- Me, last time.
So here are the new faces at Kolding IF...
A bit of experience never did any harm, especially when the man in question came free, and accepted an amateur contract to be a backup squad member. He will play, but he’s basically there to try and pass on some of those positive mental traits to our youngsters.
Another freebie backup player, this time signed primarily as he’s comfortable with the ball on his left foot. He was an early signing, and frankly a bit of a panic ‘buy’ before I found my way around the player search a bit better. He’s not the best, but he’ll provide depth in a pinch.
Despite his lack of Concentration, which I hope and fervently pray won’t come back to haunt us, he was the only realistic transfer who came with a “sign at all costs” rating from our new scout. I’m looking to reverse our back line this seasons, moving from one Central Defender and two Limited Defenders, to the other way around. Dedovic looks good for the latter role, sat in the middle of the three, and possibly on a stopper duty.
Yes, it’s another Central Defender. You can tell which area I was most concerned with; with Allgreen packing it in, and Letort having failed to impress last season, I was keen to have plenty of options. Again he’s a free backup option, with the mental traits to prop up the poor technicals... I hope.
Our club-record signing, at a whopping £3.5k (and I had to cede a chunk of our salary budget to get all of that). He had a great season for Marienlyst last season, including orchestrating ‘that’ 3-2 win over us (you know, *that* one). They utilised him as a wide midfielder, but he can play anywhere through the central midfield column too. I see him as our Deep Lying Playmaker (at DM), and an option in one of the central midfield roles too.
Notice anything about the above bunch? Yep, that combination of Work Rate and Determination I was looking for isn’t exactly a common theme throughout. It sucks, but I really was running around trying to do quick deals for players who generally got the nod from our scout. With the low level of our scouting pool knowledge the ‘fog of war’ was so great that trying to nail down those key traits was nigh-on-impossible.
There were other arrivals too, but all in the youth ranks. I’ll introduce them if and when the time comes.
We also bolstered our numbers on the coaching front, although our stature is a limitation there once again. At least we could adopt a quantity over quality approach though, and improve our star-ratings by removing the amount of doubling- and tripling-up by the staff.
EARLY FORM, MIXED.
I was actually reasonably confident about the season ahead, once we got a chance to settle and integrate the new boys. That confidence was dented somewhat when, in our debut, we battled our way through to the 82nd minute at 0-0 and then missed a golden opportunity to score – only for our opponents to run straight down the other end and nick it.
The second game was better, and a late Justice John goal nicked a point in Horsens. Our confidence levels were still on the low side, but it was a step in the right direction – and then we get a gift, in fact two.
One of the formations that we tend to do well against is a 4-2-3-1, at least we do if our defence holds up. With Justice John playing as our Complete Forward, and with his PPM of ‘Moves into Channels’ combined with his tendency to dribble out wide too, we can easily overload an isolated defence. Like this...
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| Ignore our apparent issue with two defenders sitting close. #5 switched from DC-R to DC-C at half time. |
To be fair it started with a huge slice of luck when, for once, it was us who benefited from some comedy defending.
But even then, after quickly doubling the lead, we were pegged back by the opening minutes of the second half. The problem for AB was that they simply couldn’t contain John and his frequent forays into the right channel - or even out onto the wing. How he finished the game without an assist is beyond me, the AB keeper turning on the style to save three or four close range efforts off John’s crosses, but his movement wreaked havoc with their defence all round; his hat-trick was no less than he deserved.
GENERAL FORM
When you have a great season, and storm to promotion, it’s easy to fall into the trap of expecting that to continue – even moreso after you record a 6-2 win in just your third game in the new league. When momentum does drop, inevitably, it’s important not to overreact. Much like the need to sometimes hold your nerve in a slump, I’d argue that it’s also important to give yourselves 8-10 games in your new league before taking a measured look at your overall performance – it’ll give you a much better view than focussing on the odd peaks and troughs.
In the Danish NordicBet Ligaen that puts you in an interesting position. It’s a 12-team league, with each side playing the others three times for a total of thirty-three fixtures. What makes it interesting is that the schedule is split into three ‘periods’ of 11 games, and some prize money is assigned for league positions at the end of each of those periods.
After the demolition of AB we put together two more wins (league and cup) before suffering a couple of defeats, but patience and a consistent approach was rewarded with another decent run of 9 points in five league games (and another cup success). That saw us into 6th place at the end of Period One.
Frankly it’s a brilliant overall performance, yet it would’ve been far too easy to look at ‘all’ of those draws and defeats and feel the need to shake things up. Eleven games is barely enough for the squad to settle, particularly with the new faces, and I’m reassured that we’re in good shape to comfortably avoid relegation – bettering the Board’s target of ‘battling bravely’.
SECONDS AWAY, ROUND TWO
No sooner was the prize money awarded (a very welcome £112k+) than we were straight into the second period, but we went to Vejle without an injured Morten Friis – out for 12 weeks with a training-ground injury. We grab a score draw, but then embark on a run of three games where we fail to find the net – primarily as we also lose Justice John a fortnight later.
The loss of both primary strikers highlights how little real depth we have up front. Petersen has scored only one competitive goal in the campaign so far, from the penalty spot, and Ro Ingemann hasn’t scored all season; the youngster eventually breaks his duck, and our barren spell, in the cup but we still lose in extra time.
Both of or main men return in time for the next league tie, and we go on a good run into the massive Danish winter break. It’s a great time to turn our form around, I would’ve hated to go into a four-month layoff with morale where it was four games earlier. But...
The striker situation is firmly at the front of my mind, and we need to look at one or both of a couple things. Either we need to find a third high quality striker, or I need to spend some time over the break working on viable alternative tactic that is less reliant on a pair of front men.
Looking at the stats even Friis has been light on contributions following our step-up, and we’re clearly leaning very heavily on Justice John. Neither of the pair have yet signed paying contracts, citing the lack of squad quality as their reason for reluctance, and with the possibility that we could lose one or both in the impending window I really do need options.
SO WHICH DIRECTION DO WE TAKE?
I’ve always been intrigued by the ‘Strikerless’ idea, very actively championed by @MerryGuido and our squad does have plenty of players in the midfield areas, as a bonus Justice John would excel in that sort of tactic, but I’m not sure that I can bring myself to go that far – at least not at this early stage in my FM15 career save.
I do like the idea of a formation that sits deeper than our 5-3-2 though, and tries to disrupt the opposition defence by drawing them out. Something like that would also offer a significant contrast to the approach of our ‘main’ tactic. So we’re back to the process of trying to think through how we’d want the side to play and how we go about building that, and also working out how to bring that into play mid-season.
Confession time. I had a whole piece here about a new tactical idea, a second formation that was focussed less on strikers, however all I did was create it and stick it on the tactics board. We never used it.
Furthermore, with our guys fit again, I kept playing and playing and before you know it the season was over. I’ll come back to the idea again, probably at a different club (or in a different save), but I’m mindful of getting to a position where the blog is more than a season behind the save – and the Tweets I’ve been dropping about our results.
Away from the tactical side though, I did add a fresh option as our third-choice striker...
MORE NEW FACES
Already better rated than any of our backup strikers, and with plenty of development potential, I was quickly sold on Faaborg. Work Rate, combined with a great (for us) First Touch and Technique. There's even a fair helping of Pace about the lad too.
Whilst looking for strikers I also stumbled across this potential gem. A free signing, and wages of £200/week. Not only does he have Central Winger written all over him, but also has a ton of versatility to play elsewhere – for instance as the wide playmaker in the Counter Attacking shape that I'd been considering.
Although my previous signings at Kolding have been very focussed so far, in building a core spine to the squad, I’m a big fan of versatility once I start to look at improving on that core. I’ll tend to keep a player in one familiar position and/or role, but the ability to move someone like Eriksen around to cover gaps in several different positions made him too good to pass up on.
NEW FACES ARE ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT...
I’ve mentioned before the idea of standing by your
convictions, when you know you’ve got a solid tactical base; I’ve also
mentioned the importance of morale and momentum. The third big thing for me, if
you’re looking to overachieve, is squad consistency. Sure you can throw money
at things, and keep buying and buying, but there’s a lot to be said for having
a core of players that make up the majority of your first team squad.
@FoxInTheBoxFM has run an interesting save on YouTube, which
I’ve been following simply because of the core concept. He started with Crewe,
and self-imposed rules that restricted him to playing with academy graduates
along with a couple of loanees. After gaining promotions, from League One to
the Premiership, he showed remarkable form with a squad that comprised of
players who’d all featured in the side during their third-tier days and who’d
been a part of their rise. That says a lot about team unity and consistency.
At Kolding we brought in a lot of new faces of course, but a
lot of them as bit-part players, and even when I introduced Eriksen we were
still looking at a mostly familiar line-up with only one or two new faces
trying to fit in at any one time. It’s noteworthy that whilst Eriksen delivered
sporadically, the much lower-rated René Hansen would still appear regularly from
the bench and deliver great performances for us. Hansen is a player who has been a key part of
our setup from the start, again team unity and consistency.
AFTER THE BREAK
Coming out of the winter we seemed a little less impressive
than in the first half of the campaign, but importantly we showed incredible
spirit. For a run of five successive games we conceded first, before turning
over one- or two-goal deficits (in one case, twice) to secure either a draw or
a win.
That form was enough to propel us to 6th spot at
the end of Period 2 of the league, and set us up for an outside chance at
challenging for one of two promotion spots. Two defeats in the first ‘half’ of
the final period didn’t help our cause, but with two to play we’d battled our
way into fourth spot.
Given the circumstances this might well have been our result
of the season, twice coming from behind inside 25 minutes, before dominating
the second half and blowing our opponents away. That jumped us to second, as
you can see, and set up a grandstand finish.
A 2-1 away win at the league leaders rounded out the season,
again overturning a deficit to ensure promotion. Our ability to stick to the
task in hand, and grind out result after result where we’d trailed,
characterised the spring/summer league schedule for us.
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0-0 vs Svebølle marks the start of the post-winter schedule.
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It’s also worth noting the changes to my starting profile
since starting the save (two seasons ago).
Following the brilliant season it feels ‘wrong’ to start
looking at the job market, but as the intention was to have a ‘journeyman’ save
I do want to look around. Despite some interesting looking jobs, I got no bites
over the next few days, other than from teams who would play below us in
Denmark in the coming season – all I did was succeed in upsetting the Board, so
I settled down to look at renewing the squad ahead of our top-flight debut...
...in the 8 week period that the Danish league schedule allows.
CAREER HISTORY
2014/15 : Winner Danish 2.Divison Vest (Kolding IF)
2015/16 : Runner-Up NordicBet Ligaen (Kolding IF)
Thanks for reading and, as ever, feel free to drop a comment below on anything connected to the save and/or blog, or to hit me up on Twitter : @flipsix3_FM
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