Los Leones - A Basque Odyssey

[maccataq]

I first played with Athletic Bilbao (Los Leones) in FM11 and then again in FM15 so I wanted to return to managing a club I am very fond of. I managed to win trophies in FM11 but not the league but in FM15 I landed the league title after a few seasons in charge which I still hold as one of my greatest achievements in FM as I had to beat a Real Madrid team (managed by Brendan Rogers!) who were at the peak of their powers with Ronaldo and hammering teams most weeks. I won my first 10 games of the season and so did they; there was barely any room for error but in the 2nd half of the season I managed to open a small gap which I was able to hold on to (including an incredibly nervy draw against Real).

I also wanted to try for the first time to post regular updates about my progress so I hope you will follow and I hope others will want to try Athletic Bilbao and get some tips from my progress.

If you don't already know, Athletic Bilbao have an almost unique transfer policy of only selecting Basque players; the Basque region is a relatively small region in the north of Spain and over the border into France with a population just over 2m people. Athletic relaxed their policy to also include players who have had their footballing education in the Basque region hence the increase of non-Spanish nationalities playing for Athletic in the last 15-20 years. This means in FM you can buy Spanish 16 year olds and they will become Basque, gaining their homegrown status at Bilbao. Other notable Basque clubs include fierce rivals Real Sociedad from San Sebastian, Osasuna from Pamplona, Alaves from Vitoria-Gasteiz; Eibar and then a number of smaller clubs many of which are affiliated to Athletic such as Barakaldo, Cultural Durango, Portugalete and Sestao River. The only other notable town is Irun who play home to Real Union. The only French Basque club of note is Aviron Bayonnais who are famed for producing Didier Deschamps (the stadium is named after him) and more recently Aymeric Laporte who Athletic sold to Man City for £50m. They unfortunately play in the French Championnat National 3, a league not playable in FM (I would love to do a save where I made Aviron Bayonnais a big club in France to increase the quality of the pool of Basque players before moving on to Athletic).

Taking on Athletic in FM basically means you will be trusting in youth and the good thing is that the facilities and youth recruitment are exceptional. The sale of players in recent seasons such as Kepa to Chelsea and the aforementioned Laporte to Man City have meant that Athletic have a more than healthy financial situation as they can rarely go and spend big to replace (although they did manage to land Inigo Martinez for a big fee from Real Sociedad to replace Laporte). Unfortunately, you will have to brace yourself every time the transfer window opens and big clubs come knocking for your best players.

There are a number of notable and some World Class Basque footballers to keep an eye on playing in other countries as well as in Spain. I already mentioned Laporte (DC) and Kepa (GK) who play in the PL but there is also Ander Herrera (MC), Cesar Azpilicueta (DRC), Nacho Monreal (DL) and Fernando Llorente (CF). Ex Bilbao player Javi Martinez (DC/DM) at Bayern and Antoine Griezmann who is playing at Atletico and Odriozola (DR) at Real. Mikel Merino and Mikel Oyarzabal at rivals Real Sociedad also present excellent transfer targets. There is also Uruguayan Giorgian De Arrascaeta playing at Cruzeiro. (Recognising Basque names will probably become a skill e.g. Mikel is typically Basque; Xabi (as in Alonso) instead of Xavi and then also a lot of Ks, Zs and TXs).

Right then, I am of course playing FM2019 and this is only my 2nd save as I don't get as much chance to play as I used to (so I have no idea how I'm finding the time to write about it). In real life, this season has been a struggle for Athletic, flirting with relegation before pulling up to mid-table since sacking their manager so I am expecting a tough ride with the loss of star keeper, Kepa and an ageing striker in Aritz Aduriz who, at 37, is defying the ravages of time. Goals are therefore hard to come by but they do have some very capable attacking players such as Iker Munain, Inaki Williams, Raul Garcia and Markel Susaeta.

I settled on my squad of 25 as follows and will predominantly play 4231 and 433 (with DM), I should also note that when playing FM, I always disable the first transfer window as I like the game to start as in real life:

Goalkeepers: Herrerin, Simon and Remiro

Right backs: Lekue, Capa, De Marcos

Left backs: Yuri, Balenziaga, Ganea

Centre backs: Martinez, Yeray, Nunez and San Jose

Midfielders: Iturraspe, Dani Garcia, Rico, Benat

Attacking Midfielders: Raul Garcia, Unai Lopez

Left Wingers: Muniain and Cordoba

Right Wingers: Williams and Susaeta

Strikers: Aduriz and Villalibre

My first thoughts of the squad are that it is a little imbalanced with 3 left backs although Yuri and Ganea are versatile as is De Marcos at RB who can play pretty much anywhere in midfield and I will use him there when needed. San Jose and Iturraspe represent good options at DM and Raul Garcia and Williams will provide alternatives at Centre Forward.

Herrerin is the senior keeper but begins injured so I will go with Remiro and give chances to Unai Simon who has big potential.

Unai Nunez also has significant potential at CB so I will give him chances but Martinez and Yeray will most likely be my first choice CB partnership with Mikel San Jose offering competition.

Rico is getting on and will be a back-up and Dani Garcia is decent (and I do love a box to box midfielder) but with determination of 6, he is a concern. Benat in midfield is a must for his creativity and he will most likely be partnered with Iturraspe.

Raul Garcia will be first choice at AMC but Unai Lopez will be given chances (he was a star for me in FM15 but he hasn't developed to be quite as good but still offers a good option here).

Muniain is a shoe-in at LW with Cordoba as back up with good potential. Susaeta and Williams will fight it our for RW but I suspect Williams will be my first choice, although there will be other options including Williams up top or at LW with the option to play Muniain at AMC.

Aduriz will be a target man up top and I will try to give Villalibre chances who pipped Guruzeta into my squad. I believe in the last couple of versions, Villalibre was a wonderkid but I guess he hasn't developed as much as expected but still represents a good option with good potential.

 

 

 

[maccataq]

At this point, I should make a confession...I decided to do this thread already half way into my first season so apologies if I'm not systematically going through my decisions around contracts, youth teams, staff and the rest but I will answer any questions should you have them. 2 notable hires were Pablo Sanz as Assistant Manager and Pedro Peso as HoYD, I was unhappy with the quality of the incumbent staff. There are a few others I will clear out over time and there are a few other staff members I have added including Ivan Cordoba (ex Inter and Colombia centre-back) to bolster my defensive coaching. 

I also made a mistake in loading the leagues. I chose a large database with Spain and France but I assumed Spain would include all leagues but apparently not so Segunda B will now be added in my 2nd season which is very annoying for Bilbao Athletic, my B team. The C team Baskonia are in the third tier so won't have any games and will probably become a dumping ground for the players not really good enough. My aim will be to get the B team back to the 2nd tier and keep them there for them to compete at a higher level.

[maccataq]

Pre-season was a little frustrating but the main aim is to get players fit, learn about their capabilities and get them familiar with my tactics. A 1-0 defeat at Reims, conceding 2 to a team I haven't heard of and a goalless draw against Gernika had me worried (although there was some green shoots in a 1-0 win over PSV and a draw with Arsenal.

Wins over Aviron Bayonnais and Barakaldo probably didn't tell me too much but brought some confidence and then an uninspiring victory over Cercle Brugge had me concerned about my opening fixtures which were Real Madrid (H), Huesca (A), Atletico (A). Feasibly I could be staring down the barrel of 2 defeats from my first 3 fixtures putting greater pressure on the game against lowly Huesca (which seems like a banana skin given how we have struggled to break down some teams in pre-season)

[maccataq]

It went better than expected! After falling behind to a Gareth Bale goal after 10 minutes, I feared the worst but a quick Muniain double fired us in front and then Susaeta had us in dreamland at 3-1 but Asensio squeezed a shot in the near post, much to my dismay to make 3-2 at half-time. I was delighted that Aduriz got off the mark for the season, adding our 4th and a 2 goal cushion which we held on to.

No slip up at Huesca with a routine 2-0 victory with Muniain firing us head early on before Aduriz scored from the spot.

Then away to Atletico proved a difficult match where Griezmann fired Atletico ahead after 32 mins but drama followed only a minute later when Koke was sent off and then the in-form Muniain equalised 6 mins later. Unfortunately we couldn't press home our 1 man advantage and were held to a 1-1 draw which of course the press write up was a narrative of shame that we couldn't beat 10 men . Anyway, a draw away to Atletico is a decent result especially when targeting a Europa League placing.

I also squeezed in a quick friendly with Real Union to keep my fringe players sharp and duly hit them for 6 during the international break.

Edited March 23, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

The next run of games went very well starting with a 2-1 derby win over Eibar, a convincing 3-0 win over struggling Villarreal and then a whopping 6-0 away win at Leganes where Aduriz, Williams and Martinez all grabbed 2 each (Inigo Martinez is a a bit of free-kick fiend!).

We then edged past Espanyol who had been doing quite well before our first big Basque Derby away at Sociedad. We didn't play very well in all honesty but came away with a fortunate 1-0 win courtesy of another Inigo Martinez goal, this time against his former club to make it all the sweeter. We missed a 7th minute penalty, Aduriz seeing his penalty saved for the 2nd game running after he failed to give us the 2 goal cushion we craved against Espanyol. We rounded off this run of games with another tight 1-0 win, this time against a struggling Sevilla team with Pablo Machin getting fired about a month later.

Up next we drew UD Melilla in the cup which brings a welcome opportunity to rotate the squad.

Edited March 23, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

We started away to Mellila and as noted I rotated the squad considerably giving the fit again Herrerin a chance in goal. It seemed I might be punished for making wholesale changes as we trailed 1-0 at half time. A late flurry including goals from Cordoba, Unai Lopez and then a late strike from Williams pretty much wrapped this tie up.

Next off we went to Levante and it is here where we suffered our first and a very disappointing 2-0 defeat. We dominated possession and had a lot of shots but in truth we were 2nd best and Levante deserved the points which was a worrying result heading into the Barcelona match. We gave a good account of ourselves in this match with Aduriz heading us in front only for us to be pegged back by a worldy free-kick from Messi but I am content with the point. Still 2 games without a win put pressure on the next match against an over-achieving Rayo Vallecano but Inaki Williams got the breakthrough on the hour to hand us the 3 points.

Another rotated team went through the motions to beat Mellila 1-0 in the 2nd leg with Cordoba making it 2 in 2. We then hammered Alaves 5-0 with Benat and Raul Garcia bagging 2 each with both finding their first goals of the season and the latter scoring 1 from the spot - after Aduriz missed 2 both Raul Garcia and Benat missed from the spot before Raul Garcia scored this one!

The elections brought a new club president who seemed intent on bringing in Jorge Sampaoli so I headed into the Girona match under pressure to keep my job despite our excellent campaign so far but a 2-1 win followed despite Raul Garcia blazing a penalty over the bar. All penalty takers have now been removed with the exception of Mikel San Jose who has yet to take one. 3 out of 8 is a bit worrying but luckily none of the misses has cost me yet!

We headed into the Christmas break with a home fixture against Real Betis which should have been a routine win but Betis proved stubborn opposition and nicked a goal from a corner in the 2nd half. Despite sitting 10th, as well as beating us they beat Real 3-1 and earned a 1-1 draw against Barcelona.

We drew struggling Huesca in the next round of the cup and so I again I rotated heavily but the tie was effectively over in half an hour, a 7-1 mauling away from home with Inigo Cordoba continuing his fine cup form with 2 goals and Oscar De Marcos scored a brilliant hat-trick playing at RW with Asier Villalibre scoring his first goal for the club in this fixture. The 2nd leg was a breeze as well with Villalibre adding his 2nd goal and a brace from Mikel Rico and 1 from Unai Lopez making it 11-2 on aggregate. We drew Zaragoza in the next round which is who I said I wanted in the press conference! With Real already out and Barca drawing Atletico, my chances of winning the cup seem quite good.

Anyway, we also played Valencia in between the 2 cup games which away from home after our defeat before Christmas came with added pressure. Things didn't start well when Gameiro fired home after 10 minutes but Aduriz headed home an equaliser just 1 minute later. With 15 mins to go, we were awarded a penalty and luckily Mikel San Jose was on the pitch to take it and he cooly sent the keeper the wrong way and earned us a massive 3pts away to a 5th placed team.

So that brings me up to date with a trip to Celta Vigo next and then my quarter final with Zaragoza sandwiching what I hope is a home banker vs bottom of the league Getafe (who in real life occupy 4th!) before a big trip to Real Madrid who now lie 5th and proving even worse than in real life after losing their last 2.

So here it is, after 17 games, we are top of the league - completely against my expectations but Barcelona have dropped silly points and luckily also suffered a surprise loss when we lost at home to Betis. Atletico seem to be our biggest rivals but there is a long way to go so I don't want to talk about title chances just yet, especially as the transfer window is now open and I have received bids for Williams, Yeray, Aduriz, Iturraspe and Lekue...I have rejected every bid but keeping everyone happy will be a challenge!

Keeping the squad happy without the added European games has been a big challenge as I've not wanted to disrupt the team too much through our good form. Unai Nunez and San Jose have both become unhappy about lack of playing time and I very much want to give them game time but Martinez is crucial and Yeray has been in great form. I managed to give San Jose enough football to keep him happy but Yeray then became unhappy so now him and Nunez have been getting a lot of football and both on their way to dropping the issues. The 2 legged cup ties have helped here!

Ganea and Balenziaga have also been unhappy about lack of playing time but I promised Ganea a loan move. He dropped the issue as I gave him a couple of cup games but the now injured Balenziaga is still unhappy. I will probably have to move him on even though I'm quite fond of him when he was my first choice left back in my FM15 save.

Iturraspe was unhappy I blocked a move for him to China but he'll have to suck it up.

I managed to convince Williams that there is nothing I can do if someone pays his £72m release clause and I then rejected bids from PSG and Real but many more clubs are hovering but hopefully we can get through the window.

I promised Lekue champions league football (since it looks like we'll get it) - the stupid thing is he didn't think it was realistic despite wanting to join a now 6th Valencia. I managed to do this by suggesting we'll bring through young players. Lekue isn't crucial and in truth is a back-up but he is decent and can cover both full back positions and I'd rather not sell since we don't have many good full backs coming through the ranks.

Aduriz wasn't bothered about me rejecting a bid from Napoli.

 

[maccataq]

You can lead a horse to water but...

After a terrific first half of the season, January brought us crashing back to earth. I already posted the first few games of January with a potentially tricky trip to Celta Vigo up next proving as such. The game didn't start well when Inigo Martinez deflected in a shot which went down as an own goal (although I felt it shouldn't have been) and so we trailed but Williams crossed from the right shortly after and Aduriz swept home his 10th of the season. Mikel Rico started this match after impressing in the cup and Iturraspe was confined to the bench as he continues to sulk about my blocking a transfer. As the 2nd half wore on, we were struggling to make things happen so on came Iturraspe so I could push Benat from a DLP to an AP in central midfield and it seemed to have the desired effect as we started to create more. Inaki Williams then headed home from a Benat free kick and looked to have given us another valuable 3pts after Atletico had won earlier. It was not to be though as Pione Sisto scored a 25 yarder deep into injury time to steal a point. I felt confident of holding out retaining my 4231 shape but in hindsight, maybe I could have thrown a DM on to see it out. Still, Celta had 2 shots on target and scored twice so perhaps there wasn't too much to worry about.

Next up Zaragoza who managed to score a 30 yarder from a direct free-kick early on and put us on the back foot. Villalibre had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for a clear offside. The 2nd half was much better after I reminded them of my expectations and we started peppering their goal. Finally we got the breakthrough when we were awarded a penalty on the hour and Mikel San Jose continued his reliable penalty record, sending the excellent Alvarez the wrong way. The Zaragoza stopper looked like he might frustrate us making an excellent stop from De Marcos who volleyed from about 10 yards out but we kept the attack alive and worked a cross to the back post for De Marcos to pop up again only to see his shot saved but expertly guided in the rebound to give us the lead. It could have been more but for Alvarez who made a total of 14 saves in the match and yet was only awarded a 7.1 rating!

Getafe next who should have been a home banker but they had appointed a new manager and unfortunately withstood our best efforts. Benat's first half free kick struck the bar and Muniain's 2nd half header came off the inside of the post and stayed out. It was one way traffic but it ended in stalemate and another frustrating draw, made worse by Atletico winning their derby, beating Real 2-1.

Away to Zaragoza, we could have done with a morale boosting win but we lived dangerously in this game and I was content to see out a 0-0 draw and safe passage to the semi-finals. In the post-match press conference, I was asked who I would like to face and so I said Deportivo as the lowest ranked remaining team in the cup and I was again rewarded with my wish whilst Atletico drew Valencia for the other semi-final. First though, a tricky trip to Madrid...

 

It did not go well, Bale and Ascensio once again on the scoresheet against me but we fired a blank. We offered very little in attack although Aduriz might have pulled one back late on. Barcelona's win at Levante means we slip to 3rd and Atletico move 6pts clear of us and 5 clear of Barcelona.

January finished with a trip to Deportivo in the cup and we really needed a win to shake off our malaise. Any chance of that evaporated quickly as we again fell behind with Borja Valle firing Deportivo ahead after just 10 mins. Things went from bad to worse when he scored his 2nd just before half time to lead 2-0 at the break. Luckily, I had my hairdryer handy for my half time team talk! I sent them out for the 2nd half in no uncertain terms but the 2nd half led quickly to another Deportivo attack who swept the ball from left to right and took advantage of an overload; once into the area it seemed like the unthinkable was about to happen before an incredible intervention by Inigo Lekue! His tackle led to a counter attack which finished with Oscar De Marcos firing home and all of a sudden things were looking up. We completed the come back when Dani Garcia's shot came back off the bar and hit Kroen-Dehli and rolled over the line (although I felt Aduriz managed to get a touch before it did). We couldn't push on from there but a 2-2 draw with the 2nd leg to come, especially given the pickle we found ourselves in, was not a bad result. Valencia managed to get a 1-1 draw away to Atletico so the other semi final is finely poised.

So a disappointing month where we have suddenly struggled to score goals with opposition teams seemingly scoring with most of the shots they take and from ridiculous positions. It's been a month of rejecting transfer bids but a major oversight left Oihan Sancet vulnerable to being poached when we failed to get his new contract sorted before the turn of the year and sadly he rejected our contract in favour of Arsenal. This is a bitter blow, I'd even handed him a debut in the cup to try and persuade him. He actually accepted a lower wage at Arsenal so I guess there wasn't anything we could do. His stats aren't great and I think this is why it slipped under the radar but I feel annoyed I have allowed this to happen. Still, he should hopefully be developed well at Arsenal and we'll keep the door open to try and bring him back one day.

February offers a number of winnable games starting with lowly Huesca but it also offers a chance to close the gap when we entertain Atletico at San Mames. Let's hope we can get back to winning ways quickly.

[maccataq]

Good times roll on

If January raised doubts about our title credentials, February confirmed them. Apart from the visit of Atletico, February looked a favourable run  of fixtures.

We started at home to Huesca and the 4-1 scoreline was ultimately more comfortable than this seems. I was nervous watching on because recent fixtures like this we'd struggled to find the breakthrough and I knew how important it was to start putting wins back on the board. A couple of Aduriz headers were flashed wide before we finally got a breakthrough care of centre back Unai Nunez who lashed home from close range following a corner to settle my nerves. However, only 3 mins later our good work was undone when Luisinho struck from outside the area, drilling a shot from the right side into the far corner; San Jose took some blame but when we were awarded a penalty 7 mins later, he had chance to redeem and he made no mistake to convert yet again from the spot. We didn't put the game to bed until the 84th minute when Villalibre stabbed home De Marcos' cross, netting his first league goal for the club before Benat drilled home from outside the area when his free-kick came back off the wall.

Oscar De Marcos (now playing mostly at AMC rather than RB) continued his good form scoring the only goal of the game against Deportivo to book our place in the Copa Del Rey final. We will face Atletico who navigated a tough trip to Valencia, winning 2-0 (3-1 on aggregate).

Next up we would face Atletico; my tactical briefing didn't go as planned when most of the team didn't like my assertion that we should be positive. We lined up 433 for this one exercising caution against a free scoring team boasting Diego Costa and Antoine Griezmann but we were also at home and I wanted to ensure we were taking the initiative wherever possible. In typical fashion, former Atletico player, Raul Garcia fired us in front when we worked the ball to the edge of the area from the left flank - he was given far too much time. Vitolo equalised when he came in from the left unmarked from a right wing cross; we were defending narrow and I was worried by the threat they were making in a 442 so I decided we should defend with more width after that. We looked shaky for the next 5 mins but we survived to half time at 1-1. I had deliberately targeted their left side as both Vitolo and Lucas Hernandez both looked fatigued but I didn't really get much joy. With the game finely poised, I wasn't sure whether to stick or twist; on the one hand we really needed to win this one to cut the deficit back to 3pts but realistically, I had to consider our recent form and the fact that top 4 was an over-achievement. I therefore decided not to push into my 4231 shape but tried to be more positive within the 433 shape. I'm not sure if it had the desired impact but Martinez powered a header home from a Yuri corner and gave us a priceless 2-1 win (and with our 1-1 draw at the Wanda Metropolitano, we had the upper hand in the head to head).

Aduriz headed another valuable winner against Eibar shortly after we were pegged back and unlike at Celta, I threw on San Jose to help us see out the game. Villarreal was more tricky than I would have liked and it was Markel Susaeta (who was laid out injured for a good 4 months) who struck sweetly from just inside the area to hand us the points.

We rounded off the month at home to struggling Leganes and any concerns that they were would frustrate dissipated in the opening exchanges when Raul Garcia first headed home before striking from 25 yards to give us a 2-0 lead inside 5 minutes. Villalibre added a third after 20 mins and got his second in the 85 minute with a fine header from substitute Cordoba's cross. Muniain picked up an injury from the previous match but in truth I would have dropped him as he continued to struggle for form. Aduriz has been inconsistent and that's why Villalibre started this one and to be fair, he had consistently trained well.

After I had beaten Atletico, so did Barcelona who had also dropped points themselves. Atletico finished the month coming from behind to beat Valencia but we top the league once more, separated only by the head to head. Top 4 (and even top 3) look secure and now we will have to start talking more seriously about our title credentials, even if you could say Atletico might well be the favourites from this point.

March will throw up some tough tests including trips to Espanyol and Sevilla and of course a huge test in the Camp Nou. Our only home game will be the Vasco derby

In other news, Unai Nunez has fallen out with me because he wants first team football (despite starting a lot of games) so he started pretty much every game in February (and I'll keep playing him until he snaps out of it) as he will be important to me in future and he is already performing well.

I also accepted a bid from China for Iturraspe as he remained unhappy but I set the transfer date to be the end of the season so we're not left short. On loan Mikel Vesga signed a new 3 year deal so I have a decent replacement to fall back on should we not be able to find someone in the transfer market.

March should also bring the youth intake so I will prey for a good intake.

Edited March 26, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

We March On!

Only 4 games in March but we started well with a 2-0 away win to Espanyol. A late penalty was converted by Benat to take his penalty record to 50% (1/2) but his penalty wasn't the most convincing but a good away win. We won the Vasco derby 1-0 thanks to Aduriz's second half header but this was no classic.

Sevilla was an eventful game with chances for both teams. We took the lead very early on when De Marcos finished superbly from just inside the area. The lead would not last long when Quincy Promes brought the hosts level. Jesus Navas brought a great save from Remiro and we had a few chances to re-gain the lead with shots flashed just wide but we were awarded a penalty 5 mins before half-time! No worries, San Jose was on the pitch and he stepped up and blazed the penalty over the bar! He had been reliable and this made it 3/4 for him but it didn't help our troubles from 12 yards this season (Benat 1/2; Raul Garcia 1/3; Aduriz 2/4) and this is the first time a penalty miss has cost us. Aduriz had the ball in the net but VAR ruled it offside and Williams ran in on goal in 2nd half injury time but shot at the keeper. This is a game we should have won on the chances we had and has to go down as 2pts dropped. A point away to Sevilla may sound good but they've already replaced their manager and lie a disappointing 12th in the table. My only consolation was Atletico drawing to Levante but Barcelona's win made this a 3 horse race.

Dropping silly points before the big trip to Camp Nou was not ideal but we more than matched Barcelona in a tense game of few chances. Remiro saved brilliantly from a Suarez free kick and Yeray could have headed us in front in the first half. It was difficult to know whether to push on for the win here as ultimately a point away to Barcelona is always a good point. If Barcelona had beat me they would have leapfrogged me in the table but I suppose only time will tell whether this was a good result in the context of our title bid.

Still our neighbours Real Sociedad had the chance to do us a favour...

So Atletico move 2pts clear and Barcelona are 2pts behind, it's getting very tight. I have the better head to head vs Atletico so goal difference is not a concern, which is a good thing as they have a better attack. We are even with Barcelona on the head to head (we drew 1-1 at home) and Atletico beat Barcelona 4-1 but lost 2-0 away so a 3 way tie would have us top with 6pts, Barca 2nd with 5pts and Atletico 3rd with 4pts.

April is a long month in terms of fixtures but ultimately they are all winnable and we'll need to be consistent to have any chance of winning this league:

Edited March 27, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

Here is our first youth intake and I'm fairly happy with the intake including 3-4 players with exceptional potential and good to see a much needed striker among them.

A closer look at the top youth prospects:

[maccataq]

Twists & Turns

April proved a tough month with a gruelling schedule. It started off home to Levante who had previously inflicted our first defeat of the season upon us. We dominated this game and took an early lead when Benat converted from the spot but we were pegged back just 6 mins later. It looked like it was going to end in a disappointing draw before Muniain, who I had switched to the centre behind the striker, lashed in from 25 yards in the 93rd minute. Pure elation and a great sign that we were battling for this title and that lady luck may just be with us.

Rayo Vallecano away should have been a win on paper but they are a tough team who pose a dangerous threat in attack. We took the lead early through Dani Garcia who rewarded my faith in selecting him by scoring his first goal of the season (and for the club) but things would turn for the worse when Rayo not only equalised but scored at the start of the 2nd half to lead 2-1. I had to make some tweaks but we got a breakthrough when we were awarded yet another penalty. Benat stepped up again to make it 3/4 successful spot kicks for him and put us back on level terms. We almost won it injury time when we hit the woodwork only to see Rayo's final attack of the game end in our net. Bebe headed home in the 94th minute, a cruel blow to our chances! (this was further compounded when Atletico went to Rayo and scored a 91st minute winner).

We struggled to break down Real Valladolid but Inigo Martinez saved us with a brilliant strike in the 84th minute. We were poor away to Alaves but another CB, this time Yeray, headed home from a corner to give us another fighting 1-0 win; his first goal for the club. You may think Girona was a similar story but we created a lot of chances in this game and bar the lack of goals, we played well. Nonetheless, it still took us until the 75th minute to find our breakthrough when Williams volleyed home at the back post coming in from the right, making up for an earlier miss when he was playing through the middle.

Betis away promised to be a tough fixture and we were also chasing revenge against the only team to leave San Mames with all 3 points this season. We played quite well again here but our problems in taking chances continued, especially Aduriz who returned to the starting line up after being benched for a couple of games. We finally broke the deadlock when a Susaeta cross looked like it would be turned in by Aduriz but he was pushed and VAR helped confirm a penalty. Why the defender wasn't sent off, I don't know! Anyway, Raul Garcia, in Benat's absence, made no mistake from the spot. The game was quite open and I was thinking about trying to shut things down but sod's law, Sergio Leon scored an equaliser before I could. A draw away to 6th placed Betis may not seem like such a bad result but we need to win all our games and Aduriz missed a final chance when clean through in the dying minutes. At 38, we certainly cannot depend on him and we clearly don't have a striker that can lead the line and score the goals we need. Villalibre has developed well this season but is still vastly inconsistent and I can't seem to get the best out of Williams unless he is playing on the right wing.

 

Somewhere in the middle of those games, we got a run in review and indeed the title race is tight. I still fancy our run in and have to hope that Real Madrid do us a favour!

Barcelona had a terrible month, winning just once, drawing 4 times, including 3 goalless draws, and rounded the month off with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Valencia. Atletico started April with an 8-0 thumping of Huesca but also stumbled with 3 draws to Girona, Betis and Real Valladolid with the latter coming from 2 behind to claim a point. The other 2 games they won with late goals; I already mentioned their 91st minute win vs Rayo but the next game brought a 93rd minute winner against Alaves proving their fighting spirit.

So the table looks like this with Barcelona now 8 points behind me; Valencia and Real battling it out for 4th and then Atletico top by a single point and 3 games to play (including that trip to the Bernabeu)

My final fixtures are against an 8th placed Celta; 4th placed Valencia (easily my toughest test) and then a trip to bottom placed Getafe who might well be relegated by the time we meet. If I do Real a favour by beating Valencia then hopefully they will return the favour by stopping Atletico!

Then we'll round off the season with the cup final against Atletico with one of us vying for a domestic double. I have to believe that if we win all our games, it will be us chasing the double which would be a magnificent achievement. I had already achieved my primary aim for the season of qualifying for the Europa League but we are guaranteed Champions League football next season. This season has also been a record breaker for the club in terms of points won and the most wins.

Wish me luck!

Edited March 28, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

Down to the wire

We beat Celta Vigo 2-0 but it was a penalty late on (from San Jose) that wrapped up the points after Ander Iturraspe struck his first of the season. It's a shame he's on his way to China at the end of the season but glad he could contribute here. He had been out of favour but we've needed him with injuries and suspension. The game didn't start well as we came under pressure from Celta who could and perhaps should have scored. We were much better 2nd half and ultimately got our rewards.

Atletico had been unerring so a defeat against Valencia would hand the title to them. This was a cagey affair and we started like we did against Celta but we recovered more quickly and could have taken the lead before we finally did through Dani Garcia 5 mins before the break and perhaps could have gone in 2 up. Valencia scored an equaliser around the hour to put us under pressure. We now needed to chase a win knowing we risk losing and handing Atletico the title. Our lack of goals has been a worry and the source of most of our goals in the run in has come from my midfield and defence. Aduriz has been injured and has struggled for goals in the 2nd half of the season and Villalibre also struggles but we hit the woodwork 3 times in this match so we can consider ourselves unlucky. Williams had another chance but he has been disappointing in front of goal lately too. So it finished 1-1 and we go into the final game of the season 3pts behind Atletico so we need to win at already relegated Getafe and we need Atletico to lose away to Real Madrid...so neither are out of the question!

Edited March 29, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

Close but no cigar

We went into the Getafe game knowing there was a small chance we could still land the league title; 3 points behind but a better head to head record. A comfortable 2-0 win away at Getafe was expected and when we went into half time one goal to the good, I had to quickly check on the Madrid derby. Sadly, Atletico scored on the verge of half time to take them one step closer to the title. We got the 2nd through Raul Garcia (Inigo Martinez scored the first with an exquisite free-kick) so with our part effectively done, it was time to check the Madrid game and Modric had duly converted a penalty; another goal for Real and the title would be ours but Atletico stood firm. We finished 1 point behind as runners up. I am obviously disappointed but the bigger picture shows a massive over-achievement. Atletico's goal difference tells you the real gap between the teams.

However, there was still the cup final to play with Atletico now going for the domestic double. It was a tough game but having taken 4 points from them in the league, I felt I had the measure of them. We rode our luck early on before settling into the game. In the 2nd half we took the lead when Mikel San Jose scored yet another penalty after Aduriz was fouled. 5 minutes later, Aduriz ran clear and looked like he would double our advantage but Oblak turned round the post - my strikers just can't seem to find the net! Then Filipe Luis crossed for Griezmann a couple of minutes later and his header was superbly saved by my cup keeper Unai Simon but Griezmann snaffled up the rebound; 1-1.

We actually looked the better team thereafter with Aduriz heading off target and then Muniain somehow heading over from almost under the bar. Insult was added to injury when Vitolo struck a fine goal 5 minutes from time. We threw everything at them but we didn't really have enough so late in the game. We deserved far more but we again finished runners up.

So that brings our first season to an end. Aduriz is looking to retire but I have asked him to reconsider. Although his powers are on the wane, he is a team leader and having a positive impact via mentoring. If we are to go a step further next season, we are going to need to improve our striking options. Villalibre has developed well this season but I'm yet to see that translate into goals. We'll also have Champions League football to contend with which will make things harder, although it might make squad management easier as keeping everyone happy was difficult.

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

Pre-Season Update:

Aritz Aduriz could not be persuaded to put off his retirement so we lose a team leader but onward and upward. Striker continues to be the problem position but Villalibre remains at the club and represents a good option. Transfer market options at striker were limited with Kenan Kodro a Bosnian with Basque nationality playing at FC Copenhagen one option (and someone Athletic have signed in real life) but I wasn't convinced and with determination of just 10, I don't see him playing tutor to any of my younger strikers. The other option might have been Fernando Llorrente who I was considering despite him not being liked by the fans (forced his way out of the club and left on a free a few years back) but that was taken off the table quickly when he announced his retirement! All other options would mainly be ex Bilbao players that didn't make the grade and seemed unattractive options.

Sabin Merino returns from loan. I was unsure about him and with his contract expiring at £21.5k/week there was a chance I would cut him loose but he settled on a new deal of £15k/week so I thought I'd keep him around as a useful player up front and on the left. I figured I may as well take a risk on him than signing someone else of similar quality, although the fans aren't so sure.

One of my youth intake is already a star in the making with a 2 star first team rating! At 16 it seems premature but this kid has to get a chance to solve our biggest problem and given his age, he won't need to be registered.

I released the ageing Mikel Rico to make way for new talent and save £12k/week. Xabi Etxeita returned from loan and I renewed his deal at just £8k/week but ultimately, he will either be back up or shipped out on loan once again. I previously also mentioned signing Mikel Vesga to a new deal and he returns from loan to earn a squad place in midfield following Iturraspe's departure.

Then 2 new signings!

Roberto Torres - a creative player that can play in central midfield will provide an alternative to Benat but also offer an option at AMC. I ended up paying his release clause to 2nd tier Basque rivals Osasuna.

Then considerably more expensive was Giorgian de Arrascaeta, a Uruguayan (who played at the World Cup in Russia) plying his trade at Brazilian club Cruzeiro. He was only a few million but 80% of his ownership belonged to an agent so it took all of the rest of our transfer budget to bring him in but he should provide a bit of quality at AMC; another option at LW and free up Raul Garcia to operate in CM.

We also made 3 youth signings with Josu Iriondo plucked again from Osasuna the pick among them:

Edited April 3, 2019 by maccataq

[dothestrand]

Great to hear your save is going well. Lots of people in the community will confirm that Athletic Club is one of the best saves. Develop your youngsters well with the brilliant recruitment and facilities you've got and you're able to compete for trophies within a few seasons.

I'm sure you know there's a thread in the Good Player and Team Guide area - 

 

[maccataq]

Pre-season is over! I've been a bit slow getting through but there was a lot of players to sort out over 4 different squads and  I like a big friendly schedule to get the players ready. It was a bit of a mixed bag with a draw away to West Ham and a defeat at Everton, although the latter we were forced to play with 10 men for an hour after Dani Garcia picked up 2 bookings in 8 mins! Really? In a friendly? We were 1-0 up at the time too.

We tested a new 442 diamond in the next 2 games, Andoni Sanz, my 16 year old star in the making, played up top in the Gernika match and set up all 3 goals for Villalibre - all brilliant goals and assists. The next match Andoni Sanz scored a goal too, a fine composed finish at that too! Barakaldo was an awful match in which we somehow drew when they equalised late on. We had nearly 30 shots and hit the woodwork at least twice but our shots on target was pathetic and they all got an earful and told they'd be back in training the next day after this one. We were much better against Hadjuk Split, comfortably despatching them 4-0 ahead of the Supercopa de Espana (more about that in a moment). Our final friendly before the league campaign was at home to Sturm Graz which was largely disappointing and took a late goal from substitute Villalibre to seal the win.

 

The super cup would see us finish runner up to Atletico for the 3rd successive match (we will have our revenge!) but the defeat here was on me. I usually drop into my 433 more defensive approach against them (and other big teams) and this game seemed like a good game to gamble and go toe-to-toe with our usual 4231 shape although, I changed our approach from positive to balanced for this occasion. We started well and new signing de Arrascaeta could and perhaps should have fired us in front when the ball broke to him in space but Adan saved well. Our CB Unai Nunez headed wide not long after from a corner when it seemed like all he had to do was hit the target to score but as it was, this clipped the outside of the post. Obviously, this meant that Atletico would punish us and they unduly did when a long ball wasn't dealt with by Martinez and Griezmann, still with a lot to do, fired an unstoppable shot from just outside the area on the right hand side. Thomas Lemar struck from a free kick and they led 2-0 at half-time and that's ultimately how it finished.

Our inability to shoot on target again highlighted what a difficult season lay ahead. There were also some worrying performances from all of my front 4, the worst reserved for new signing de Arrascaeta.

When it comes to competitive league matches, we more often stand up and be counted and our 2 games in August delivered maximum points. Girona away couldn't have gone much better with Raul Garcia driving through midfield before threading a fine pass through for Villalibre who scored with brilliant composure and ended a personal drought of over 10 hours without a goal! Benat had us 2 up from the spot and Inigo Martinez picked up a rebound when de Arrascaeta's initial shot was saved. de Arrascaeta then scored on his league debut to complete the rout.

We were 3-0 up by half time with Benat scoring a free kick before de Arrascaeta found himself in space 10 yards out to fire home. Inaki Williams opened his account with a far post header and it should have been 4 but Benat's injury time penalty was weak with the keeper guessing right. Bebe scored a long range shot just after half time much to my frustration. This should have been 5 or 6 but was nearly 3-2 but for a correctly ruled out goal, which would have been even more unjust given they only had 2 shots on goal.

Meanwhile, Atletico's title defence started with a shock home defeat to Sevilla and Barcelona (now with Jurgen Klopp at the wheel) lost 4-3 at Celta and would have been worse but for a couple of late goals!

[maccataq]

5 hours ago, dothestrand said:

Great to hear your save is going well. Lots of people in the community will confirm that Athletic Club is one of the best saves. Develop your youngsters well with the brilliant recruitment and facilities you've got and you're able to compete for trophies within a few seasons.

I'm sure you know there's a thread in the Good Player and Team Guide area - 

 

Thanks mate, I think I have read through bits of that thread before, I'll start following it and contribute as it will be good to trade ideas. Interesting to see how other people have found it and the choices they made too!

[maccataq]

A few other small updates. We navigated the summer transfer window without selling anyone I didn't want to. Balenziaga, Lekue, Nolaskoain and Guruzeta all departed on loan.

I briefly mentioned that Jurgen Klopp replaced Valverde at Barcelona who decided 3rd place was not good enough. Allegri was appointed at Real Madrid before last season and despite not even qualifying for the Champions League, he kept his job!

If Klopp thought a first game defeat to Celta was bad, he followed that up with a 1-0 home defeat to newly promoted Las Palmas! Their 3rd game was a trip to local rivals Espanyol who they could only manage a 1-1 draw with. So only 1 point from 9 for Herr Jurgen!

Allegri opened with another trip to the Basque country (lost 4-2 to us last season) at lowly Eibar and fell behind to a penalty but battled back to a 3-1 win and then hammered Granada 9-1 (NINE!). So good start for them.

Atletico followed up their first match home defeat with a convincing 3-0 away win at Villarreal.

We also had our CL group stage draw:

Tough, could have been much worse but there were certainly a couple of easier groups for sure.

[maccataq]

September was a tough month with some narrow 1-0 wins. I don't really want to be a 1-0 kind of team but we have a good defence generally and our attack can be a struggle for obvious reasons.

Sevilla was a tough match which Williams had put us in front relatively early on but we dominated the match to the point that Sevilla could barely conjure an attack. Despite that, I had an overwhelming feeling we would concede the equaliser and it nearly came from their only shot on target in the match but we held on to the victory.

Bayern up next was another case of making it hard playing in our 433 and thanks to a dream start, Muniain striking into the top corner after Ganea had rolled a free kick to him just outside the area.

Susaeta then broke a record for the fastest goal with the ball in the net after less than 23 seconds! Deportivo hadn't even had a touch of the ball. Unai Lopez made it 2-0 on his first appearance of the season.

Now Barcelona had endured a difficult start under new manager Jurgen Klopp losing their first 2 and drawing at Espanyol as already noted but they then were hammered 4-1 by Inter in the CL! Things didn't get any easier for them with a trip to Real Madrid (who had made a fine start) and it was the Madridstas who won El Clasico 1-0 leaving Barcelona in the relegation zone despite adding Mandzukic and Poga to the likes of Messi, Suarez and the like. So obviously, this was going to be the wrong time to visit the Camp Nou! Despite taking an early lead, Pogba scored a long range strike to make it 1-1 at HT and we had to endure a lot of pressure. Mandzukic made it 2-1 just after the break and I decided to go a bit more attacking once Muniain was forced off injured, changing to a 442 diamond. It wasn't long before Jordi Alba was striking a pile driver to make it 3-1. I feared a drubbing was on the cards but Yuri brilliantly intercepted a cross field pass, drove forward switched the play to Williams (in truth he forced him a bit wide) before Williams expertly crossed in for Yuri to strike first time into the far corner. 3-2 and we had a chance to steal a point but our hopes were dashed when Rakitic scored to make it 4-2 a minute later. On reflection, only Mandzukic's goal wasn't a long range strike so perhaps Barcelona struck a bit lucky but in truth they deserved to win the game.

We bounced back a few days later at Eibar, enjoying near total domination. It took until the 2nd half to get the breakthrough; Ganea's set pieces had been dangerous all game and this time from a corner, Villalibre's header was saved but he lapped up the rebound for his 2nd of the season. I'm really glad he scored again as I really need him to kick on. We escaped one scare when Simon saved in a one on one situation but we saw the game out, even if a little unconvincing.

October brings trips to Club Brugge, Napoli, Real Madrid and Atletico and just the one home fixture against Celta Vigo. We end the month with a cup game but it hasn't been drawn at the time of writing. This is going to be a really tough month and my only solace is that all of these teams will have to come to us in the 2nd half of the season.

[maccataq]

A lot to unpack!

So I have managed to skip a month so a bumper update including November as well.

We started with a must win game away to Club Brugge if we are to have any chance of progressing from the group. We weren't great here but Benat bailed us out with a 78th minute goal.

Celta Vigo provided our only home game of October and we had to win but again we were far from our best. We eventually scored when our substitutes combined, De Arrascaeta crossing low from the left and Inigo Cordoba struck home from about 8 yards whilst playing up front - I've decided to try training him up here as another option. He can play there a bit anyway and tends to score a few goals from left wing thanks to some good off the ball movement.

Next up was the away trip to high flying Real Madrid. I wasn't particularly confident here and decided to give my 352 that I had been training the team on a run out. Well, I have to say when Mikel San Jose turned the ball into his own net little over a minute into the game I knew it was going to be a bad day. Gareth Bale, who always scores against us, hit a 25 yard low curling strike from the right side of the box nestling perfectly inside the post to make it 2-0. I tried to go more attacking in the 2nd half and we were quickly punished when Gareth Bale again scored from long range. Our misery was complete when we conceded a penalty late on, Luka Modric blasting high down the middle but made me wonder how my keeper didn't save, despite standing up to it. An awful result and the performance was clearly not good but an own goal, 2 worldies and a penalty tells you that Real didn't really create that much so perhaps the scoreline was a bit harsh on us. Nevertheless this hurt and my worst defeat as Athletic manager.

With games coming fast, we had no time to feel sorry for ourselves with a tough trip to Napoli. We played well but we frustratingly let 2 leads slip with Villalibre putting us in front before we again conceded a penalty which Dries Mertens duly converted 7 mins after we took the lead. We got a penalty of our own in the 2nd half which Mikel San Jose scored to put us in a great position in the 55th minute but Napoli equalised just a minute later. The game ended 2-2 and I had to reflect on what was a good away result against the team we would in theory be vying with for 2nd in the group behind Bayern who beat Club Brugge.

Not quite as fast as Susaeta's record 23 second goal against Deportivo but Roberto Torres scored his first goal for us about 40 seconds in to a big test away to Atletico who we this time decided to go with our 433 formation and we remained solid to pull off a big 3 points and a little bit of revenge too. Atletico's title defence is so far not going too well.

We drew Basque rivals Deportivo Alaves in the cup and a welcome chance to rotate the squad. Not the easiest draw but Alaves had been relegated to the 2nd tier so I was relatively happy with this draw. Inigo Cordoba, playing on the left wing this time, scored twice in the opening half hour to put us in a commanding position. Alaves pulled one back quite quickly and we went into the break 2-1 up. We probably should have built on this lead but failed to do so. Sabin Merino was given a chance up front in this game but struggled to make an impact. More disappointingly, Xabi Etxeita also struggled in this game and disaster struck when Alaves scored a late equaliser and it finished 2-2. Not a great result in the context of our opponents and holding a 2-0 lead but ultimately we led on away goals and we always fancy our chances at San Mames. I should also note that the star striker from my first youth intake Andoni Sanz was handed a debut off the bench here.

November began at home to Real Valladolid who have been performing well in the league this season. They took the lead after 35 mins much to my frustration as we had been again somewhat off colour in this match. Fortunately, Villalibre got us level in the 42nd minute and Roberto Torres' 2nd goal for the club gave us a half time lead but this wouldn't spare the team the hairdryer treatment at half time, not that we were much better 2nd half but we at least saw out the game.

Losing 2-0 against Napoli at home was a bitter pill to swallow. We were by far the better team here but didn't get any rewards for our complete dominance. Things took a turn for the worse when Oscar De Marcos was sent off for a second bookable offence and it was in the 69th minute when a push in the area led to a penalty which Dries Mertens once again scored. This was Napoli's first shot in the entire game! Let that sink in for a moment - they hadn't even mustered a single shot on goal until the 69th minute! It took them 11 minutes from the red card to get their first shot which was the penalty awarded when a cross from a free kick led to the push in the area. I tried to go for it leaving 3 at the back in the hope of finding an equaliser but Napoli went and scored a 2nd to put this game beyond. Despite that, we did miss chances and this result was extremely hard on us.

Valencia sat 2nd in the league, one place above us when they arrived at San Mames and it's also noteworthy that the draw they gained here in the penultimate game of last season effectively cost us the title. Inigo Cordoba (playing left wing) put us in front in this match and it really seemed we could press home this advantage because the Valencia players were looking very fatigued even the first half but ever the thorn in our side, Kevin Gameiro brought Valencia level right at the end of the half. At half time I decided we push higher and really increase the pressing and tempo to take advantage of our better condition (Valencia also played midweek in the CL but clearly don't rotate enough) but we were punished very early in the second half when Gameiro added his second. This was a bitter blow and the prospect of losing at home to 2nd placed Valencia was not a pleasant one. We really pushed hard and transitioned away from my 433 into our usual 4231 and I have to say it felt like the game was getting away from us but Unai Nunez scored a 91st minute header from a corner to give us a hard earned point but we weren't finished yet. Iker Muniain's form this season has not been the best but he popped up at the back post to score a winner in the 95th minute. Massive win and we took top spot temporarily.

3-0 vs Las Palmas does not tell the whole story because it took us a long time to break them down and it was a frustrating game. De Arrascaeta scored just after the hour and then again before the 70th minute. Dani Garcia added the 3rd in the last minute to add the gloss and a much needed boost to our goal difference.

We rounded off the month with a trip to Bayern. We absolutely stunk the place out and we earned a goalless draw - no-one could have enjoyed watching this game.

In terms of the Champions League, we sit third in the group and although we have not won any of our last 3 games, we actually have a great chance of progressing through to the knockout stage. Win at home to Club Brugge and we move to 11pts. If Napoli or Bayern win then we are through in 2nd place. If they draw then we all tie on 11pts. In this scenario, results against Club Brugge will be discounted so we would actually finish 3rd because of that 2nd Napoli goal (or Dani Garcia shooting wide in the final moments of that defeat when he should have scored).

I always want to win and to qualify for the CL knockout stages but if we do our job against Brugge and ultimately don't qualify on 11pts then you just have to say it would be unlucky and the Europa League would be a good adventure in itself.

Apart from the visit of Club Brugge, we travel to Leganes, entertain Alaves in the 2nd leg of the cup as well as home games against Betis and Granada plus a trip to Levante before we depart for the winter break.

[maccataq]

December has left me fuming. For the 2nd season running we lose our final game going into the Christmas break and again it's a home game we should win.

The month started well enough with a 3-1 away win at Leganes where we were pegged back shortly after going in front but a De Arrascaeta penalty and Raul Garcia poachers goal gave us the win. We then played Alaves in the return leg and made light work of them, Raul Garcia opening the scoring with a fine header from a Sabin Merino cross who turned scorer next to get his first of the season before Raul Garcia added his 2nd from the spot and Williams made it 4-0 before half time.

Real Betis came to San Mames just before the Christmas break last season and won 1-0 but this season they didn't strike lucky in the same way. De Arrascaeta's penalty was turned round the post and we had little other opportunity. Another frustrating day.

Club Brugge fell 2-0 at San Mames, Iker Muniain gave us an early lead but Raul Garcia's 2 footed challenge reduced us to 10 men. Despite that we continued to dominate and but for some wasteful Villalibre finishing we could have been more comfortable. Roberto Torres converted a 2nd half penalty to seal the win. Bayern meanwhile scored a 93rd minute winner in Naples to send them out and us into the CL round of 16 where we later drew Benfica!

Levante away proved much simpler than I had anticipated (after all they beat us here 2-0 last season) but Muniain and Williams scored from corners before Ganea scored a brilliant struck free kick and Muniain added his 2nd and our 4th for a goal difference boosting victory.

Then it was Granada. 18th placed Granada, a home banker but we had a set back when they scored from a free-kick. These are the sorts of games that I get most frustrated with where we can't break a team down but now we were 1 down as well. Roberto Torres brought us level with a fine strike but it didn't last long as another worldy strike from Granada put them back in front and it was 3-1 before half-time or so I thought - luckily their goal was disallowed. We went all out attack in the 2nd half and when we got a penalty in the 83rd minute, we had our chance of a reprieve and hopefully a platform to go and win it but Benat's penalty was saved. 2 penalties in consecutive home league games missed that have cost us dearly. We really need a reliable taker and we really need a reliable striker. Villalibre has played the most up front but he has only 4 goals. Muniain has 7, De Arrascaeta and Cordoba have 5, Torres also 4 whilst Williams has only 3.

The home draw against Betis cost us our opportunity to take top spot when Real drew with Valencia and our loss to Granada leaves us 3pts behind Real who top the league with Valencia 2pts behind in 3rd.

[maccataq]

A disappointing end to December didn't really help our January and this was a tough month and I was pulling out my hair at times.

A bit of an experiment, playing 532 had to be rescued late on when De Marcos equalised in our first leg against Celta Vigo but I was ok with this result.

Espanyol was a good performance but a disappointing result. We led early on, were pegged back quickly but restored the lead again before the 20th minute. We dominated this game, created chances but ended up drawing 2-2 when Pablo Piatti found an equaliser in the 83rd minute.

The home leg against Celta, I played my young (newgen) striker Andoni Sanz and he amongst others had a number of chances in this game and combination of bad luck and bad finishing meant we didn't even find the net in this game whilst Celta struck lucky, scoring twice, so out the cup we went!

A poor display away to struggling Villarreal continued our malaise but the Vasco derby was a superb display. It was a tight game until Raul Garcia scored a scorcher from outside the box 1 minute into the 2nd half and from there we put them to the sword with Williams scoring twice and Muniain completing the rout.

This was ultimately a false dawn as we faced bottom of the league Girona who inexplicably led twice with unlikely strikes and an own goal saved us a point. We've been poor in front of goal and now poor defensively giving up chances too easily but frustratingly, teams just seemed to be scoring goals against us from all manner of unlikely positions.

So from finishing December disappointed not to be top, January ended with us falling out of the title race and getting sucked into the CL dogfight.

February we started to get ourselves together and we managed to come from behind at Rayo to pick up a priceless 3pts before a trip to CL chasing Sevilla and we were really excellent here with Inaki Williams, playing as striker, finding the net twice either side of a Kjaer penalty for Sevilla. De Arrascaeta wrapped up the points when he finished a nice counter attacking move.

Barcelona have really struggled in the league this season and Klopp's job seems to be coming under question. It's hard to see how though as they were so dangerous against us and of course, they have a great players. Suarez put them in front just before the hour but Martinez got us back on terms quickly before De Marcos fired us ahead and gave me hope of a big win. Frustratingly, that only lasted 3 mins and we then had to hold on to the draw and I was happy to take a point by the end.

We kept things tight against Benfica and saw out a solid 1-0 win courtesy of a Roberto Torres strike.

Deportivo away seemed like it could be another bad day at the office against a struggling team and we trailed 1-0 at half-time. Muniain seemed to be listening to my half time team talk because he brought us level immediately after the break before Benat, Susaeta and an own goal made for a handsome scoreline.

We finished the month with a bit of revenge and a professional performance at Celta, winning 2-0. Hugo Mallo's own goal gave us the lead but had he not tried to intervene then Torres would have scored. 15 mins later, Torres would score his goal and we controlled this game well.

 

[maccataq]

March brought back hope of a title race. It started with a professional 2-0 win over local rivals Eibar before a big match against Real Madrid. We are good at keeping things tight and finding the odd goal and Inigo Martinez found a big one late on here. We were 12pts behind Real but managed to claw it back to just 4pts.

I decided to rotate a bit more than I probably should have away to Benfica but the Real match was a big effort. We didn't play well and at 1-0 down I decided to be pro-active and try and offer more attacking threat but they went and scored another which proved to be the winning goal. The way the game was going though, they might have scored it anyway.

Atletico was disappointing after a great start as Griezmann snaffled up an equaliser in a tight game but probably a fair result.

The month finished up with a disappointing draw at Valladolid, who to be fair are going well this season. We had chances to win this and the forlorn Villalibre who has scored only 4 goals this season and hasn't scored since the reverse fixture in November, headed against the crossbar! No sign of his drought ending anytime soon. He did score a penalty in a friendly we played though, which means little in truth.

Barcelona have been in good form and have joined the top 4 race in Klopp's first season (I hope they sack him as they may kick on next season and to be fair, Valverde was sacked for finishing 3rd!) We are now 6pts behind Real Madrid and we have some tough games in our run in - I don't expect to win the league but we'll try and keep the pressure on.

[maccataq]

Youth intake day wasn't the most fruitful.

Gorka Perez is the pick of the bunch but even he is below the standard of my first intake:

 

I will be looking for players I can sign and fill some of the gaps in my pipeline.

 

[maccataq]

April went well, starting with a trip to Valencia. It was a tight game but we managed to steal victory in the dying minutes and a first goal for my young prodigy Andoni Sanz - a proud moment.

If Valencia provided a proud moment, a trip to islanders Las Palmas which ended 2-0 when first Williams put us ahead and at long last, Asier Villalibre ended his goal drought. It was back in November he scored his last goal so suffice to say, I cheered a lot when he scored. We played my new 442 diamond formation in this game so both my strikers scoring, a rare commodity, was pleasing.

Real Betis have been pushing for Europa League places and we got off to a good start here through Roberto Torres but we were pegged back in the 2nd half. Not a bad point but no good if we want to hunt down Real Madrid.

Leganes was another good opportunity to play my diamond and it seems Villalibre is much more productive playing in a front two. Roberto Torres again opened the scoring but when we won a penalty, Villalibre stepped up, hit it down the middle and the keeper saved it. Doubly frustrating that Villalibre could waste this opportunity and that we continue to lack a good penalty taker (although I feel our success rate should be better). I decided to give him some encouraging words at half time and he came out and repaid my faith by scoring a couple of headers within 5 mins of the restart. 2 goals in 1 match and his season tally now stood at a mighty 7!

Lucky that Ganea was on the pitch as he grabbed the ball when we won a penalty early on home to Levante and duly dispatched it. De Arrascaeta continued his fine scoring season moving into double figures (10 goals in 20 league starts).

We rounded up the month away to Granada who produced a shock when they won at San Mames before Christmas. Benat wasted yet another penalty here and it took a brilliant goal from Muniain in the 61st minute to earn us the points. He is our top scorer this season on just 12 goals.

With 3 games to go, we have a trip to Real Sociedad for our big derby and 2 home games against Espanyol and Villarreal. We can actually score more points than last season if we win all 3 but Real need just 4 points to seal the title so it seems unlikely. Especially as they too have 2 of their last 3 games at home including Celta Vigo and Rayo Vallecano, finishing with a trip to Levante.

Barca are now hot on our heels after a run of good form has propelled them to 3rd.

Champions League football is all but secured for us but if we lose all 3 and Betis win all 3 games and beat our goal difference then they can finish above us

[maccataq]

We finished the season with 2 wins and a draw but even maximum points would not have been enough to land the title. It was a long shot and Real Madrid were comfortable winners in the end. They did well to keep faith with Allegri who had an awful first season, not even qualifying for the Champions League. 

Klopp's Barcelona finished the season strong and took advantage of our slips and pipped us on the head to head. 

Our home match against Espanyol was disappointing and we simply didn't do enough to win the match. Real Madrid sealed the title after this slip.

My 100% record in the Vasco derby came under threat when Zubeldia put the hosts ahead and this was the first time we had conceded against them under my tenure. We were probably the better team first half but we trailed. Roberto Torres got the 2nd half off to a good start when he levelled from the penalty spot before Inaki Williams scored to turn the game around. Frustratingly, Samaris pegged us back just 2 mins later and it seemed like we would have to settle for a point but Benat's long range shot found the corner to give us a big 3 points. He'd tried a similar shot a few mins earlier which I was annoyed about so I wasn't best pleased when he opted to shoot from long range again if I'm completely honest. Obviously I was happy though.

Our final game started well with Raul Garcia and Yeray on target but Villiarreal scored 3 mins later to peg us back to 2-1. We held on to this scoreline quite comfortably in the end but I was disappointed we weren't able to build on our excellent start.

We finished 2nd in our first season but scored exactly the same number of points, including the same denomination of wins, draws and losses. We scored 6 more goals but conceded 7 more vs our first season and I think this is party due to me trying to be a more expansive at times but also teams just seemed to score a lot of long range efforts or similar low percentage chances against us.

Final table:

Now it's time to plan for season 3. We have about £20m to spend at this moment but I'll need to raise a few million if we are to land Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad who has a £25m release clause.

[maccataq]

Summer Transfer Update:

Signing Mikel Merino proved difficult as by the time I had raised the £25m to pay his release clause, his interest and gone from slight to none at all. I have made him my top transfer target and started courting him in the press to try win him over. This is sadly ongoing so my summer transfer dealings have been frustrating.

All my signings were youth signings really with only Mariano Moreno (DM) being brought into the first team squad with big potential and to provide cover for Vesga. Luis was a punt and at £350 and I don't expect too much from him but Ion Garmendia (DC) has very good potential. Bengotxea (RB) was signed in revenge somewhat as Valencia activated a release clause for one of my starlets whereas I managed to buy him for less than his release clause, which I was prepared to pay. 

I was sad to move on a few experienced first teamers with Markel Susaeta moving to Zenit, Mikel San Jose moving to Celta after an unsuccessful loan with Juventus who chose not to buy him. I should note both of these 2 wanted to move on and whilst I perhaps could/should have fought to keep them, I wanted to raise money and start trying to blood some of the young talent I have coming through. Iago Herrerin had also long courted a new challenge and I finally managed to move him on and I decided to sell Guruzeta who I felt would have more chance of developing elsewhere. Xabi Etxeita also was sold for a nominal fee.

Nolaskoain went out on loan again as did Balenziaga who I couldn't find a permanent move for. My hot prospect newgen, Alberto Areso (DR) also went out on loan having spent last season playing for the B team. I expect he will be part of the first team next season after a season at Alaves playing in La Liga.

This is Iray Mori who I signed for £700k from Las Palmas. Sadly, I missed a trick as his release clause was set at £1.9m and it was too late to offer him a new deal and he left for Valencia. He has significant potential but at least I turned a quick profit on him and he will be in the Basque talent pool for the future. I have a lot of hot prospect strikers coming through so perhaps it's not such a bad thing for one to develop elsewhere.

[maccataq]

Thought I'd condense down my updates and give you a half season review. I'm now in January 2021 and we lie 3rd in the table although we will drop to 4th if Barcelona win their game in hand. They won the European Cup last season so they were off to the World Club Championship.

This hasn't been an easy season so far and if we stay on course, then arguably it will be another regression from our first 2 seasons where we finished 2nd and 3rd but with the same points. We are in transition though and trying to blood some youngsters in plus we do have an ageing midfield and my main transfer target Mikel Merino didn't want to join, although more on that later.

We had to face Barcelona and Atletico early on so it was important to rack up big points in our first few games but unfortunately things didn't go to plan. We led twice at Valladolid but drew 2-2, followed by a routine home win against Celta Vigo with Inaki Williams scoring the goals whilst leading the line. Defeat away to lowly Las Palmas was highly frustrating and left us mid-table. Atletico, now under the guidance of Unai Emery, swept us aside now using different tactics which left us in further trouble before a nervy 0-0 home draw with Barcelona. A 4-2 derby win over Alaves got us back to winning ways before a slightly disappointing goalless draw away to Spartak having opened with a 4-2 win at home to Fiorentina in the CL (incidentally, Fiorentina came back from 2 behind before we restored our 2 goal cushion).

Winning away to Valencia was just the tonic we needed and we followed that up by beating Real 2-0 at home which was their 2nd successive league defeat after setting the pace early on. A 3-1 defeat away to Betis was a setback before we eased Malaga 2-0 with Inaki Williams in fine goalscoring form playing up front.

In the Champions League we got a creditable 1-1 draw in Dortmund although it was slightly disappointing not to win with Dortmund scoring a late equaliser but we beat them 4-2 in the home leg to put us in control of the group.

My wonderkid striker Andoni Sanz netted his 2nd of the season away at Racing in the cup and Williams earned us a narrow win at Levante. November continued with another narrow win away at Rayo, a decent 1-1 draw in Florence before a steady 2-0 win over local rivals Eibar, including another goal for Andoni Sanz.

My other youth player with high potential training with the first team, Inaki Garcia (because we don't have enough midfielders called Garcia) scored his first goal in a 3-0 win in our 2nd leg in the cup. Inaki Garcia is an AMC and plays in the 10 role in our 4231 but for all his potential and talent, he has poor natural fitness which I'm hoping will improve.

Andoni Sanz continued to show his goalscoring prowess with a goal away to Leganes and this is a game we should have won but a world y last minute free-kick left us disappointed. We then drew 2-2 at home to Spartak in a game we had to win to win the group having already qualified. Villalibre put us in front but another direct free kick led a comeback from Spartak eventually taking the lead in the 2nd half. Inaki Garcia earned us a draw but it was a disappointing end to the group and to make matters worse, we drew Man City in the next round.

De Arrascaeta scored his first of the season and Andoni Sanz made it 2-0 against Espanyol although Yuri managed to get himself sent off in this match. We were probably fortunate to leave Sevilla with a point but we also had chances to win the game but at least we kept them at bay, given they were hot on our heels in the league table.

After Christmas, De Arrascaeta scored twice away at Getafe in the cup to give us a great lead for the home leg. We didn't play especially well here and if Getafe could finish it would have been a much different game. The return leg was similar but Villalibre scored the only goal of the match to send us through. (Incidentally, I said I wanted to face Girona in the cup and I drew them - every time I say who I want I get them!).

Before that 2nd leg we comfortably beat Villarreal 3-1, their goal a late consolation after an Andoni Sanz double! Finally, a 4-1 win over Getafe who must be sick of playing us right now, De Arrascaeta, again in fine form.

And here is the league table with Atletico leading the way; a CL spot is our aim this season:

Perhaps one of the reasons we have been inconsistent this season is the number of injuries and significant ones at that! At times we have been down on numbers in central midfield. Injury to Vesga has meant the youngster Mariano Moreno I bought from Eibar has been given a lot more football and he has not only developed well but he has played well. I have started to train Yeray in this position too and he has filled in at times.

Lastly, after much courting him in the press and through scouting missions, Mikel Merino finally showed interest in joining and we snapped him up for his £25m release clause but it seems our injury crisis extends to even those not at the club as he suffered a fractured lower leg! He has joined up with us now and should be available come the end of January.

Right wing is more of a problem for us too as Inaki Williams is playing up front and I let Susaeta move on. Unai Lopez has been the main back up in that position but I've also tried to train De Arrascaeta and Cordoba in this position as well to give us options. I'm thinking whether to sign ex Bilbao player Ibai Gomez who now plies his trade at Alaves. He has re-joined in real life and whilst he is primarily left sides, he could do a job on the right and his crossing is excellent.

[WillHoward42]

What a great first season you had there... Real Madrid were really off the pace!

[maccataq]

On 05/05/2019 at 14:42, WillHoward42 said:

What a great first season you had there... Real Madrid were really off the pace!

Thanks - it was way beyond expectation but we just managed to grind out results consistently and it was partly because both Barca and Real were off the pace but sadly Atletico were too strong in the end. Can't help thinking it will be a while before I get such a good shot at the title again. My current season looks like I will have to settle for 4th but there are green shoots as I finally have strikers that can score goals!

[maccataq]

End of season 3 and we finished 4th place with 75pts. We were comfortable in reaching the CL but failed to challenge the top 3 this season. Sadly, Real (managed by Allegri) and Barca (Klopp) have strengthened and Atletico (now with Unai Emery) are the team to beat.

The story of our season was too many draws and moreover, draws against teams we should beat. Too many times we drew 1-1 where we dominated and failed to put the game to bed. Too many times opposition teams score from the few chances they create or some spectacular free-kick. Whilst we have some promising players coming through and already performing well, we are a little off the top 3 in both goals scored and conceded...but not far off.

Notable results included defeating Atletico in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey with Xavier Arbreras, superb in both legs at CB. Drawing Man City in the first knockout stage of the CL seemed like the end of the road but we were superb in the home leg and should have taken a 2 goal lead to Manchester. Inaki Williams put us in front in the 2nd leg and we were pretty comfortable from there, despite City levelling on the night.

Our league game against Atletico was manic to say the least! The first 5 shots of the game were goals with Gelson Martins putting Atletico ahead after 2 mins, Raul Garcia levelling from the spot after 4 mins with Andoni Sanz putting us ahead on 5 mins only for Thomas Partey to level for them after 6 mins. Muniain put us back in front after 11 mins but Partey scored again just before half-time which was disappointing but ultimately how the game finished.

Defeat away to Barcelona was really unlucky. They remain the one team I am yet to beat in La Liga and we lost a game where we played well and could have won, Dembele scoring shortly after we hit the bar.

We faced Dortmund in the quarters and having bettered them in the group stage, we fancied our chances. Mikel Vesga had other ideas though as he managed to get himself sent off after just 2 mins in the first leg. We lost 1-0 away so had it all to do in the 2nd leg. We were positive, got the lead on the night to level the tie and we were the better team but they sucker punched us with the away goal. Sanz scored the 2nd to give us hope and then we pushed hard to get the all important 3rd but we fell short. Still, I was proud of our achievements in the CL.

The rest of our league campaign was pretty disappointing including drawing 4 of our last 5 games. All of these games where we just couldn't get the 2nd goal to kill the game seemed to have all been saved for the Real Sociedad game where we destroyed them 7-0! Inigo Martinez scored 2 against his old club and Yeray also scored with all 3 coming directly from corners.

The final 2 games were disappointing with the last game against already relegated Getafe, however, I took the opportunity to give some squad players a chance with the cup final coming up, speaking of which, our 2nd cup final in the 3 years again ended in defeat, this time we fell to a an extra time goal and lost 1-0 to Real Madrid, so our wait for silverware continues.

Inaki Williams played a lot of games as striker this season and was in excellent form scoring 18 in total, doubling his tally from the previous season and a personal best. Andoni Sanz ended up top scorer with 19 goals and his form was such that I ended up pushing Williams back to the right wing. He is some talent and we'll need him to continue developing if we are to push on to greater things. Inaki Garcia, another wonderkid, is showing great promise and will hopefully bring us on another level, although his natural fitness is a concern. Finally Nico Williams is showing signs he can add depth to our strike force, whilst Asier Villalibre's chances have become limited. Although he scored a few goals this season, he just doesn't seem capable of scoring consistently so at best he is going to remain as back up or I will move him on.

 

 

Edited May 11, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

Not been very good at keeping this updated recently so a lot to unpack for season 4. I will try and update more regularly for the remainder of what is becoming a very exciting season for Athletic.

It was imperative to get off to a good start this season, there were so many green shoots in my 3rd season but overall we fell away and I was keen for it to be a transitional season and no more. We couldn't afford to start as badly as last season if we wanted to make progress this season so winning my first 4 games was the perfect tonic including a highly impressive 5-0 drubbing of Sevilla. I decided to have a go at United and it paid dividends with a 2-0 win. A trip to Atletico ended in a satisfactory draw but in truth there was a tinge of disappointment. We led from the 35th minute but a red card for right back Lekue meant we would face the final 35 mins with 10 men. We weathered the storm but we were let down by another right back in Oscar De Marcos, whose throw in was poor in line with his own penalty area, we conceded possession and Griezmann struck a late equaliser. After seeing off Cordoba, we were brushed aside by Juventus in Turin.

October brought our first league defeat of the season away to my bogey team Betis as they came from behind to beat us 2-1. I've only beaten them once in 7 attempts although there have been a few draws. Other notable results in October saw us destroy Liege 6-0 away from home and a chance to rotate the team in the cup with a 2-1 away win to Alcorcon. If Betis were our bogey team then we might be Sociedad's...they took the lead in this match and looked like they would get their first victory over me (I've beaten them 6 times out of 6 including the hammering last season) but my wonderkid Andoni Sanz levelled late on and earned us a point.

We gave Standard Liege another bruising at home to put us in a strong position to qualify from our group before a hard earned 1-0 win against Barcelona, a first win for me against them! We brushed Malaga aside before our trip to Man Utd and boy did we get punished there! All we needed from this game was to win the head to head and we'd qualify so a 1-0 defeat would have been fine. It was 0-0 at half time but we conceded straight after the restart and when we went 2 down, I decided we need to be more pro-active in this game and chase a goal that would qualify us. When it went to 3-0 we still pushed to get something back as a 3-1 defeat would work for us but the game just went from bad to worse and ended with humiliation. 

Our reaction at Rayo was pleasing as we swept them aside and we edged past Alcorcon at home in the cup in somewhat unconvincing circumstances. We always seem to do well against Valencia but we fell to a 1 goal defeat here, it was a tight game but they scored from a free-kick.

We faced Juventus at home needing just a point to qualify and knowing that United would most likely beat Liege. There was no chance of winning the group and I decided to approach this conservatively. In retrospect, I might have been more positive as Juventus lined up with a second string but instead we played out a cagey 0-0 draw but it was enough to get through in 2nd place for the 3rd consecutive season. We followed that up by hammering both Espanyol and Real Madrid who have been desperately poor this season and find themselves languishing in 8th.

January started with the 5th round of the cup and we saw off Leganes fairly comfortably over 2 legs before beating Numancia in the league. We drew Malaga in the quarter final and it perhaps could have been more comfortable but we again played out a game with 10 men when Vesga lost his discipline. We were comfortable winners away from home after hammering Las Palmas 5-1. Valladolid can be tricky so I was thoroughly pleased with the manner of our 2-0 away win before seeing off Celta 2-1. We were disappointed to concede from a corner against Barcelona in the cup and despite our best efforts, ending up losing a tight game 1-0. In the return leg, I decided to rotate the team and de-prioritise slightly. It might seem strange to do so in a semi-final but the odds were against us and the league is my priority and we need to give game time to squad players and rests to my first teamers. We battled out a 0-0 here but sadly couldn't get the all important equaliser.

February was a strange month. After exiting the cup, we went to Sevilla (who have been a mixed bag this season) with a positive game plan and left with an impressive 2-0 win before beating Leganes 1-0, which at face value, seems uninspiring but Roberto Torres (who has been in excellent form this season) decided to lunge in on someone after just 8 mins and forced us to play with 10 men for the remaining 82 mins. I kept my shape (4231) minus my AMC and just kept playing. We dominated the game and gave them very little with Inigo Cordoba scoring just after the hour.

Next, the sublime saw us hammer Bayern 4-1 at home (side note: Lewandowski scored a good goal on the counter which then dominated my post match press conference! Come on, I just hammered Bayern against the odds and 2 out of the 3 questions I was asked was about Lewandoski, the other is about how Williams is drawing interest from other clubs). Atletico also played in the CL midweek and were soundly beaten 3-0 at Liverpool so this ended up a great time to play them. At this point, they were top of the league by 2 points but we had a game in hand. We had drawn away so the head to head was still up for grabs so I didn't want to take too many risks here knowing I could see them off and still claim top spot (plus my GD is superior). Mikel Merino headed us in front from a corner and his influence is growing much more now he has been with us for a year. Yeray almost scored from another corner but his shot seemed to deflect off Williams and he got the credit, 2-0. Muniain wrapped up the game in the 2nd half with an excellent goal.

Then finally, the ridiculous. After 2 monumental victories, we went to bottom of the table Deportivo and lost 1-0 and we deserved to lose. We never really got going and we looked fatigued with a few injuries starting to creep in as well as existing ones starting to place strain on us. Cordoba away was more disappointing because we were again not at the races and lost 1-0 but maybe we were unlucky as we hit the woodwork 3 times!

Despite this poor finish to the month, Atletico continued their poor form also losing to Barcelona 3-2, drawing at Leganes 2-2 before losing in Valencia 3-2 and 3-0 again against Liverpool before beating Numancia 1-0 to stop the rot. We retained top spot but Barcelona had caught us both up and entered the title race, although they got hammered 5-1 in El Clasico to give us some breathing space.

We started March facing Real Betis at home! After back to back defeats, the last team I want to face is my bogey team who were fresh off the back of an impressive 5-2 away win. We laboured in this match and looked like it would be another frustrating day and a 3rd consecutive match in which we failed to score, however, better late than never as Andoni Sanz lapped up a rebound to a free-kick from Inigo Martinez. 

We followed that up with an impressive 2-1 away to Bayern. Sanz got us off to a great start and cancelled out their away goal, making it 5-1 on aggregate. Bayern equalised through Lewandowski but Martinez headed in from a free-kick just before half-time and it proved to be the winner on the night; 6-2 on aggregate.

Here is the league table. We could have been very comfortable had we won at Cordoba and Deportivo but I can't complain too much. We have 2 games in hand on Atletico and 1 on Barcelona so I still have the opportunity to build myself a cushion.

Can this be the season we land the title? I really hope so - I still don't really fully believe it yet with a couple of defeats bringing us back down to earth but my attack is on par with the big 3 and my defence has been very lean giving me the best goal difference. My caution is based on keeping this going, we play Sociedad at home next but we have trips to Barcelona and Real to look forward to. The other fixture of note is home to Valencia. My other worry is the toll that playing in the CL has brought on the team. In the first leg against Bayern, I just went for it knowing that if we went out, it might be a blessing (plus the board didn't expect me to get out of the group) but that positivity led me to blowing Bayern away.

Fingers crossed!

 

 

[maccataq]

I'm sorry Pedro

Youth Intake 2022:

My Head of Youth Development Pedro Peso has been offered mutual termination with his contract expiring at the end of the season. He has brought through some great players for me and I thank him for his time but the intakes have been on the decline and this is well short of where we need to be. I must say, I'm not one to make knee-jerk decisions but the problem with his intakes is he always produces DMs and right/left midfielders as his preferred formation is 4141 DM. This doesn't fit perfectly with my 4231 and this is actually a bigger problem than one bad intake.

The other reason he had to go is that Rodolfo Borrell is available! His stats and reputation are better, not that Peso was lacking but I need the very best. Peso's professional personality was slightly better but nothing wrong with fairly determined. Moreover, his formation and all his styles are exactly what I'm after...

 

 

Edited May 27, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

Our derby match vs Real Sociedad did not go to plan. Inaki Williams' red card after just 28 mins put us on the back foot. Despite continuing to play positively, we couldn't get the all important goal. Our trip to Villarreal was incident free as we jumped into a 3 goal half-time lead.

Our visit to Barcelona would be critical with them hot on my tails and Atletico's form suffering. We held our own and seemed to be closing in on a good point to keep them at arm's length and shore up our head to head but disaster struck when Malcom scored in the 87th min. Nelson Semedo got sent off in first minute injury time before Iker Muniain scored a dramatic 94th minute equaliser. Our title chances were looking bright.

Moving into April, we had a terrific run of form to keep us in command of this title race after we spurned some good opportunities to open up again toward the end of February. We brushed aside Rayo 4-0 before beating Lyon in our Quarter Final 1st leg of the CL. This was a game we could have won by more and Lyon nicked a late away goal to blow things wide open for the 2nd leg. Before our trip to Lyon, we edged out Valencia in a tense 1-0 win, although Valencia were reduced to 10 men in the 2nd half giving us the advantage to see things out after Williams had put us in front in the first half.

Team fatigue and injuries were becoming a problem and so I decided to shake my team up for Lyon. Like with the Spanish Cup, it felt strange to de-prioritise such a great opportunity and we really ought to have gone through here. However, I didn't want a tough CL semi-final to jeopardise my title bid. We fell 2 goals behind in Lyon, the first arriving a minute into the 2nd half, which was tinged with controversy as it looked suspiciously offside. They then grabbed a 2nd in the 87th minute but then we struck back when Jorge Herrando slotted in at the back post from a free kick, or so I thought, the goal was ruled out for an infringement. De Marcos had been injured in the first leg so Lekue became my only RB for the next few weeks and he as well as much of the team looked fatigued so exiting the competition was perhaps for the best. However, my wonderkid striker Andoni Sanz had other ideas, scoring a dramatic 95th minute goal off the bench to send the game into extra time. We battled through but couldn't find a winner so it was penalties, which unfortunately ended our competition (I never have luck with penalty shoot outs).

So now to focus on the league, we made light work of Malaga as I brought back the likes of Muniain, Williams, Yeray and Merino back into the team. Unfortunately, Inigo Martinez, also rested midweek, picked up a knock which made him miss this game but Unai Nunez stepped up in his place and headed us in front - funny how things work out sometimes.

Before our trip to Espanyol, we were 3pts clear of Barcelona with 2 games in hand and our chance to win this one and put ourselves in a commanding position never materialised as we slumped to a 2-0 defeat, extremely disappointing! Levante at home was dramatic to begin with - an early penalty provided the chance to settle some nerves but Sanz's spurned the opportunity. We scored through Muniain in the 13th minute but our dominant start was pegged back when Levante scored with their first chance...I was not happy! However, Muniain responded just 4 mins later to put us back in front and my attacking midfielder (and my other wonderkid) Inaki Garcia made it 3-1 just before half-time and it also finished this way. For some reason, our game in hand could finally be slotted in and so we would play Levante away next! I still have no idea why this game was re-arranged and it seems to have been re-arranged from January. Anyway, we were pegged back twice in this game with the 2nd coming from the penalty spot. Sanz's 79th minute goal was a big relief and I simply couldn't believe it when 4 mins from time we conceded a penalty. Barcelona's form had been unerring so after finally playing our game in hand, we were 4pts clear but a trip to Madrid beckoned...

Real Madrid, so inconsistent and poor by their standards in the first half of the season, were now in fine form so going here during a nervy run in just seemed like bad timing. Things did not go well and I had to give them an angry half time team talk as we trailed 2-0. The response was good, Andoni Sanz pulling one back after 53 mins and when Muniain levelled on 76 mins, it felt like we were back in business but this game was still open and we simply could not contain them. They went back in front just 4 mins later and scored another 3 mins from time to seal a 4-2 victory.

We were now just 1 point clear of Barcelona with 2 games remaining! Barcelona played Espanyol next but given their local rivalry, they seemed not to want to help me out and were blown away 4-0 and so Barcelona sat top of the table for the first time in the run in. Our next 2 fixtures were against already relegated teams, starting with Las Palmas at home. A MUST WIN GAME! Inaki Williams' 27th minute strike and Iker Muniains' goal just before half time settled the nerves as we saw out a professional 2-0 home win.

Off to Numancia in my last game whilst Barcelona travelled to Leganes. I was desperate to get an early goal and at least score before Barcelona could pile the pressure on and Muniain popped up again after just 16 mins to give us the lead - he really has been marvellous this season, this being his 19th goal of the season. Andoni Sanz then went on a one man rampage to ensure the title belonged to the Basque country, striking twice in the first half before Roberto Torres added our 4th before half time. Sanz scored another 2 in the second half as we romped home to the title and a 6-0 win!!

Custom celebration...Aupa Athletic!

We landed on 86 points, our previous record when we so nearly won the title finishing 2nd was 86 points. And when we fell one place to 3rd in my second season we got 86 points (just 75 points last season) but this time it was enough (and probably should have been more).

[maccataq]

Summer of 2022 and Benat & Raul Garcia's contracts were both expiring and both announced their retirement but then realised they both decided to retire at the end of next season! I have no idea why so I just had to release them both which saddened me, especially as both were great characters in the squad, Benat a team leader with high determination and Raul Garcia had been able to contribute a lot in his final season. Mentally and technically, both are still excellent but both are now very slow. My other problem is that I had a number of young players, starting regularly, needing to be registered next season as they could no longer be counted as under 19s so freeing up 2 squad places was necessary. Oscar De Marcos was also out of contract and I decided not to keep him which I was also sad about since he just gave his best season to me. I have a wonderkid right back who has been out on loan who is already considered better than him and Lekue so I couldn't find a squad place for Oscar either.

Mikel Vesga decided he could achieve no more and sought away from the club which I decided to facilitate and I also decided Asier Villalibre should move on too - both were sold. I couldn't find a place in my squad for Nico Williams either and he was upset I wouldn't sell him but I stood firm and loaned him out (he went to table topping Girona on loan for the 2nd half of last season but barely played so I needed to make sure he was playing games this season). Xabier Arberas, my young CB also needed to vacate a squad place and get more game time as he'd slipped to 5th choice centre back. He has promise but he won't have if he doesn't play so I moved him out on loan up the road at Eibar in Segunda division. I also sold Unai Lopez to Getafe having struggled to find a place for him in my squad - he is talented and can play RW (a problem position for me) but he's a bit inconsistent and never going to be first choice.

I have made just one signing this window (for the first team anyway) and that is a certain Mr Ander Herrera from Man Utd. Now I made an enquiry, United wanted close to £50m so I offered £30m, which they accepted straight away so I felt like I could have offered less. Slightly taken aback, I made the offer but Herrera's agent was very impatient and talks broke down. I gave it some time before making another approach by which point United had transfer listed Herrera for £22.5m so I made an offer worth slightly more but made up of appearance bonuses etc. His agent was far more patient this time and we got our man! A great personality too with high determination so a great player for the squad.

Squad for 22/23 season:

GKs: Unai Simon, Alex Remiro & Aitor Fernandez

RBs: Inigo Lekue & Alberto Areso (newgen)

LBs: Yuri & Cristian Ganea

CBs: Inigo Martinez, Yeray, Unai Nunez & Jorge Herrando

DMs: Mariano Moreno (newgen)

CMs: Mikel Merino, Roberto Torres, Ander Herrera, Jose Manuel (newgen)

AMCs: Inaki Garcia (newgen) & Giorgian De Arrascaeta

RWs: Inaki Williams

LWs: Iker Muniain, Inigo Cordoba, Josu Iriondu (newgen)

CFs: Andoni Sanz, Imanol Iturrino & Ivan (all newgens)

Merino, Herrera and Jose Manuel can all play DM as can Nunez, Martinez and Yeray. Iturrino, Cordoba, Iriondu and De Arrascaeta can be used at RW if needs be. I have lost 3 central midfielders and only brought 2 back in via Herrera and promoting Jose Manuel. However, I have 3-4 good midfield prospects in the under 19s to call upon if needs be and for that matter, in other positions too.

 

[maccataq]

I've not done a good job of keeping up to date lately! Season 22/23 was extremely difficult with the Qatar World Cup forcing a gruelling schedule. Things started off well when we beat Barcelona 1-0 in the Super Cup with Ander Herrera making an instant impact as the only goalscorer.

It was a difficult season where we lost and drew games we should have won including a very disappointing last minute home defeat to Valencia early on and back to back draws against Getafe and Malaga as well as a defeat away to Villarreal. We also lost away to Klopp's Barcelona which is pretty standard but come the Qatar WC, the defending champions lied in 5th place, struggling to make it back into the CL. Valencia's form meant they were making a top 4 bid with the usual other 3.

Speaking of CL, the first time I actually got top seed and a better chance to top the group, we made it hard for ourselves by losing away to Rapid Wien. We also lost away to Dortmund and drew in Napoli conceding a late equaliser. We finished 2nd in the group by winning all our home games but if we had won in Vienna as we should have we would have topped the group. We then drew Chelsea in the next round and we exited 4-3 on aggregate. The home leg we were vastly superior but gave away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2.

We made a disappointing 5th round exit of the Spanish cup at home to Levante (just one legged ties this season) so we still wait to win this competition.

The 2nd half of the season we were much better. The first half of the season and the gruelling schedule really tested the depths of my squad and a combination of fatigue and a lack of quality depth vs the likes of Barcelona and Real meant our results suffered. Maybe it was because I rotated better in the first half of the season that we demonstrated such good form in the 2nd half of the season including winning our final 7 games. Atletico and Valencia could not match me and we comfortably finished 3rd. We actually gained 2 more points than in the previous season when we won the league but the bar had been truly raised and Barcelona were just formidable...

Real Sociedad finished bottom which I was actually a bit sad about but gave me an opportunity to target their best player!

[maccataq]

Season 23/24 - we managed to buy Mikel Oyarzabal from Real Sociedad for his buyout clause (£53m) after managing to make him interested in joining. Apart from that we made youth signings - we actually signed 4 young CBs (all newgens) to fill the pipeline as we didn't have much quality coming through the ranks.

Inigo Lekue was the major departure moving to Celta Vigo after deciding he needed a new challenge and with some good prospects coming up behind him I duly obliged.

Squad:

GKs: Unai Simon & Alex Remiro

RBs: Alberto Areso & Carlos Bengotxea (both newgens)

LBs: Yuri, Cristian Ganea & Juan Carlos (newgen)

CBs: Inigo Martinez, Yeray, Unai Nunez, Jorge Herrando & Franck Goni (newgen)

DMs: Mariano Moreno (newgen)

CMs: Mikel Merino, Ander Herrera, Jose Manuel (newgen) & Jose Luis Estrada (newgen)

AMCs: Inaki Garcia (newgen) & Giorgian De Arrascaeta

RWs: Inaki Williams, Mikel Oyarzabal (although can play a few positions)

LWs: Iker Muniain, Inigo Cordoba, Josu Iriondu (newgen)

CFs: Andoni Sanz & Imanol Iturrino (both newgens)

Ivan (newgen) moved out on loan to Rayo after only scoring once last season to hopefully get some goals under his belt and more minutes at CF as he did play a fair amount at AML. Iturrino, my other other hopeful striker, also only managed 1 goal last season but his development suggest he is the one better placed to stay and provide vital back-up to Andoni Sanz.

[maccataq]

Season 23/24 Review

Our league campaign kicked off with a professional 2-0 win away to Malaga, new signing Oyarzabal marking his debut with the opening goal. We always start away from home as the press are often keen to make a story of. We started with a 1-0 win at home to Espanyol with thanks to Williams for saving a frustrating day by striking in injury time. A draw at in form Villarreal followed before wins over Sevilla and Girona rounded up a good September. We kicked off our CL with a difficult 2-2 home draw with Milan, a game in which we both led and trailed (we also drew Schalke and Arsenal in the group).

October brought comfortable wins over Cordoba, Levante and Celta as well as a creditable 2-1 victory away to Valencia. The CL was rather more difficult, losing 3-2 away to Schalke (a game we shouldn't have lost) and 3-2 at Arsenal (a game we didn't deserve to lose). Our CL group chances were in a real mess with just 1 point from 9. Despite European troubles, things were more rosy at home as we sat top of  La Liga.

November brought further good form with league wins over Cadiz, Leganes and Eibar and we swatted Logrones aside 4-0 in our 4th round first leg of the Copa del Rey. We faced Arsenal at home in the CL next and given our predicament, it was an important match but we failed to exact revenge on Arsenal, instead we had to settle for a goalless draw. It could have been worse, Unai Simon saved Axel Witsel's penalty, who incidentally scored a penalty to hand Arsenal victory in the reverse fixture. Our final game of the month was a trip to Milan and it really was must win! Oyarzabal's 8th minute strike gave us a platform and our defence did the rest and we left Milan with 3 precious points. Going into our final group game at home to Schalke, we lay bottom of the group with 5pts with Schalke in 3rd, also on 5pts but ahead on the head to head with Milan 2nd on 6pts. Arsenal had beaten Schalke to claim top place in the group and they would entertain Milan in the final game with nothing to play for. Our job was simple, we had to win. If Milan won, they would qualify but anything less opened the door for us (or Schalke). If Milan lost and we drew, Schalke would qualify having bettered us and Milan. Anyway, there was only one way for it, we attacked! An early penalty helped us on our way and we never looked back running out 5-0 winners....and what would you know, a strong looking Arsenal team won 1-0 thanks to Tony Martial (as a Utd fan, I have mixed feelings about this). This was also particularly joyful because of a promise I reluctantly made to Unai Simon about getting to the latter stages of the competition.

The rest of December brought about 3 league victories over Valladolid, Getafe and Las Palmas, none of which were particularly convincing. We also had the small matter of a trip to Barcelona! Inaki Williams gave us the perfect start here but from there we were dominated and couldn't hold on until half time; Sergi Roberto levelling things 2 minutes before the break. Patrick Schick scored the decisive goal in the 2nd half and once again we fell short against Barcelona who topped the league as a result.

 January would bring many games and difficult league form pretty much handed Barcelona a big advantage in the title race and they didn't exactly need a helping hand. We fell 2 down at home to Atletico before battling back to a 2-2 draw. We conceded 2 goals in 2 second half minutes away at Real Madrid before Williams pulled back a late consolation as well as going down 1-0 at high flying Real Betis, who incidentally leap-frogged us in the table. We finished the month with a resounding 3-0 victory over Malaga to shake off our malaise. These league games were punctuated with a number of cup games starting with a 2-0 home victory over Valladolid, we drew the 2nd leg 2-2 after trailing 2-0 (this was in between Atletico and Real meaning we fell 2 down in 3 consecutive matches!) - young left back Juan Carlos chose a good time to score his first goal for the club to put us back ahead on aggregate before we scored a late equaliser through another young newgen Jairo Redero (RW) to ease us through but only after they had been reduced to 10 men. We drew Cordoba next and duly won 4-0 to as good as put us through before winning the 2nd leg 3-0 for a comprehensive aggregate victory. The semi-final drew us against Atletico, preferable to facing Barcelona who were rather more fortunate in drawing Sevilla. Sevilla almost took a lead to the Camp Nou but Barcelona scored a late equaliser to draw 1-1. We performed admirably and we had our centre backs, Nunez and Herrando, to thanks for our 2-0 first leg lead.

February brought comfortable wins over Villarreal, Espanyol and Sevilla. We beat Girona 3-2 but it was a bit sloppy...this should have been a winning margin of 4 or 5. Top striker Andoni Sanz gave us the lead at Cetla Vigo before midfielder Juan Manuel (both newgens) was sent off. We went on to lose 2-1 which was a very disappointing way to end the month. In the Champions League, a complete performance saw us beat Juventus 2-0 at San Mames to give us a good lead to take to Turin. We defended brilliantly with Ronaldo hardly having a sniff. Inaki Williams gave us the perfect start after just 5 minutes and Andoni Sanz gave us a cushion 10 minutes from time when he converted from the spot. Our 2nd leg vs Atletico spun in our favour when Griezmann was dismissed for a bad challenge. We went on to win 2-0 on the night, 4-0 on aggregate!

March brought 3 more league victories against Cordoba, Cadiz and Valencia. We drew 3-3 away to in form Levante in an open game where Tammy Abraham proved too hot to handle, scoring a hat-trick! He gave them the lead 3 times with Andoni Sanz answering the first 2 and Inigo Martinez completing our 3rd comeback. This was after tough trip to Turin where we defended resolutely and held out for a 0-0 draw and safe passage to the quarter finals. We had a great chance to take the lead and make it even more comfortable but again we had our defence to thank for a superb display. Unai Simon decided that I had kept my promise and dropped his issue!

April was excellent for league form with 5 victories over Eibar, Las Palmas, Valladolid and Getafe...oh and Giorgian De Arrascaeta hit a glorious winner to see off Barcelona 2-1 to give us a glimmer of hope in the title race. A goalless draw at Leganes before that was deeply disappointing. We had drawn Dortmund in the Champions League and in truth we were poor in a 2-0 away defeat. At home we had to go for it and got our noses in front after just 5 minutes only to be pegged back 5 minutes later. De Arrascaeta put us back in front after 14 minutes but it had become and open game which suited our visitors much more. Dortmund pegged us back again with 2 second half Timo Werner goals before Pulisic made it 4-2 to Dortmund. Andoni Sanz pulled it back to 4-3 late on but our hopes had long gone and we fell short in the Champions League once more against a team I felt we could beat.

May provided slim hopes of winning La Liga but it also presented a cup final against Barcelona (who hammered Sevilla 5-0 in their 2nd leg, 6-1 on aggregate). We had tough games starting with Real Madrid at home who still could beat us to 2nd place. Fresh off the back of their CL semi-final, we gave them no respite with Andoni Sanz scoring 2 first half goals including one from the spot. Muniain's 2nd half red card for a 2nd caution gave us something to worry about but we held firm. Next was a tricky trip to Atletico where we lost 1-0. We had chances and could maybe have felt unfortunate to lose this game but they are a good side and this was always a possibility. Our final game was at home to Real Betis, whose own top 4 hopes had long faded, where we would run out 2-0 winners but only after a kick up the arse following a poor first half display.

Our final game would therefore be the Copa Del Rey final against Barcelona, my nemesis. They had just defended their league title with 98pts and to be honest, I wish Klopp would leave as winning the league again is going to be difficult whilst he remains their manager. Here's how the table finished:

We again broke our points record! We won the title with 86pts, defended our title with 88pts but finished 3rd and now this. At least we're making progress!

And so to the cup final. I decided to be positive and play my 4231 formation although with a balanced mentality. We beat them at home using a positive mentality so this gave me the confidence to give it a go. I just didn't want to play a more cautious game plan and lose, I wanted to give it a real go.

If you've been following my whole journey, you will know this is my 3rd cup final having lost to both Madrid teams in my first 2...it would be nice not to have to face one of the big 3 for once!

The game itself started quite well and an open passage of play eventually led to Andoni Sanz stroking a shot into the bottom corner after being played through by another wonderkid newgen, left winger Josu Iriondu. We had a couple of chances through Williams and Merino to make it 2-0 but we held out until half time with a 1-0 lead however, my wonderkid AM Inaki Garcia was not playing well. I encouraged the team at half time but also gave a few players a reminder of my expectations. I'm not sure this worked because in the 2nd half things didn't really change too much and Alex Remiro (I kept faith with my cup keeper) had a few saves to make. Dembele made it 1-1 on the hour and Barcelona seemed to grow in belief thereafter whilst I watched on knowing a familiar tale where Barcelona go and dig out a win somehow and we're left licking our wounds once more. Inaki Garcia's performance had not improved and it was time to introduce Mikel Oyarzabal He probably would have started but for missing much of the run in through injury; he lacked match fitness for this one. I told him he could make the difference and boy, did he! With just 10 minutes remaining, my right back Areso's cross from the right was cleared by Skriniar only as far as Merino who passed back into the penalty area to Oyarzabal around the penalty spot, who turned and fired in to give us a precious lead. We still had plenty of time to see out though. It could have been put to bed in the 90th minute but Williams could get his shot past Ter Stegen. It didn't matter though as we managed to see out the game and lift the Copa Del Rey!!

A great end to the season and my 3rd trophy as Athletic manager...well I'm counting the Spanish Super Cup here!

We now need to build on this and make sure we are challenging for the league title once more. We'll have a job to ensure our top players aren't lured away but we have some exciting talent coming through and Oihan Sancet rejoining us on a free from Arsenal. Iturrino managed 14 goals as our 2nd choice striker; Williams and Oyarzabal both hit 12 but our top scorer was Sanz with 30 goals in all comps. I'd like to see Inaki Garcia step up another level after scoring 8 goals this season, especially as he is being given a 5 star rating at the moment!

 

[TOMetz]

Love the series, keep 'em coming!

Can we have a bit more insights in your tactics?

[maccataq]

10 hours ago, TOMetz said:

Love the series, keep 'em coming!

Can we have a bit more insights in your tactics?

Thanks! Glad you enjoy it. I will post my tactics shortly.

[maccataq]

@TOMetz - here you go:

I mainly play 4231 and more and more I have the confidence to play this in bigger games and away from home. At home against weaker opposition I will play attacking rather than positive. I have put in the players that are the core of my team with Sanz, Garcia and Areso all newgens from my academy.

My DLP used to be on a support duty but I have found switching to a defend duty protects us that little bit more and we have managed to keep a mean defence as a well as slowly making my attack more potent.

This is my more defensive formation that I will use against bigger teams, especially away from home. A bit more direct and a bit more cautious. Depending on opposition I will go positive and if I am playing against a team that plays with wingers, I will switch to defending with more width.

 

[dothestrand]

I tend to play a rigid 4-3-2-1 (the 2 as wingers/inside forwards). But I find that Athletic Club produces so many AMCs then I usually try to convert them to either central midfielders or wingers because generally none of my midfielders are great defensively (unless you get a real DMC, but then I really do need two CMs ahead of them) and I prefer the balance. 

[maccataq]

11 hours ago, dothestrand said:

I tend to play a rigid 4-3-2-1 (the 2 as wingers/inside forwards). But I find that Athletic Club produces so many AMCs then I usually try to convert them to either central midfielders or wingers because generally none of my midfielders are great defensively (unless you get a real DMC, but then I really do need two CMs ahead of them) and I prefer the balance. 

So are the 3 all central mids rather than a DM?

I seem to get a lot of left wingers through my youth intakes. I also get some good AMCs but CM is always an area I struggle to produce. I have even appointed a HOYD whose preferred formation is 4231 to try and change it but not seen huge changes just yet. I think I might need to start doing some conversions too. It's the creative midfielders I struggle to produce but DMs are not a problem. 

[dothestrand]

14 hours ago, maccataq said:

So are the 3 all central mids rather than a DM?

I seem to get a lot of left wingers through my youth intakes. I also get some good AMCs but CM is always an area I struggle to produce. I have even appointed a HOYD whose preferred formation is 4231 to try and change it but not seen huge changes just yet. I think I might need to start doing some conversions too. It's the creative midfielders I struggle to produce but DMs are not a problem. 

By and large yes, but someone like Zubeldia is much better as a DMC in front of the CBs and you'll get regens coming through who are natural DMCs. They're often orange/reds at the various CM roles. I've been able to get AMCs from soft green to full on naturals in CM, but some just won't budge and I see if I have better like as wide players. I don't know how long you should persevere though. If you can't convert someone in a season or so, will they ever?

[maccataq]

On 14/08/2019 at 10:11, dothestrand said:

By and large yes, but someone like Zubeldia is much better as a DMC in front of the CBs and you'll get regens coming through who are natural DMCs. They're often orange/reds at the various CM roles. I've been able to get AMCs from soft green to full on naturals in CM, but some just won't budge and I see if I have better like as wide players. I don't know how long you should persevere though. If you can't convert someone in a season or so, will they ever?

The players that get only orange/yellow for roles and never develop further despite having all the attributes frustrates me about the current version of the game. More so when you think players like Giorgian De Arrascaeta are 2 footed and is awkward on the right wing but natural on the left! I know there are nuances to switching between the 2 positions but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Anyway, do you play players in positions when they are orange as long as the attributes are good / they play ok or do you try to avoid it? I always prefer a nice green circle but I find it is hard to avoid sometimes given the majority of players seem incapable of adapting (in my experience)

Also, @dothestrand, this may be a long shot but I've just read a comment from someone with the same username on Guardian on an article about Ben Stokes - is this you also?

 

[dothestrand]

On 27/08/2019 at 13:28, maccataq said:

The players that get only orange/yellow for roles and never develop further despite having all the attributes frustrates me about the current version of the game. More so when you think players like Giorgian De Arrascaeta are 2 footed and is awkward on the right wing but natural on the left! I know there are nuances to switching between the 2 positions but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Anyway, do you play players in positions when they are orange as long as the attributes are good / they play ok or do you try to avoid it? I always prefer a nice green circle but I find it is hard to avoid sometimes given the majority of players seem incapable of adapting (in my experience)

Also, @dothestrand, this may be a long shot but I've just read a comment from someone with the same username on Guardian on an article about Ben Stokes - is this you also?

 

Hehe, yes I do post under that pseudonym on the Guardian - usually under cricket

I tend to play guys with a degree of versatility in their yellow/orange roles when rotating, but I find that even with playing them there regularly makes little difference. I try to remould my AMCs into CM positions and play them there regularly but they hardly ever become more familiar in that role. 

[maccataq]

On 29/08/2019 at 18:43, dothestrand said:

Hehe, yes I do post under that pseudonym on the Guardian - usually under cricket

I tend to play guys with a degree of versatility in their yellow/orange roles when rotating, but I find that even with playing them there regularly makes little difference. I try to remould my AMCs into CM positions and play them there regularly but they hardly ever become more familiar in that role. 

Haha brilliant - so let me get this straight, you are...

• A Man Utd fan
• A FM fanatic
• An Athletic Bilbao enthusiast
• An England cricket fan

A man after my own heart!

It's not fun being a Utd fan at the moment though - I was joking the other day that we should sign Ben Stokes!

[maccataq]

Season 24/25 Review:

As noted previously, we brought back Oihan Sancet on a free transfer from Arsenal (who had managed to nick him from me a few seasons back). We didn't buy anyone else for the first team but sold Jorge Herrando to Real Madrid as I didn't really need him with 2 high potential CBs breaking through. I also decided to loan out Bengoetxea (2nd choice RB) to Betis as I had another high potential RB coming through. We also sold Ganea to give more game time to Juan Carlos - left back is definitely a problem area.

Squad for the season:

GKs: Unai Simon & Alex Remiro

RBs: Alberto Areso & Ruben Royo (both newgens)

LBs: Yuri & Juan Carlos (newgen)

CBs: Inigo Martinez, Yeray, Unai Nunez & Franck Goni (newgen)

DMs: Mariano Moreno (newgen)

CMs: Oihan Sancet, Mikel Merino, Ander Herrera, Jose Manuel (newgen)

AMCs: Inaki Garcia (newgen) & Giorgian De Arrascaeta

RWs: Inaki Williams, Mikel Oyarzabal (although can play a few positions)

LWs: Iker Muniain & Josu Iriondu (newgen)

CFs: Andoni Sanz, Imanol Iturrino & Ivan (all newgens)

We started the season with the Super Cup after our Copa del Rey triumph and faced Barcelona once more. I don't have a good record against Barcelona but for some reason we do well against them in Super Cups. After defeating them in the Copa del Rey final 2-1, there was little chance for revenge as Inaki Williams put us in front after just 4 mins and my left winger Jorge Iriondo made it 2 just after the half hour. Barcelona pulled one back just before half time but there would be no further goals and we would retain the Super Copa!

August would start with a trip to Girona before entertaining Racing Santander. Sancet scored on his league debut and we went on to win an entertaining game 4-2 at Girona before sweeping Santander aside 3-1. My striker Sanz scored a hat-trick in Girona and added another here. Iriondo scored twice to give us a 3 goal half time lead so I was happy with our league start.

After the international break, September would provide a rather more stern test; we beat Celta away 2-0 (Iriondo & Sanz on target again) before a visit to Celtic in the Champions League. Alongside Celtic, we drew Dortmund and Arsenal again! We edged out Celtic 1-0 with back up striker Iturrino on target. Next up Barcelona at home...Inaki Williams again put us in front and we took a 1-0 lead into half-time. Unfortunately, the 2nd half would prove more eventful with Barca levelling up 4 mins after the interval and then our task was made a lot more difficult when Yuri was sent off before the hour! Incredibly, just 2 mins later we countered and Sanz put us 2-1 up and something to defend but Malcom equalised just 5 mins later to prevent us from building such a gameplan. Pogba fired in a winner and I was left feeling frustrated by a result that we didn't really deserve and only really happened because of the red card. Our next game was home to Real Madrid who had started very well hammering champions Barcelona 5-1 and also winning away to Atletico, who endured a difficult start. We brought them down to earth with a pleasing 2-0 victory. We finished September away to Espanyol which ended in a disappointing 2-2 draw after twice falling behind.

October was flawless. We beat Dortmund 2-0 at home and Arsenal 2-0 away to take command of our CL group. We hammered Villarreal 4-0 and saw off Basque rivals Real Sociedad 2-0 before a creditable 1-0 win away to Valencia. Finally a chance to really rotate the squad when we visited Cultural y Deportiva Leonosa in the cup and recorded a comfortable 2-0 win.

November started at home to Malaga which we won well, 4-1! Arsenal scored a late equaliser at San Mames to leave us frustrated in a game we should have won. Our  next game was away to Atletico who had started disastrously, finding themselves amongst the relegation places. Of course, they would turn it on for us and we had to salvage a draw, twice coming from behind although the 2nd time we had to do so with 10 men. Really disappointing for the 2nd time this season a red card has hampered our chances of winning games. If the last 2 games were disappointing, Levante would put them in the shadow. Levante are a decent team and more recently I always seem to have high scoring games against them (3-3 away last season). We took the lead here and all seemed to be going to plan but goals either side of half time turned the game on it's head and later Levante made it 3-1 before Oyarzabal pulled one back but it wouldn't be enough, losing 3-2. We bounced back by hammering Celtic 5-0 before a professional 2-0 away victory at Oviedo.

December began with the 2nd leg against Cultural with our first half performance blowing them away. Muniain (now 2nd fiddle to Iriondo) led the charge with 2 goals, youngster Chico Perez (he's actually called Gorka but since I had another newgen called Gorka Perez, not to mention the real Gorka Perez presiding in the B team I had to think up a nickname and he was dubbed Chico for his short stature) scored his first goal for the club too and a goal from Jose Manuel made it 4-0 by half-time and 6-0 on aggregate and it finished this way. A double from Sanz was enough to see of Las Palmas at home 2-0. Our trip to Dortmund was a dead rubber having already won the group so we sent a much changed team and paid the price losing 3-0 to a Timo Werner hat-trick! Now the visit of Real Betis would prove extraordinary, my default mentality is positive and I usually change to attacking for teams I expect to beat at home but Real Betis are a good team and were me pushing hard in 4th place so I probably would have changed back to positive had I remembered but instead I picked my team and went into the game, my first choice team fresh from being rested mid-week seemed to do the trick! A first half hat-trick from Sanz as well as goals from Sancet and Williams made it 5-0 at half time! Oyarzabal scored the only goal of the 2nd half and we gave Betis a day to forget with a crushing 6-0 defeat. Our final game of the year would be against Leganes who seem to like to approach the game like Levante with high scoring games. Youssef En Nesyri who had barely scored any goals put Leganes in front after just 2 mins and when Williams levelled things up, it didn't take him long to fire them back in front. I wasn't best pleased that my CBs seemed incapable of dealing with him as they largely counter attacked with direct balls for him! A couple of adjustments and Sancet's 2nd half double meant we could travel back to Bilbao, relieved and with 3 points.

At this point, I want to give a nod to Sanz - my top striker! He collected his goal bonus before Christmas by scoring 20 league goals, such was the season he was having. Just 1 other goal to speak of in the CL made it 21.

This was the table heading into the winter break:

January is always a long month, especially as we tend to do well in the Copa del Rey. We drew Leganes in the 5th round so we'd be seeing a lot more of each other but we made mucher lighter work of them this time with a 2-0 win away from home and again in the return leg. We sandwiched a 2-0 win at Valladolid between that before hammering Sevilla 4-0 at home. We drew Celta Vigo in the quarter finals and gave them the same treatment as Leganes by winning 2-0 both home and away. Between these 2 games brought a highly disappointing 1-1 draw in Getafe. We should have put this game to bed but Martinez scored an own goal fairly late on to cancel out an own goal from Zappacosta that we benefitted from. We won 2-0 in Santander scoring twice fairly early on which I always like! The semi-final matched us with Atletico and we earned a goalless draw in a fairly uninspiring game - we would have to finish the job at home without an away goal.

February would be a tough month. AC Milan was our prize for topping the group and of course we would have the return leg against Atletico as well as back to back away trips to Barca and Real! Things would start a little easier than that though - we saw off Girona 2-0 with a double from Sanz and an early Iriondo goal at home to Celta would earn us a 1-0 victory. Atletico gave us a scare in the cup when Paunovic equalised Giorgian De Arrascaeta's first half strike as it meant they led on away goals. Off the bench came Andoni Sanz who had missed a couple of penalties this season but was on target here, twice to see out a 3-1 victory. Our trip to Milan echoed that of our visit to Atletico - a goalless draw leaving us it all to do at home. We then lost 2-0 and 3-1 away to Barca and Real respectively although I don't think we played as badly as the scorelines may have suggested but there were some poor individual performances, especially from my full backs. It was also the start of a mini injury crisis, which coupled with these results, effectively ended our title chances. Having already lost Muniain to a long lay off, Sanz found himself with a spell on the sidelines and he rarely gets injured - it was a bitter blow to my chances. We finished the month with a 2-0 victory home to Espanyol but both Iturrino (in for Sanz) and Iriondo picked up knocks in this match.

March would see our injury problems worsen with Williams and Inaki Garcia (AMC) also facing a spell on the sidelines. In January, I had sent Ivan (3rd choice striker) out on loan but brought back Redero, a hot prospect on the right wing to try to provide more back up to my attacking options.Despite falling behind at Villarreal, Iturrino pounced with 2 strikes with Garcia and Areso (RB) grabbing one each to win 4-1. Iturrino played with a knock in this match! We would need him to lead the line against Milan which was a tight affair and after 90 mins, the scores were still 0-0. The strain caused by some of the injuries meant I had tired players and extra time was the last thing I needed. This was the match when Inaki Garcia got injured but Williams and Iriondo both scored to see us finish 2-0 winners...our prize would be Man City in the quarter final! We didn't play well away to Real Sociedad, who had just sacked their manager! Typical! We lost 1-0 as I bemoaned missed chances and missing players. We bounced back with 2 consecutive 2-0 home victories against Valencia and Atletico now missing William also.

April was a long month in terms of games played, a trip to struggling Malaga left us red faced as they came back to beat us 2-1, to say I was unhappy was an understatement. We got revenge on Levante, winning 2-0 but more casualties with Iturrino scoring and leaving the field injured as well as Merino picking up a knock...at least Sanz had returned from his injury and we'd need him for the visit of Man City which ended up a goal-fest which I was both delighted with and concerned...I'll let you see for yourself!

 

A patient 2-0 away at Las Palmas was yet another pleasing victory (and we seem to have won a lot by this score) before we would visit Man City. Sanz scored an early goal to give us a 6-3 lead but it wouldn't last long and we ended up 2-1 down at half-time. Foden gave them a 3-1 lead just after half time and now they led on away goals! This might have worked in my favour a little as at least we knew we had to go get a goal. Tierney was sent off only 4 mins later giving us the extra man advantage and we pushed them to find the goal we needed which looked like it might come when Sanz was fouled at the near post when it looked like he might have turned in. Unfortunately his penalty was saved and with that, it seemed our chances would fade but we're made of sterner stuff and Iriondo's cross was met by Oyarazabal at the far post to lash home and send the away support into rapture! We held on for a prize in the semi-final and we would draw a familiar foe, Barcelona. There must have been a bit of a hangover as we laboured to beat lowly Oviedo at home but de Arrascaeta popped up with the goal to end all frustrations just 13 mins from time. Our trip to Betis was a moment to forget as we went down 2-0 before beating Leganes 2-0 (again). Our final match in April was the first leg at home to Barcelona. We battered them with early goals from Sanz and Garcia but Schick replied for Barcelona giving us a 2-1 half-time lead but it flattered Barcelona. Iriondo added a 3rd in the 2nd half but we were unlucky not to score more having hit the woodwork in both halves. I had to be happy with a 3-1 win but it could have been effectively over.

Into May and being out of the title race we had to rotate more and put our eggs in the Champions league but a crazy 3-3 home draw with Valladolid was not what I was hoping for having led 3 times and conceding a 95th minute penalty, from which they scored, was not in the script. It didn't do me any good as our trip to Barcelona was highly disappointing scoring 2 quick goals in the 21st and 23rd minute. We failed to muster a shot on target and bowed out. We finished the season with a 2-0 win over Getafe and 1-0 win at Sevilla. These games also gave me a chance to hand game time to upcoming hot prospects including the aforementioned Redero as well Cano (CB, who became 4th choice when I loaned out Unai Nunez in January) and Patxi Rodriguez an AMC with huge potential.

Final league table with Real Madrid, despite a couple of late wobbles, taking the title with 99pts whilst we had to settle for 3rd and a disappointing 7 defeats! Certainly not our best season but I think we could have made more of a fight with better luck with injuries.

Our final game of the season would be the cup final. After winning last season, this was our chance to retain our trophy and finish the season on a high. We played Betis and this was as straightforward as I could have hoped for: 

Funnily enough, our season review labelled our 6-0 win against Betis as the moment to remember and our 2-0 defeat as the moment to forget but winning the cup was a happy moment. Here is a recap of our competition activity:

 

 

 

 

[maccataq]

It's probably also noteworthy to mention that after losing on penalties in the European Championships final to Italy, the Spain job became available and was promptly offered my way. As an Englishman managing a Basque team, was the call for the Castilian nation of Spain enough to take my fancy? Of course and I would look to make it a Basque dominated team.

Our first games would be in the Nations League and we had drawn Italy and Austria in Division A. We started with a friendly away to Slovenia which we won 2-0 and I proudly named 8 Basque players in my starting line up. Isco, Koke and Grimaldo made up the non-Basques whilst Jorge Herrando (now at Real Madrid) and Kepa were the only 2 Basques not to play for Bilbao (although both have in the past). Andoni Sanz and Inaki Garcia scored the goals.

My first competitive game didn't include quite as many Basques with just Oyarzabal keeping his place whilst Odriozola came in for my Bilbao prodigy Areso at RB. We lost this game 2-1 falling behind after 28 minutes. Malcom levelled things up but Italy's Cristante scored late on meaning Italy would leave Spain with the 3pts, which I felt a little hard done by.

The next international break brough a trip to Austria and here the Basque count was 3, swapping in Areso for Odriozola, retaining Oyarzabal and bringing in Sanz for Morata up front. This paid off as Sanz and Oyarzabal scored the goals in a 2-0 win.

November's international break meant a home fixture against Austria and a trip to Italy. We saw off Austria with 5 Basque players in the team plus 2 more off the bench. Goals from Morata, Williams and Inaki Garcia meant 2 of the 3 goals were scored by Basques! Austria actually took the lead in this match so we won 3-1. Away to Italy was going to be hard and we had to win to have any chance of qualifying for the semi-final. If my task wasn't hard enough, the ref decided to make things an awful lot harder for us. Rodri made a sliding tackle down by the by-line and appeared to take the ball cleanly, however, the ref produced a red card. No problem I thought, VAR will overturn this! Well it would have if it was in use but as it were, we were down to 10 men. We were managing the game quite well but as we drew closer to half-time, an Italy attack was thwarted by a great challenge from Odriozola, cleanly taking the ball but again, the referee didn't like it and produced another red card! If there was any doubt about the first one then there was no doubt with this one - VAR would have overturned! We made it to half-time feeling very hard done by and 2 men down. I told both players they were unlucky to be sent off. Out we went for the 2nd half but the inevitable happened just after the hour when Italy finally took the lead and then doubled it 8 mins later. Sanz managed to pull one back late on but we again lost 2-1 and so we ended up 2nd in the group. Italy went on to beat Germany in the semi-final on penalties but ultimately fell short, losing to France in the final.

We went into March starting our World Cup qualifying campaign drawing Ireland, Georgia, Moldova, Sweden and Malta in the group. We started away to Sweden with Asensio scoring twice in a 2-0 win before beating Ireland 3-0 at home with Morata (2) and Sergio Gomez on target. This group seems straightforward with our stiffest opposition brushed aside.

June brought trips to Malta and Moldova where we won 6-0 and 2-0 respectively. My left winger Iriondo scored twice and Oyarzabal once representing the Basque country well in the Malta game.

June also brought the start of the Confederations Cup! Our group was New Zealand, USA and Senegal B...yes Senegal B team! The first team were in action in the African Nations Cup would you believe?

We started with NZ and beat them 3-1 absolutely dominating from the off and after moving 2-0 up, NZ instantly pulled one back through Chris Wood with their first attack of the match, typical. Koke had put us in front and Asensio added his 2nd from the penalty spot in the 2nd half to give us a cushion but 3-1 flattered New Zealand. Our 2nd match also flattered our opposition as a 4th minute Saul strike was enough to beat the USA 1-0 but it really should have been more. Our final group game against the Senegal 2nd string finished 5-0 with Williams, Sergio Gomez, Morata and Inaki Garcia (2) on target.

The semi-final drew us against South American champions Paraguay! I looked forward to this one but had to take them a little seriously given their title. The game was largely disappointing and we seemed to struggle to turn our dominance into goals. Our talisman, Asensio, who so often comes up with the goods and destroys teams had an off day and not only turned out a poor performance but picked up the booking that would see him out of the final. My very own Inaki Garcia replaced him and also scored a 91st minute winner to save us from extra time.

Portugal seemed the most likely opponents for the final but USA threw up a surprise and so we faced them instead - which I was just fine with! Centre-Back Jorge Mere put us in front around the half hour mark in the final but it seemed like it might be another game where we didn't turn our dominance into goals but Malcom and Oyarzabal scored late on to put the gloss on the scoreline that we deserved, running out 3-0 winners.

Edited September 21, 2019 by maccataq

[maccataq]

Season 2025/26

Transfers in: Iosu Santisteban, Mikel Vesga, Inigo Eguaras, Andoni Gorosabel

I wanted to bolster my attacking options and depth so I signed this guy from Stade Rennais who I'd be tracking for a few season and since I had a bit of a war chest, I parted with £42m (rising to £54m) to land him. The other 3 signings, including bringing back Mikel Vesga, were all bought for the B team as they all have good levels of determination and good personalities. The idea is to improve the squad personality of Bilbao Athletic as my team leaders there had determination ranging from 8-12 and too often I see youth prospects promoted there see a decline in their determination.

Transfers out: Unai Nunez, Alex Remiro, Iker Muniain, Jose Manuel (loan)

I waved goodbye to some great servants with Iker Muniain having sought a move away in January, I finally sold him on to Olympiakos after injury scuppered his chances of a January move. Unai Nunez (sold to Aston Villa) had dropped down the pecking order and spent the 2nd half of last season on loan at Valencia so it seemed like the right time to move him on with Goni now pushing Martinez for first choice and making room for Cano to get more opportunities. Finally, Real came in with a bid for Remiro and given he is my no.2 goalkeeper and a couple of high potential keepers coming through, the time was right to sell and we managed to get £10m for him. Finally, Jose Manuel, a product of our academy who had played back up in midfield for a few season departed on loan to get some regular football. I have a couple of high potential midfielders coming through and although Ander Herrera is entering his autumn years, I still want him around as an excellent personality and team leader.

Squad for the season (*denotes newgen):

GKs: Unai Simon & Alex Reta*

RBs: Alberto Areso* & Ruben Royo*

LBs: Juan Carlos* & Carlos Bengoetxea*

CBs: Inigo Martinez, Yeray, Franck Goni* & Porfirio Cano*

DMs: Mariano Moreno*

CMs: Oihan Sancet, Mikel Merino, Ander Herrera, Jose Luis Estrada* (can play DM too), Alain Rodriguez*

AMCs: Inaki Garcia* & Patxi Rodriguez*

RWs: Inaki Williams, Mikel Oyarzabal (can play a few positions) & Jairo Redero*

LWs: Josu Iriondu* & Giorgian De Arrascaeta

CFs: Andoni Sanz*, Imanol Iturrino* & Iosu Santisteban*

Including Patxi and Cano, who don't need to be registered, we have a squad of 26 players this season to help combat any issues of squad depth which seemed to undo us last season when we suffered a number of injuries.

Here are some of my prospects from the first team squad: