I’d already mentioned on Twitter that I was in two minds
about promotion, on the one hand we have a handful of quality players, and a
number of decent prospects, but on the other I just don’t think that we have
the strength in depth to even battle for survival in the top flight. Of course I said that at Strasbourg too, where we promptly had a
good run at European qualification two seasons running, but that was after I’d
spent two or three years moulding my squad.
Realistically I was looking at this
season at Kalrsruhe being one of finding my feet, and preparing to build a
squad for a promotion push next time around.
We’ve got a number of ‘lesser lights’ whose contracts are up
in the summer, which should clear out the wage structure even further, and I
received a nice boost to the coffers by way of a staged payment on a player who
was sold on prior to my appointment. Our youth intake for the spring provided
some decent prospects, although no potential stars – and of course
they’re not able to play for the senior side until they hit 17 years of age in
Germany.
All that being said, after our progress so far pride was
always going to be at stake as we were very definitely in the running for a
promotion or play-off spot. Unfortunately, after the stalemate encounter with
Union Berlin, things went a little pear-shaped in an end-to-end affair at
Bielefeld; a 4-2 defeat left us still in 3rd but only just, with
Kaiserslautern – our next opponents – breathing down our necks.
A spirited performance, shaping up in a 4-2-3-1 against their double DM formation, gave us the points and left us seven clear of 4th spot; just a point behind Köln in second, although they held a game in hand. They promptly won that, opening the gap to four, with our next game being against them and there 4-1DM-2-2-1 formation; time to assess, once again, if it’s the Defensive Midfielder position that causes issues for us in creating chances.
A narrow defeat, 2-1 in the end, and no signs of the DM
causing us any similar difficulties to those encountered when playing the same
4-4-2 I'd deployed against Union Berlin. Given that we were missing Mauersberger through
illness it wasn’t a bad result, the bigger concern was losing Klingmann in the
process – four games to play and two first-choice defenders out of contention
for at least two of them, maybe more.
By no means do I feel like I've 'solved' the DM riddle, rather I remain convinced that the Role played by the player in that slot may be a big factor. It's an area I plan to return to in a future update.
THE FINAL PUSH
Here’s the table with four to play, and our opponents noted
for those final four games...
Not a horrible run by any stretch of the imagination, but
I’d really like to get something out of one of the first two games, rather than
relying on 4 to 6 points from the closing pair.
Elsewhere Köln could do us a favour by beating Dresden, but with their three other games being sides in the bottom six I didn’t see any way of us catching them. As for Dresden, as well as the 2nd placed side, their remaining five fixtures also featured the 5th, 6th and 9th placed sides. All things considered I was putting my money on a play-off spot, particularly after Bielefeld did us a favour in beating Dresden during their game in hand.
A tight win over Frankfurt kept us 7 clear of Dresden with
three to play, and the knowledge that a single win would cement to slot for us.
Two goals from Ilian Micanski (17 for the campaign) and a first of the season
from Reinhold Yabo saw us come back from two down to beat 1860 München and
secure that playoff spot with two to spare.
So with two games to go and facing a two-legged playoff, with Werder Bremen our likely opponents, I tried to make sure that all of our
key players got a rest for the big one – not that we have heaps of players
knocking on the door for senior starts.
A draw and a win were a reasonable return for those last two matches, and even if we’d taken the full six points we wouldn’t have caught Köln. All that remained then, was two matches against the 16th placed side from the Bundesliga – a Borussia Mönchengladbach team who had rounded off their season with only one win in eight, and only three goals in that time. Any misgivings I might have about our squad’s ability to cope with a top flight survival battle would be well and truly tested – whether we went up or not.
For a while we had hope, despite going two down inside 20
minutes and realising that we were facing up against one Marc-André ter Stegen
in goal; a counter-attacking away goal put is firmly back in the tie until, with 10 minutes to play, Mauersberger was carried off the pitch after we’d
used all three subs. Cue optimistic rearranging, and a late goal for our hosts,
and cue worrying as we were down to one recognised central defender for the
return fixture.
With nothing to lose there seemed little point in not going all
out for the return fixture, defensive concerns aside. We needed two goals
whatever happened, and I wasn’t expecting us to keep a clean sheet, so we
set out to simply (try to) keep scoring.
The lads worked extremely hard, and I was especially impressed with Kempe as a stand-in centre half, but when Gladbach cancelled out our away-goal advantage in the 84th minute I accepted that it wasn’t to be. A late consolation from Hennings was nice, as he’d been struggling to find the net for several weeks, but we never looked like scoring another – much less two.
On reflection, it was an excellent season, and hopefully now
I get to go away and clear out a bunch of second-stringers whilst bringing in
three or four strong players to really give us the impetus to build on this
campaign.
NO TIME TO REST, THERE'S BUILDING TO BE DONE
Realistically there are going to be a few places up for
grabs next season, and the reports back on our outward loans were promising.
Based on this season’s performances, the coaching staff’s
opinions of potential development, and those players returning from loan I
rattled off a quick squad-depth chart – it features only players who I consider
to be safe bets for regular appearances next time around (Black text), and
those who are either definite backups for those slots, or likely contenders
unless we can strengthen (Blue).
Looking at that there are a few question marks to be
resolved, and a couple of things you may notice:
(1) First is the reference to V’Tini, a name that won’t mean
anything. During the season my scouts came across this guy, who I have arriving
on a Bosman...
(2) Whilst Torres could be a regular, he missed a chunk of this
season whilst I (mistakenly) persevered with Krebs and never fully proved
himself. He’s kind of hovering between ‘nailed on’ and ‘likely’ – and it could
be that he’ll play a lot more than is indicated here – that all depends what
happens with Mr Dulleck (see further down).
(3) At left-back we’re losing Vitzthum, who has ultimately been
uninspiring, that position is a high priority with a real lack of strength in
any of our options. We need backup at DR as well, and a second option for backup
at DC (although I’m working on that one, keep watching).
(4) Krebs and Nazarov don’t feature – the former has failed to
live up to expectations, and the latter hasn’t really had the chance but I
don’t see that changing. I’m looking to try and make some small amount of fee
off each of them.
(5) The ‘big’ issue is the absence of Rouwen Hennings on that
chart, especially after 6 goals and 6 assists this season, the reasoning there
is the same a for the question mark next to Dulleck. The problem is that their contracts are up; in the
case of Hennings he refuses to accept any offer that is less than a Key Player
status. His wage demands are on the high side too, certainly for someone who’d
be third choice, and whilst I’m prepared to start to improve the deals for our
key players (Valentini is coming in as our top paid player) I can’t meet
Hennings’ demands without a massive overhaul for a lot of other players too.
On that basis I don’t see us coming to an agreement, unless
I can maybe convince him to sack his agent; Dulleck is in similar territory,
his demands are lower but still far too high for someone who would play a
backup role – most likely as fourth choice striker.
So, the shopping list consists of a left fullback, cover for
both left and right fullbacks (although we can cover in a real pinch), cover at
the centre of defence (hopefully sorted).
That would effectively give me two players for every
position, as I can see Valentini acting as backup for the strikers if Dulleck
goes, and I think that we ought to be able to have another push at promotion
with that.
Meanwhile the powers that be signed us up to a partnership deal with
Hoffenheim, which should see an opportunity for us to get our hands on some
decent loan players to swell our ranks.
NEW FACES FOR A NEW SEASON
I got the new faces I wanted, with a slight tweak – Klingmann being relegated to second choice at right fullback, although his replacement can double up for cover on the left. Between the three of them I've therefore got two options on each side.
I also caved in a little, when looking for backup at the DC slot, and looked to a familiar name. He was fully scouted first, and based on my experiences with him at Strasbourg I’m confident that he’ll develop into a contender for me again.
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| 'Jack' is Back! |
The first two didn’t come cheap, in terms of wages, but with £20k already spare in the budget, and another £9k or so dropping out with departed players, I should have room to offer something to two or three of our current key men who are now out of kilter with the overall pay structure. I’ve also not used a great deal of my £2m ‘war chest’ so can balance some of that off against wages at a push.
I won’t pretend that I’m not a little wary of the impact the two new fullbacks have had on the wage structure though.
Unfortunately I did lose Dulleck during the contract renegotiations, as he ultimately refused to accept reasonable terms – instead demanding a 400% pay rise and a Key Player role. However in terms of the depth chart I can push Valentini up to cover when necessary, leaving Torres out wide with Jung-Bin as the option.
TACTICALLY SPEAKING
For the new campaign, where I intend to have a damn good go at getting us into the big league, I'll be adopting three tactical shapes to try and give us a a nice varied base to work from.
First up I'll be maintaining the Direct 4-4-2 that served us so well through this campaign, although I may start to look at dropping the 'More Direct Passing' shout and leave the players to mix it up a bit. It's still the shape that plays best to the strengths of our strike partnership.
I'll definitely be training up a 4-2-3-1 with which to further my experiments at breaking down defensive midfielders. Expect to see more on that in a future update.
Finally I'll be bringing back the solid 4-1-4-1 that I featured with Strasbourg, which feels like it would help us with some of those tougher (away) games where we should be prioritising trying to keep a clean (or only slightly soiled) sheet. Even when we went into the top flight in France, we had one of the best defensive records in the league.
There we go then, that's the plan for next season assuming that we don't get teams sniffing around our top performers. Time to plough through pre-season and get the boys pumped up for a promotion push.
I hope that folks are continuing to enjoy this. I'm trying to find the right balance between the novice tactical analysis that I set out to develop, and the story-teller in me that wants to add dramatic flourishes and narrative. As usual any feedback is always welcome, whether it be on my tactics, my writing, or whatever else. Feel free to speak your mind.
flipsix3 (Dave Solomon)
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