The mid-season break was spent mostly wrapping up contract renewals, where I wanted to keep someone on, and trying to arrange a couple of Bosman deals. The challenge that’s starting to emerge is keeping things on a tight budget. We currently have only two players earning more than £29k per week, as a baseline salary, but with every sign that we’re set to establish ourselves at the top end of the Bundesliga in the long term players and agents are starting to push the boundaries.
Deals were done with all of those backroom staff that I wanted to retain, along with the brighter stars in our youth sides. The senior side proved a little more challenging though, and talks broke down with Alfred N’Diaye who was holding out for a 100% pay rise and a ‘Key Player’ role.
As a rule I try to be as ruthless as possible, either negotiating hard and getting to around where I want to be, or just walking away. My one exception this winter was Jimmy Marton, who I wanted to get onto a new 2-year deal with an extension option. Ultimately I was faced with the choice of walking away, or giving in to his requests for a 4-year contract – I ended up going with the latter, still convinced that he’s going to suddenly bloom. Maybe he will, particularly as our improved facilities come online, but I can’t help feeling that I’ve been suckered.
As things stand, in terms of first team players Lucas Bijker looks set to leave us in the summer, N’Diaye may do too, but we have a clause in his contract that will trigger a one-year extension after 15 league games. If I can thrash out a more realistic deal then I’d prefer to keep him for another couple of seasons, he’s been a solid if unspectacular performer, but with other options and youngsters coming through he’s never going to get the sort of deal he’s been demanding.
Bijker will be off, he’s just never lived up to the potential that was seen in him; despite turning in good performances, at times, when he does play. The wingback role is turning into a key one for us and we need to upgrade – Hasek is now firmly established as first choice, although Man Utd are allegedly interested, and I have others on my radar.
In terms of new faces I didn’t get very far with a couple of targets, again demands were being set based on our perceived status, but I was confident of snapping up this young Iranian international on a Bosman deal...
...until he accepted a new contract with Napoli at the eleventh hour. Never mind, such is the way of things, I’ll continue to monitor him.
Building Up To The Big Game
A bunch of friendly games later, and before we knew it we were back into league action with a couple of draws. One away, which was probably the more disappointing, and one at home to third placed Wolfsburg which felt like a decent point – particularly as Dortmund delivered FC Bayern’s second defeat of the campaign on the same day. Thankfully, ahead of our own meeting with the Champions, we had time to squeeze in a commanding 3-0 win over a struggling Düsseldorf side.
At the front end of the season I touched on how tough a game the Bayern trip was for us, although we did grind out a point using the narrow defensive formation. The issue with that approach is that it’s specifically designed to push our opposition out to the flanks; all well and good unless you’re looking at a scout report like this in terms of the source of goals...
On the basis of this, for the home tie, I was disinclined to take the same approach, although I have become a big fan of the way we build up attacking play through the middle. Instead I went with our 4-3-2-1 to try and keep Bayern’s fullbacks deep – cutting off some of the supply for their wide men. Unfortunately, despite making plenty of chances for ourselves, Bayern’s quality really did show through and we were consigned to just our second league defeat of the season.
What followed was just as remarkable as the first half of the campaign, whilst we went out of the cup (Bayern again beating us) and the Champions League (1-3 over two legs against Manchester United) we strung together a run seven undefeated games in the league. With Dortmund still running hot and cold, and things looking very tight at the top, April 6th delivered this set of results.
From that point on we dropped just two points, away at Dortmund who had already been consigned to no better than a third place finish. Bayern, still battling on three fronts, kept up the pressure but also ‘suffered’ a further draw on the road.
Going into the final day we were level on points, but Bayern held a +4 advantage on goal difference. Setting up for the big finish, I was surprised to see that the Bundesliga (in FM14, at least) does not enforce simultaneous kick-offs across the league. I wasn’t too bothered by that, as it removed the stress of monitoring and reacting to score-lines elsewhere – I was entirely expecting a second place finish anyway, with leapfrogging Dortmund being a big enough achievement.
When we beat Werder Bremen 2-0 I still refused to get too excited, despite it meaning that Bayern had to win to retain their title. They were playing at home anyway, albeit against Leverkusen. I briefly considered watching their game ‘live’, but it’s not something I usually do so I bit the bullet and pressed the ‘Continue’ button – to be greeted by the sight of Leverkusen cementing themselves as my second favourite team, beating Bayern 1-0 and handing us the title.
Before I go any further I have to give big thanks to @JLAspey, once again, for the tactical inspiration. This graphic will show the strength of his formation (4-1DM-2-2-1), although my modified 4-2-3-1 (shown as 4-1DM-1-3-1) actually produced the significantly better goal output; those stats don’t adjust for quality of opposition, of course.
In terms of the usual post-season stats, here are the main details...
... Mitrovic came good in the end, on his return from a leave of absence; he operated in a variety of different striker roles throughout the campaign. Having spoken to Jonathon since the end of the season, he’s of the opinion that the Target Man role may well be the better option at the head of his formation – something to consider next season, as I would expect the Serbian to be capable of excelling in that role.
Dorian Rotariu is also worth a nod, particularly as he played most of his games for us in one of the AMC slots. For a first stint those are pretty impressive stats for a young player arriving in a new country and adapting to a new tactical role.
So, with it seeming like only a matter of days since I last did so, time to review our squad depth once again, and to start planning for this Summer’s strengthening of the playing roster. Given the variety of formations and roles that we now employ I approached it somewhat differently to normal, looking at each player in respect of their importance to each of our core tactics – assigning 3 points to an essential role in each formation, 2 for a good rotation option, 1 point per formation where the player could slot in as a backup, and 0 points where the player was unlikely to play any role at all.
Only current senior players were considered at this time, although we do continue to promote youngsters from our U19 ranks to the second team. Once again I find myself frustrated that I didn’t load any custom leagues before starting this save – meaning that our Karlsruher SC II side play no competitive football. I’ve been trying to arrange an affiliate program, to given us a feeder club at a reasonable level, but I’ve had no joy from the board yet; next season will see me continue my habit of arranging 4 or 5 friendly games every month for our second team.
The outcome was quite interesting, and it probably indicates that the method could use some refinement – for instance Malanda only rates as a ‘5’ (two good rotation options and a backup) but he’s often been in the starting XI. His versatility means that I should probably be considering a system that takes a similar approach but rates the player against every position in each formation; that way the Belgian would be rated higher as he can fulfil multiple roles in each of our tactics.
As it stands I consider anyone rated ‘6’ and above as someone I want to hold onto. Below a six and I would have no issue in the player leaving, Malanda being the exception. Those into ratings of 1, 2, or 3 can potentially be actively encouraged to move on. I’m having to shut out my sentimental side when saying that and looking at Ilian Micanski’s name.
Aside from Malanda, Jimmy Marton is the other notable figure in there. Once again he’s suffered from dropping out of regular contention as we’ve gone with one up front and, often, with no Inside Forward – the role I was retraining him for; I’ve now switched over to Shadow Striker which we use more. His season has been OK, but already he’s approached me about going out on loan next time around – something I’m very tempted to try, assuming we can find an interested club.
Here’s how he and his fellow amigos look at the end of the season.
THE THREE AMIGOS
The lack of real progress with Jimmy is sad, although there have been some nice steady increases – particularly in the Mental and Physical sides of his profile. If I can find a season-long loan deal, preferably somewhere around the second tier, then I’d hope it’ll do wonders for him. If not, then it may be time to cut our losses this time next year.
Hasek is coming on in leaps and bounds, with regular starts for the senior side being a big factor. His physicals look great for a wingback, and I’m happy with his Mental traits as well – although a little Flair wouldn’t go amiss. I’ll be alternating focussed and general training to try and improve his Dribbling, I could look at Crossing as well but it’s not a big part of the way we play.
It’s early days for Rüdiger Braun as yet, but the impact of his tutoring can already be seen in the Mental column. I’m expecting him to see plenty of first team football next season.
STRENGTHENING
On the bright side it doesn’t feel like we have any particularly weak areas that are in desperate need of shoring-up, assuming we hold onto all of our players of course. That’s not to say that I’m not looking to strengthen though. There are no big talents about to graduate from the U19s this season, but it won’t be long – in the meantime I’m monitoring a couple of other youngsters, including a couple of BIG centre backs with bags of potential. When I say big, I’m talking about teenagers in the 6’5”-6’7” range –with the right development they could become valuable assets for us if we continue to try and push our opponents into wide positions, forcing them to play a crossing game.
Of course we’re looking at another tough battle next year, to try and defend our title (or at least cement our place in the top three), and to kick on in Europe. Should a truly top class player become available then there’s every chance I’ll be looking to make a move, I’ll update on transfer news before the new season kicks off of course.
In the meantime drop a Comment if there's anything you feel like saying, or catch up with me on Twitter at @flipsix3_FM. Cheers.
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