A Brief History Of Time (In The Superliga)

INTO THE TOP FLIGHT

So far I’ve really not looked too hard at the Kolding Squad, partly because our amateur/semi-pro status meant that tweaking it has been a relatively easy job and partly because I harboured ideas of moving on quickly; Kolding IF just being a first rung on the ladder.

Eight weeks isn’t a lot of time to sort ourselves out for the top flight, and with no guarantee that my interest in jobs elsewhere will come to anything it would be seriously daft to not make plans.

STOP CLICKING THAT DAMN BUTTON

A bad habit that I’ve had in the past, and that I’m sure others will have shared at some point, is the ‘need’ to keep pressing continue. This can be particularly troublesome when looking at deals, I would put out feelers on two or three targets and then click away waiting to see the outcome. If they come to fruition then all well and good, but if not you’re suddenly a week nearer to the season kicking off and you’ve made no progress.

Much like the winter breaks, where I spent a lot of time going over our past performances, the key here is to focus on using your real time as opposed to game-time. There’s absolutely no pressure to press Continue until you’ve looked at everything that you need to, and set dozens of wheels in motion.

For me the big priority was a major squad review and overhaul. Similarly to last summer I set about looking at our formation and our key personnel. I wouldn’t go as far as to suggest that no-one was indispensible, but it was pretty obvious that some serious changes were required. Once again our small stature provides some security, as it’s likely that a lot of our young/backup players will be happy to stick around on amateur contracts for a while – just to be associated with the club. That’s my hope at least.

In the meantime I set about tying down the main architects of our success, all on very small salaries of course, and went through the U19 and Reserve squads and let go anyone at the very bottom end of the (perceived) Potential Ability scale. Sure we could keep them all but I really want to start to focus on developing a ‘first team’ at each level, a squad that can hopefully develop together and work their way up through the ranks.

Time to break out the old faithful ‘squad depth’ chart, with a view to creating a three-tier system for most positions. Although the Danish Superliga doesn’t have the same requirements for having Under 21s on the bench, we do have some exciting prospects on the books and it would be good to always have a couple on hand.

(Blue players are current U21 prospects)

GOALKEEPERS 

This is going to be a tough call to make, but we need to improve despite NICOLAJ CHRISTENSEN having been almost ever-present for our back-to-back promotion campaigns (I like typing that).

Having spent time looking back over goals conceded, once again, there are two areas that contribute a significant proportion. The first is still corners, although I’ve made a little tweak to our ‘defending’ routine to try and help. The other is an opponent receiving the ball around the edge of our area (or further out), without breaching our defensive line, and firing home from distance.

Christensen has nearly all of the required tools for the basic Goalkeeper role, but his ‘Command of Area’ is appalling (1) and his Decisions isn’t the best (10). MICHAEL GREEN isn’t a lot better, but he is better, and at 17 has plenty of potential still in him. With the right exposure to first team football he can come on leaps and bounds, especially if I can use our new top-flight status to bring in an experienced campaigner.

Ideally I’m either looking for a high quality starter, with the traits to tutor Green, or at a push someone to share duties with Christensen and maybe get Green out on loan. I do have another good youth prospect, in the form of KEVIN LAUTH, so I’ll definitely need one of them to go elsewhere for a season or two. Lauth looks to have the better personality traits for development, so my gut feeling is to get him farmed out.

Aside from those three current names, our other two youngsters are not long for the club.

Our limited scouting pool has mainly been tracking a few specific players this season, but we’ve also had a general look around Denmark. A few potential targets have been identified and given a quick once-over. I’ll get my scouts taking a closer look at a couple of them, but what I really want to do for the Keeper is track top-flight clubs letting go their experienced older names.

PLAN: Find an ‘old warhorse’ to play when needed, but primarily to tutor the younger talents. Send one of the teenagers out on loan.

CENTRAL DEFENCE

Whether or not I stick with the three-at-the-back approach it feels like we’re just about covered, but it’s a close thing. DENIS DEDOVIC and NICK ANDERSEN stack up fairly well although, as expected at this level, the mentals can be left wanting; Dedovic is particularly poor on Concentration (3) which, according to the coaching reports, is a key factor in his Marking game – hence the fact that I tend to employ him in the central DC slot where, against a pair of strikers, he’s likely to be the ‘spare man’.

Andersen is better, and a more seasoned campaigner, but isn’t the quickest – this could be an issue against top-flight forwards. He also rates poorly for big matches which could be a problem next season.

ANDREAS KRISTIANSEN tends to get the third slot based on his ability to play with either foot, making him more suited on the left of the trio. He’s a fairly average player though, and aside from his footedness (is that even a word?), there’s not a lot to separate him and our backup options; MARK JOHANSEN who is more likely to play in the DMC slot, JACOB THYCHOSEN – solid but aging (33) and slow, or NIELS LETORT who hasn’t progressed as we would have liked on the physical front.

JAN BACH (18), JOAKIM HANSEN (18), and CARSTEN MORTENSEN (15) all look excellent prospects. They all have areas that require significant development, but they also share a very high rating on the Potential Ability front. ERIK DAHL (19) is less promising, but would do in a pinch.

PLAN: We can cope, but a couple of interesting prospects are on my shortlist; one is a 6’6” giant playing in the third tier, who rates (based on what we know) as being better than any of our current first choices. I also wouldn’t turn my nose up if, like the Goalkeeper slot, we could find an experienced ‘leader’ for the defence.

FULLBACK/WINGBACK

We made good progress at left wingback, retraining SIMON SMIDT to play there to decent effect, but he is almost completely lacking in defensive qualities. RUNE NAUTRUP has also been deployed on the left quite often, but again he’s nothing special when we’re out of possession – he also tends to be our rotation option on the right.

JENS MÅRTENSEN has established himself on the right side, and has something of the defensive game about him. He has the quality to retain his spot, although he’s far from a star player.

We have no natural right-sided Wingbacks coming through the youth ranks, but 17-year-old LASSE JAKOBSEN is a very highly regarded Fullback prospect for either flank. KENNI BANG (19, top name!) can fill in on the left, but really isn’t much of a prospect. Beyond those two no-one fills me with optimism for the future.

PLAN: I’m doing some detailed scouting on a couple of options to strengthen the left side, and expect to make a signing before the new season starts. I’ll also prioritise the Wingback role (both sides) as an area for my scouts to focus on seeking out young talents for.

DEFENSIVE MIDFIELD

This guy tends to be our ‘pivot’ in the formation, and generally takes the form of a Deep Lying Playmaker. EMIL LA COUR has made that spot his own, and he can fulfil most roles. MARK JOHANSEN deputises when necessary, although he’s less of a creative option. If we’re really pushed one or two of our Central Midfielders could provide emergency cover.

Coming through the ranks is PETER OLESEN (16), who looks like he could develop into a useful option on the defensive side, but his base attributes look low to try and shape into a playmaker.

PLAN: Look for potential additions over time, but no real rush.

CENTRAL MIDFIELD

This is where things get interesting on a number of fronts. JAKOB ERIKSEN was a massive signing for us last season, although his form was a bit up and down. As a Central Winger he has pretty much all of the key attributes at a reasonable level.

SØREN ZACHARIASSEN has generally been favoured in the slightly more withdrawn midfield role; he rates slightly higher than RENÉ HANSEN, and has potential to develop further. Hansen doesn’t get rated as well in the coaching reports but he’s had two great seasons for us, generally in the Central Winger slot. The coaches put him down as nothing more than a useful option, and there are few stand-out attributes – although Flair and Work Rate are a useful combination, and both in the mid teens. There has to be something about his personality though, because he nearly always delivers.

Alongside MADS HAARBO – a 20-year-old central midfielder who has made a few substitute appearances – we have three very good looking prospects in the youth ranks, all of whom are identified as M/AM (C) operators. MADS FREDERIKSEN, LARS SERRITSLEV, and SIMON BACH (all 16) are all highly regarded. We’re going to struggle to fit them all in, so loan deals will need to be considered.

PLAN: Hansen may struggle at the next level up, but our starting pair shouldn’t be totally out of their depth. Blooding youngsters will be a target, along with getting at least one out on loan for regular first-team action. If a good upgrade option comes along I'll give it strong consideration.

STRIKERS

JUSTICE JOHN and MORTEN FRIIS are no-brainers, and I’m keen to see what they can do at the top table. JONAS FAABORG is already hard on their heels, and grabbed himself some key goals this season.

I’m feeling like SØREN PETERSEN has had his day, and I don’t see him featuring next season. RO INGEMANN is something of a forgotten man, but is our only real option as second backup – the youth ranks don’t impress me at all.

PLAN: Say ‘goodbye and good luck’ to Petersen, keep the scouts looking for future talents to bolster the youth ranks, and if a player with top-flight experience becomes available then make a judgement call.

ELSEWHERE

We have a couple of really strong youth prospects who are currently only capable of playing wide roles (M/AM, one left and one right). It would be foolish to let them go, but unless we have a change of shape we may have to look at some radical positional retraining. To do that we’re going to need a better coaching staff, I’m hopeful that our promotion will let me work towards that.



It’s worth remembering that everything above is purely “relative to our own squad”. I’m under no illusions that, for all of our heroics so far, we’re almost certainly about to get found out in a huge way. This could be one of the toughest seasons I’ve faced in any version of Football Manager and if I could have free rein to build a totally fresh squad I’m doubtful that more than 3 or 4 of our current crop would feature in it.

SO WHO DID WE TURN TO?

Following the review we made three signings, all from Ringkøbing IF. Unfortunately I didn’t grab screenshots at the time of their signing, but this is what they looked like at the end of the season.

Subsequently I also picked up this guy, in a further bid to push up our quality levels across the back three.

With league rules requiring a 25-man squad, with four players having to have trained at club for 3 years before their 21st birthdays, I had to make tough decisions. Ro Ingemann was dropped from the squad and let go – Smidt, our left wingback with whom Schultz would compete, can play up front in a pinch.

I also dropped Andreas Kristiansen as Reese looked a much stronger prospect in the DC-L slot.

VERY QUICK AND SIMPLE  

What follows is a fairly sparse update. Those of you who follow me on Twitter will be aware that I was starting to get itchy feet as this season progressed, but not so much in terms of wanting to move on within the save. 

I’m finding the game to be hard going at times, not in terms of performance and results (as should be obvious from what follows), but in terms of all the massive amount of ‘admin’ that you have to deal with when playing the ‘full-fat’ version of the game. 

I’ve mentioned the pressures of work (and personal health issues) before, those and the amount of time taken up dealing with off-field action, gradually started to see me leaning towards a desire to give the ‘Classic’ version of Football Manager 2015 a go. 

What follows, therefore, is a quick update on my ‘final’ season in Denmark. I’ve retained the save file, and may well return to it one day*, but it’ll be one hiatus for the time being. 

*Anyone who’s played Football Manager for any length of time will have uttered that phrase. In reality we all know it’s unlikely, but I can’t bring myself to delete the save file.

IN THE LEAGUE

Early progress was frustrating but, as has been the theme of this save, I was happy with our squad and tactic so I let things ride to stunning effect; the 4-0 defeat of Silkeborg was the beginning of a great run, topped only by the massive 5-3 away win at FC København.

We finished the first 11-game period in a brilliant 6th place, having gone undeafeated for 8 games, and pocketed a little over £1m in prize money. For a team with a weekly wage bill of around £5,500 that alone was enough to secure our financial status for some time.

The second period was an exercise in frustration, picking up just three wins and yet hanging on to 7th spot thanks to our early season form. Our 9 point cushion from the teams below was eroded as the difference in class started to show, and we had to ground our way through the back end of the campaign. By the closing weeks we were really struggling, and the end couldn’t come soon enough.

THE CUP

The Danish cup competition offered some light relief, and a series of kind draws saw us into the Quarter-Finals against a side who I fancied us to beat. Unfortunately the timing wasn’t great, with the tie coming on the back of the league defeat at AGF and whilst we were still working on getting our post-winter fitness levels back up. Randers would go on to life the trophy.

In my last update I talked about the importance of continuity in the way I’d been playing the save. Unfortunately, as you can see, that wasn’t as easy to do this time around – whilst Justice John started every competitive game that we played, there was a high degree of chopping and changing in some areas – partly driven by injuries, partly by form.

It's also obvious that, for large portions of the season, I lacked the conviction to stick to my plan of blooding the youngsters - I think that was a contributory factor to my waning interest - and it's entirely don to me.

Eriksen’s lack of output was a surprise given his qualities, and I should have had the courage to rotate him out more often. In reality none of our midfield excelled, although Jonas Hansen did contribute well, we just found it much harder to impose ourselves than in previous campaigns.

If I do pick this save up again, somewhere down the line, then a major overhaul will be in order - or a real determination to focus on developing youngsters, even if it means dropping out of the top flight.


I apologies if this update is somewhat anticlimactic, that’s how the season started to feel to me towards the last third or so. Hopefully my FMC save can reignite that excitement that I’ve had before, time will tell.



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