[FM20] Champagne Football II: Calcio Offensivo

[kidthekid]

congrats on promotion.

[john1]

Well done on getting promoted  Hopefully you will get decent money to strengthen the team.

[Hootieleece]

Piccinelli might make a better DM than Fullback/Wingback with current attributes.

Also congrats on Promotion!

[noikeee]

23 hours ago, kidthekid said:

congrats on promotion.

Muchas gracias.

3 hours ago, john1 said:

Well done on getting promoted  Hopefully you will get decent money to strengthen the team.

Not bad, but we're gonna need this to buy essentially a whole new squad. Or at least some 12 or 13 players, probably more. More on that soon.

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

Piccinelli might make a better DM than Fullback/Wingback with current attributes.

Also congrats on Promotion!

I'm training him as ball-playing CB, have no interest in playing him as RB as I need my WBs to be pretty damn attacking. DM could've been an option if it wasn't for a vision of 3 which is godawful, my DM is the primary playmaker whom the team always goes back to, to recycle possession, so I need a much more playmaker-ish player to pull it off.

I do vaguely recall at the beginning when I took over the squad, there was a kid or two with high potential, but their attributes were so rubbish I didn't pay much attention. I think Piccinelli was one of them, it just turns out he's already improving into something much better than I anticipated at the beginning.

[noikeee]

Season review - Cremonese - 2019/2020

 

Competitions

• Serie B: 2nd, promoted
• Coppa Italia: Knocked out in the 4th qualifying round by Sampdoria
   

Club vision

We went 1 year ahead of schedule with promotion to Serie A earlier than the board expected - and I thought the board were quite ambitious from the beginning actually, demanding a top 4 finish when this side had finished 9th the year before. A bit funny to see them disappointed with the lack of U20 signings for the future, not a kind of request I tend to fail on, but this first year was just a season of consolidation, I don't really buy often non-first team "potential" players until I reach a certain competitive level and also have a little cash to rely on.

 

Finances

Not looking good. I got a news message that we get 2.5M€ from our Serie B campaign, but I don't see the money here. Presumably it'll still be paid sometime in the near future? The competition isn't quite fully over yet as there's a relegation "playout" yet to be played.

 

Squad statistics

 

Top 5 players of the season

5. Vittorio Parigini (ML)
 

The winger I loaned from Torino grabbed a place in Cremonese's history with the final day brace against Benevento to promote us to Serie A. It was a highly influential season, with 8 goals, 11 assists and 5 player of the match awards, but weirdly low average ratings that I don't quite understand. I'd love to retain him for next year but his contract with Torino runs out now, and although I tried to hire him, Napoli got him instead.

4. Ricardo Ferreira (DC)
 

The shock of the season as he retired completely from professional football out of the blue in April after a serious knee injury. The Portuguese centerback was my finest pre-season signing, a rock at defence with 7.20 ratings and also contributing 6 goals in set pieces.

3. Michele Castagnetti (DM)
 

I have absolutely no idea why he was transfer listed when I arrived at the club. The deep-lying playmaker was a key part of my side, with the highest ratings from anyone apart from Piccolo, although I think my system favours these numbers for the DM as he gets to make so many passes. But Michele's pretty damn good at doing them, whilst also being a very solid defensive player.

2. Samuel Gustafson (MC, DM)
 

The Swedish playmaker is currently rated as one of the most talented players in the squad, and that's only fair as he can both attack and defend pretty damn well - a reason why I was confident switching his role from advanced playmaker to roaming playmaker. 5 goals and 7 assists is pretty good considering he often had 4 more advanced players in front of him.

 

1. Antonio Piccolo (AMR)

I started the season bragging about how "Champagne Football" was a collective system of players rather than individuals, but sensationally Piccolo had other ideas. This was a barely believable season from the wide forward - 22 goals (5 of them from direct freekicks, ridiculously), 12 assists, 11 player of the match awards, 7.48 average ratings. My only complaint is he's 32 and already losing powers.

 

Other honourable mentions

Emanuel Vignato (AMC, ST)
 

From my few early season signings, this was the most exciting in terms of long-term potential, we absolutely had no business poaching a player like this for 215K€. He was pretty poor as AMC though... until a tactical switch fielding him upfront as an extra striker made him start scoring goals, a total of 9 in fact. Making him 2nd best scorer right after Piccolo. Could become a great player for us once I figure out how to use him.

Michael Kingley (DR, DM, MC)
 

I spent the entire season adapting this Nigerian midfielder to right-back from scratch, with no suitability whatsoever for the position back in the Summer. After a rocky start it became a huge success, specially after we started using underlaps in the right flank. This freed him for lots of late runs into the area, scoring a few goals himself - he finished the season on 4 goals, 4 assists. Unfortunately this was probably the last we've seen of him, as parent club Bologna wants to recall him for next year. This means we need a new RB. In fact we need a whole new backline. And a keeper. And a left winger. And a striker. This is gonna be fun...

 

Individual competition stats

We were pretty well represented in all metrics in Serie B. Piccolo led the charts for average rating and player of the match awards, came 2nd in goalscorers, whilst Parigini was 2nd in assists, and Agazzi got the most clean sheets.

Edited February 13, 2020 by noikeee

[deltablue]

That seemed like an exciting season, at least to read about. Maybe not so much to live through

[Blah_1123]

I've actually been working on a tactic quite similar to your positive version. Main difference being I use a box-to-box rather than a RPM. There's one part of your team instructions I don't understand and that's the order to look for underlap. Correct me if I'm wrong but as I understand it the TI for underlap is instructing your wingbacks to cut inside and underlap with your wingers, not the other way around. Doing this with your tactic would leave your flanks completely vacant as both your wingers and wingbacks will be cutting inside leaving you very vulnerable to a counter attack. Maybe you should try switching it to look for overlap? Or just remove it as your wingbacks should naturally overlap with your wingers as the former cut inside. I'm happy to be told I'm wrong but this was my understanding of it.

[noikeee]

46 minutes ago, deltablue said:

That seemed like an exciting season, at least to read about. Maybe not so much to live through

It was great fun to play!! Suddenly rediscovered a bit of joy playing FM.

24 minutes ago, Blah_1123 said:

I've actually been working on a tactic quite similar to your positive version. Main difference being I use a box-to-box rather than a RPM. There's one part of your team instructions I don't understand and that's the order to look for underlap. Correct me if I'm wrong but as I understand it the TI for underlap is instructing your wingbacks to cut inside and underlap with your wingers, not the other way around. Doing this with your tactic would leave your flanks completely vacant as both your wingers and wingbacks will be cutting inside leaving you very vulnerable to a counter attack. Maybe you should try switching it to look for overlap? Or just remove it as your wingbacks should naturally overlap with your wingers as the former cut inside. I'm happy to be told I'm wrong but this was my understanding of it.

It started off as an experiment, I didn't really know what it'd do concretely on the pitch. But I like how it plays out. Essentially what I notice the most is occasional narrower runs from the wingback going into the area. It doesn't really clash with the IW's positioning so works fine.

Defensively it doesn't make any difference in my opinion, whether it's underlaps, overlaps or no specific setting. The wingbacks play so far forward anyway on WB/S with positive or attacking team mentality, there's always space to exploit behind them regardless if they're narrower or wider. And I think that's a bit of a blind spot for the AI, they rarely effectively attack the flanks behind offensive fullbacks/wingbacks.

[Blah_1123]

Fair enough. Think personally I'd prefer a wide option for a cross or recycling possession as think that's where wingbacks would be more useful rather than in a more central position but that's just personal preference.

[noikeee]

14 minutes ago, Blah_1123 said:

Fair enough. Think personally I'd prefer a wide option for a cross or recycling possession as think that's where wingbacks would be more useful rather than in a more central position but that's just personal preference.

That was my original idea (see the "Klopp" tactic), and why I only want "underlaps" on one flank, so we retain a bit of attacking variance with the left flank left WB still providing width without underlaps, whilst on the other flank the RWB uses the underlap narrower dynamic.

I'm not a huge fan of symmetrical tactics, at least not from an attacking point of view, always try to hit them differently from one flank to the other so that we pose two different types of danger to the opposition's defence.

[noikeee]

Building a new squad

Usually I'd be raring to go into a new season, specially after having so much fun this last year, but there's SO MUCH WORK to do here. I've already hinted at that in previous posts but let's take a look at the squad again to see what I mean. First let's sort by contract expiry date.

1, 2, 3, 4, ..... 13. 13 players whose contracts are expiring or are on a loan from another club, that is expiring soon.

Now I am very glad a few of those contracts are running out. I do not want to be spending 40K/month on Claiton or 56K/month on Ciofani, veteran players that don't suit my system. The problem is replacing the loanees, and improving on the positions for which we have players that simply aren't good enough.

Let's go position by position.

Keeper

Both our main keepers, Agazzi and Ravaglia, have their contracts expiring. Neither is any good for Serie A level. I'm looking at maybe letting Agazzi go, he might've been our starter but is 35, getting worse, and is being paid twice the wages of Ravaglia. We ABSOLUTELY need a new starting sweeper keeper. 3rd choice Volpe might continue as he has 1 more year of contract.

Leftback

Both our leftbacks are 32 years old with their contracts running out. I like Migliore more than Renzetti and would prefer retaining him just one more year but dunno if it'll be possible with affordable wages. An improvement is needed.

Rightback

Kingsley's loan is ending. Zortea's loan runs for another year but he wasn't good enough for Serie B nevermind Serie A. New rightback needed.

Centerback

Claiton's contract runs out, which is fine. Ravanelli is our best CB post-Ricardo Ferreira's retirement, but his loan is ending, though Sassuolo is willing to keep him loaned to us. Caracciolo, Bianchetti, Terranova remain under contract but I don't fancy any of them for Serie A level - I want to maybe retain Caracciolo on our ranks as a backup but that's it.

Midfielders - DLP and RPM

This is our strongest positions as Castagnetti/Gustafson will remain and they're right about almost the only players I can count on being able to make the step up from Serie B to Serie A. Valzania isn't interested in renewing his loan and Arini is old, his contract running out. So we need 2 signings to rotate with Castagnetti/Gustafson.

Left winger

Parigini's loan runs out and he's signed for Napoli. Soddimo remains under contract but he wasn't good enough for Serie B nevermind Serie A. 2 new players needed, I want to offload Soddimo.

Right winger

Thankfully Piccolo remains, but he's 32, I need a strong alternative. Montiel's loan could be renewed but ideally I want a better player as he didn't convince

AMCs and strikers

Though they rarely shine, in most of our tactics I use 2 players in these positions so need some depth here. Vignato is the only player I have trust in. Palombi's loan could be renewed, he's okay as a backup option I guess. I don't mind retaining Deli in the squad though he played little and can't play ST. Ciofani's contract runs out, Ceravolo is rubbish, overpaid and unfortunately his contract doesn't run out. I'd love to swap him for someone else.

TLDR

GK: (new signing) / Ravaglia / Volpe
LB: (new signing) / Migliore
RB: (new signing) / (new signing)
CB: (new signing) / (new signing) / Ravanelli / Caracciolo
DLP: Castagnetti / (new signing)
RPM: Gustafson / (new signing)
LW: (new signing) / (new signing)
RW: Piccolo / (new signing)
AMC: Vignato / Deli
ST: (new signing) / Palombi

Players under contract for next season that I still want to offload:

Zortea (RB) *on loan
Terranova (CB)
Bianchetti (CB)
Soddimo (RW)
Ceravolo (ST)

12 signings to make (hoping for 7 or 8 of them to become starters immediately) and 4 overpaid players to sell that nobody wants! Wonderful!

Oh and I've not even gone into staff which I've basically negligently ignored throughout this initial season.

Edited February 13, 2020 by noikeee

[john1]

Massive job to do!!  

[noikeee]

Undecided whether this would be cool or annoying. I mean if it does happen it clearly ruins the challenge a bit.

[noikeee]

What is this, Abramovich's cousin or what.  

The embargo isn't handy for now, but then again the game seems to be treating us still as a Serie B side so I've not been able to attract players before this, all pretty frustrating.

[noikeee]

We be rich!!

HOLY **** IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

When I first saw this message I thought, wtf is the fuss then. The transfer budget was 4M€ before this, so I get a whole extra 700K, not impressive. 

But then...

Notice that tiny little "other" intake at the bottom of the picture of 49M€?  

Wage budget also doubled overnight from 1M/month to 2M/month.

Player retiring due to injury and tycoon in just one season, what's next in this career, a unicorn falling off a meteor?

[noikeee]

How very nice of you, rich guy.

[Hootieleece]

It does make it easier but finding 12 Serie A level Players is gonna be some work even with the expanded budget.

 

The Training facilities will help with seeing the players you do bring in reach their potential at least.

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

It does make it easier but finding 12 Serie A level Players is gonna be some work even with the expanded budget.

 

The Training facilities will help with seeing the players you do bring in reach their potential at least.

It was a bit too late last night to post the signings and the final squad, but I did eventually hire exactly 12 guys and am reasonably happy with them. It's not a super great squad for Serie A standards but a clear improvement from what we had. I'm fairly confident we'll dodge relegation. 

[john1]

Love it how it went from 57M to 4.7M for new players   But good to see him investing in facilities  

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2020-2021: Major squad rebuild as we prepare for Serie A

 

As of the 14th of July prior to the friendlies this is the situation:

Like I said I hired exactly 12 guys as planned (although I was unable to move away the unwanted players, who are chilling in the U20s for now and very unhappy about it). The only thing that didn't go to plan was that I was unable to re-loan Luca Ravanelli BUT was able to loan Michael Kingsley which I didn't expect. That's actually good news, I really like Kingsley, what this meant is I hired an extra centerback and one fewer rightback then.

I'm pretty happy with our new keeper. Was Fiorentina's starter just a few years ago (and he's still in his 20s) and although I had to pay for him, came cheap. Also fits the sweeper keeper mould reasonably alright.

The first centerback I hired comes on loan from one of our parent clubs Inter (the other is Atalanta). I would've wanted a slightly superior player, for now the plan is for him to be a backup. His main skill is pace which I like as I want to play a high line, but he's missing other important skills.

This is a really good centerback that we got for free, there are however two problems. One is he's already 30, the other is he's perhaps not as technically gifted as I want my backline to be.

Our final centerback is... not a centerback. More accomplished as DM or MC, he's by far our most expensive signing at 2.3M€ and I also will give him by far the squad's highest wages. I think it's worth it as he looks almost exactly the kind of player I want to have at CB: Physically powerful, can ready the game (though I'd like more anticipation), can tackle, is technically decent enough. Also he's a Brazilian international!
 

My staff rates this guy as the weakest of my signings. He might well turn out to be not good enough, but I needed a RB option to rotate with Kingsley, and I obviously needed him to be of the attacking kind, capable of dribbling. I'd have liked more flair and crossing, but dribbling, agility, pace and general defensive ability is what I needed. Fun fact I had never heard of this guy and now he's been linked with Porto IRL today.
 

I splashed 1.1M€ on this leftback, might've overpaid. But again I needed an attacking-minded option, but with the extra of wanting him to provide width, so I believe crossing is more essential for LB than for RB in my system (although weirdly my LBs didn't get assists last season).
 

All my midfielders are on this mould so here comes another - I want a guy that can defend and can playmake as well. I'm not convinced he's particularly great or nay better than Castagnetti who he's fighting for the DM position against, but he provides good depth as a solid alternate option. Came on a free.
 

I'm a bit more excited about this Welsh international youngster on loan from Man City. Again he's a similar mould of player but perhaps a little more complete, he can do almost anything on the pitch. I seem him as an ideal option for either RPM or WB on the right but for those positions I already have Gustafson and Kingsley, so he might end up as DLP behind Gustafson relegating Castagnetti to the bench.
 

The first guy I got for the LW inverted winger position, he's also super complete and can easily play central as well, in fact he's more accomplished in there. I would've liked better finishing for the inverted winger role but I'm quite excited to have him on the side, I see him as the very first guy on the subs bench ready to fill in anywhere. Comes on loan from Lazio.
 

The other LW inverted winger is this guy I got from Braga for 1.2M€ who used to be great in previous FMs, who has been tearing it up IRL for Famalicão, and who I think will be a great fit for us in this role. Oh and he's a Porto youth product. I expect big things of him this season, he's the attacking player I'm more excited about.
 

For the opposite wing I got this guy who I've got a little more reservations about. He's gonna be fighting for Piccolo for position which is a tough ask, but Piccolo is 32 and getting slower, and this guy is almost a carbon copy in attributes except for worse set piece delivery; and better in a few other things such as mental reading of the game and crucially, pace.

Our final signing is our 2nd loanee from Inter and a slight gamble as he's so young and our staff isn't super excited about his current ability yet, but I've heard huge things and I like his skills a lot - albeit perhaps not a brilliant fit for the F9 role I tend to use upfront. But I've got a few ideas for a new tactical reshuffle I want to test in pre-season...

This puts our current squad in this state:

 

Plus those 5 guys or so I don't want who are lingering in the U20s and who can be called upon at any time, because I don't think I'll be able to sell them.

Like I said earlier today I think this is a nice step-up from what we've had but certainly very far from the best squads in this league. I suspect our huge pile of cash will become available later on, so for now I just wanted to invest the available cash into a reasonably sensible base squad which can both save us from relegation (hopefully) and fit our playing style. The cash injection so far already helped me as I'm on 1.4M€/month wage budget spent (prior to the tycoon board the budget was 1M€/month), but I still kept a fair bit in reserve, apart from the untouched 40+ M€ lingering in our bank account apart from the budgets.

[kidthekid]

i think that was a good window. Hope the signings pan out as I think they will.

Edited February 15, 2020 by kidthekid

[noikeee]

Pre-season (2): Another 2 loanees arrive as we fine-tune tactics

I have extended the first team squad to 25 players after hiring the following 2 guys on loan from our parent clubs Inter and Atalanta:

I was a bit concerned with poor performance from Sebastian Esposito through the pre-season friendlies, and had no real great alternative upfront. I found out about his Inter team-mate Salcedo and I think he's superior at the moment, I'm expecting good things from him and his pace.

Another opportunity that came up from my scouts. I felt we had slightly underwhelming depth for centerback and this guy seemed at least as good as my starters, so obviously why not. We now have 5 CBs, when someone complaints (they will), I'll just move them on then - or maybe there's still a good chance Caracciolo could go before the transfer window ends.

Meanwhile these were the results throughout the friendlies:

Not super encouraging, pretty low scoring and all the matches against pretty poor sides, nothing like Inter or Juve. That being said, as I fine tuned a new system, I'm watching my tactics play sexy football with loads of open play shots on target so I think there's potential and these low scores might be a quirk of a bad finishing run, an ungelled squad, the AI parking buses, and not a single of these matches being at home.

 

Champagne Tuchel: Fusing the best bits of our "Guardiola" system with what a more traditional forward offers

This is what I've been working on. Ever since we debutted 2 striker systems, most famously Champagne Guttman, I've been wondering how to make it work without it being an absolute calamity defensively. My conclusion is it just wasn't possible, and it is much more stable with a AMC; however I really liked the attacking power the left-wing-offset CF/S of the Guttman tactic offered.

The solution was to ditch the false 9 for the first time in one of my tactics, and make him a slightly deeper similar playmaker-ish player, in this case a Trequartista. Yes, I am very aware that using 3 central playmakers in a tactic looks utterly ridiculous. But on attacking + higher tempo + with loads of wide options this does not make us sluggish and unpenetrative as you'd think. Indeed the Treq roams quite a bit to find space, AND appears to make late runs to finish fairly well, in a way that I've been trying for a while through a Shadow Striker or a AM role without great success. "Champagne Tuchel" is all about fusing the best elements of our Guardiola tactic - the inverted wingers shining, the roaming playmaker influencing things from deep, the right-wing underlap -, and then adding central power from the 2 advanced central players on top of it.

Another important tweak here was to further raise the defensive line to a suicidal-looking "much higher defensive line". This might make us prone to very direct long balls, but I feel these are rare and in terms of covering space this high line pairs very well with that box of 2 CBs + 2 DMs.

 

Tweaking Champagne Del Bosque

This is one I've not tried on the pitch in pre-season as there was no suitable situation, but I feel I'll need a lot this season - a more measured, contained plan to either run down a lead or face a superior side. I've been doing little tweaks here and there that I think will help us, but needs to be tested on the pitch.

Edited February 15, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

August 2020: A cautiously encouraging start

 

Coppa Italia 4th Qual. Rnd
Cremonese 2-0 Pescara: 2 goals in 2 minutes kick off season with cup win
(Vignato 64, Paganini 65)

It was proving pretty tricky to break down Serie B's Pescara here, indeed we had 2 goals ruled out for offside in the first half, but Vignato shone as trequartista and finally broke down the deadlock on minute 64. Next minute... Paganini scored on debut from the right wing. That was it then. Amusingly after all that essay on Champagne Tuchel the previous post on how I finally got rid of the F9, I decided to experiment with replacing the CF/S with a F9 minutes before the goals... was that what worked?

Serie A round 1
Cremonese 2-0 Inter: Another 2 quickfire goals give us huge win
(Vignato 37, Salcedo 39)

Well this was hugely encouraging. We dominated Inter! The first half was entirely ours and again it was 2 goals one right after the other, Vignato shining with one of those late runs into the area to convert a cross, and then assisting Salcedo on a counter for the youngster to score against his parent club. In the final 15 minutes Inter pushed up and created more danger, but we were comfortably better the rest of the match really.
 

Serie A round 2
Parma 3-2 Cremonese: Poor set piece defending costs us in frenetic first half
(Gagliolo 5, Toño 13, Bruno Alves 24; Vignato 11, Kiyine 45)

A spectacular match in Parma with lots of early goals, however most of these came from set pieces. That was how Parma's 1st and 3rd went in, as well as our 1st - Vignato making it 3 goals in 3 matches with good opportunism to tap in a delivery from a wide freekick. We were losing by 3-1 very early and although Kiyine scored his first Cremonese goal just before the break, the goals dried out in the 2nd half. We had chances but never really got a grip on this match and Parma probably deserves the win.
 

It's very early to take any conclusions but we look like a Serie A side, I think. I'm not very happy with that cup draw even if we've just beat them, I think it'll be very hard away at the San Siro, we traditionally tend to do much better at home than away.

[noikeee]

September 2020: Mixed month as we adapt to the higher level of Serie A

 

Hi, I'm back to Italy after a quick detour through Australia in the joint save...

 

Serie A round 3
Cremonese 0-2 Atalanta: Aerial inferiority punished by the visitors
(Tolói 34, Varnier 41)

Not a great day for us. The first half was quite even, we had 1 or 2 good chances, however Atalanta kept having lower percentage chances as well, and after the half hour mark they scored 2 goals in corner kicks. We had to go for it now, but were completely toothless in the 2nd half and things only got worse after Walace was sent off after seeing 2 red cards.

 

Serie A round 4
Napoli 4-1 Cremonese: Napoli show their technical ability on the pitch
(Fabián 7, Allan 23, Lozano 28, Insigne pen 85; Salcedo 36)

Another bad match as Napoli clearly showed they were superior from the very beginning. They'd score 3 from set pieces again - corner, wide free kick and penalty - but they were also very dangerous from open play and a run down the wing from Lozano resulted in a goal from a tight angle. We hardly ever showed anything apart from a direct-ish ball onto a run from Salcedo that gave us the goal. We need to improve.

 

Serie A round 5
Cremonese 3-1 Perugia: Piccolo's return to the starting 11 inspires us to win
(Piccolo 3, Bettella 36, Kiyine 45; Buonaiuto 22)

On paper this was one of the most winnable ties of the season so it came with a good timing to stop the bad run. A strong 1st half sealed it, with Antonio Piccolo shining as I gambled to start him instead of Paganini. He score once and assisted twice from taking corner kicks, the 2nd of which a wonderful wonder strike from Sofian Kiyine after the corner had been taken short. In-between Perugia had equalised but they had no answer in the 2nd half.

 

Serie A round 6
Udinese 1-1 Cremonese: Late goal robs us of possible precious away win
(Cristo 91; Piccolo 5)

This started great again with an early Piccolo goal and again, a strong 1st half performance in which we looked confident. However, Udinese slowly grew into the match. They started having more and more chances as the 2nd half went on, had a goal called back for offside by the VAR 5 minutes from the end... and finally scored in the 91st in a cross, their forward beating Walace. Disappointing to lose a win like this, but I guess a draw away isn't bad.

 

We're starting to struggle a little. It's rare that we can play our natural attacking game undisturbed as the teams we face have talent. Either way, this month's results are largely in line with what you'd expect given our level of ability: losing to superior teams, beating teams that got promoted along us, and drawing away to midtable sides. It's not too terrible and for now we stand 12th, a few places above the relegation zone.

[noikeee]

Some infrastructure improvements to the club, with the tycoon we really should be using our cash to do this kind of stuff.

 

This is the current situation in terms of facilities:

[noikeee]

October 2020: Good showing through tricky run of fixtures

Serie A round 7
Cremonese 1-0 Sampdoria: Kiyine goal the finishing touch on confident display
(Kiyine 56)

At home against a Sampdoria side on a bad run, this was a great opportunity to get a result, and we took it. We were on top of them all match, but struggled to convert it onto goals, until finally shortly after the break a Michael Kingsley cross found Sofian Kiyine on the backpost. We held on fairly easily for the remainder of the match, Sampdoria failed to put a shot on target.

Serie A round 8
Lazio 1-0 Cremonese: Undeserved defeat as we look as good as Lazio in Rome
(Immobile 80)

So close to a bit of an upset here. This on paper looked an extremely difficult tie as Lazio was up there in 4th, but you could hardly tell who was the better side here, Lazio getting more shots, us getting the better chances. It was fizzling out to a boring 0-0 when out of the blue Ciro Immobile got a goal in one of those venomous indirect freekicks, with just 10 minutes to go. I cannot fault my players, they did great.

Serie A round 9
Cremonese 1-0 Juventus: Massive upset as we beat the big boys
(Vignato 78)

On paper, one of the toughest ties of the season against the team that has dominated Serie A for a decade, and against a potent Dybala-Higuain-Ronaldo trident on a 4-3-1-2. Sure enough, they had more and better chances, but we also had quite a few. Neither team was managing to take theirs, though, until on the 78th minute Marko Pajac's cross found Emanuel Vignato after I had shoved him to the right wing. And we held on for the remaining minutes for an unexpected huge win.

Serie A round 10
Milan 3-1 Cremonese: Better finishing gives Milan natural win
(Origi 1, Suso 48, Rebic 79; Esposito 77)

We couldn't quite repeat the standards of the previous 2 matches here as we were on the backfoot since minute 1, loanee Divock Origi scoring for the home side. This was a dull match in which nearly almost every chance went in. Suso increased Milan's tally right at the beginning of the 2nd half, whereas we had a glimpse of a possible comeback when Inter's Sebasiano Esposito scored his 1st ever goal for us, against the rivals of his parent club. To no avail as Milan scored right after and killed the match.

 

I am happy with this month considering we were up against Lazio, Juve and Milan. I've done some minor tweakings to the Champagne Tuchel tactic - which I might show soon - and I think this has helped us defensively, we're no longer getting easily broken down by superior sides. We remain comfortably midtable now in 11th which I'm happy with.

Btw, look at Parma in 1st place, that's quite shocking!

Edited February 22, 2020 by noikeee

[john1]

Wow! Surprised to see Parma top! Who is their manager? Some good wins so far 

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, john1 said:

Wow! Surprised to see Parma top! Who is their manager? Some good wins so far 

Still the same guy as in the original database, Roberto d'Aversa.

Maybe I should've heard of him but I haven't... He's doing quite an astonishing job IRL, took them from Serie C to Serie A and sits currently 9th place with them IRL.

[noikeee]

November 2020: Winless month casts doubts about our ability

Serie A round 11
Cremonese 0-4 Fiorentina: Catastrophic defeat as we struggle to figure out the opposition
(Nainggolan 15, Lirola 35, Pedro 68, Chiesa 80)

The worst day of the season so far. Fiorentina were fielding some kind of 3-5-2 in the first half that somehow managed to get wing superiority over our formation that has both FBs and wingers, scoring 2 goals that way. In the 2nd half they went surprisingly even more attacking with a narrow 4-3-3, and I gambled on switching to a 3-at-the-back formation to try to nullify their 3 strikers. It was a disaster as they dominated the 2nd half and scored another 2, making for a very heavy defeat.
 

Serie A round 12
Brescia 0-0 Cremonese: Very dull goalless draw

Not a classic. The 1st half was Brescia slightly on top, although with 1 or 2 chances either way, and I figured out after a while that we were being a bit too rushed punting passes forward before anyone had even made a run, so I dropped the mentality from Attacking to Positive. It made for a very boring 2nd half in which we gained a bit of superiority but basically created nothing. I guess a point away is okay.

Serie A round 13
Cremonese 0-2 Sassuolo: Berardi's finishing makes the difference
(Berardi 9, 27)

The bad run continues as we lose a winnable match at home. Whilst Sassuolo quite fairly deserved the win here as they had the slightly better chances, it felt as if the huge difference was Domenico Berardi knowing how to put it in the back of the net, whereas our players struggled. Two early goals from the Italian international sealed it.

Serie A round 14
Empoli 2-1 Cremonese: Overshadowed by relegation candidates
(Piscopo 36, Mancuso 58; Kiyine 84)

A demotivated squad certainly didn't help here, because if we were on our positive mood from earlier on I doubt we'd do this badly away to one of the weakest sides in the division. Empoli were simply superior, although they started converting their chances before they had created much. I scrambled to click on tactical buttons until things started looking better on the pitch, and finally Kiyine 5 minutes from the end saved us from an entirely goalless month, but it wasn't enough to stage a comeback.

We need to wake up soon, because on this form we risk getting dragged to the relegation battle.

[noikeee]

Time to start using Mr. Tycoon's money in the transfer market, I think we definitely need an influx of talent in January.

[noikeee]

December 2020 (1): Return to form in the league

Coppa Italia 4th Qual. Rnd
Inter 3-0 Cremonese: Lautaro's pace punishes our high line
(Martinez 47, 48, 58)

This was looking good on the first half as Inter was completely harmless, but just as we returned from the break, long balls onto Lautaro Martinez got him racing beyond our centerbacks twice, 2 goals. He'd add another a few minutes later and that was it, our cup run over.

Serie A round 15
Cremonese 2-0 Bologna: Young forwards provide the goals in much needed win
(Esposito 19, Salcedo 39)

This was a breath of fresh air. I did a team meeting before the match to revive morale a bit, and the team went into the pitch energized, dominating the first half. The 2 teenage forwards on loan from Inter, Salcedo and Esposito, got a goal each and we could've scored more - Kiyine from the left wing has been particularly wasteful lately. On the 2nd half Bologna pushed and had a couple of opportunities as well, but we clearly earned a fair win here.

Serie A round 16
Verona 2-2 Cremonese: Frenetic final 20 minutes compensate for very boring match of football
(Hernández 88, Stepinski 95; Vignato 71, Martins 81)

As of minute 70 I was convinced I was gonna write about a terrible goalless draw in which virtually nothing had happened up until then, but supersub Emanuel Vignato had other ideas and broke the deadlock. Few minutes later, Fábio Martins finally scored his 1st Cremonese goal. Building up to an excellent away win then... but no. They scored on a corner in minute 88, surely too late? Not for Mariusz Stepinski who scored in pretty much the last kick of the game. I'm gutted that a win slipped away like this.

Serie A round 17
Genoa 0-3 Cremonese: Big away win as we look inspired
(Gustafson 19, Esposito 47, Vignato 77)

Wow, what a difference to the previous month - we totally dominated Genoa away here. The first 2 goals weren't exactly the poster child of Champagne Football, as Gustafson headed in a deep Piccolo FK; then Pajac booted it up from deep for a run by Esposito to score on a one-on-one. But they still count and the 3rd was a wonderful counter-attack, Gustafson slotting in a nice casual through ball for Vignato's goal. Genoa were far, far too open, and I've been fine-tuning a plan for these occasions dubbed "Champagne Pochettino". Worked great here.

 

I am disappointed about the cup loss but realistically Inter were unlikely to be within our reach. The last 3 matches however, have been a world apart from what we had been showing lately, marking a clear return to form, and making me optimistic we might be able to avoid going through a relegation battle at all.

[Hootieleece]

You might get involved in a relegation battle if form drops but as long as you have more points than games played you should be good.

My guess looking at the table is that 35 points should be enough!

 

[noikeee]

Not a great intake coming up again.

[noikeee]

13 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

You might get involved in a relegation battle if form drops but as long as you have more points than games played you should be good.

My guess looking at the table is that 35 points should be enough!

 

Last season 30 points was enough... that's 3 wins away. Really we just need not to have disastrous form the rest of the season and we should be fine. I'm hoping to bring in some new faces in January too, thanks to the wealthy board, which should help us - although the transfer market seems a bit underwhelming, I've not been finding many particularly great players available in my scout reports.

[noikeee]

December 2020 (2): Finishing the calendar year in style

 

Serie A round 18
Cremonese 2-0 Roma: Passive Roma allows us to Champagne them off the park
(Salcedo 4, Gustafson 12)

A bizarre match. Roma despite coming onto the pitch with talents such as Mahrez, Zaniolo, Kluivert Jr, Dzeko, sat deep in a very passive 4-4-2 and just stood there watching us pass our way onto goals. To be fair we were lucky the goals came early in our first 2 shots - Salcedo fed by a lovely backheel by Esposito, then Gustafson finding space after a short corner. But we kept doing this all match long, even in the dying minutes after they went attacking. At the end the stats read 18 shots for Cremonese, 5 for Roma, even if they held the possession numbers. It was sheer dominance from us.

Serie A round 19
Torino 0-2 Cremonese: Moufi's crosses break down Torino
(Esposito 47, Martins 86)

A big win in snowy Turin, albeit perhaps the scoreline flatters us a little. We did spend a lot of time in Torino's area, exploiting the space down the wings against their narrow diamond, but they had their chances on counter-attacks too. The difference was 2 crosses from Fahd Moufi from a RB position which went in. The first found Sebastiano Esposito's head, the 2nd Fábio Martins on the back post. A great result away against a team that's close to us in the table.

 

A great way to finish the calendar year as move further up to 10th (even if Torino have a game in hand), a whole 14 points above the relegation zone. 

[Hootieleece]

Just make sure you beat Udinese, Empoli, and Perugia and you should be secure.

[deltablue]

Looking comfortable there for now. 

[noikeee]

Right, it's been about a month since I last played this, it's a bit of a paradox but despite all the huge free time we have now, recent events have sapped me of the joy of playing a bit. Life is weird now but we have to make the most of it, it's time to return and see if I can enjoy FM a bit at least.

[noikeee]

Our first signing of the winter break is teenage playmaker Rodrigo Valente from the youth ranks of the club I support FC Porto. He arrives for a 3.8M€ fee, which is our record signing yet, remember we have the tycoon although he hasn't let me use THAT much money for transfer fees yet. He's not an amazing player just yet but has the potential to be very good.

[Hootieleece]

2nd best playmaker without even being trained up by you isn't bad for a teenager.

Does he have any ppm's? 

Which ones are you planning to add?

Edited March 26, 2020 by Hootieleece

[noikeee]

46 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

2nd best playmaker without even being trained up by you isn't bad for a teenager.

Does he have any ppm's? 

Which ones are you planning to add?

Honestly haven't thought much about it yet! I bought him back before taking a break from the save. I'm thinking maybe just slotting him as trequartista as it is, no PPMs.

[noikeee]

Our 2nd winter signing is centerback Marcel Tisserand who brings physicality. Pace is absolutely critical for our high line, and he's also okay technically which suits our play from the back game. We paid 2.7M€ for him.

[noikeee]

And here's our 3rd signing, the most flamboyant of our creative players yet, Ecuadorian international Juan Cazares. We're now a bit too stacked with these creative playmaker types, but he was an opportunity I couldn't pass up, arrives on a free.

[Deisler26]

A case of just Juan more eh?

[noikeee]

January 2021: Mixed month as we handle well some difficult fixtures
 

Serie A round 20
Inter 0-0 Cremonese: Well earned away point in tricky fixture

With Rodrigo Valente straight into the starting 11, and 3 Inter loanees (Gravillon, Salcedo, Esposito) on the pitch on our side, we got a really nice goalless draw away at the San Siro. Inter were superior and had the most chances, but this was not exactly a super one-sided fixture by any means. They did pressure us more extremely in the final minutes but we held on.

Serie A round 21
Cremonese 1-2 Parma: Everything goes wrong
(Esposito 80; Gervinho 10, Inglese 88)

Not a great debut for Marcel Tisserand and Juan Cazares. We went a goal down right at the beginning, a Gervinho header at the back post. Parma sat back and barely attacked any more for a long time, but we struggled to create anything. Then just before the break, Eddie Salcedo saw 2 yellows in quick succession and we were down to 10 men. Puzzlingly, we continued to dominate on the pitch with 10 men, and very late in the game, we equalised through a corner kick. Only for Parma to then finally decide to attack, use their numerical advantage, and get their winner with 2 minutes to go.

Serie A round 22
Atalanta 1-2 Cremonese: Clinical finishing gives us lucky win
(Gómez 82; Paganini 22, Pajac 60)

A sad derby between 2 teams in the area most currently being aflicted IRL by you-know-what (promise I won't mention this much more on the thread). It was a dull match, not many big chances, and we went 2 goals up without doing much. The first came in a header from a deep FK, the second in a combination between both fullbacks Kingsley and Pajac. Atalanta managed to reduce late in the match but it was too late.

Serie A round 23
Cremonese 2-2 Napoli: Vignato on par with Napoli's talents
(Vignato 58, 68; Fabián 41, Thauvin 74)

A tough match against a Napoli side full of creativity with the likes of Fabián Ruiz, Lorenzo Insigne, Hirving Lozano, Florian Thauvin. Fabián opened the score before the break with a long shot, but on the 2nd half we had youngster Emanuel Vignato rising to the occasion - first he mugged off Koulibaly and shot sucessfully, in a bizarre goal, on one of our attacking corners that Napoli had regained possession from. Then he corresponded well with a far post header after a wonderful Fábio Martins run. However minutes later Napoli also had a winger score a header at the backpost, in this case Thauvin. A 2-2 scoreline seems fair after an even match.

Seems to me this month the only match we lost was the easiest on paper - although Parma are having one hell of a season up there in 3rd. Can't complain about the other performances, and we remain comfortably midtable.

[noikeee]

January transfer window roundup
 

Our final winter signing is Portuguese international (born French of Portuguese descent) Kevin Rodrigues, a LB that arrives from Sociedad for 1.4M€. I believe he's a slight upgrade on Pajac for the position, albeit Pajac's on good form right now. This relegates the aging Migliore for 3rd choice, I tried to offload him but nobody would pick him up.

 

Throughout January we sold a few players to make way for the 4 incoming. Centerback Lorenzo Tonelli was the big sale, off to Parma (who are fighting for Champions League places!) for 2M€. He had arrived in the Summer on a free but didn't really suit us and was already a bit old, seems great that we made a profit on him. The other departing players were secondary characters.

[noikeee]

February 2021: Struggling in the easy matches again
 

Serie A round 24
Perugia 1-0 Cremonese: Frustrating loss to inferior opposition
(Torregrossa 23)

Away to dead last Perugia, we attacked all match long, if not with much success. They got their goal out of nowhere midway through the 1st half.... and held on, without doing much for the rest of the match. I tried both Champagne Tuchel and Champagne Guardiola and neither tactic broke them down. The pattern of doing worse in matches that look easy on paper, continues.
 

Serie A round 25
Cremonese 1-2 Udinese: We lose control of match that seemed on the right track
(Kiyine 5; Marin 45, Ciano 87)

The first half looked very positive. We opened the scoreline early in a long shot from Kiyine at the edge of the box, and were definitely on top. Udinese after a while started attacking more but we looked very dangerous on the counter. Unfortunately they drew right before the break. In the 2nd half we lost steam and it was more of an eventless match until... they fired in a long shot into goal too. Disappointing.

Serie A round 26
Sampdoria 0-0 Cremonese: Late surge fails to avoid a goalless draw

One of the worst matches of the season, with very little interest as neither side did much. We only seemed to wake up late in the 2nd half after I brought in Eddie Salcedo to replace Fábio Martins as left winger (inverted), the teenager on loan from Inter looking lively and having a couple of chances that he squandered. At the end, the stats recorded: a total of 4 shots for Sampdoria, 9 for Cremonese, the whole match. Dreadful.

Serie A round 27
Cremonese 2-0 Lazio: Shock win over Serie A leaders
(Valente 32, Walace 40)

Yet again, we do much better against superior opposition. Against a Lazio side that was leading the league table - albeit on bad form, after having just lost at home to Sassuolo right before this match - we were well on top and won with 2 goals from Marko Pajac set pieces on the first half. The first was a corner where the rebound fell to Rodrigo Valente, the Portuguese youngster scoring his first goal for the club; the second a wide FK headed in by Walace. We could've and should've added a 3rd from open play, but to be fair Lazio also had chances. With this we hand out the league table lead to Napoli.

The pattern continues yet again, we can't really kill those matches that are easier in theory, yet do just fine when we're severe underdogs. It's looking more and more likely that 10th place will be ours, the gap to 9th is becoming too big and we're just getting enough points to keep the closest challengers away from us as well.

Edited March 28, 2020 by noikeee

[oriole01]

Glad to see this is back! Interesting season you're having here, doing well against the bigger sides but inconsistent against those you're expected to beat... kind of sounds like my team IRL. There seems to have been a lot of turnover this season... how big is your squad right now?

[noikeee]

11 hours ago, oriole01 said:

Glad to see this is back! Interesting season you're having here, doing well against the bigger sides but inconsistent against those you're expected to beat... kind of sounds like my team IRL. There seems to have been a lot of turnover this season... how big is your squad right now?

Not too many, just 27 first team players.  

[noikeee]

A 36 year old Ronaldo isn't giving any signs of slowing down...