Jump to content

[FM20] A Long Journey Begins With A Single Step


keeper#1
 Share

Recommended Posts

That can be said for most journeys.  This journey begins on June 15, 2022.  Three seasons of game time have past in Europe.  This journey begins with manager Tim Brooks taking his first major coaching job in Holland.  He started his career with Lunds in the Swedish Fourth Tier and have a season and half with Lunds and a promotion to the third tier.  He moved on to Allsvenskan side BK Hacken.  He took over the club in 10th place midway through the 2021 and moved them up the table to a 2nd place finish.  After an 12-2-0 start to the 2022 season along with a victory in the Swedish Cup, Brooks has moved on to his first major coaching job.

 

306487448_JourneymanExcel-Excel7_16_20202_09_33PM.thumb.png.b88b3af523a6f70dece6a49daae5888d.png

Brooks has amassed quite the league record with 53 wins 13 draws and just two losses in his career.  Who has taken the chance on the 48-year old Brooks?

20200716003325_1.thumb.jpg.d734e7d134e168e6f156135ccc34d218.jpg

This journey, for posting purposes, will begin in Holland with Heerenveen who finished in 8th place during the 2021-22 Eredivisie season and looking to get back to European competition under the management of Brooks.

Link to post
Share on other sites

2022-23 Mid-Season Quick Update

The 2022-23 season is going to a miserable season for the club soccer fan with the winter World Cup.  The Dutch Eredivisie went on break at the end of the October and does not resume until early January.  There were some random Cup games featuring matches between Champions League and Europa League/Conference teams during the break but that was it.  For Heerenveen, who is not playing in Europe, we had to schedule a bunch of friendlies for December to keep the players fresh.

20200718111856_1.thumb.jpg.c2c47cc91e81cded38c149f0e8ed9d39.jpg

A decent friendly season gave us a springboard into the early matches in the league.  We had a bi-polar set of results to close this early part of the season.  We thrashed an amateur side in the opening round of the Dutch Cup followed by getting thrashed 5-1 by league leaders Ajax.  This season, my objective is to hang with the Big Three (Ajax, Feyenoord, and PSV).  Not necessarily win but be competitive.  First go-around: Feyenoord (L 2-3), PSV (D 0-0), and Ajax (L 1=5).  Two competitive matches and one point.  Not the greatest start but something to build on as I shape the roster into my mold.

20200718111844_1.thumb.jpg.829c968f91b4eacad2b6ac93c6a8433f.jpg

The good news is we have been great against everyone else.  Backing out the six goals allowed against the Big Three, we have allowed 10 goals in nine matches which is closer to 1.0 goals per game that I am looking for this season.  We are averaging two goals per game so far.  The offense always is ahead of the defense with this tactic because the opposition is slow to adapt to the high-pressure game that I like to play.

20200718174129_1.thumb.jpg.999a5f234000cb1ac9fa8a5ff118d995.jpg

No real surprises in the 2022 World Cup.  I would say that the USA was the biggest disappointment in the group stage going 0-1-2 with -5 goal difference but since they didn't even qualify and had a very young roster, it looked it was more of learning experience for the squad before hosting the 2026 World Cup.  Iran finished 32nd going 0-0-3 with a -12 goal difference.  The knockout round had some heavyweight matchups in the first round with Spain knocking out Argentina and Italy knocking out England on penalty kicks.  Poland upset Holland to reach the quarterfinals before losing to runner-up Portugal.  Brazil were the class of the field tested only by Germany in the quarterfinals.

20200718230810_1.thumb.jpg.65b0d9156689733eeef20a2ed75ea552.jpg

Potential golden generation coming but there are a lot of negatives too with the class.

Link to post
Share on other sites

2022-23 End of Season Update

During the winter transfer window, the big clubs came in for my high-performing players. Some I was reluctant to sell. Others, the club met the minimum release clause so I had no choice but to sell. It made for a very busy window.

20200721205130_1.thumb.jpg.6d945392f7f28d001a7c2a8a943e083f.jpg

Shenzhen came in for Carel Etting with a bid of 23 million Euros which I accepted and way above their initial bid of only 10 million Euros. The next big money sale was Ejuke when Porto (among others) met his 20 million Euro release clause to clubs in an international competition. The last big money sale was goalkeeper Warner Hahn who got pissy when I wouldn't sell him in the summer. Leeds came in with a big money offer so his ass was off to England. In between those sales, we were able to move some BUMS as well on small deals. This gave me a big transfer kitty to use to bring in new players.

We brought in two Brazilian players on a free. A third Brazilian joined on a low price deal. We poached a defender from Barcelona's B team on a cut rate deal. The only player where we paid market value was for Vuskovic. A snapshot of those players here.


CM Carlos Roberto

20200721205143_1.thumb.jpg.fe6f4453652d9b9870d50f99e5750c5c.jpg

 

GK Rafael Marques

20200721205151_1.thumb.jpg.c68bc45f36eeb65630c17071282a1a8d.jpg

 

DM Kelvin Giacobe

20200721205212_1.thumb.jpg.c79f91b07ecf1bad92904da843aaf71a.jpg

 

DC Jorge Cuenca

20200721205220_1.thumb.jpg.ecb2a455bd6c5de5f69257d29211c708.jpg

 

DC Mario Vuskovic

20200721205232_1.thumb.jpg.0e602fb5f5fff636e3be0820dc06ce38.jpg

The introduction of five new players to lineup caused a very choppy January and early February form but once we got knocked out of the Dutch Cup and only had one match per week, we really hit our stance and got back to our ways of just pounding teams into submission.

20200721205256_1.thumb.jpg.890745e658941f2736b3b2729807f9bd.jpg

20200721224140_1.thumb.jpg.5566ed6833c07b3960bdca8247de032a.jpg

We moved up the table into second place by early April as PSV and Feyenoord faded in the second half of the season. The draw against PSV knocked us down to third place heading into the final match against 16th place Roda. AZ had to travel to Ajax. We got the outcome that we needed to finish in second place. We beat Roda 2-0 and AZ lost to Ajax which moved us back into second and into the Best Places Playoff for the Champions League. AZ heads into the Europa League while Feyenoord and playoff winners Utrecht go to the Europa Conference. Fortuna and Cambuur slide into relegation.

20200721205602_1.jpg

20200721224509_1.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

2023-24 Midseason Update

20200725142014_1.thumb.jpg.f867317d50b71862e3e35a5b97c47eb1.jpg

Shipped a lot of players out either on loan, on frees, or transferred out because they weren't very good or need first team experience. Didn't splash a lot of money around this window. Found some young players on frees from big clubs that can't get playing time with their big club but I can find the time for them either this year or in the future. Brought in a pair of Argentinian defensive midfielders to shore up our depth at that position.

20200724235648_1.thumb.jpg.dfbdcc791d50aed551e32711383402db.jpg

We absolutely sucked to start the season. The players weren't ready to deal with two matches per week now that we have European matches to deal with just about every week. We played like ass and leaked goals at a massive rate. We started to shore things up as the calendar turned to October and returned to our 2022-23 form. I knew at some point the rubber band was going to snap back and we would start winning again but the early dip killed just about any chance of contending for the title this year. Need to shift our focus to ensure we don't get tied up in the European Places Playoffs in May. We won't have the KNVB Beker to worry about since the rotated players decided not to show up for it this year; losing to Helmond in the Eerste Divisie.

20200724235606_1.thumb.jpg.39b00058c447539d832eb27e16cb6d54.jpg

5th place is not bad considering how much we sucked at the beginning of the season when we down in the relegation zone.

20200724235702_1.thumb.jpg.e8162211a597201d4d921bd977fe5289.jpg

Europe was a different animal for us. We had a crushing loss to Young Boys in the last qualifying round before the group stage of the Champions League. The good news is we fell into the Europa League. The bad news is we drew Bayern Munich in the Group Stage. That said, we SHOCKED them in Holland with a FERGIE TIME goal. The loss in Germany was the lone loss of the group stage as we qualified for the first knockout round where we drew Monaco.

20200724235728_1.thumb.jpg.937b790bab8b4f1d50e91e3c9813d116.jpg

20200725000726_1.thumb.jpg.d031fa4a4267097fd77f6e1cf7707445.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...