[FM20] Champagne Football II: Calcio Offensivo

[noikeee]

January 2024: Tactical changes spark winning run
 

First a look at what went on with transfers this month. I signed 2 promising kids but loaned both of them out. On the opposite direction I offloaded centerback Elio Capradossi and midfielder Schurrle.
 

Lazio were willing to let this rather promising striker go for 2.6M€. Lazio are stupid. For now he wouldn't play much for us, so I loaned him out to Benevento.
 

A much more expensive signing (9M€ - I activated his release clause), and one that had a place in the first team squad right away. However, we're out of non-EU slots for the season, so I let him stay at Peñarol for another 6 months. I see him as quite possibly the long-term solution for the RB position, albeit he's not brilliant at some things I want from my inverted wingback.

 

Onto the matches. As you can see we've getting some much better results! It all started with a switch to a 4-4-2 diamond that's neither wide nor narrow - mezzala on one flank, winger on another. It was a hit immediately against SPAL, although we were very helped by a red card on minute 2. But with 34 shots attempted, I guess we deserved the 2-0 win.

 

Then came Roma. Two doses of Roma, as we faced them twice consecutively, for the league and for the cup. In neither match did we have any problems whatsoever - easy 3-0 wins, both of them. The stats don't show dominance from our side, but we had the better chances both times. This meant we overtook Roma in the table and also qualified for the cup quarter-finals.

 

The run continued away vs Genoa for a 4th consecutive win, by now we had forward Antonio Bordignon on absolutely superb form, scoring both goals for a 2-0 win. He would repeat those 2 goals against Milan, but that's when the run ended. The new system being very offensive, very aggressive, very risky, I didn't find it a huge shock that we suddenly conceded 4. We also scored 3, but spent most of this match always trying to chase Milan's advantage. They have a very competitive side here by 2024 and were already causing me a lot of problems last year whilst I was still managing Cremonese.

 

Back to the cup and onto the quarter-finals, which were away to Cittadella. I was afraid the Milan result had taken a bit of morale from us, I shouldn't have worried - easy 2-0 win, with early goals then we just reverted to strikerless which is super solid defensively and sat on it. Nice professional job and we're off to the semi-finals. Inter or Milan await us.

 

This was very nice, though the league table hasn't moved much just yet, we're only up to 10th. But the signs are all looking a lot more promising now. I don't fancy our chances against either Inter or Milan in the cup but I'll try my best there too, this is by far the furthest I've ever gone in the cup.

As for the tactics, what I'm doing now is starting on the new diamond, then later if I'm winning I'll reverting later to the strikerless as it's so solid. The strikerless tactic is also looking a little different now, got a pair of mezzalas now and also a raumdeuter.
 

[noikeee]

I forgot talking about that league table, btw.

Atalanta top of the league by mid-season!  Also, Inter going for the invincibles achievement by drawing every match they can. 

[noikeee]

****ing hell! There goes Atalanta, at the hands of my former employees.

This league has become very, very entertaining since Juve have turned into poo. Bizarrely, Juventus are managed by a wildly underperforming Bielsa at the moment!

Edited April 19, 2020 by noikeee

[quee]

@noikeee thank you for you help, mate! It is working and my images are better now.

Though, my sizing/resizing/cropping is all over the place! Definitely to work on it 

Below is the post I tried it on.

Btw, Tomiyasu is my #1 target for my RB, though it seems he can be quite expensive from my scout reports.

[BlueScreen]

20 horas atrás, noikeee disse:

I prefer working everything through Imgur, I take all the screenies in the game with Lightshot then just drag and drop everything from the folder into Imgur at once.

But I'm refering to the images after they are uploaded to Imgur. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear, my english is not very good 

[noikeee]

On 20/04/2020 at 19:01, BlueScreen said:

But I'm refering to the images after they are uploaded to Imgur. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear, my english is not very good 

But then you'd be uploading the images to the web twice to 2 different servers, Imgur and SI.  I'm a good guy and don't want to waste bandwidth unnecessarily.  

[noikeee]

February 2024: Everything goes wrong
 

 

I've played this a few days ago and haven't feel like posting or playing since, because this was such an absolutely **** poor month. During this month we've lost both Bordignon and André Anderson - our 2 best attacking players - to injuries that will last a few weeks, but it's no excuse, we've been suddenly awful.

 

[noikeee]

Youth intake 2024

Not a good year at all. Marconi is decent, don't see anything in any of the others.

[noikeee]

March 2024: Much better month, but we can't stop conceding

First a quick transfers mention. I sold rightback Ibrahima Mbaye to Saudi Arabia. He was starting matches, but he's average, he's 29, I've already got Galdames as a great alternative, Tejera who's an awesome prospect and out on loan until the next season, and a 18 year old kid from the youth ranks who I'm easing onto the first team squad now. And we're not fighting for anything this season so won't miss a player too much - it was the right time to sell.

Onto the new month trying to scare away the defeats of February. We've started well terrorising Sassuolo up to getting a 4 goals lead... although we conceded 2 late on... no big deal by then.

 

This was a nice morale booster coming onto the cup semi-final 2nd leg. We had lost to Inter 3-1 the first leg so I had very little hopes of turning it around. To my delight however we were playing great, got a lead and suddenly only needed another goal. In a crazy 2nd half Inter immediately scored runing our hopes... only for us to immediately score another 2 goals through a very inspired Torresi! It was 4-4 on aggregate by then and everything tied, away goals and all. Sadly then they got another goal against the run of play, 3-2. Only for us to make it 4-2 and spend the last 13 minutes agonisingly coming close to the 5th goal that would take us to the final, but it wasn't to be. Inter to the final on away goals...

 

You might have noticed there's a pattern emerging: we concede a lot but score even more. The next match would refute this, because uh, we didn't score but still conceded. 2-0 loss away to Cittadella despite the match being completely open either way.

 

This was becoming very annoying so why not just ram someone 6-1 to release the stress. Poor Parma. Even Alberto Cristiano scored, the lad hadn't scored in TWENTY EIGHT HOURS of football. Torresi with the mere standard 3 assists + beautiful freekick goal.

 

Onto Rome to face Lazio. Guess what. Lots of goals scored, lots conceded. It was a super open match again that could've gone either way but we had better shooting boots on and were always ahead. This match also featured 2 goals on injury time! And another masterclass from Alberto Torresi, in previous matches he had scored 3 from direct freekicks(!), this time he scored a missile from outside the area. Oh and an assist too, why not.

 

There is an obvious pattern, we'd be perfect if we just sorted out the defence. It's no surprise we concede a lot, let's see the current tactics as of right now (note: the left striker is now told to be a makeshift defensive winger by strict instructions to go mark the AI rightback). This is a very open setup, no question about it, and I'm obviously going for the "try to outscore the opposition" kind of mentality. But it doesn't quite justify the manner of the goals we concede - loads of corners(!), some freekicks, crosses, screamers from long range.

 

With the dream of reaching the cup final now over, all we have to play for is this very boring looking league table with no great goals to aim for. Sadly I think Europe's out of reach. 8th is doable, 6th if we have a very very very good remainder of the season. Don't count on it. 6th probably isn't an European place as the cup final is Inter v Juve, so I think Juve (who are a dismal 10th) gets that place?

Edited April 23, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

"World class player"... so this Torresi kid is fairly decent, eh. I believe someone might go for the 92M€ release clause this Summer.

[noikeee]

April 2024: Some great moments, but inconsistent
 

We started this month... on bloody great form! Against Sampdoria it was just the single 34 shots on target and an easy 2-0 win. Then we faced the recently fallen giants Juventus, 1-0 win, with a wonderful lob from Bernard Mensah over Szczesny. And it got even better, 2-0 win away over Inter, the reigning champions that are up there fighting for the title. The sweetest thing of this all - it were 3 clean sheets. Unbelievable.

 

Sooner or later, this run was gonna end. It crashed in the 2nd half away at Napoli. 3 goals without reply, a harsh 3-0 defeat despite the fact it had been a pretty even match. At least we bounced back with a 1-0 over Verona, early Orsolini goal in minute 2 and that was it. Verona didn't even attempt to attack.

 

Then we faced my ex-gf-of-a-club Cremonese. We went a goal down... but recovered in style. André Anderson goal, he'd been missing for a while. Then 2 from Torresi, who was on godlike form. Winning 3-1 over Cremonese, a perfect revenge...

 

Oh, but then they scored 3 in the final half hour. 2 goals each from Vignato and Boadu, my signings, of course.

 

At least something this bad couldn't happen in the next match. Only a 1-0 loss, goal scored by a guy named Lasagna (again!!!!), late, after we had dominated the whole match. Hey, it wasn't AS BAD.

 

There's vague promise in this side but still too much inconsistency... Europe's off bounds, 7th place is still a possibility, but my main concern is the long term, am I building a winning side or not. I'm still looking for a silver bullet here.

But hey Atalanta's on track to win the league, which is cool.

Edited April 24, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

May 2024: Strong end to the season lets us sneak in to Europe

 

The final month of the season started with a not-very-interesting home match against last placed SPAL. We scored twice early and managed the lead to win 2-0. Next was a trip to Rome that was... much, much more interesting with 7 goals! By minute 7 it was already 2-1 for Roma, half-time 3-1 for them. We were up against it, but came out on fire for the 2nd half - albeit we had to wait for goals for the final 20 minutes. We scored in the 72nd, 77th and 87th for a famous 4-3 comeback. Torresi was absolutely unplayable with 2 goals and 2 assists!

 

But the best thing about the Roma match? Suddenly the league table had changed and after Juve lost the cup to Inter, now the top 7 places were highlighted as European places. We were 8th, but on same points as 7th placed Fiorentina. This meant we had 2 matches to overtake them to get to the Conference League. And we passed the test in the first match no problems at all. 3-0 win over Genoa, never in doubt. And Fiorentina lost. We were up to an European slot!

 

So for the final day all I needed was a point. Problem is this was a tough away match with Milan. We dominated the first half but frustratingly they got the goal in their first shot - only by minute 31! Half-time we were losing but very unluckily. But then Torresi showed up yet again with the equaliser mid-2nd half, and we held on despite a big push by Milan in the final minutes. We got the point we needed, Fiorentina only managed to draw their match with Napoli anyway, so we could've afforded the defeat.

 

I've got slightly mixed feelings about this season. Getting to Europe was a very nice late surprise that I didn't see coming, also we did get to the cup semi-finals which was another cool bonus. The board is also very pleased, they just wanted a midtable place. But I'm not super convinced yet, I think we had the quality to be up there in European places all season long rather than sneaking in at the end. I've chopped and changed tactics all season long. We're relying very heavily on Torresi, what if he's poached. My teams end seasons well but then wobble the beginning of the next year - is it too many signings ruining cohesion? I don't know, let's see if I can keep the momentum for next year.

[noikeee]

Tactical recap

Before the proper normal season review, a quick look at what tactics I've been playing this season.

 

We've started the year on a strikerless formation, that had got us some fantastic results last season, so we kept playing it right up until the end of December. I decided to abandon it due to it being far too low scoring, and inconsistent at letting us avoid conceding goals anyway - it basically stopped working this season and got too boring. The following is the latest version of this system that I was playing by the end of December:

 

The next step was a major revolution in introducing not 1 but 2 strikers. I went for a gung-ho assymetrical diamond. Over time this diamond slightly evolved, most notably due to assigning the advanced forward to mark the opposition's rightback, which makes him behave half like a forward half like a winger. As I introduced that, he stopped scoring as many goals, though the system was still very satisfying in terms of goalscoring as the DLF and the winger have compensated for him going missing, both of them scoring heaps. But it's still occasionally hit and miss, and certainly not a super stable system when you wish to defend.

 

So I've evolved it again into something different, if I don't want to take as many risks. The AF was a bit of a winger anyway, so why not make him an actual wide player with the greediest poacher-esque role from the wing, the Raumdeuter? I've also dropped back the AM to a CM/A role, and the DLP slightly moved to a more central position all in the name of defensive solidity. I call this "Champagne not-a-Diamond".

 

My thing right now is to use the diamond when I want to take risks, and the not-a-diamond when I don't want to take as many risks. Even the "not-a-diamond" is a pretty damn open tactic anyway, so I like it how offensive we tend to be overall. I'm still not super sure on my plan though, feels inconsistent, sometimes it's just not our day.

Edited April 25, 2020 by noikeee

[ManUtd1]

"Not a diamond" looks delightfully insane, I love it. 

[noikeee]

7 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

"Not a diamond" looks delightfully insane, I love it. 

It's like the opposite of OCD where everything needs to be nice and tidy. This is players being assymetrically offset when they could be perfectly arranged symmetrically, because why not.  

[noikeee]

Season review - Bologna - 2023/2024

Competitions

• Serie A: 7th
• Coppa Italia: Knocked out in the semi-finals by Inter

Club vision

They're pretty happy and gave me a A+ for the season, but like I said in the previous post, I think I could be doing slightly better.

Finances

 

Fairly solid but not brilliant. We've got 10M€ in the bank and 5M€ are left over from this season's transfer budget.
 

Squad statistics

Top 5 players of the season

5. André Anderson (MC, AMC)

 

The player that most lost with the system change from strikerless to diamond. He was having a wonderful beginning of the season as an attacking mezzala, scoring as many goals as the front 3. With the system change he was transformed into AM/A but despite still scoring the odd goal, his performances plummeted. Still got an overall return of 9 goals and 3 assists.

4. Daniel Bragança (DM)

 

The Portuguese loanee from Chelsea was quite possibly the most consistent player all season long, thriving under both the strikerless formation and the diamond. Average rating of 7.28 was the 2nd highest in the squad and he got 4 assists from the base of midfield. I've renewed the loan for another year, although I'm paying a bit of an extra beyond the salary!
 

3. Antonio Bordignon (ST, AMC)

 

Another player on loan (from Spurs) whose loan I also renewed for another year. Like André Anderson he did not like the switch from strikerless to diamond, specially once he was tasked with covering the flank, as he was the stand out player the beginning of the season as shadow striker, using his immense pace to score quite a few goals - a total of 14 by the end of the season.

2. Riccardo Orsolini (ST, AML)

 

For Orsolini it was the other way around - the diamond benefitted him big, big time as he thrived as DLF, after a fairly poor first half of the season shoved out wide to the left. Indeed, this left him at the end with a fairly poor looking average rating of 6.95. But this doesn't correlate with his real contributions to the team, a total of 14 goals and 8 assists.

1. Alberto Torresi (AMR)

 

Torresi was having a fairly poor season in the strikerless tactic, despite being able to score a few assists here and there. However, once we turned to the diamond, he became absolutely unplayable. Combined with the talent he had already shown last season, now further boosted by a huge rise in his attributes, he was absolutely superb. 15 goals, 14 assists, 7.37 average rating. Oh and he's still 19 years old...

Other honourable mentions

Giuseppe Amoroso (DR)

 

The player I want to talk about here this season, is a kid from our youth ranks that's starting to enter the first team. I was a bit unsure on him earlier because he doesn't quite fit the slots in my side - he's too short for a CB, and not quite technically gifted enough to play on the right. However, his potential is too huge to ignore and I'm starting to give him matches as IWB.

Individual competition stats

Torresi made it to the top 3 in assists in Serie A. If we can keep hold of him for next year, I have faith he could to show up in at least one more category...

[noikeee]

So, we were having a pretty low key pre-season, not many moves incoming or outgoing, the slightly tweaked squad pretty much finished and...

I'll miss him a lot. What a player. But it does mean we'll get a massive pile of cash now!

[kidthekid]

That's a lot of money. But I'm sure it will end up in your favour 

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2024-2025: Life past Torresi
 

This was meant to be a quiet, peaceful transfer window. Not much movement was expected, because of a) I didn't want to change too much to keep cohesion, and b) we didn't have much money. However, it all changed when our Bologna youth product and global teenage superstar Alberto Torresi moved to Inter for 92M€. Farewell, you legend.

I was suddenly blessed with upwards of 70M€ to deal in the market. I had a deal signed with a brilliant player, almost as good as Torresi, for about 1/3rd of what Inter paid for him... then he decided to join Roma on loan instead. So my answer was to replace Torresi with not 1 but 2 kids, cheaper with still a bit to develop. This left us with no space for Torresi's backup Gianmarco Cangiano - a pretty promising winger with still a bit to develop himself - so I loaned him out to Cittadella for the year.

Another big thing going on, was a switch of first choice keepers. I hired Alessio Cragno last year but was unimpressed with his season for us, so off he went to Fiorentina for 6.5M€, a minor profit. The guy I got for his place isn't any better on paper but doesn't have a glaring problem with weak physical attributes like he had.

Our first signing was another attacking leftback to rotate with Caio Henrique, I believe he's a little better actually - I had decent performances from this guy when I played him as Lyon in another career. He's already a bit old, but came on a free so why not.
 

Fairly cheap deal, got this young Dane for 2.9M€ from Dortmund. I see him as a DLP alternative to Daniel Bragança rather than as a centerback, due to his poor aerial skills.
 

This was a bargain I found in Bosnia, just 975K€. He's still a bit raw so I sent him on loan to Cagliari.
 

I hate relying on loans too much, for this season he'll become the 3rd loan (given Bragança and Bordignon were retained for a 2nd year), but he is a superb defender in the making which will help us at the back, we need more quality even if it's just for the short term. I see him as a CB rather than LB, since I need my LBs to be super attacking.
 

The new keeper, got him for 2.8M€ from Rennes. Is he amazing? Nope. But he also doesn't have any glaring weaknesses so he should be fine for now. If I knew I was gonna get 92M€ in the bank I'd have splashed in a better keeper though.
 

This is when the Torresi money had come in, and I started feeling more comfortable to splash on some deals. Roma were sleeping and let this very promising kid go for 4.1M€. Given I play a very attacking LB, I don't see his future as LB but rather as DM. We already have Bragança and Jakobsen for the position so he can be 3rd choice for now, at the age of 18 he won't complain - though he might very well quickly become the better option for DLP. Another option is making him the IWB on the right, I'm starting to retrain him.
 

The first of the 2 Torresi replacements. This Dutch kid comes from Ajax for a 8.5M€ fee, he's no Torresi and my staff don't think he's quite got the potential to reach that level but he's bloody good for a 18 year old.
 

The second of the Torresi replacements - comes from Marítimo on 4.7M€. He'll need to be retrained to MR, also lacks that little final edge of pace that makes all the difference which won't be learnt at the age of 20. However he's a "wonderkid" and my staff does think he has amazing potential.

Current squad and starting 11:

Obviously we're weaker because Torresi's gone. This also poses minor problems for squad cohesion - I can't use the Galdames-Torresi partnership on the right anymore.

But there's a huge influx of potential through several players like Foschi, Vuckovic, den Otter, and Mauricio Tejera who is a pretty crucial addition for the RB position - I signed him last January but he was kept on loan in Uruguay up until now, so a non-EU slot would open up. He's like a brand new signing then. This all means we have better depth, which is important for tackling the European competition that'll be a new challenge for us, and also keeps the club more profittable for the future as we're developing big potential players. Also we now have a very nice 94M€ currently sitting on the bank, and 66M€ unused of transfer budget - I'm biding my time for when to splash that on deals that are worth it.

For now, 2024/2025 looks to be a season of consolidation, I'll be happy enough if we can reach the top 7 in the league again to qualify for Europe again (even if just the Conference League). The whole point is to keep us just competitive enough whilst we build things up, so we can be much stronger in coming years.

Edited April 26, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

47 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

That's a lot of money. But I'm sure it will end up in your favour 

My hunch so far is we'll be weaker in the short term, but all that money is letting me invest big time in the long term.

[noikeee]

We start our European adventure (and our season) with this:

Obviously we should be favourites.

[noikeee]

August 2024: European adventure starts well
 

 

We kicked off the Europa Conference League with a pretty damn dominant performance against Lechia at home. By half-time winning 3-0 and we'd make a total 35 shots at goal. However mid 2nd half they scored out of nowhere, missile from miles out. Not ideal as this gave them the away goal. On the bright side, Tejera scored on his debut and looked great.

 

Next Serie A started in Genoa against Sampdoria. We started badly, went a goal down, but then very quickly turned it around. It was looking like we were managing this lead well for the remainder of the match, until they switched to a 3-4-3 in the dying minutes and we criminally left them space for a counter, to equalise in minute 88. Disappointing.

Away on the big trip to Poland, we knew we just needed not to lose 2-0. And we were never in danger of such a thing. It was total domination again, 3-0 win. New signing Vukovic did great with 2 assists and he's not even anywhere near adapted to the MR position yet.

 

This gives us the following group:

I'm not too concerned about the Conference League group, Athletic are fairly tough but we have the obligation to go through. I'm more concerned about the calendar for next month. Serie A matches against Roma, Lazio, Inter, Milan and Juve. Ouch. Can we protest this?

Edited April 26, 2020 by noikeee

[Hootieleece]

Use half rotated squads in the Group Games and all first teamers in Serie A since your playing the big teams.

That should be good enough to get you through the Group Stage and maybe nick a few points off the top sides.

Also liberally use the recovery training session in between matches.

[noikeee]

2 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Use half rotated squads in the Group Games and all first teamers in Serie A since your playing the big teams.

That should be good enough to get you through the Group Stage and maybe nick a few points off the top sides.

Also liberally use the recovery training session in between matches.

Our only Conference League match next month is in Antwerp, I'm not too worried. I'm probably just gonna play all the subs, and if we lose who cares.

I use the "rest 1 day" feature for the more tired players when I'm in a fixture congestion situation, but I try to avoid it because the main concern is always the long term and every training day counts to develop players to their potential.   Recovery is a good idea though, I hadn't thought of that! I've only recently started to fine-tune team training here and there a little, usually leave it to the assistant manager.

Edited April 26, 2020 by noikeee

[Hootieleece]

I always find that my team is often playing matches 2-3 days apart in the latter half of the season. Many weeks playing 3 matches in a week! Often the only training I have time for is Recovery, Match Preview, and either Team Bonding (after Big Opponents or Home Matches) or Community Outreach (after matches but before an Important home match).

As for General Training I leave it to the AssMan as well, but like you tweak it. I often fill out the rest of the week with Set Piece Trainings and or Community Outreach and Team Bonding sessions (both promote team cohesion). Very rarely do I leave the training alone and leave it as is usually during the Xmas Holidays even then I like to give the boys Xmas and New Year's Day off if I can.

[noikeee]

September 2024: Perfect month despite difficult calendar
 

 

I dreaded going into September as the fixture list looked daunting. Roma. Lazio. Inter. Milan. Juve. Only Antwerp looked easy on paper. I can now see I was way too pessimistic!

First the 2 matches against the teams from Rome. Home to Roma, featuring winger Felix Correia, who they poached from City when we had everything set with him to replace Torresi? Easy match. We scored one in each half and generally were the best team on the pitch. Then came Lazio, away. It was an almost identical match, save for the 92nd minute meaningless goal we conceded. 

 
 

Next up was the trip to Antwerp as the Conference League group stage started. Again we dominated (if perhaps more convincingly this time) and again we scored one in each half, both goals by Antonio Bordignon, although they reduced later - another 2-1 win.

 
 

Back to Serie A and if earlier we had faced the 2 teams from Rome now it was time to face the 2 teams from Milan. First, Inter, who have a wonderful squad now boosted by the arrival of Torresi. I thought this would be the toughest fixture of the month. Instead, uh, we won 4-0! Admitedly it was one of those days where everything we did, ended in the back of the net, whereas they missed their chances. I'll take it. I'll also take what happened in the San Siro next vs AC Milan. A very tight match saw Bragança open the score mid 2nd half with a brilliant shot from range, then Milan tied a little later. Then on injury time, we got the winner on a corner.

 
 

One match remained for us to win to get a 100% record for September. Against Juve, who look more like a world class side from 5 years ago than one from 2024. Dybala, Alex Sandro, Isco, Umtiti, Philippe Coutinho. Turned out to be another pretty easy 3-0 win. And it was fitting that the 2 players to shine were the ones in best form this month. First, Daniel Bragança, with a superb long range through ball for Vuckovic's first goal for Bologna. And then Orsolini, scoring twice, both times stealing the ball from Juve's defenders then running at goal. They've been the stars so far - Bragança with the assists, Orsolini with the goals.

 

Well this month went dramatically better than I could imagine. On this form we can beat anyone, but we also started last season well then plummeted. I do believe a lot of this form is just momentum, as we seem to put every chance in the back of the net whilst our opponents don't do that. It's all quite encouraging though.

[KrKAlex]

I agree when you talk about momentum. I have been hitted super hard by this form momentum, after a new president has been elected in my 3.Liga club. Everything was going well with the previous president, he was accepting most of my request due to our good form. And the new one came and just said no to everything I would ask for. Good luck for this season!

[noikeee]

12 hours ago, KrKAlex said:

I agree when you talk about momentum. I have been hitted super hard by this form momentum, after a new president has been elected in my 3.Liga club. Everything was going well with the previous president, he was accepting most of my request due to our good form. And the new one came and just said no to everything I would ask for. Good luck for this season!

I mean sometimes players have high morale and everything goes well. This is great but doesn't last long - that's what I feel is going on with the squad here. 50/50 matches and we take our chances, the AI misses theirs...

I typically gain a small advantage early in the season due to the way I play my pre-season too, trying to build match fitness onto my most important players. I don't think the AI does the same.

[noikeee]

October 2024: A couple of mishaps but we remain on the lead pack
 

October started with our first defeat of the season, in Europe. We started well against Athletic, going a goal up and shooting at goal a hell of a lot. However we gave them too much space in the counter, and they turned the match around in the 2nd half. Then away to Torino we had a similar disappointment, in a curious match. We scored minute 1, cautiously managed this lead the whole match and then... conceded the equaliser in minute 93. Ouch.

 

Next we hosted Sassuolo. It wasn't a very inspiring match, bare minimum 1-0 defeat but that's what happens when the opposition doesn't even try to play football - they made a single shot all match long. They did better than Slovan Bratislava, though, who in the next match didn't even register a shot. In the month's standout performance, we gave quite the show in Slovakia, with a total 47 shots attempted on goal, 6 of them going in. Total annihilation.

 
 

After such a great day, spirits were high for a pretty important Serie A clash: 1st vs 2nd as we faced Atalanta. And in this match you could see the momentum had deserted us. It was quite an even, 50/50 match - Atalanta with slightly more shots and possession, us with the better chances. However, they got the goals, 2 of them in the 2nd half, 2-0 defeat for us. We would recover a bit with a routine 2-0 win over Cagliari, both goals in the 2nd half again.

 

I think this month is a more representative sample of where we stand at the moment, rather than the euphoria of September. We're pretty effective at beating smaller sides, but can struggle a bit away from home, and aren't completely invincible at home neither (though the Athletic defeat is misleading, I rotated almost the entire team). But we're still doing well. We've dropped to 4th in the league but just 2 points behind surprise leaders Udinese, and in the Conference League we look pretty comfortable for qualifying out of the group as we should.

Edited April 27, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

Oh and because I can't keep ****ing quiet with tactics I've changed up both of my systems, again. The AM/A drops deeper to a MEZ/A role, which also made me move the DM in the diamond - from a slightly offset DMCR position to central DMC. Both tactics are identical now apart from the AF/A or Raumdeuter.

  

Why would I want to change something that was working? Well, purely aesthetical reasons - I was getting very **** ratings and goal contributions from my AMC and I hate to see him getting bad ratings when he's an excellent player (here pictured is Afonso Sousa rather than the usual starter André Anderson). AMCs underperforming has been a common theme throughout my entire career, every single of my FM20 careers really, how surprising it would happen again. I'm not convinced we'll play better like this, because his central positioning as AMC covered the pitch better, whereas here he might interfere with the winger. But hey, mezzalas almost always play great. It's worth a shot.

[noikeee]

November 2024: Goals, goals, goals

 

One of the key goals of "champagne football" is to be entertaining. On that front, nobody can accuse us of not delivering: throughout this month our spectators witnessed a total of 26 goals, 18 scored and 8 conceded, in just 5 matches.

Like all great stories, it began in an artsy place, like Florence. Fiorentina gave us way too much of the ball despite playing at home, and this usually is a bad idea for the AI. They let us score 3, a win largely cemented in a good start to the 2nd half after 1-1 at half-time, but it was a festival of half-chances at either end, and they did deserve to reduce it to 3-2 near the end. So did we deserve to suddenly burst to 1st place in Serie A!

 
 

Then it was time to seriously beat us some less fortunate opposition. Slovan Bratislava had already been smashed 6-0 in Slovakia, we made it a ridiculous aggregate of 13-2 by putting another 7 against them. It was already 5-0 at half-time but we relaxed a little and let them score with their only 2 shots on target - not a convincing performance from our backup keeper Alessandro Russo, given a rare start. This qualified us mathematically for the next round of Europe Division 3, aka the Conference League.

 

Next up was a match just as amusing. Home to Verona, we ridiculously scored with 4 of our first 5 shots, winning 4-0 by minute 15. The final score? 4-1. Yeah we might have sleptwalked through the remaining 75 minutes, but hey, a 4-1 win's a 4-1 win.

 
 

This was all frankly hilarious, but things were about to get serious with a match that legitimately decided who led Serie A - a trip to Naples. It was a very active first half, my former Cremonese forward Eddie Salcedo opening it up for Napoli, then we reduced, then Tonali got them up in front again, all within 10 minutes. I increased the risk for the 2nd half, switching from the Raumdeuter to the AF tactic, but despite our best efforts and creating more chances than the home side, that was it, a surprisingly sane, mildly cagey match. Napoli overtook us at the top - then in this very open league, Inter overtook us both the next day.

 

Onto a dead rubber against Antwerp on Europe's Carabao Cup. We rotated just about everyone, and thanks to a injury crisis to forwards I even fielded 17 year old Evans Osei YP23A upfront. We went a goal down, but then... Osei scored! This match would also feature an absolutely stunning solo goal from our LB Caio Henrique. 3-1 win, should've been 5 or 6.

 

Well this was a fun month. It's starting to remind me of the hockey scores of the good old FM15 days. We're also lasting a surprising amount of time on the early fight for the title in Italy. There seems to be a pack of 5 forming there between us, Inter, Napoli, Udinese (?!) and last season's shock champions Atalanta, but who knows whether it'll last, this league has gone totally bonkers lately. It's no surprise to see Inter slowly emerge though. They have Torresi, and he's been insanely good - currently tops the average rating, assists and player of the match charts for the league...

[noikeee]

Holy ****. This league has gone absolutely nuts. They've gone temporarily top with this win, too.

[OJ403]

56 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Great results this month and it looks like you could take advantage of the randomness of the league to good effect if things go your way. Its also enjoyable to see Cremonese just outside the leading pack...

Out of interest is the quality of teams that balanced that sides like Atalanta and Udinese can compete with the bigger sides like Juventus and the Milans? Or is it just complete random madness?

[noikeee]

15 minutes ago, OJ403 said:

Great results this month and it looks like you could take advantage of the randomness of the league to good effect if things go your way. Its also enjoyable to see Cremonese just outside the leading pack...

Out of interest is the quality of teams that balanced that sides like Atalanta and Udinese can compete with the bigger sides like Juventus and the Milans? Or is it just complete random madness?

Atalanta seem to have 2 or 3 monster players and the rest is alright, they have a Thiago Almada that's become a world class player, and had a forward Roberto Piccoli that was really good too - they sold him, but got Lorenzo Lucca from Milan who's just as good. They've also got a monster regen French-Malian RB... that they used to replace their former monster regen Icelandic RB.

Udinese seem a bit more random, but they also have an insanely good regen Italian CB. I'm interested but they don't want to sell.

Either way, it's a very competitive league. There's a gap between teams like Inter and these squads, but it's not a large gap. There's genuine talent almost all across the league, certainly through the entire top half. Feels a lot like early 1990s Serie A on how open and talented it is, albeit Italian teams aren't doing much in the Champions League.

[KrKAlex]

It seems that we know which teams will be fighting for the UCL spots now! The top 5, glad that you are in

[noikeee]

11 hours ago, KrKAlex said:

It seems that we know which teams will be fighting for the UCL spots now! The top 5, glad that you are in

Maybe not, Atalanta have now tanked and Cremonese shot up the table. I warned that this was a crazy league.  

[noikeee]

December 2024: Downturn in form as we drop out of Champions League places
 

 

December started well with another big win. 4-0 over Cittadella, not our most amazing performance but the goals kept going in.

 
 

Next we faced my former team Cremonese. However, this would go horribly wrong. Minute 6, Gnagnon sent off with a straight red. Minute 14, Koné sent off with a straight red. We were down to 9 men with the whole match still to play!! In these circumstances, we could do little but try to survive and concede the fewest goals possible. A 0-2 defeat wasn't too terrible.

 
 

Then we went to Bilbao for the final match of the Conference League group. Again with little to play for here, I rotated most players. It was leading to the rarest of results in our matches, a 0-0 draw, but then Atlético scored one near the end. Another defeat, albeit this one didn't matter much.

 
 

This would get worse - we then had to face the form team in Serie A, Udinese, away. Ludicrously, everything they did resulted in a goal. To my dismay we were losing 4-0 near the half-hour mark, and 5-1 by half-time. It ended that way, a dismal 5-1 defeat, and I can't help but feel it's a hugely exaggerated result as we actually made more shots on goal and had slightly more possession, but hey that's what momentum is - they've got it and we've had it early season but lost it by now.

 
 

Thankfully there were 2 easier matches to finish off the calendar year and try to recover a bit. We won both. Away to Salernitana, a single Daniel Bragança freekick solved things. And at home to Brescia, it was a fairly routine 3-0 win. Both matches we benefitted from red cards to the opposition at some point.

 

Well this downturn in form was bound to happen at some point, thankfully although we've dropped to 5th we're still not too far from the lead pack. In Europe I'm also not super concerned we didn't top the group, even if this gave us a slightly harder draw next, we'll face Dinamo Kiev.

A bigger issue is our top scorer Riccardo Orsolini is now injured and might only return in late February. But I've got a plan for this problem, which may or may not have cost us 30M€...

[noikeee]

Splashing the cash

I've kept most of the Torresi money through the Summer. Then decided to splash it now. 2 players come immediately for the first team, whilst another 2 are more long term kind of punts.
 

The big name here is Pellegri for whom I've paid a record 30.5M€, I believe that's by far the most expensive transfer I've made all career long yet. I also gave him stupid wages. He's a "big man" so typically not the kind of player I go for at all when playing "Champagne Football". However with the way tactics have developed lately, a large share of our goals come from crosses to my DLF, so I'm convinced his aerial threat will be a huge asset that fits that gameplan well. I'm less convinced by his "plays with back to goal" trait and how that fits my system, but currently he has 11 goals in this season in Serie A for Lazio, so he can absolutely score goals despite this. It's also a good time to hire him as Orsolini, our top scorer DLF who has exactly 11 goals in Serie A too, is injured.
 

Ridiculously, PSG sold us a wonderkid centerback for 8.75M€. I'm at a loss for words. This does mean we have 5 centerbacks now which is too much, but one of those is on loan from Chelsea (Steven Adam) so I can just ignore him and rotate the other 4. My only issue with this new Nigerian kid is he insisted on a release clause of just 52M€. The way I see it this deal was still worth it, worst case scenario someone activates the clause and we still make a big profit.
 

This one's more for the long term, I saw this teenage keeper around in Serbia available for 1.8M€. I'm not sure he has the potential to be truly top class but it was worth it.
 

And the other long term signing, although he's not far from first team credentials at all. This young Portuguese forward was randomly playing for Feirense, I got him for 2.7M€. The only issue is after I sealed the deal, he picked up a fairly bad injury to stop him for 3 months. But some very high potential is here.

[noikeee]

This is a deal made way before me. Thanks, previous manager!

[noikeee]

Splashing even more cash

The wages are absurd. A 80M€ release clause that he insisted on, also doesn't please me. But come on, 19.5M€ for a player like this... how could I pass up on him?

Edited April 30, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

January 2025: Up to 2nd, but out of the cup

January will have quite the place in Bologna's history. Not for anything happening on the pitch, but for what's happening on the transfer market. I went on a furious spending spree, paying 30.5M€ for forward Pietro Pellegri, 8.75M€ for defender Samuel Obasi and 19.5M€ for midfielder Jefferson. You guys already know all of that, the news is that we've sold Danilo Cataldi to open up space for Jefferson on the squad, also loaned out promising DM Marcello Foschi so he can get a bit of playing time until he returns next Summer, and I'm excited to announce that forward Antonio Bordignon, who's been for the past 2 seasons on loan to us from Tottenham, is signing for us permanently next year on a free transfer!

 

We kicked off 2025 with 2 home matches against teams from Genoa. It was a sensational debut from Pietro Pellegri, scoring both goals in the first match. We eventually conceded one, but held on to win. Against Sampdoria it was a little easier, 2-0 win with not much history behind it.

 
 

Then we kicked off our Coppa Italia adventure for the year at home against Salernitana. Turns out that would be a very short adventure. Rotating heavily my side, the backups had a very bad day in the office and barely created anything. To make things worse, they scored at the beginning of the 2nd half on their only major chance, and we were utterly uninspired to recover from it. A bit embarrassing.

 
 

Now, you guys remember that at the start of the season we had 5 consecutive matches against top teams, right? Well it's time to repeat that with the return fixtures. And we started well, beating Roma 2-1 away, turning it around after going a goal down, and Pellegri scoring the winner. In truth, it was a very very lucky win as Roma had had the chances.

 
 

But to compensate, luck deserted us the next match, home with Lazio. We were again uninspired, but our opponents took the **** - scoring from one of their only 2 attempted shots, a bad backpass from our winger Lennart den Otter intercepted. Near the end Bernard Mensah saw a red card and it was over for us.

 
 

This is a bit of a turbulent time for the club, as we've just hired 3 very talented players yes, but they're still gelling and the team's not in super great form tbh. That somehow we've climbed to 2nd place despite this, I can only be happy with it. As for the cup, that sucks, I'm yet to reach a cup final this career which would've been nice, but hey that was a good way to prevent any massive fixture congestions late in the season!

[noikeee]

February 2025: Hanging on to the top places

This strangely low scoring month started with a huge match: 1st vs 2nd in Serie A, as we headed to the San Siro to meet Inter. It... went alright? 0-0 is the rarest of results in our matches, and that's what happened. Inter were much better than us, so I'm happy we managed to keep the clean sheet and avoid defeat.

 

Onto the 2 remaining big matches from this terrible sequence. We hosted Milan next - albeit Milan are having a bad season, they're still a team to be reckoned with. I thought we were onto a bad day when Pellegri missed a penalty kick right at the beginning, but a den Otter goal right at the beginning of the 2nd half sealed things for us. Next was Juve, in Turin. In a telling reversal of fortunes between us and Juventus over the last few seasons, we had far, far more attempts on target than them. Nevertheless, we were struggling to score. Until... minute 94.. bam! Samuel Obasi's first goal for the club in a corner. That felt so sweet. I'm very happy to have beaten both Milan and Juve 1-0...

 

Onto Europe and the first side we were facing on the knockouts was Dinamo Kiev. At home it was total domination, Dinamo doing very little. Orsolini and Gozzi got the goals for us in a nice 2-0 win.

 
 

This was proving too much of a positive month so of course something had to happen to ruin the mood. Home to Torino, who were on the relegation zone. We... forgot how to play. Everyone was ridiculously uninspired and worse, they scored one from a hopeful long blast. And we could not respond - it was a very underwhelming 1-0 home defeat. At least next in Kiev we did a competent professional job and qualified for the next round of the Conference League with a goalless draw, although again, we somehow failed to score a goal from 22 shots, 11 of them on target. We'll face Bremen next.

 

The Torino match spoiled what had been a pretty positive month otherwise. This made us slip to 3rd, now 6 points behind leaders Inter - it briefly looked like we could be troubling them for the league title. The good news is the tough run of fixtures is over. The bad news is we're somehow looking pretty bad offensively lately, struggling to convert attacking dominance into goals. Either way, I'm now fairly confident we can qualify to the Champions League for the first time this season. And if the new stars Pellegri and Jefferson start gelling better into this side, we can perhaps still do a little more than that...

[noikeee]

This is amusing, but a bit harsh, they're 6th as I write this. I'm kinda glad I got out of there as the tycoon owner seems a bit overly demanding.

The favourite to take over? José Mourinho, who currently manages... PSV Eindhoven.

[noikeee]

This is what I feel like answering. The new kid has been a disaster so far, visibly playing like utter crap, poor runs, fluffing chances, making mistakes that lead to goals, etc. Currently on 6.62 average rating after 9 appearances for the club.

[noikeee]

Youth intake 2025
 

 

 

Some okay players in attributes here, but nobody identified with major potential.

[noikeee]

March 2025: Dodgy form in Serie A
 

 

Having successfully dodged most of the bullets in that tricky calendar run of Roma-Lazio-Inter-Milan-Juve, I looked forward to easier fixtures now. Perhaps I shouldn't have been that optimistic. We started with a ridiculous match away to Sassuolo, creating loads more chances than the opposition, 15 shots on target, and still a goalless draw. Sassuolo's Welsh keeper Danny Ward was a well deserved man of the match.

 
 

Next up was the round of 16 Conference League match with Bremen, 1st leg at home. This was really, really tricky. We went a goal up which was great, but then they drew right at the beginning of the 2nd half. We somehow managed to draw it in minute 93(!) with a Orsolini header in a corner (all goals in this match were in set pieces anyway), but although we won, I didn't feel 2-1 was a very comfortable result to take to Germany.

 
 

On this bittersweet note we went to the next match, home to Atalanta. And we were on crap form again, struggling to show anything more than our opponents. Mid 2nd half, they took the lead through a long shot and we were in real trouble. A little later they saw a red card tho, and in the latter stages we still managed to make it 1-1 thanks to Pellegri. On a corner, again.

 

Onto the 2nd leg of the Conference League and we knew having given Bremen the away goal at home, we had to be really careful not to concede. Guess what happens first, Bremen score and we go into half-time trailing in this tie. I panicked and went maximum risk playing the old form of the diamond, with a AMC. And it worked great actually. Early into the 2nd half Afonso Sousa immediately scored from the AMC position, and just one minute later Rabbi made the 2nd. At the end it was a 2-1 win again, a bit fortunate, but we get to walk into the quarterfinals.

 

So you'd think that's a corner turned and it's time to start showing some form on the league again? Nope. In Sardinia we went missing again and lost 1-0 to Cagliari. A long shot, again. This one felt a little unlucky but that's the 4th match on a row without winning in Serie A.

 

Thankfully, we ended the month in a much better note. Home to Fiorentina, we smashed them. 4-0. Better yet, we spent most of the match with 10 men after Den Otter had been sent off and we didn't really miss him, scoring twice with 10. Even better, at last Jefferson showed something, ANYTHING, and got his first goal for the club at the end of the match. For the cash I'm paying him, he should be doing this every single match...

 

 

Thanks to this league being freakishly open and all teams taking points away from one another, we're somehow still 3rd, despite this bad run. Inter's running away with the title now, but I'm happy if I can finish in a Champions League slot. But one other thing motivates me for this season - we have a bloody good chance in the Conference League. We're playing Feyenoord next in the quarterfinals, I fancy our chances. And after that? The winner of Zurich-Hajduk. Tasty.

The bad news is tiny deep-lying playmaker Daniel Bragança, who's been having a sublime season (11 assists so far!), is out for most of April with an ankle injury.

[ManUtd1]

That league table is looking saucy.  Great stuff in the Conference League -- I really can't say how much I love playing in it.

[noikeee]

10 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

That league table is looking saucy.  Great stuff in the Conference League -- I really can't say how much I love playing in it.

Idk about the Conference League. On one hand it's great that it's a trophy up for grabs and you see so many random names of clubs on it, feels like an early 90s late 80s Cup Winners Cup or something. That's brilliant. On the other hand since I'm one of the biggest sides on it, kinda feels like a mickey mouse cup that it's almost an obligation to win or at least go far in it. Maybe it'd feel different if I was managing a club from a smaller nation.

[ManUtd1]

3 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Idk about the Conference League. On one hand it's great that it's a trophy up for grabs and you see so many random names of clubs on it, feels like an early 90s late 80s Cup Winners Cup or something. That's brilliant. On the other hand since I'm one of the biggest sides on it, kinda feels like a mickey mouse cup that it's almost an obligation to win or at least go far in it. Maybe it'd feel different if I was managing a club from a smaller nation.

Fair.  I just loved all the random teams we'd play, some of whom -- even after years of playing this game -- I had to Google.  And I love having another set of games, so that I can build a proper 22-25 man squad, and rotate meaningfully.

[noikeee]

So I've just randomly decided to hell with caution and go into the next match with this:

I call it "Champagne YesIKnowItLooksStupid".