Auf Wiedersehen Pet

[Nlittle1892]

 

The Storyline 

I want to introduce you all to the new manager of Fortuna Dusseldorf, Mr Dennis Patterson. 

Now as the title of this post suggests, Dennis Patterson is indeed from the cast of the great TV programme which began in the 1980's which for you all young enough not to follow was based around 3 Geordies who headed for Germany to find work as they struggled to find work back home in Newcastle. Dennis was always "the gaffer" in the series so it seemed a no brainer that he was to become my manager here, he was also born the same place as me in real life(Newcastle) and lived in the same estate I grew up in. Now my Career here will follow, hopefully, the same pattern as the lads in the series as I'm heading to Dusseldorf to graft before hopefully finding work back home (Newcastle job). I will be playing as Fortuna Dusseldorf until such time that I get offered the Newcastle job, I can't apply for it that is the only stipulation i will adhere to in the save. I want to build (Auf wiedersehen pet pun intended) Dusseldorf in to a sustainable top flight club. In terms of the club facilities "Die Fortuna" play at the 54,600 capacity Merkur Spiel Arena, however their facilities beyond that are lacking for a top flight club. Good youth Facilities and Average training facilities are what I have inherited behind the scenes but average junior coaching and fairly basic youth recruitment means there is a lot of work needed behind the scenes. A starting bank balance of £16m and wage budget of £289k a week means its going to be a challenge which is what I've signed up for. I have disabled first transfer window to the save, I will start with what I have inherited. 

The History

Fortuna have just the 1 Bundesliga title to their name, way back in 1933, and just the 2 german cups which were won back to back in 1979 and 1980. The last 20 years have been a right old mixed bag, which have included 9 seasons in the German regional divisions before climbing back to the top flight last season. Their only other season in the top flight in last 20 years came in 2012/13 when they finished 17th with just 7 wins in the season. Now I don't know about you when you's play your saves but I love trying to break the clubs standing records, so I always have a look at the history to pick out some that I want to beat, at Fortuna these are as follows

Club Sequences

• Most wins in a row - 6 1989
• Most games unbeaten - 25 2011
• Biggest win - 10-1 1981 German Cup v Uberherrn

Club Records

• Most Appearances - 440 - Gerd Zewe
• Most Goals - 119 - Peter Meyer
• Most Goals in Season - 35 - Sven Demandt 1988/89
• Most Clean Sheets - 17 Michael Melka 2008/09
• Youngest Appearance - 17 y 243 d Frank Kirn 1986
• Youngest Goalscorer - 18 y 229 d Jan Tauer 2002
• Biggest Transfer fee paid - £2m Marvin Ducksch 2018
• Biggest Transfer Fee received - £4.5m Ihlas Bebou 2017

These are all records I want to break at Dusseldorf, some easier than others. In terms of club targets I am aiming for survival and nothing else 1st season, cups will be neglected to a point as the squad is small on numbers and quality, Long term I would be aiming for European football within 5 season. I will be putting all my efforts into turning the club around behind the scenes, I normally focus on youth anyway so hopefully I can steady the finances and enable us to strengthen off the pitch. 

The next post will focus on the squad, tactics and how Dennis has settled into life in Germany. 

Thanks for reading. 

[Hootieleece]

Good Luck!

[Nlittle1892]

We have just finished pre season and It's been a bit hectic behind the scenes at Fortuna Dusseldorf to say the least. 

Every member of my 1st team coaching staff have had their contracts terminated, with the first transfer window disabled this was my chance to put my imprint on to the club, and the original staff just didn't inspire any sort of confidence. Dennis jumped back over home to round up some of the lads as there were jobs going and 4 English lads returned with first team roles. Phil Cannon is my new HOYD, and Paul Mcguiness, Mark Sale and Chris Neville all join the coaching set up. Dennis then threw the doors open to find more workers and the Russian Vyacheslav Chanov become the new GK coach, at 66 he is the most experienced of the lads but with 20's in all 3 GK attributes he was approached in little time. The big decision was who was to become my number 2, we tried and failed to get Steffen Freund to join but his wage demands just couldn't be met so we settled on Brazilian Mauro Galvao as the next assistant manager. Some of these guys are not first choice, but needs must and we now have a competent coaching set up at first team level. 

The scouting team is my next task and some headway has been made here, I will introduce you to these lads once January comes round and the transfer window is open for business. The U19's and Fortuna's 2nd team also will be brought up to scratch ASAP however as a newly promoted side the staff willing to come here isn't of a high standard and some of the options available to me don't float my boat as such. 

THE SQUAD

Well we know why we are tipped to finish bottom, the squad lacks any real wow factors and it's going to be a slog, a horrible nasty dirty slog. The squad's most valuable players don't belong to us and those that do belong to us won't be around for long hopefully. On loan we have the talents of Dudi Lukebakio and Takashi Usami who will do battle for the left wing spot, David Kownacki is on loan from Sampdoria and he will contest the loan striker position with club record signing Marvin Ducksch. Markus Suttner will add some depth at Left back on loan from Brighton and young Aymen Barkok is a promising central midfielder on loan from fellow German side Frankfurt.  As you can see that's 6 players mentioned and 5 are on loan. The other immediate stand out's from our own players imo are Andre Hoffmann, Marcel Sobottka and Kaan Ayhan who are all solid if unspectacular players. The new scouting team had best find us some gems come January. 

PRE-SEASON

It's hard to properly judge pre season with different tactics and players being used, we had 9 friendlies and a cup game before the league action kicks off. The games I took a keen interest in were the Cercle Brugge game early doors, won 2-0 with a decent performance and The home friendly against fellow Bundesliga side Monchengladbach which we also  won 1-0 in a decent game. The games against Caen, AFC Wimbledon and Fleetwood left me with more questions than answers as we dominated all 3 games yet failed to win any and conceded 4 goals from 6 shots faced on target. At the other end of the pitch we had 34 efforts on target and scored 3, that worries me...a lot. This was brought to reality in my first competitive game against minnows Chemie Leipzig in the 1st round of the German Cup, as mentioned in the OP cups are not a target of mine this season but this game was a full week away from the opening game of the season so I decided I was going strong in the hope of a morale boosting big win and no shock to start my reign. The minnows were seen off fairly comfortably 4-2 in a game where the shock was never on the cards. David Kownacki grabbed a 1st half hat trick to put us 3 up before Chemie Leipzig scored just on ht, again the 3 goal was restored straight after the break when Sobottka, on for Kownacki at HT, grabbed a debut goal as well. comfortable but Chemie were not done and pulled another back before FT. 3 shots faced on target, 2 goals conceded whereas we had 23 attempts, 11 on target scoring 4. the % of goals conceded via shots attempted scares me big time. 

TACTICS

This is what I'm starting with, ignore the mentality as that will change on  game by game basis, I've had a bit success with a slightly modified more attacking version of this in a different save but decided to drop the wide men back into the midfield positions, the defensive midfielder is just going to sit instead of a DLP used previously, but I'm sure this tactic will be modified or changed altogether depending on how the season starts. Pre Season has seen some positives but as mentioned further up the post I am alarmed by how easy the opposition seem to be finding the back of my net, and the standard of opposition is only going to increase. 

Anyway that's it for now, Dennis has got his lads ready for the season and the next update will be on how the season has unfolded up to the winter break

cheers for reading