[FM20] I'm not your Bebri - I belong to me - Don't call me Bebri

[noikeee]

 

 

 

New thread. Latvian third tier. Bad manager photo. Crappy field in the woods. Cheesy 90s music. What could go wrong?

 

 

[noikeee]

Mid-season 2020: The start of something awful special
 

I'm gonna cheat a little by opening a thread when I'm already midseason. That's because I was slightly unsure heading off to the ****ing Latvian third tier was the best course of action after my Bologna save died a horrible death, and let me tell you going from 25 world class players to this as best player upon my arrival, was quite the shock:

So I wanted to see if I could get into a rhythm. And you know what, so far, so good. I'm using the IR button to speed things up loads, I already have my Bologna tactics that I know should work, so my goal here is to breeze through the seasons as fast as I can. I did half a season in just about less than 3 hours of gameplay which I'm pretty happy with.
 

Transfers

As I joined Staiceles Bebri, I was greeted with absolutely no staff, no scouting knowledge of anything, so I had to hire players half-blindly. Think I didn't do too badly, these are the idiots I hired:

 

Our best player now, I'm using primarily a 4-2-3-1 where the AM is a shadow striker and is largely overlooked by play, which just doesn't suit this lad, so I'm using him slightly deeper as mezzala.
 

 

A huge improvement as goalie over what I had, and he only has one goalkeeping attribute over 10! Oh boy.
 

 

On loan from a club with the hugely inspiring name of "New Project" - you just feel the passion flooding out of the screen -, this teenage winger is awfully unsuited to the IF role I give on the left wing, but at this level I just want a tiny wee bit of pace.
 

 

I had a HUGE problem which was I wanted to play a high line and my defenders were ridiculously slow. This guy was the quickest I could find. I still get forwards outpacing our line at a ridiculous rate.
 

 

Largely because the other CB I'm fielding is this guy, but come on, I can't drop him. He's bagged 5 goals already!! Also everyone else is even slower.
 

 

I just hired him because I had no holding midfielder. Problem is I use a DLP role and his passing is 6.... ehhhh should be good enough.

Squad

So this is the sorry lot I'm managing as it stands:

I didn't include player values not to embarrass them. 

Results

That pre-season scared the **** out of me. Needless to say, I've not lost FM matches 15-0 often.

Thankfully, we're not playing teams at the level of Shakhtar in our division. We're yet to lose (in the league, I got knocked out of the cup immediately), albeit I could do with fewer draws. We're fighting for 1st place which is the only place that matters, because only 1st gets access to a promotion playoff (don't you just love divisions where you're not guaranteed to get promoted, even if you finish top?). And we were just below it, until we beat Plavinas this last fixture, which meant we went above them on goal difference.

An epic battle to death between us and Plavinas is likely what will happen for the remainder of the season.

[noikeee]

Meanwhile, at a slightly higher footballing level

 

[noikeee]

Youth intake 2020

  

One of those AMAZING intakes that are only amazing because the level is so low FM gets a bit buggy assessing PA, as none of the players are remotely amazing.

[anagain]

Those are some bad players. Not sure I've ever seen stats like that in FM.

Best of luck getting promoted. 

[oche balboa]

Very low level. Some stats are worse then English Level 10

 

Good luck and keep up the good work 

[noikeee]

On 25/09/2020 at 05:59, anagain said:

Those are some bad players. Not sure I've ever seen stats like that in FM.

Best of luck getting promoted. 

Cheers. Those are the youth!! The players I'm using are a bit better. Well just slightly.  

On 25/09/2020 at 09:42, oche balboa said:

Very low level. Some stats are worse then English Level 10

 

Good luck and keep up the good work 

Maybe it's one of those things that we can't tell until we prove it, we need to set up a online friendly network match between this side and someone managing England Level 10 to clear this one up.  

[noikeee]

2nd half of the season 2020: Promotion decided on the last kick of the year

 

Transfers

We eventually hired 3 more players:

 

This guy looked great though there was an issue - he only fits as DM but I'm not using a DM. First I tried him at the backline because our duo of CBs was developing a "bad partnership". And it was awful, he played awfully. Later on I started using him as MC but it didn't quite click neither. I hope he'll start performing proper next season.

 

One of 2 guys I picked up on trials and managed to sign only just before the very last match of the season. A striker who is a huge upgrade on Ribaks, it made for the bizarre scene of me dropping Ribaks who'd been our best player all year long, for this bloke in the promotion decider. Didn't quite work out and late in the match I subbed him.

 

The other guy I picked up just for the final match. Should be our covering CB from now on. Yes 11 acceleration 9 pace is somewhat quick for this level! Also 11 decisions, he's ****ing Beckenbauer or what?
 

Results

Things were all going pretty great until October and then uh-oh, 2 defeats and also a sequence of 5 matches without winning, what is this. So it came down to the final match of the regular league season for us to clinch 1st place in our division and our ticket to the playoffs. Shockingly, our players were feeling the pressure of fighting for the title, who'd guess they'd have problems with that? Or with any other skill whatsoever? Thankfully we right about managed to scrap a 2-0 win in the final day and we were through.

Onto the playoffs. So the 4 division champs all faced each other in semi-finals and final, 2 legged matches, to decide who's the one promoted side. In the semi-finals we did well. 1-0 win away, 2-0 win at home, pretty straightforward. Onto the final against Marupe.

But then to my shock and horror, even though Marupe went a man down, we were awful defensively and kept on conceding goals. 3-4 defeat at home to 10 men. In the return leg we missed a penalty, went a goal down, still tied it, but too little too late. Our promotion bid had failed at the last hurdle.

... or had it? Because to my surprise, there was ANOTHER chance. Apparently the losing team in that final gets to face a team from the division above, in this case Dinamo Riga, for a promotion/relegation playoff. And it was a single leg, and it was at home. We gave it everything and completely dominated the match, but at the end it was still 1-1 after we'd missed most of our chances. So it went to penalties. The first 2 rounds both teams scored. Then our keeper Malmanis went to take one and missed. But then their guy missed too! RB Proskurnis took the 4th for us, scored. Then they missed again! Andris Ribaks, our goalscorer of the year, with the last spotkick for us of the season - well, only the last if he scored. And he did. Promotion is ours!

[noikeee]

2020 squad review

Competitions

• 2. Liga - Northern Zone: Champions. Lost in Promotion Playoff Final. Won Promotion/Relegation Playoff.
   
• Latvijas Kauss: Lost in 1st round.

Squad statistics

Top 5 players of the season

5. Reinis Logins (AMC, MC)

 

8 goals for this 17yo kid that played mostly as 2nd striker wasn't too bad.
 

4. Antons Proskurnins (DR)

One of many several totally rubbish players that overperformed. 4 goals (penalty kicks) and 4 assists from RB. Given we get our width from attacking WBs, I guess he was our version of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
 

3. Arturs Biders (MC)

Hey, an actual mildly passable football player! Biders was the only of our 4/5 star players that actually remotely performed, though I'm not sure the mezzala role I gave him fits him at all, but at least the ball goes through him there. 3 goals, 4 assists.
 

2. Edgars Dubra (DC)

There were only 2 players that really really played well this year, and both are totally **** and overperformed wildly. The first is this CB that kept on scoring goals from set pieces, 9 goals.
 

1. Andris Ribaks (ST)

... And the second is striker Ribaks who somehow bagged 16. Basically we really had no other route to goal other than Logins, Dubra and Ribaks which is quite concerning (and also amusing, given they're all crap), but hey, it worked.

[rodesire]

On 24/09/2020 at 00:20, noikeee said:

Meanwhile, at a slightly higher footballing level

 

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

[noikeee]

[rodesire]

not too early for that?

[noikeee]

2 hours ago, rodesire said:

not too early for that?

Idk, it was the board's choice (though I said yes). 

In a bigger nation you'd turn semipro at a much lower level than the 2nd tier, but I'm a bit lost here in Latvia, not sure how to compare each level.

For now all my players are still on amateur contracts, no professional contracts just yet. 

[rodesire]

yeah, my only worry is finances.  I would be surprised if there was enough money to have a pro team in Latvia without playing in Europe

[noikeee]

Not quite sure I follow the logic here...

@rodesire I've checked and the only fully pro teams in the country (at least at this stage of the save) are Ventspils and Riga FC. So I guess I need to climb one more division and start fighting for the title and qualifying for Europe, to turn pro.