Popular Post _Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 31, 2020 (edited) Voltaço The Player Development Hub of Brazil Volta Redonda is a municipality with just over a quarter of a million inhabitants, just over a two hour drive west of Rio de Janeiro. The name is Portuguese for ‘Round Turn’ but the city also bears the motto of Flumen Fulmini Flexit (‘The River Bent Before the Lightning’) in honour of the river, the Paraiba do Sul, that the city was built upon The city was home to the first ever steel mill in the country and is now the second largest steel producer in all of Brazil, exporting products across the country, continent and globe and has also earned the nickname Cidade de Aco, meaning ‘Steel City’ in Portuguese. Forty-four years ago, the biggest football club within the city was founded. Volta Redonda Futebol Clube Much like the city, my aim with this football club is to be an exporter, this time of Brazilian footballing talent. Drawn by the beautiful badge, interesting nickname and the trophy cabinet devoid of any major domestic honours – I want to ingrain my style of player development and become a selling club – transporting my own players to the rest of Brazil and hopefully on to Europe. Voltaco, or Esquadrão de Aço (meaning Steel Squadron) play in the twenty-one thousand seater stadium called the Estádio Municipal General Sylvio Raulino de Oliveira, also known as Raulino de Oliveira, and as Estádio da Cidadania in downtown Redonda, honouring a once president of the steel company that this city owes so much to and, as such is owned by the city not the club. --- The club itself haven’t had much success and competed in the 2019 Serie C as the only Rio state representative, under the guise of Toninho Andrade. Serie C is split into two main groups of 10 teams, who then go on to compete in further knockout rounds – Volta ended their 18-game league season in 6th place and, as such did not qualify for any further competition. Nautico won the competition overall and promotion to Serie B. --- One of my personal draws to Brazil is their State Championships (when you are a big team, anyway) and Volta play in the strong Carioca division – along with Flamengo, Fluminense, Vasco de Gama and Botafogo. Unsurprisingly, Voltaco have never won this competition before and can only boast winning the second tier of the state league back in 2004. Once again, the details of this competition are confusing – but the league teams enter at the group stage, known as the Taca Guanabara (as there is seemingly a stage before this for those teams not in the league but also in the top tier of the competition rather than the second tier!?!) where there are two groups of six teams, with two qualifications slots in each. In a lucky year, you’d be able to only have one of the big four in your group but, in 2019, Volta drew Vasco and Fluminense and came third, failing to progress – coming third. Then, once that competition is played out, they enter another group stage called the Taca Rio, where they, again, came third. It appears that the winner of the Taca Guanabara and the Taca Rio play off to see who win’s the Carioca State. Overall, Volta came fifth when the two smaller tables were combined. The 2020 Carioca State saw Volta reach the knockout rounds of the Guanabara before COVID-19 curtailed play, mid-way through the Taca Rio. ---- This save, as you’ll see below, saw me start the game in January 2019 so, of course, the above season isn’t counted within my game world but the understanding of the stature of this team is maintained. Edited May 31, 2020 by _Ben_ 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 (edited) Other Reading and background This is certainly not a ‘look at me’ section, nor an endorsement of any of my other threads, merely a chance for me to keep all of my old work in one place and a chance for people to see the development of my thinking over the last few saves and how I’ve reached where I am now with my playing style. Pre-FM19 I was active on a few other boards, namely The Dugout and FM Now – but the few re-incarnations of these sites mean that I no longer have any previous saves anywhere online. --- I have been playing CM since 2001/2002 but my style has massively developed over the last few years. The early FMs would see me try and create dynasties, particularly in Italy, where I, to this day, have a soft spot for a lot of lower league teams. I have managed a range: Pistoiese, Milazzo, Messina, Castel di Sangro, Calcio Catania (the other one), Venezia, Cesena and many, many more! A lot of the time, I holidayed games and paid very little attention to what was going on with my players – merely just signing the best ones each window, sticking them into a downloaded tactic and leaving it for a few hours at a time. It wasn’t until FM17 when I wanted to make a change to how I played… During that version, I spent time with First Vienna, under a Japanese moniker inspired by a FM16 player I had – although I can’t remember who he was or where he was from. After nearly twenty seasons, I had developed a wide range of feeder clubs who were providing great youth players to me and was rewarded with an in-game son, too. Later in calendar year, I started with Lyn, in Norway, where I used an Ivorian manager to bring an African feel to the club, before moving to the Norwegian national team and then the Ivorian. I think I became the first manager, in save, to win two successive World Cups with different nations. FM18 saw a brief stint (well, for me) with Le Mont in Switzerland, where I took a seventh-tier team to the top tier before the in-game mechanics made it impossible to continue. Following that save, I used a Rwandan manager and dominated world football with BX Brussels, a club that is owned, in real life, by Vincent Kompany. I was also lucky to have a son in this save too, and he went on to be the all-time top scorer for Rwanda and, eventually, my assistant manager. This was the first save that I played without attribute numbers on – as there was a feature, at this time, that allowed the use of graphical bars instead. --- [FM19] Not all that glitters is gold was my starting save from FM19 and saw me take over Beira-Mar, a fallen giant(ish) of Portuguese football. As FM19 removed the graphical bars, I played this save with numbers but really got into the player development side of the save and this save also saw my hatred for attribute stars rise as key player and club legend Andre Folha was only rated at three times despite being the best scorer in Europe! A couple of issues arose, maybe as I started with the Beta game, so I ended after a couple of league victories. --- [FM19] One night in Serravalle… saw me take a plunge into the depths of Sammarinese football – playing the save without attributes (back to bars) and without CA and PA stars. It took a while and I rose through the depths of Italian football, building a squad largely from youth players with a selection of ‘marquee’ signings – players who I brought in, with great personalities to be team leaders and standout stars. I brought in some additional data captures using Microsoft Excel to track the development of some of my younger players. This game, for me, was important as it was the first time I had developed brothers from the academy and also saw me sign Dario Samaniego, who went on to become the manager in my first FM20 save… --- [FM20] Tequila and Mariachi? Was my first foray into FM20 and started with my using a skin that removed all sight of numbers from the game, relying on attribute ‘bands’ instead. I didn’t solely go youth only but towards the end of the save I spent the majority of my time developing players using a much more in-depth Excel system to track personalities. This save also saw an in-game son, Dario Samaniego, who spent a lot of time in the first team but sadly never reached the same heights as the squad. In this save, I developed the best first team that I think I have ever done before and was lucky enough to develop a lot of quality players from the intakes. Edited May 31, 2020 by _Ben_ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post _Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 31, 2020 (edited) Player Development Background Here is the amalgamation of things that I’ve been working on in the past with my Guadalajara save. I felt that it may be beneficial to get this all in one place and in my new thread for those who are interested in reading it: --- Player Development: What have I found so far? I was originally calling this post ‘what do I know’ so far – but the reality is that I know very little about the whole process and want to remain very clear that this is not a ‘guide’ to playing FM, just a collection of things I’ve been interested in within the game and my experiences with adapting and changing processes to develop those. --- Part 1: Personality So, I guess the first thing is personality. It is widely known that the three key things for development are professionalism, ambition and determination – with the first two found within the personality (and media handling) label. I know that a lot of players focus on personalities like Driven, Ambitious, Resilient, Leader etc, but I prefer those that give me a concrete (or at least within a smaller range) of the two hidden attributes, with professionalism being considered far more important than ambition. Therefore, the personalities that I try and focus on are: Fairly Professional: Professionalism 15-17, Temperament 11-20 or Professionalism 18-20, Temperament 1-10 Model Citizen: Determination 14-20, Professionalism 15-20, Ambition 12-20, Loyalty 15-20, Pressure 14-20, Sportsmanship 15-20, Temperament 15-20 Model Professional: Professionalism 20, Temperament 10-20 Perfectionist: Determination 14-20, Professionalism 14-20, Ambition 14-20 Professional: Professionalism 18-19, Temperament 10-20, Leadership <19 Resolute: Determination 15-17, Professionalism 15-17, Leadership <19 As you can see – in all of these I can get a really good understanding of professionalism. When you take a personality such as Driven (Determination 18-20, Ambition 12-20), you could, theoretically, be working with a player with 1 for Professionalism. However, the above is only six personalities out of at least 25 that I have encountered in the game and, to be fair, a Fairly Professional player, given the second possibility attribute spread, isn’t someone I’d want within my squad. This is where Media Handling comes in, giving that little bit more detail and allowing those personalities to branch further out because I can ‘meet my criteria’ elsewhere. I don’t think that many FM players, myself included, look at these in as much depth as they should do. My three go-to styles are: Evasive: Professionalism 15-20, Pressure 15-20 Level Headed: Professionalism 13-20, Loyalty 12-20 Reserved: Controversy 1-5, Professionalism 15-20 If you now take the aforementioned Driven (Determination 18-20, Ambition 12-20) and add in Evasive to that (Professionalism 15-20, Pressure 15-20) you are now only three hidden attributes (Loyalty, Sportsmanship and Temperament) away from ‘creating your Model Citizen’ and suddenly, a personality that offers little instruction as to what is under the hood becomes much clearer. What I am not au-fait with though, is the exact names for these personalities. As I don’t use a calculator or formula (that I know are available) I can’t say that a player with the above hidden attributes would be ‘Driven’ as there might be another band that they fall into. However, knowing the basics, for me, is enough. ---- Part 2: Introduction to the experiment The vast majority of my experimenting, to date, has come with youth players in my CD Guadalajara save. This isn’t really the best place for experimenting, if I’m honest, as we are in a world class league with the second highest Youth Rating in the game – meaning that we are likely to churn out way more quality than if I was doing this in Iceland, for example. However, given the large amount of quality that I have brought into the academy, I have been gifted lots of data to play with. What I have done, to assist the number of good quality personalities through my intakes, is to build a staffing team based on good personalities. This is a completely separate experiment so I won’t dwell too much on it at this time. Over the course of the save, I have gathered data from over 150 youth intake players and tracked their flight path for at least the first season that they have in the game-world. I have stayed consistent with the metrics that I have used to track progress – simply taking a mean of all 36 visible attributes at varying points but always a year apart from the previous data. These range from a number around 6 to an ‘elite’ group of players that I’ve developed who started with a figure of around, and above, ten. I have had access, in some shape or form to 24 personalities, however, some of them have been seen rarely so data for them tends to be skewed. I will not be eliminating it from this but I do feel that I need some more data to fully justify some of the things I think I’ve found. Below is a list of all of the personalities used in this experiment and the amount of times that they came through the youth intake: ---- Part 3: Personality vs Starting Rating On the day that the intake is generated, I move all of the player data into an Excel document and take the mean of their attributes, as well as record their personality and a few other points about them. The above chart shows the data that I have collected as a box and whisker plot. You can see from this data that there isn’t much difference between the average starting point for the ‘positive’ personalities – with Resolute, Model Citizen and Perfectionist personalities all ‘starting’ high. However, the variation with Model Citizen’s in interesting – as the median is the highest and the lowest player is still above a ‘7’ starting average, kind of suggesting that you don’t see many ‘poor starting players, with this personality.’ Looking elsewhere, ‘Balanced’ has to be considered a very poor starting personality, given the low mean and also the very small variation, particularly when looking at well developed players from the start. If I’m honest – I’d have liked to have seen some more personalities, but, in working hard to get the ‘best’ ones, I’ve managed to eliminate some of the ‘worst’ ones. However, starting ability isn’t a marker for a) good development and b) high potential. --- Part 4: Personality vs Development Once the players have entered the team, they either move to my B-squad – which, in hindsight, does not always provide accurate data for this because they are a playable team in the second tier, meaning that they are highly reputable and playing against good players, or stay in the U19 squad, which compete in a domestic league and the Youth Champions League. Once the season is over, I take another data point of their attributes and use it to calculate an ‘end mean.’ Below, you can see the difference between the starting mean and ending mean, what I have called ‘growth’ This further backs up the importance of high levels of professionalism for early stage development – as Model Citizens, Professionals and Resolute players are all performing well and a couple of outlying Fairly Professional players also doing the same. Looking at the other end, you can see that Low Determination players have made the worst progress on average, but, unfortunately, there has been no studies done my be directly into determination as a necessary attribute for growth. Personalities such as Light-Hearted and Fairly Determined, very ‘average’ personalities, fluctuate highly, and, to me, are not good for consistently good results. There is one really strange area I have uncovered during my save, though: The above shows something really interesting to me. When the positive personalities (Model Citizen, Professional, Resolute and Perfectionist) are ‘banded’ – those with a lower starting ability make much more progress, on average, than those with a higher starting point. It is almost that they are ‘playing catch up’. It is even more noticeable when comparing all personalities: What I’ve taken from this is quite simple and that, even if the player doesn’t look great at the start, his personality may be enough for him to make the jump past what you had considered your cut off point. I won’t go into stars nor signing all the youth team players at this point (that’s a completely separate discussion) but my data would show that, in the first year, it’s all about the personality – not the starting point. --- Part 5: Personality vs Potential Ability This part is very much guess work as I don’t have a tool that measures potential, so have to be a less numerical and a little more explanatory. However – the below graph sums up a lot of what I’ve found: I know that a lot of this experiment has been done with us at the top end of the league structure and, with no reliance on the academy, so this is not an exact science but once again, the better personalities are providing the better players so, off that, you’d expect these players to either have the best potential or to be able to reach their potential. Which are two very separate things. --- Part 6: Determination vs Growth When I was conducting this save, I played with hidden attributes so was unable to look, directly at Determination of players. However, since completing the save, I have been able to go back and look at what was previously hidden to me - the exact Determination score. I have used data from the seven years of intake data that I had saved within my excel document for this. I have banded the determination levels, as seen below, into 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 and 16-20 and have taken their starting mean, end mean and average growth into consideration. Firstly - here is a look at Determination vs starting average: I didn't expect there to be too much difference here, however, there is, on average nearly a whole point difference for the starting average of a player with low to high determination. For clarity, the Determination score itself doesn't have much impact on that average: Player with 20 for all attributes including Determination - mean = 20 Player with 20 for all attributes excluding Determination, set at 10 = 19.7 Player with 20 for all attributes excluding Determination, set at 1 = 19.5 To make that clearer - let's look at averages closer to what I am using: Player with 9 for all attributes and Determination, set at 20 - mean = 9.31 Player with 9 for all attributes and Determination, set at 9 = 9 Player with 9 for all attributes and Determination, set at 1 = 8.78 Therefore, this would tend to indicate that a better level of determination generally means that the player is better - however, I wouldn't use that as a steadfast starting point. Next, I want to look and see how Determination, not looked at with personality, Below is the results: The key metric here is the yellow bar, that doubles for average growth between low determined players (1-5) and high determined players (16-20). There are obviously some outliers but I can see, from this small data collection, that nobody with Determination of more than 10 has 'gone backwards' over the course of the season. ---- Part 7: Personality and Determination vs Growth At least good Pro: Fairly Professional: Professionalism 15-17 Model Citizen: Professionalism 15-20 Perfectionist: Professionalism 14-20 Professional: Professionalism 18-19 Resolute: Professionalism 15-17 At best poor Pro: Temperamental: Professionalism 1-10 Slack: Professionalism 1 Low Self Belief: Professionalism 2-3 Casual: Professionalism 2-4 --- Part 8: Ambition vs Growth --- Part 9: Ambition and Determination vs Growth --- Part 10: Personality, Determination and Ambition vs Growth ----- Part 11: Summary I’ve taken a few things from this that will always be in my games now, in a similar way to how things that I’ve done, as second nature, within this save, were learnt about in previous games and versions. I do not have the data necessary to give a definitive answer but I feel that you need professional backroom* staff and/or professional team personality** (on the overview page) to get such good personality newgens through your system. The data above lends itself to personality being essential for a good starting point, good development and good chances of making the first team (either that they have a higher PA or are ‘better’ at reaching their PA ceiling). *I did some other research during this save and, despite not collecting enough data to make actual concise answers, I feel there is a correlation between the overall staff personalities and the newgens in the intakes, rather than just from the HoYD. I have tracked a few intakes for ‘favoured personnel’ and there does seem to be some link, which is something that I’d like to continue tracking. ** I purposely haven’t touched on mentoring in this but I feel that having good personalities at the top of the hierarchy will help others within the squad develop, and, as such, impact the overall team personality. This is, I feel, easier than ever before with the amount of previously ‘rare’ personality players around. With a decent attempt at mentoring, this is quite an ‘easy win’ I feel. Edited August 2, 2020 by _Ben_ 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 (edited) The Game world A big part of the game will be the export of talent – firstly within the country (but hopefully not strengthening our Cairoca rivals too much) and then to Europe. However, as we are down in the third division, I’ve not added any European leagues right now but will do in the future, instead, just loading Brazil and a load of Brazilian players as they will be the primary market for me. As previously mentioned, the game started in January 2019 which mean that there would be different year one results. My intention from the start, was to manage Volta, even though they were playable in the 2019 season, but, sadly, they were relegated. Therefore, I have continued the holiday and have now reached the 2022 season – which is the first with Volta back in a playable league. Here is a brief rundown of their history: It would appear each turn is listed separately here - however, here is how they fared in the overall table in the past three years in both stages, starting with last year on the left: It seems that they have picked up a little following an awful 2019 but there is still a big gap to become the best team in the state, let alone the country. The team are also winless in four First Round matches in the Copa do Brasil: Edited May 31, 2020 by _Ben_ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 The manager Like German Burgos (manager of Beira-Mar in FM19 who was generated in a short save I had with Argentine Baraccas Central), Teles (manager of San Marino in FM19 who generated in in the aforementioned Beira-Mar save) and Dario Samaniego, who I signed whilst managing San Marino, this save will have a memory of a previous save in it, in the form of the manager. Neyveson For those unaware of this player – his signing marked a real shift in my fortunes as Guadalajara manager. I had relied on Brian Pena, also of the Barcelona B team, and a real player, as my goalscorer but needed some extra quality so turned to this Brazilian/Spanish lad that Barca had poached from the Vitoria youth system. He cost me €3.4m and, in his heyday, was my best player, even if his scoring record of 131 league goals in 344 games isn’t anywhere near world class. I will be using his place of birth, Euclides Da Cunha (BA), some 1700km from Volta Redonda, as well as his full name – Neyveson Bonfim Nazare Neto (interesting to see if I get a son with Neto as their last name) but changing his primary nationality back to Brazilian rather than Spanish – as it’ll fit my needs slightly better. Here is his complete with his ‘brand new face…’ I have chosen against high ratings in Player and Youngster knowledge as, apparently, these are only seen on the player search screen, which I won’t be using nor will I be using attribute masking. I normally do this, but I want to see how much data I can amalgamate from other teams so don’t want the hassle of having to scout them all! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Save game ‘aims’ As with any save – I’ve got myself some lofty ambitions. Obviously, there are wider plans to dominate the world, produce Ballon D’Or winners etc but actually, the on-field results matter little too me, instead, I’ll take much more from the continued learning about player development. Here are a few of the more general ones: - Develop a group of ‘squads’ that can compete across the many competitions in Brazil: Even in Serie C – we could be playing well over 30 league games in a year and that, hopefully, will be nearing 70 once we are a ‘big’ club. Therefore, I want to develop a group of different squads so that I can utilise different teams for different competitions – probably with a focus on younger players in the state championships. - Develop players through really focused programs I’ve been working really hard to develop some new Excel documents to help me further track the growth of my playing squad. I will continue to work on this as the save develops, but here is a look at what they will be like: A note on this – I will be using different formula than in my previous save, on purpose, as I don’t want to spend my time comparing save to save. Whilst this might have some uses, for example, looking at player progress over different types of training setups etc, I feel that this is far superior in terms of accuracy in how the game actually calculates ability. There are a few other things that are different – such as the ticks or crosses for the ‘3 key attributes’ for development, as posted widely by SI staff as well as a ‘FIFA style’ player type: Team player, flair player, leader, aggressive or determined, as these seem to be the harder of the attributes to influence in intake time. I’m conscious of overloading the save with Excel screenshots so will try and streamline how I post about these players but I really want to get into the individual development, with some new things that I’ve been thinking about. On my Guadalajara save, it was all about pushing through large quantities of players but this time, even though I’m going to even more youth reliant, will be about making the most of every player. What is more, I plan to return to using numerical attribute values so that I can really delve deep into what progression looks like (e.g. it’s far easier to say that a player who has gone from 6 to 9 in an attribute has made a 50% increase) – this is how a lot of my progression posts will look, I feel. As you can see in the player development post I made earlier in the thread, that will remain a key part of this thread. Whilst I don’t intend on using all of the same DNA sheets – I will still be focusing on the four attributes that I feel are vital to players – anticipation, decision, determination and concentration; the four attributes that, for me, make up the player’s intelligence. - Become a ‘selling’ club As with most Brazilian teams, I imagine finances will be tight. Also, and playing into the ethos of the team/city, Volta Redonda is a place that exports lots of steel and therefore, I want to export loads of players. I will attempt to not keep a player at the club if he is unhappy and will then replace him through my own squads or with a suitable replacement from outside the club, within my budget. This will hopefully mean that we become completely financially stable but I would like to further explore ways to make us not only stable, but profitable, ensuring that there is a strict wage scheme implemented. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 2019/2022 Catch Up With only the Brazilian leagues loaded at the moment, there isn't much to catch up on, so this will be quite brief... In the Brasiliero, Flamengo look to be a good side, which will only further harm our Carioca chances, winning two of the three titles. Fluminense, on the other hand, would appear to be the first of the 'big' sides that we might be able to crack, as they seem to be falling away a little bit, whilst Botafogo seem to be on an upward trend. Worryingly, the ever-strong Cruzeiro seem to be a bit of a yoyo club and are back in Serie A for the 2022 season. I know that, if we face them lower down the pyramid - they'll always be a tough team. Joining them in the 2022 competition are America-MG, Vitoria and rank outsiders Operario, who are in their first top flight season since 1979. --- Serie B still contains Bahia, who failed to go up yet are far too 'big' for this level as well as Fortaleza and Ceara, the city rivals. --- There are twenty clubs across two Serie C groups and we have been predicted to finish ninth, despite our promotion: In amongst this are some interesting clubs: MFC (annoyingly not showing as Manaus) come from the rainforest, Juventude were in the Brasiliero back in 2007, Acreano are a small club from the Acre state in the far northwest of the country and are only in their fifth ever season at this level and BRU (short for Brusque) are also very new to this level of competition. --- There hasn't been a huge amount of surprising transfer business, with the usual suspects moving around: --- Internationally, Germany won Euro 2020, South African took the AFCON crown in 2020 and Brazil won the 2020 Copa America. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 (edited) Team Report This is the squad that I've inherited: Diego Landis. Matheus Nunes. Pedrinho. Kevem. --- There is some quality within the team, yet no real coherent footballing ideology - as you'd probably guess from a lower league Brazilian team and a bit of a mish-mash of positions. What worries me most, though, is the lack of team leaders or, to be fair, anyone with a good personality. There is some talent though in here with both Vander Torres and Erick Fernando looking like they could potentially be good, with the right development. --- My youth and reserve squad can both fit on one page: Maicon. Agnello. Cassiano Aguilar. There is some more talent in here, although I'm not entirely sure of the amount of potential there is, given our status within club football. However, this is where the fun starts! As you may have seen above, the 15 youngest prospects (as I haven't had a youth intake) have been loaded into my player tracker, as seen here: They are also loaded into the overview so that I can continue to compare whole cohorts, like I started on the last save. However, this sheet will compare them for three years, rather than just one. From the above data, I can start to pick apart a few things and work out who I really want to focus on. For reference, the ticks, crosses and dashes in the attribute sections relate to whether they possess the averages I 'require' at each age level. To be a tick at the age of 16 (this will work better when the intakes come in), they need to be 10 or above, and 8 for a dash. Those averages increase by one each year - so, by the age of 19, I can see who is 'ready.' The top player on that list is Pedrinho (although I'd expect that as he's one of just two 19 years and is also in the first team) but the player than I'm most interested in is Maicon: His combination of Fairly Sporting/Media Friendly gives me this combination of hidden attributes: Sportsmanship 15-20, Determination 10-14 Ambition 1-14 Professionalism <15 So, average Determination but no better than average Professionalism and no better than average ambition. This gives him zero 'definites' in the areas I'm looking for. Therefore, I think that the real goal here will have to be first team football and a really specific training regimen to help him develop. Below is his comparison against my best striker, Rafael Castro (he is in green): I haven't decided on my formation yet, but he's certainly good enough to play as a backup striker here or even as a second striker, given his decent vision for this level. In terms of his attributes and training - I'm going to do something that I've read about recently on the forum. He is good at finishing, has a good first touch, passing, heading, composure, work rate and is really fit and works hard for the team - but I feel that technique is really letting him down as well as his dribbling ability - two things which, as a second striker, are really important. As I don't want to change his position, I'm going to experiment with this P/R/D: From what I've read, this trains all attributes needed for a striker, but lighter - which, to be fair, is good, as there are no gaping holes really within his game. It means that I can focus all of the training attention on his specific need, dribbling and technique. I will use the 'Ball Control' individual focus, below, and ramp up the intensity to double work: This leaves him with a medium workload and a really tight focus on what he needs. --- Edited May 31, 2020 by _Ben_ 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Player Development: Vander Torres Looking at Vander's personality, I am left with two options about his hidden attributes: Fairly Professional Professionalism 15-17, Temperament 11-20 or Professionalism 18-20, Temperament 1-10 However, his Media Handling of Level Headed (Professionalism 13-20, Loyalty 12-20) doesn't shed any further light on it either. --- Looking at his attributes I would say that his Heading of 2, Flair of 3 and Leadership of 2, all poor attributes, plus average marking, means that he's not really suited for the hustle and bustle of the middle of the pitch. Given his good tacking, passing, positioning and decisions, though, I think he'd make an excellent full back. Not a marauding one, as he can't dribble nor cross, an inverted one. As he is only accomplished at RB, I'll be using the P/R/D of RB/IWB/S for him but only until that is perfected. He's also going to work on his passing as that hits technique too, which is a weakness. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Player Development: Erick Fernando Balanced/Media Friendly gives me nothing on his personality, sadly. --- Attribute wise, he's weird! I would look at that and think that he's a deep lying playmaker, to be fair. However, good first touch, passing, team work, workrate and stamina - with tackling that isn't far off, he's actually looking like a good Pressing Forward. There is one big hole, and that is his finishing (and I can't even offset that with his composure - although his decisions will do that a little bit). Therefore, as he's a natural striker, will adopt the same method as with Maicon, and use the P/R/D on just a striker so I can see how much his finishing can improve: I do see, particularly against weaker opposition, both Maicon and Erick working off a poacher type player but, as of right now, I'm nowhere near thinking of tactical stuff! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Serie C Groups drawn Brusque are predicted seventh, Figueirense 2nd, Caixal do Sul 8th, Juventude 5th, Gremio 3rd but we have managed to draw the likes of Joinville (newly promoted and predicted 15th) and Botafogo FC (predicted 19th). We need to reach the Semi Finals (getting through the top two in the league) and then one quarter final round, to be promoted to Serie B. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
keeper#1 Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Can't wait to see how this story evolves Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 1 minute ago, keeper#1 said: Can't wait to see how this story evolves Thanks! I'm excited too. I kind of want to set things in place, then give it a year or so to get really 'in to it' when all the newgens are in and I know all of the players. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Choosing a captain A big thing when you don't have any team leaders. Here are my options: Rafael Castro is listed as a 'fringe' player (not played any games myself, yet) and is Balanced/Level-Headed (Professionalism 13-20, Loyalty 12-20) so will have average to good professionalism. He also had 11 for Determination but doesn't work hard for the team. Diego Landis is also Balanced/Level Headed and has 13 for Determination, is a key player and my top earner. It's sensible that he's made captain and hopefully a team leader. --- Kevem was the choice as vice-captain but initially I was put off by his Balanced/Media Friendly (you can literally get nothing from either of these) but this has changed that viewpoint: If Diego Landis has at least average Professionalism, then Kevem will be close to that, too. Kevem has 14 for Determination, is in the core social group but, annoyingly, has the 'Dives into tackles' player trait - that I don't want passed on to others. It is a risk appointing him and I think that my third team leader gap will need to be filled with someone who I can see has positive traits. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Training intensity Something I always miss! Having a go with this 'half focus' means I need my fit players to be training hard - therefore, I'm going to see what impact using double intensity will bring to their development. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Kit annoyances I brought the editor the other day so that I could complete a few things in my old save. It'll be coming out again to sort this mess out: I know it's licensing issues but I can't have a yellow and black colour scheme and play in blue and red! Much nicer. You never know - I might be making kits for each competition at this rate... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Jef- Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Defo following this one as well How come you decided to use attributes in this save and not colors like in Guadalajara? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Just now, rosque said: Defo following this one as well How come you decided to use attributes in this save and not colors like in Guadalajara? A) just a change, really! B) I can do some more mathematical stuff in Excel/it becomes easier to do the Excel stuff when I can see the attributes. For example - my language when describing a change from 10 to 15 in an attribute will change from 'they've gone from good to excellent' to now 'they've gone from good to excellent by making a 50% increase in x attribute.' You also wouldn't believe how many formula errors I found behind those conditionally formatted cells! I've still got the attribute colours there and my mindset is still very much the poor/average/good/excellent attribute but I thought I'd change it up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Backroom staff update Got myself a nice little job of sorting this mess out! Also - me playing Route One football? I don't think so... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Clauses With little money in the bank, I'm tempted to cash in on some clauses for Rogerio, who was sold before I took over. I'm not actively looking to sign any one but we're over budget and this and £50k will help. Goalkeepers, however, tend to keep their value well so I won't be doing the same for Leonardo Alves. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 (edited) Carioca State Draw We've drawn both Flamengo and Vasco - so chances of any higher than third are pretty much nil. However - every club aside from the four Serie A clubs and ourselves play in Serie D or below - so it is quite a weak area, which is a shame. EDIT: For clarity... Here are my fixtures: It appears that I play all of the teams, with six games in turn one and five in turn two. I think there is a good chance for some clever squad rotation here as we get stronger... Edited May 31, 2020 by _Ben_ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Mentoring Intended personality/MH is Castro with Balanced/Level-Headed (at least average professionalism and loyalty) and 13 for Determination. Jonathan is there to make up the numbers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Interesting objectives you have set up for yourself Will be following this closely Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlivierL Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 Good luck, can't wait to see how you develop those samba kids ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 8 hours ago, john1 said: Interesting objectives you have set up for yourself Will be following this closely 6 hours ago, OlivierL said: Good luck, can't wait to see how you develop those samba kids ! Many thanks! Enjoying the save thus far! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 2022 Campeonato Carioca This is a lovely little easy play for now and we've started my reign really strongly. The aim, I thought, for this competition was to beat one of the big four each year and slowly progress that - but we started with a shock victory over Botafogo, drew with Vasco and, somehow, annihilated Flamengo on the road. It appears that, at this point, the big teams don't take this super seriously and, although their quality shines through at the end, they seem to be beatable. Despite the great win over Flamengo, we decided to throw it all away, surrendering our top of the league (and qualification position) with a loss over Madureira on the last round of turn two. On the pitch - I am doing nothing tactically amazing, lining up with a pretty simple 4-1-3-2 that looks like a 2-3-3-2 in possession. I really wanted the PF(s) to drop a bit deeper and the Mez(s) to push a bit wider to make it feel a bit more like the 2-3-1-3-1 (although I need to look at the midfield roles a bit better to make this happen). Player Development Firstly, we have a team leader, Diego Landis, as seen below. Secondly, and I guess, as expected, he's impacting some of our younger players with Vander Torres being 'influenced' and moving from F.Pro back to Balanced. He has picked up a point on Determination and, importantly, scored once and assisted three times in nine games - although he has been sent off twice! Erick Fernando has also seen a whole point of development in Finishing and Technique (two of the three areas in his only focus) so this suggests it could work out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Work Rate It's not a situation I like as I want my strikers to be scoring - but, it's a good opportunity for attribute development. Whenever I see the opportunity to discuss the last game (6.4 rating or less) - I fine the player 1 weeks wage. Sometimes they take it with no comment, but other times, this happens: His Work Rate has increased by a whole point following his massive (!!!) £35 fine. --- On a slightly unrelated note - little third tier Volta with poor coaching etc has seen a player increase 1 point in Finishing, 1 in Technique, 2 in Determination and 1 in Work Rate in just four months. That isn't bad! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Promising start Through twenty games already... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Youth Intake Preview An 'excellent' group to get me started! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Positional Development Vander Torres has now reached natural at right back, after nearly a season playing there, which is great - it now means I can try the same experiment whereby I focus just on his P/R/D of his playing position and can put more emphasis on his additional focus. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LewisMcGraw Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 Really interesting save idea! I’ve recently started a save with one of the teams you mentioned (Manaus) in the 3rd tier and it’s been great fun so far. Enjoying the updates! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LUFCspeni Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 Ben in Brazil - all over this! Hope you love South America, I just can't stay away the last 3 years, with my main save being there each year. Very interesting start so far, hopefully you get a few good regens, even with poorer facilities. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 2022 Brasiliero Serie C The first couple of seasons, for me, are the hardest. Therefore, I've utilised the IR button for the vast majority of this season, just to get some players into the team, learn a little about the squad, work out areas where I need to focus on development/recruitment and the like. This, also, means that I can complete seasons very quickly, which is also great for the long term progress I want to make with this team. Here is my first Serie C season in charge: We have massively exceeded expectations here, with, what I thought was a poor squad. In the end, we fell just short of promotion with Manaus going up after beating us over two legs. The quality of the teams within this league varies massively and a lot of the performances have been down to how all the managers have handled fitness within their squad and it hasn't been a surprise to turn up to a game with eleven opposition players who are all in very poor condition. There's lots of gaps within the team and lots of poor players, which is always the case within the first season in my games, but I'm hoping that, over the next few years, we can fill some gaps with the academy players and go from there! --- As you'd expect - quite hit and miss on the performance front and not many goals scored - which is, again, becoming the bane of my life! The key players have performed well and there has been some good minutes for Vander Torres and Erick Fernando - although the latter really hasn't performed well. --- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 10 minutes ago, LewisMcGraw said: Really interesting save idea! I’ve recently started a save with one of the teams you mentioned (Manaus) in the 3rd tier and it’s been great fun so far. Enjoying the updates! I originally wanted to play with Manaus, but, for some reason, I couldn't sort out the licensing and get the proper team name! Volta have, by far, the better badge though, so that did it for me! 10 minutes ago, LUFCspeni said: Ben in Brazil - all over this! Hope you love South America, I just can't stay away the last 3 years, with my main save being there each year. Very interesting start so far, hopefully you get a few good regens, even with poorer facilities. I have always loved Brazil to be fair. I actually quite like the busy schedules because it gives opportunities for minutes for my players - although we've only played just over 30 games this year and now have a two month break at the end of the season! I'm hoping that the youth rating of the country will help me out, massively! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LewisMcGraw Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 19 minutes ago, _Ben_ said: I originally wanted to play with Manaus, but, for some reason, I couldn't sort out the licensing and get the proper team name! Volta have, by far, the better badge though, so that did it for me! I have always loved Brazil to be fair. I actually quite like the busy schedules because it gives opportunities for minutes for my players - although we've only played just over 30 games this year and now have a two month break at the end of the season! I'm hoping that the youth rating of the country will help me out, massively! The Brazil real name fix on FMBase’s website sorted that out for me - It makes the save so much more immersive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Player Development This, again, will expand as I have more intakes - but here is the data from the first year of tracking a group of players. There was no intake before I joined so this group was the fifteen youngest outfield players at the club: --- Not a lot was expected from this group of players but I can talk through my table of confusion and add in a few screenshots of other data that I have collected. - There hasn't been anyone that has decreased in their intelligence, however, the increased are small and only Pedrinho (who is 20) has, what I would define, as good enough intelligence for the 'end of year 1 tracking - the age of 17.' The numbers under the technical, mental and physical columns are the increase on last year and it is Erick Fernando who has made the most (2 points for Determination and 2 points on Work Rate) as well as good improvement on his technical focii. It is Fernando, himself, who has improved the most overall - too. I must remember that this is a different metric to what I used in my Guadalajara save, so I have no idea if 0.81 is a good improvement or not! However, as seen below, he has improved by 11% from his starting attributes, which is a really solid improvement. Looking down that list - you can start to see a split already between the personalities. --- One thing I have added for this save is a data collection point that brings together both attribute development and on-pitch performance. Below are the three players who have featured most in the first team: Vander Torres. Erick Fernando. Maicon. I think this'll be interesting when I compare the three year growth and three year attribute changes. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausie Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 1 hour ago, _Ben_ said: Positional Development Vander Torres has now reached natural at right back, after nearly a season playing there, which is great - it now means I can try the same experiment whereby I focus just on his P/R/D of his playing position and can put more emphasis on his additional focus. I recall early in your Guadalajara thread you changed the colour of the positions on player profiles as you had noticed basically zero difference in players being ‘natural’ or ‘accomplished’, is this still the case? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 2023 Youth Intake This came a little earlier than I was expecting, in mid-October. Cris. Eldis Fernando. Gilson Camilo. We have got a strange mix of ages here - with 15 and a half year old Cris in with 17 year old Eldis Fernando, for example. However - I think that I have potentially got a real star in the aforementioned Cris. Also - I don't even have a HoYD yet, let alone have spent any time trying to sort the backroom staff out - so the personalities are all over the shop right now! --- Three players who have determination, one who has got a good level of professionalism and two ambitious players isn't great! Looking a little deeper - only Cris and Gilson Camilo would meet my acceptable level for 16 year old players (although Cris is 15 still) and only Waltinho has the physical prowess I'd (eventually) like for a player of his age. As I said - it is indeed Cris who stands out, atop of this intake and only behind two significantly older players in the very small, at this point, overall list: --- Cris He is Fairly Determined/Level-Headed, so I get this: Fairly Determined Determination 15-17 Professionalism <15, Leader <19 Level Headed Professionalism 13-20, Loyalty 12-20 Narrowing that down to Professionalism of between 13 and 14 with no guess at his ambition. He looks like a decent #10 but without the ability to finish (although better than my actual striker!). However, given his trait of 'Gets into opposition area,' I'd actually like to employ him as more of a Free 8 and allowing him some freedom. It may be a bit strange affording a 15 year old a free role but he's got great technique and first touch and his vision and passing are good. I will, therefore, retrain him as an MC - which gives me the below schedules to use: He's quite strong technically, so I don't feel that the technical focus from a Mezzala schedule will help - therefore, I feel maybe a Carrilero would help boost some attributes. It focuses on: Technical First Touch - currently at 15 and not a weakness. Passing - currently at 13 and not a weakness. Tackling - currently at 5 but not an attribute I am worried about increasing. Technique - currently at 15 and not a weakness. Mental Anticipation - Important for intelligence and currently at 9. Composure - Important for on the ball play and currently at 6. Concentration - Important for intelligence and currently at 5. Decisions - Important for intelligence and currently at 9. Off the Ball - Important for on the ball play and currently at 9. Positioning - currently at 6 but not an attribute I am worried about increasing. Team Work - currently at 10 but not an attribute I am worried about increasing as, like the attribute tag suggest - I want him to create his own stuff and kind of do his own thing. Vision - Important for on the ball play and currently at 11. Work Rate - currently at 14 and not a weakness. Physical Stamina - currently at 10 but will grow as he develops. -- I'm interested to see how he, and the rest of the cohort, get on! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 21 minutes ago, Ausie said: I recall early in your Guadalajara thread you changed the colour of the positions on player profiles as you had noticed basically zero difference in players being ‘natural’ or ‘accomplished’, is this still the case? Yes. I just wanted to focus on a few different attributes at right back as a IWB whilst we were learning the tactic before he went on to the generic one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 14 hours ago, _Ben_ said: Maicon: He is good at finishing, has a good first touch, passing, heading, composure, work rate and is really fit and works hard for the team - but I feel that technique is really letting him down as well as his dribbling ability - two things which, as a second striker, are really important. As I don't want to change his position, I'm going to experiment with this P/R/D: From what I've read, this trains all attributes needed for a striker, but lighter - which, to be fair, is good, as there are no gaping holes really within his game. It means that I can focus all of the training attention on his specific need, dribbling and technique. I will use the 'Ball Control' individual focus, below, and ramp up the intensity to double work: This leaves him with a medium workload and a really tight focus on what he needs. This seems to be working really well... The above screenshot was in January and the below one taken in November. That is two points Finishing and three Technique, which is great! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Forced sale A big part of my midfield will be gone but I guess that is the price you pay down in the lower leagues... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Poached Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 2023 Carioca State I'm glad this is only a small part of the bigger picture in this career and that, right now, I'm not focused on what is happening on the pitch as it is utterly terrible! I'm being both tactically naive (largely by not seeing what is going on) and over-reliant on youth players, but that is fine for now. We won't get relegated from this competition so I just need to ensure I stay in my job. However, it doesn't bode too well for the league stage. And yes, Kevem is a centre back. Strikers Erick Fernando and Maicon have manged 0.20 and 1.27 shots per game, respectively. If I wasn't just clicking through to get to know the squad, look at development trends early on, I'd be very annoyed right now... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 (edited) Signings Not something I want to do a lot of but I've added Matheus Santana for a bit of depth and an old FM favourite of mine, Diego Renan,as some quality at left back. --- I'm predicted to finish 17th in Serie C this year, largely based on the awful state to the calendar year. As long as I don't finish ninth or tenth in the group - I'll be back next year! Edited June 1, 2020 by _Ben_ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Youth Intake Preview Golden generation?! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 (edited) Not a bad progress so far, as you are finding your own feet in Brazil Macion, looks pretty good and good to see him improving a bit Edited June 1, 2020 by john1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlivierL Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 8 hours ago, _Ben_ said: Player Development Firstly, we have a team leader, Diego Landis, as seen below. Secondly, and I guess, as expected, he's impacting some of our younger players with Vander Torres being 'influenced' and moving from F.Pro back to Balanced. He has picked up a point on Determination and, importantly, scored once and assisted three times in nine games - although he has been sent off twice! Erick Fernando has also seen a whole point of development in Finishing and Technique (two of the three areas in his only focus) so this suggests it could work out. So moving from F.pro to balanced is a good thing ? Isn't balanced a neutral personalty ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 15 minutes ago, OlivierL said: So moving from F.pro to balanced is a good thing ? Isn't balanced a neutral personalty ? No. It's a bad move. I can guess that his professionalism is ok, based on historical personality, but I don't know any more. It was expected because of the new Team Leader but not wanted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlivierL Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 2 hours ago, _Ben_ said: No. It's a bad move. I can guess that his professionalism is ok, based on historical personality, but I don't know any more. It was expected because of the new Team Leader but not wanted. Had the same with my best prospect in the first team at Paris FC : ( Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 3 hours ago, john1 said: Not a bad progress so far, as you are finding your own feet in Brazil Macion, looks pretty good and good to see him improving a bit 'Finding my feet' is not the term I'd use for that second Carioca showing but, yes - I'm enjoying Brazil, we're getting a little better each year and I'm learning about the teams, rules and player development at this level. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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