including and above Aaron Martin were summer transfers arranged before the game starts so as a club we have actually spent a little bit of cash this year. I have supplemented the transfers by grabbing a few youth prospects for free, they can linger down in the Under 19s and develop.

Players in

Antonio Marin, everybody knows him and it was an easy decision. Straight into the first team as he’s able to cover both Inside Forward positions

Sandro Tonali, the future star play maker for Mainz, he will also go straight into the first team and will play as my Deep Lying Playmaker and has been labelled the ‘new Pirlo” in real life. Let’s hope so. He will be flanked by my hardworking and physical midfielders to offer him some protection and an easy outlet.

Dejan Joveljić, the young Serb joins us from Red Star, he’s not quite ready to play each week but will gain valuable experience from the bench and hopefully this will see his progression explode. He will rotate as 2nd/3rd choice for now.

Xades, another FM favourite but I’ve never actually signed him before. Fits the bill of the player I am looking for and will rotate around the Inside Forward position

Todor Nedelev, those who read my CSKA save will know that he was a bit of a legend for me in that save so I decided to see if he could make it in Germany. Hilariously I had no idea but he actually already did play for Mainz previously but the best part was when Mainz sold him back to Botev Plovdiv they inserted a 60% of next sale clause. So after I signed him for 1.1m they then had to then give me back 650k. He’s a bit of a personal FM hero I hope he can make the grade in the Bundesliga.

Squad overview

It’s a very young squad now, hopefully that works out in the long run as all the players develop and hopefully peak in the same window. I have not really settled on my best 11 at the moment, I plan to just play most of the players and see who gives the best performances. We have a larger squad than I would have liked as well and its little unbalanced but that will work itself out over time. There is 3 potential first teams players on the long term injury list as well, one of those being Rene Adler who not only is out for the season his contract is going to expire.

Still some time and money available, so this might change but for now as I am not able to nail the targets I want, this is likely going to be it for the start of the season unless something happens.

 

Edited December 5, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Kingofcm03]

Tactic

Gegenpressing with a DLP to dictate the play. The DLP will have some hard working runners next to him to help move the ball forward, I have not settled on the roles for those players at the moment so I will need to tinker with it as we play games. I am also trying to work out if I move the DLP down into the DM strata position and have the runners directly ahead of him in the CM positions. Will know more after 5 games or so.

I have not set any individual instructions to start with and will add them over time. Starting really basic for now and the plan is to build it up from there.

Preseason Preview

16th.... no worries!

Edited December 5, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[DavidBeckham]

Good luck for the season ahead mate! Will give this a follow 

Edited December 5, 2018 by DavidBeckham

[SixPointer]

Xadas was outstanding for my heerenveen side last season. Like the signings so far. Markovic from partizan looks a class act btw if your needing a centre back. Athletico snapped him up from under my nose in my second season with Kaiserslautern 

[Kingofcm03]

17 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Xadas was outstanding for my heerenveen side last season. Like the signings so far. Markovic from partizan looks a class act btw if your needing a centre back. Athletico snapped him up from under my nose in my second season with Kaiserslautern 

I actually tried to sign him, however hes just signed a new contract and refused to join. I will try and go back in January if I can as it looks like he could be decent and at least good enough to step into the 3rd slot.

 

Edited December 6, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Kingofcm03]

Transfer update

I was a little light in the fullbacks, also our experienced left full back Daniel Brosinski was just upset about everything and there was a decent bid for him, so we let him go. To replace him and also offer a rotation offer on right we went German and bought in 2 very good prospects from FC Koln and Hamburg.  

Horn

Good option for me, hes young and should improve. With him and Martin (assuming we activate his loan transfer clause) at left back, we should be well stocked for the future.

Vagnoman

Hugely exciting prospect, he wont start as first choice this season but hes a good backup option and will push his way into the 11 at some point in the next season or so. Hes also now our club record signing.

Markovic

I was trying to sign this kid the whole summer, he was rejecting me as he had just signed a new contract. I threw in a late cheeky bid on the last day of the window and now hes finally ok to join. He should slot in nicely after a little bit of development and was a low risk transfer.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[SixPointer]

3 great signings Markovic will turn out class already playing first team at ath Madrid in my second season. Other two boys looks like stars in the making as well 

[Kingofcm03]

2 hours ago, SixPointer said:

3 great signings Markovic will turn out class already playing first team at ath Madrid in my second season. Other two boys looks like stars in the making as well 

Nice! I'm giving him games already. Do you have a picture of him you can share? Just so I can have an idea of what he can be?

[SixPointer]

7 hours ago, Kingofcm03 said:

Nice! I'm giving him games already. Do you have a picture of him you can share? Just so I can have an idea of what he can be?

I’ll send you it tomorrow bud am working late tonight so won’t be on. Also have a look at. Sigurd gronli

[Kingofcm03]

2 hours ago, SixPointer said:

I’ll send you it tomorrow bud am working late tonight so won’t be on. Also have a look at. Sigurd gronli

I didn't load Norway.. So I dont have access to him. I reduced the number of leagues loaded for this save down to 20 to make it a little quicker and Norway didn't make the final round hahaha

[Kingofcm03]

Preseason to October

Bumpy start to the season, we looked in the preseason with wins over Juventus and Fiorentina and we had an opening day win against Stuttgart. We have been pretty competitive in most games so I am pretty happy so far. I think we just need to keep on rolling and let the tactic and players settle in and we win turn it around a little. The only game we looked like a bottom of the table side game was the Leverkusen match but we still pinched a couple goals.  I am not sure how many points ill need to be 'safe' but I am targeting at least 10-12 wins.

Player update

Nobody is really stepping up and putting in a huge start to the season but Nedelev has shown the step up in league class has not phased him and hes probably been the best player so far. Were screaming out for some better finishing in games as we create quite a few chances in most games so hopefully somebody up front can get hot.

 

Edited December 8, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Kingofcm03]

November 

A much better month, we are starting to find our feet a little. Still not getting much work from my forwards, they need to step up soon. We are still very competitive in all games and were moving in the right direction with 3 wins on the bounce and an impressive win over Dortmund.

League Table

Bayern struggling at the moment, RBL are flying and Mainz are sitting in 7th!

Tactic Update

I've been tinkering with the tactic because while Tonali is playing ok hes not getting involved much. I dropped him into the DM position and playing DLP but hes not contributing hugely but at least more than he was in the CM position. I also tried to play him as a regista to get him more on the ball but that didn't work. Im going to switch the focus of play through the middle and distribute from the GK to the playmaker and see how that goes. I also made the right CM more of a defensive player to help just clean up and recycle the possession to Tonali and he helps out on the right with my CWB now set to attack not support.

 

[SixPointer]

On 06/12/2018 at 22:02, Kingofcm03 said:

I didn't load Norway.. So I dont have access to him. I reduced the number of leagues loaded for this save down to 20 to make it a little quicker and Norway didn't make the final round hahaha

Awww man there is some unreal talent in Norway it’s my place I normally got to for a bargain or two

[SixPointer]

6 hours ago, Kingofcm03 said:

Tactic Update

I've been tinkering with the tactic because while Tonali is playing ok hes not getting involved much. I dropped him into the DM position and playing DLP but hes not contributing hugely but at least more than he was in the CM position. I also tried to play him as a regista to get him more on the ball but that didn't work. Im going to switch the focus of play through the middle and distribute from the GK to the playmaker and see how that goes. I also made the right CM more of a defensive player to help just clean up and recycle the possession to Tonali and he helps out on the right with my CWB now set to attack not support.

 

Am no tactical god by any means of the term. 

Whats your actual game plan how do you want to score you goals and defend? 

your 3 forward players all on attack may leave them isolated considering you have quite a conservative midfield I realise you have full backs bombing on! I normally have one of the wide players on support with an attacking duty behind just gives you a different switch up helps get a niceness overlap as well. Just an idea. I would also probably change your BWM to a B2B midfielder you already have two holding roles. Though the bwm will help with the press and get forward. A B2B will offer support to the lone striker breaking into the box. 

[Kingofcm03]

December

All that good work in November was undone in December, we had some tough fixtures against high flying teams in 1st, 2nd and 5th place,  I really wanted and needed to beat Hannover as it was the easier game this month but we failed and they scored from a corner. We push hard and had so many chance but failed. We then got smashed by RBL and Werner who went on a rampage. 

League Table

That hurt our position on the table but were still above where we were expected to finish and still looking good for a decent 2nd half of the season. RBL are still flying at the top, Frankfurt is playing really well,  We head into the Winter break now and I'll see what I can do in the transfer market. I'd really like a forward who can score goals.

[Kingofcm03]

1 hour ago, SixPointer said:

Am no tactical god by any means of the term. 

Whats your actual game plan how do you want to score you goals and defend? 

your 3 forward players all on attack may leave them isolated considering you have quite a conservative midfield I realise you have full backs bombing on! I normally have one of the wide players on support with an attacking duty behind just gives you a different switch up helps get a niceness overlap as well. Just an idea. I would also probably change your BWM to a B2B midfielder you already have two holding roles. Though the bwm will help with the press and get forward. A B2B will offer support to the lone striker breaking into the box. 

One is already set to B2B, hes playing ok so far. Its the right CM that is being a bit useless. I am going to maybe try a Mezzala with attack duty on the RCM and try to have him more involved.

The plan was to really run the play through a middle playmaker - So Tonali and I want the 2 middle players to help with the press and running the ball forward as well. Im just having issues with Tonali actually doing much.

At the moment the Inside Forwards are doing well, they are my most dangerous players, I need to get my main forward into the games more. He does get quite a few one on ones from through balls and balls over the top but hes just missing them. 

 

[SixPointer]

Sorry my mistake mate. Thought it was a bwm 

i used the same shape last year and had lot of success with the DLP in the DM slot. But I used a defend duty and increased his passing distance. Effectively making him like a quarter back that might help. 

As for the striker maybe a support role will get him involved leaving space for your inside forwards to attack in behind?

german football is very tough so many good teams so will definitely take time to get it right.  

[Kingofcm03]

January Transfer update

We had some nice bids randomly pop in during the first few days of the window, Schalke came in for Bell with 8m bid. He was 3rd choice anyway and indicated he wanted to leave. Then we had RBL come in for Öztunali and I was not overly keen to sell but he also indicated he wanted to go, I am trying to be somewhat realistic and in real life then Mainz would have to sell for the money. Also leaving is Matete who I was not hugely impressed with so I went on the hunt to find a replacement. The replacement is going to be young German wonderkid Fiete Arp! and he signs for a huge club record 17m from Hamburg. Also joining us will be Kevin Danso, the young Austrian defender will add huge quality at the back. We also arranged for the future free transfer of Johannes Eggestein and he will arrive in the summer.

Arp

Danso

Transfer History

[SixPointer]

What a signing Fiete Arp is. He’s gonna be some player 

[SixPointer]

wonderkid in the second season 

[Kingofcm03]

9 hours ago, SixPointer said:

wonderkid in the second season 

I wonder how random his PA is, hopefully he gets close to that in my save in 2 years from now.

[Kingofcm03]

January and February 

We came out after the Winter Transfer break in better form, I also slightly adjusted the tactic and lowered the Line of Engagement. We will try and let teams come down the pitch a little more and press back and try to counter. The 3-3 draw with Augsburg was just stupid. We were coasting at 3-0 up and then decided to then concede a penalty, let them score from a corner and then a free kick all in 10 mins.  Arp has made a real difference leading the line, I am very excited to see what he can do once he develops more.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Kingofcm03]

March

Much of the same again in March, we had a good win over Hertha, a disappointing draw to the bottom side Gladbach and commendable performance away to Bayern

League Table

All these draws are not helping our push to sneak into the top 7 at all, were still in our lurking position behind Wolfsburg. I would really love to just ram home 3 wins in a row to try and latch onto that group from 5th-7th

[SixPointer]

Going steady enough to sneak in I reckon! Great result against Bayern espically a clean sheet. 

[Kingofcm03]

April and May

In April I got my wish for 3 wins in a row and the added bonus of 3 clean sheets in a row, this fired us up the ladder into the European spots. The next challenge was then to hold onto it for the last few games of the season, we started the final month against the Champions RBL (With a rampaging overpowered Werner) and then finished with games at 6th placed Frankfurt and 2nd place Hoffenheim so it was a tough last 3 games to try and hold onto a European place especially with our chief rival Wolfsburg having to play 3 teams at the bottom of the table...

How did we do?

Arp was huge against RBL, he bashed home 2 goals and we stole the 3 points from the newly crowned German Champions who might have had a hangover from the party the day before. Next up we went away to Frankfurt for the Rhine-Main Derby who just lost a tight game with Leverkusen and my resulting win over RBL then took me 1 point and 1 position behind Frankfurt who were in 6th on the table before our clash. At the point it was still possible mathematically to finish 4th! but I was just happy with 7th and a win over Frankfurt would have all but secured me European football. We started the game in 7th on 50 points and 2 points ahead of Wolfsburg who are on 48 points in 8th position.  Frankfurt are a really good team in FM, they have some talented players and some serious pace in the forward line up, they threw everything at me and bombarded me with cross after cross after cross but Muller on was fire and I think probably would have saved the Titanic on that day so despite going down to 10 men we came away with a hugely important 3 points.

With 1 game to go... a miracle 4th place finish on the cards?

The final game was against Hoffenheim, so If I could beat them at home and then Schalke then lose to Stuttgart then we would achieve the impossible and have Champions League football next season.

 

Edited December 13, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Kingofcm03]

Final Game

We did our part and took out Hoffenheim with some ease to be fair, Nedelev inspired us to a win and while this was going on we had a keen on Schalke vs Stuttgart and at HT in that game it was 0-0 but in the 2nd half, Stuttgart rattled home 2 quick goals and ran out 2-0 winners and in turn fired us into 4th place! and Champions League football.

Final Table

Very happy with this, we exceed my expectations and now we have some European football to play with next season. I was disappointed some of the teams I wanted to go down didn't, I had my eye on pinching some cheap players from Stuttgart but not to be. RBL took the title pretty easy and easier than it looked as Werner was banging in goals left and right all season, I wonder how Bayern will respond in the summer?! they started slow and that coast them as they finished pretty well in the end. The 4th place for Mainz mean it was our best ever season in the Bundeslegia so thats a pretty good success story in itself and it means I've toppled Klopp and Tuchel already!

Final Squad Details

Finances

Final Tactic 

I switched to this after the game against Dortmund, went in search of more balance. Seems to have worked ok as we finished quite strongly, we just didn't score that many goals but for now I am happy with just winning games. I might try to unlock a little more attacking flair or mentality next season. We did smash home 6 straight games to finish the season so I should not complain too much and with another preseason we should be even stronger.

Review

Edited December 13, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Kingofcm03]

Summer Transfers

Fairly subdued window so far to this point, I know I have highly talented squad with huge potential so I was not really in the need to make huge changes like last summer. So I just went about looking to add a couple of solid professionals who add value to the squad and make us better without taking too much risk on a massive transfer fee. Lets welcome to Mainz the very talented Donny van de Beek, he fits the bill for the profile of players we are bringing to Mainz and hes joined by Gianluca Mancini who will join us to strengthen the back four even further.

We also added a few high potential youth prospects to put into the under 19s, we didn't have to outlay too much in terms of funds so even if they dont payoff its a low risk. The only other players signed outside the permanent transfer after his loan season in Aaron Martin, was the free transfer of Johannes Eggestein and goalkeeper Marius Müller from RBL who joins us for peanuts and is happy to not be Number 1. 

I am looking at a few other options at the moment but I am not expecting anything drastic to happen over the the last few days of the window.

Current Transfers

First team transfers

Donny van de Beek

Gianluca Mancini

Johannes Eggestein

Marius Müller

Youth Team Transfers 

Móia Banjai

Tobias Bässler

César Vásquez

João Maia

Edited December 13, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[SixPointer]

12 hours ago, Kingofcm03 said:

Final Game

We did our part and took out Hoffenheim with some ease to be fair, Nedelev inspired us to a win and while this was going on we had a keen on Schalke vs Stuttgart and at HT in that game it was 0-0 but in the 2nd half, Stuttgart rattled home 2 quick goals and ran out 2-0 winners and in turn fired us into 4th place! and Champions League football.

Final Table

Very happy with this, we exceed my expectations and now we have some European football to play with next season. I was disappointed some of the teams I wanted to go down didn't, I had my eye on pinching some cheap players from Stuttgart but not to be. RBL took the title pretty easy and easier than it looked as Werner was banging in goals left and right all season, I wonder how Bayern will respond in the summer?! they started slow and that coast them as they finished pretty well in the end. The 4th place for Mainz mean it was our best ever season in the Bundeslegia so thats a pretty good success story in itself and it means I've toppled Klopp and Tuchel already!

Final Squad Details

Finances

Final Tactic 

I switched to this after the game against Dortmund, went in search of more balance. Seems to have worked ok as we finished quite strongly, we just didn't score that many goals but for now I am happy with just winning games. I might try to unlock a little more attacking flair or mentality next season. We did smash home 6 straight games to finish the season so I should not complain too much and with another preseason we should be even stronger.

Review

Sublime season!! Champions league football is brilliant especially from such a competitive league. Some magical transfer business as well! Fair play to you! 

Talk to me about nedelev how highly do you rate him? I need a inside forward for the right hand side? 

[Kingofcm03]

9 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Sublime season!! Champions league football is brilliant especially from such a competitive league. Some magical transfer business as well! Fair play to you! 

Talk to me about nedelev how highly do you rate him? I need a inside forward for the right hand side? 

We are not a Champions League quality side, we are certainly not the 4th best team in Germany but sometimes luck just falls your way. I would expect we will struggle to reach those heights again. 

Nedelev, hes a solid performer. I really only signed him to see if he could bring his form from my CSKA Sofia save to Germany. Also signing him for 350k it was pretty much a no brainer. Hes a weapon on Corners and bangs in the odd free kick. I also play him as Inside Forward on the right, he wont let you down but hes likely not going to take you to World Class status. I am going to use him again this season as my starter while I work on getting some other players upto speed, I feel quite safe with him there, hes never had a bad game. I also like Ajdin Hasic and I will be looking to bring him in next summer, he was superb for me on my CSKA Sofia save. There is actually lots of decent left footed inside forwards for once!

[SixPointer]

I was chasing tavsan at Sparta Rotterdam but he wants champions league football so I’ve not really seen anyone else I fancy that will come to me. 

[WillHoward42]

Just caught up on this save, enjoying the amount of faith you are putting into the younger players. Plenty of potential running through the team. Interesting to see how you do in the CL!

[Kingofcm03]

On 14/12/2018 at 19:45, WillHoward42 said:

Just caught up on this save, enjoying the amount of faith you are putting into the younger players. Plenty of potential running through the team. Interesting to see how you do in the CL!

Its been a rough ride to be fair, the young lads are either brilliant or just cold, we struggle in games where a clear mature leader would be good to take over and boss a team to see out a win

[Kingofcm03]

Start of season 19/20

We didn't make any more transfers and went into the season with what we had. It was an utterly terrible start, after closing out the last season with 6 straight wins we then decided to start the new season in terrible form and not win in the opening 3 games of the season. We looked terrible, we were suffering badly but the 3-3 draw with Arsenal turned it a little for us and we started to get going. I said at the end of the last season I would make changes to the way we play, I wanted more goals but that seems to obviously cost us in conceding more, so I am in search of the balance between both systems. We had Schalke at 2-0 up and we decided to let them come back and draw 2-2 and this is a reoccurring theme.

Champions League Group

Tough group, we need to beat PSV twice so we can hopefully finish at least 3rd and continue the adventure in Europe. We managed to win the first game at home against them and I am really banking on that 1 point away to Arsenal in actually being very good for us in this quest

Tactic Update

I wanted more goals but that seems to obviously cost us in conceding more, so I am in search of the balance between both systems. I started using this at HT of the Arsenal game. I was 3-0 down at the time and managed to fight back for 3-3 and so I decided to leave it a little longer.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Kingofcm03]

October and November

We take a 2-2 draw with Bayern, they pushed really hard after we went up 2-1 but we couldn't hold on and they got a late goal. After that we had a home match with Napoli and we outplayed the Italians without getting the 3 points but after 3 games in the Champions League we are undefeated so I will take it! We followed that up with a soft draw to Wolfsburg and a routine win in the German cup over Bungeslegia.2 team Nurnburg. 

Into November we went and into the last 2 games in the Champions league group and we turned in a performance for the ages against Napoli and smashed them 5-1 away from home and Arp was the main man here, he banged in 4 goals in what I am hoping is his coming of age game. We are screaming for a 30+ goals a season forward that is clinical and he has so many chances a game (in the previous game against his former side Hamburg he scored 2 and had 3 ruled out for offside) so maybe its his time?! The rest of November was a simple 2-0 win over Stuttgart, a bad/unlucky home defeat to Dortmund after the international break that broke our 13 game unbeaten run. Home again in the Champions League against an  Arsenal side containing 7 ex Bundeslegia players in thier first 11,  we managed to bank a really good draw in a match we dominated but Torreira smashed home a long rage bomb in the 80th minute to draw it. Still undefeated after 5 in the Champions League  and the last game of the month saw us play Freiburg and we decided to play like rubbish, they actuality blew us off the park and we were down to 10 men and 3-0 after 30 mins. A game to forget.

Squad Update

I am trying my best as possible to rotate, I am settled on a few positions in terms of first choice player but the rest are still up for grabs. I am a little worried about my young goalkeeper Muller, hes made some big errors, is not convincing in the air on crosses and loves to let a 30 yard long shot beat him. I am trying to keep faith in the young guns so I dont want to splash money on a veteran but ill keep an eye out.

Table

We are fighting away, its really tight from 3rd to 9th. Bayern seemed to have worked it out after last season and I bet RBL would like to get a refund on the new manager! The surprise is M'gladbach being rooted to the bottom of the table. The surprise random promoted team Jahn Regensburg are also predictably struggling.

[Kingofcm03]

December

We bounced back in the first game of December, dispatching 5th place Hannover in a great display. This is how we can play and I want to reach this level on a more consistent basis. The next game was home to Koln, we went down to 10 men after 5 mins! and it was an uphill battle from there. Just what I needed after turning the form ship around last match...now onto the last game in the Champions League group phase, away to PSV where we are already qualified for the next round but can wrap up 1st place with the right result and we did the right thing and got the 1-0 win and we topped the group unbeaten. Somehow. Next up was a tough game to 4th place Werder, we have been good away from home this season and we forgot all about this in this game and we lost a crucial game. Thankfully we then smashed Hertha at home 5-0, big game as they were right behind me on the table. The last game of the season saw us take on champions RBL and we won a game that they dominated but we took our chances.

Winter Table

I think ill need a massive 2nd half to the season to make it back into the Champions League. In truth even tho we pulled of a miracle and were lucky to finish 4th last season anyway, I was still pretty confident we would be close again this season. I have to at a minimum finish in the top 7. It will be a massive failure if we don't.  If we can improve our home form then we should be in a much better position at the end of the season because as you can see below, we are very good away.

Home Form

Away Form

Group stage Champions League final table

We drew Real Madrid in the next round, they somehow didn't win their group so we have to perform a miracle to make it through

Winter Transfers

More prospect hunting and looking to future proof a few positions, really pleased with these signings. I wanted Hasic to come in now so he can spend 2 years getting ready and then look to take over from Nedelev. The signing of Morilla is an interesting one as I am not even sure where hes going to play but hes to good of a talent to not bring in and work around. He could play Inside Forward or even just as a forward, hes a huge talent and i'll work it out. The rest are all young prospects to move into the under 19's and see how they turn out. We also sent out a couple players, one on loan and one was sold to make way for First Team player.

We now will have 5 'wonderkids' in the first team sqad: Arp, Marin, Morilla, Tonali and Maresic

Players from and including Morilla down are signed in the January window.

Full Transfers

Morilla

I've decided to train him to play as a forward.

 

Cunha

Hasic 

Will send him out on loan for the rest of this season and then work out what to do with him. Nedelev is one of my top 3 first picked players so its hard for him and I want to play Xadas.

Comte

Palacios

Márcio

Maresic

 

 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[Kingofcm03]

January 

Back to the league with the 2nd half of the season, we start at home in the derby vs Frankfurt and we smashed them off the park. Tonali put in what is probably the best game ive seen from a central midfield player in a few versions of FM with a hat-trick of the highest quality all from open play. Amazing performance from him, I am hoping to see more of that. Next up away to Leverkusen and it was not a repeat performance we got the job done and we start the 2nd half of the season well. Next up was a home game against struggling 15th placed Hoffenheim, not sure how they are doing so badly in the league, there is a good team there but they couldn't turn their form around against us and we had a perfect month in the league. I was very happy with 3 clean sheets in a row for the month, 5 if you count the last 2 games of December as well. I think my changes to the tactic and the way I am now managing games better during the matches is helping. 

 

Edited December 20, 2018 by Kingofcm03

[john1]

Fantastic to see you finishing top of your CL group but shame you got Real Madrid in next round  

[Kingofcm03]

February

Solid month in February, we started the month badly however with a weak away performance to Schalke but picked up from there and didn't lose again in the league for the month. We did finally lose our first Champions League game away to Real Madrid so thats not the worst result. The game with Bayern was quite even and we shared the points via 2 penalties, we probably had more chances as well. We finished the month with a cup quarter final win against Leverkusen.

End of February table

At the end of Feb we are in a respectable 4th position but its very close all the way down to 8th. This is one the best things about the Bundeslegia as its a very even and usually tight league.

March

We tried in vain to turn around the 0-2 defeat against Real Madrid, we didn't turn the tie but we did take an impressive win and in truth we actually smashed them off the park. We should have scored 4 or so goals but we didn't have our finishing boots on and we exit at the first hurdle. Still when you think we played 8 games in the Champions League and only lost the 1 game, this is very decent for our team at this stage. The rest of March was a routine win over Wolfsburg, a bad draw to Hamburg where we just couldn't work out a way to score a goal despite totally dominating them. We closed March at home to Stuttgart who are really struggling in the league and look certain for relegation and we didn't help them by taking all 3 points in the final game of the month.

End of March table

Now sitting in 3rd but its so very tight, we need to keep getting points or we risk dropping down and out of not only the Champions League spots but all the European spaces if we are not careful. With 6 games to go in the league we have everything to play for, we are still within a chance of snatching 2nd and the first game of April will be away to Dortmund so if we can win that then anything could happen!

 

 

[Kingofcm03]

April and May

April was not the best month, we lost the game to Dortmund that would have almost helped us push them for 2nd and then we lost in the cup semi final to Hertha on penalties, we were 2-0 down in that game thanks to Harry Wilson ripping me to shreds down the left  but we fought back to 2-2 but some poor finishing cost us and we exit. Thankfully we managed to win against Freiburg and Hannover in April to help us maintain our push for Champions League football again next season!

The final month of the season and we started it in 3rd place, too far behind on Dortmund we had already qualified for the Euro Cup and the last 3 games of the season would determine our final position. We had been in a bit of form dip, so it was not going to be easy. We started by dispatching Koln very easily and then traveled to 6th placed Werder on 52 points at the time and us in 3rd on 59 pts. This league is just crazy close this season and last, at this point I can still finish 5th as Frankfurt are in 4th on 58 points and RBL are 5th on 56 points. We went into this game knowing we really needed to win or RBL and Frankfurt would pounce on our position and we decided to play terrible and only draw 1-1 in our final home game of the season. Thankfully Frankfurt lost their game so they remained on 58 points but RBL won their game. 

Final game of the season was away to Hertha, time for some revenge after the cup defeat? Its till tight at the top and we can still finish in 5th as there is only 2 points separating 3rd, 4th and 5th. We just had to win this to take away any worry we might have on Frankfurt and RBL's final games (Frankfurt was playing 2nd place Dortmund and RBL is against 15th placed Gladbach) 

Not everything was ideal on the final day, Frankfurt beat Dortmund, RBL then drew in their game so with our labored draw against Hertha we snatch 3rd place on goal difference. However 3rd place is 3rd place and we improve on last seasons 4th and make some progress.

Final League Table

Bayern stormed to the league title, totally dominating this season after this poor performance last year. I have never seen a team just win a single game for an entire season before but thats what Stuttgart have done here, just woeful really for them. The surprise promotion team Regensburg also will be going straight back down (The only team Stuttgart beat) and Koln will battle out in the relegation playoff. Interesting but 3 of the goalkeepers I have an eye on are within teams in bottom 4! Sommer, Zieler and Horn .....

Final Squad Detail

Arp really came on this season and he hit the 30 + goals mark I was hoping he would. I am probably not the most happy with the Goalkeeper situation, I am likely going to find a solution to this over the summer. Both of my current guys are just too inconsistent and most annoyingly, they are very prone to make stupid mistakes and this is especially true of the younger Muller. I believe that I will actually look for a more experienced head between the sticks for next season as its my weakest position and where I feel the biggest upgrade to the squad can come. The squad has mostly now been together for 2 full seasons, they will all start to kick on now and start hitting their real potential soon and due to all being in a very similar age bracket, this is good news for us. 

Under 19s

My Under 19s also won the league in a huge canter in the end, there is some seriously talented players down there ready to push on in a season or 2. At the moment I am happy for them to continue for another season and make a decision once they are too old for them to play in the Under 19s. They also won the youth championship cup as well, so they are really looking good for the future.

 Finances 

Healthy bank balance and a decent initial transfer budget for the next season, I really only expect to make minimum signings anyway as it will be a quality over quantity summer.

[SixPointer]

Just catching up happy new year. Another stellar season mate. Can you mount a title challenge next season?

[Kingofcm03]

11 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Just catching up happy new year. Another stellar season mate. Can you mount a title challenge next season?

I am not sure, I still think I need another season of Champions League football (and money) to bring the overall squad to a level close enough. We still lost 9 games last season and this was only 1 better than the season before.

[Kingofcm03]

Summer Transfers

The aim this summer was to improve the overall quality of the team. I didn't want to make huge changes but just add 3-5 players who were better than what we had. I actually really took my time over the break to scout and break down the players I wanted. I had a fair idea of a certain player or 2 that I was going for straight away. I also will be changing up the tactical approach this season, so I had to move out and bring in some players to suit this new approach. I will explain more about the new tactic and my thinking as I introduce the new players. 

Transfers

Koen Casteels

My new number 1, I wanted a older more experienced keeper to come in. I narrowed it down to a few choices but in the end Casteels comes in and I am happy. I am not giving up on Muller, so he will get some games as well this season as he continues his development

Sebastián Palacios

I really wanted a backup and quality player to help Marin down the left, I was not happy with any of the available left inside forwards that I found so I decided to make my own. He has all the stats, just needs to learn the new position. He was on fire in preseason and was banging in goals I think its going to be ok

Lovro Majer

Will play backup to Morilla in my new tactical approach. Fairly low risk fee and I think hes talented enough to contribute to the season

Alessandro Murgia

Was not exactly a planned purchase, I was looking at him all last season and was in the process of scouting and looking again and then Kundle went and got injured for 7 months in the final game of the pre-season so I had to make some arrangements but for the price its a no brainer and I think he will probably actually start a few games. He also fits the dynamic and DNA of the players we want to sign.

Benjamín Rollheiser

I decided very late in the window to bring in another forward, I wanted to have a quality backup for Arp who is our main man upfront and we count on his goals quite a fair bit. If he gets injured then I wanted to have a good option to slot in. He can also cover in the wide positions so hes handy to have around. I probably paid a little too much for him but we have the cash so no problem.

Tactic Approach

I wanted to play both Morilla and Arp in the same team and I wanted to move away from the DM position. I was using the DM as I felt we needed it when the squad was less talented so now we move our 2 superstars into the same 11 and I am hoping it works. I need to work on a couple things. The Inside Forwards (Attack or Support) the postion for Morilla (Starting with SS but will try AM) and the middle left midfielder (BBM for now but might have to use something different). I also changed the RPM into a DLP as I just wanted that tiny bit more protection from this role

Preseason

Solid preseason. Nothing to complain about really. Undefeated and zero goals conceded.

Champions League Group

Well. What an absolute nightmare of a group.

[Kingofcm03]

Start of the season

First game of the season away to Dortmund was a tough start and we were spanked easily. It just shows we have a little bit of work to do in catching up to them and putting down a real challenge for the title.  Next up was a very weak home draw to Leverkusen, we were probably the better team but we had to settle for the draw. Thankfully September bought us more improvement as we started to get a handle on the new tactics and way of playing, I have been adjusting since the start of the season and I think we are starting to get better. Athletico Madrid totally destroyed us in the opening Champions League game. Less said about that the better. In the league we put home 4 straight. The game against Hertha was crazy, we went 1-0 up after 33 seconds and then Danso got sent off after 3 mins. They drew level at 1-1 and then we managed to push out to a 3-1 lead. With 20 mins to go we had an injury and had to play with 9 men as we used all the subs but thankfully they could only get a single goal back. The 2nd Game in the Champions League we went away to Karim Benzema lead Shakhtar, huge game really as I assume ill be fighting them for 3rd and we dominated for the win.  

League Table

The best start we have made to a league season, we usually have started badly in the first 2 seasons and so I am happy with this.

Squad Update

Our new Captain Arp has been on fire this month, with 3 hatricks in 4 games!! On another player update, our new GK Casteels has been very average so far. Last season Muller made 5 mistakes leading to goals all season and in 9 games so far this season, Casteels has already made 2!! He needs to resolve that or I will again be looking for a new GK in the summer and Casteels could be a 1 season wonder at the Opel Arena! Ive also decided to train Benjamín Rollheiser to play inside forward on the right (he can already play there quite well) but we are giving him specialist training and games. Nedelev has started slowly this season so I wanted another option for him and I've also go my eye on another forward to come in during January (More on that later if he joins)