In Search Of Control

Time for another update, but also a quick apology for those who were enjoying my weekly updates. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you look at it) my recent promotion and new job role have eaten massively into my free time. I continue to play Football Manager, albeit on a much reduced level - I've maybe played four or five matches in the last calendar week - something I would often achieve in a single session previously, and I'd have three or four sessions in even a busy week.

I can't say that this will let up, but I will continue to write updates when I can, they'll just be longer in arriving. We'll see where things take us once FM15 is released too, although I'm thinking that I might arrive late to the party on that one.

Anyway, having made my excuses, let's dive in...

The 'Defensive' Arts

Last time out I talked a lot about my intention to incorporate @JLAspey's Defensive 4-1-2-2-1 formation into our tactical roster. Having strengthened the squad, and played through pre-season, I set out to get an early impression of how it would perform in a competitive environment; the fixtuire list gave me an ideal opportunity to do just that against two very different levels of opposition.

Here's the notes I made as I went along. I'll refer to Jonathon throughout - as in Jonathon Aspey...

Regaining Focus

Last time out I covered the beginning of the 2017/18 season at the Wildparkstadion, and the thinking I was doing around the question of a one or two striker system.

So  where did we go from there?

Expectations Exceeded, To Say The Least

Last time out you’ll recall that we’d reached the winter break in a lofty 3rd place, courtesy of one of the best scoring records in the league combined with a surprisingly effective defence – Ryan Donk making his mark in style.

Coming out of the break we’d suffered a league defeat, and then a DFB Pokal exit at the hands of FC Bayern, and I’d expressed concern that we were in danger of getting onto a bad run as we closed in on a trip to Dortmund. The slide, such as it was, was slowed by a goalless draw at home to Nürnberg but we made it four games without a win despite scoring twice against the title contenders.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, momentum – in either direction – plays a big part in FM and I was conscious that we were in danger of getting on the wrong side of the curve. Cue the visit of mid-table Köln and a game that couldn’t have gone much better...

One Season Ends, Another Begins

Last time out I posted a quick discussion of potential transfer targets, and had some great feedback (with very varied opinions) as to how you guys would approach the decisions that I was facing. So, whilst pondering which players to approach (and whether I could actually afford to offer any them deals) I played through our final four games for the season.

At the best of times it feel like the summer period flies by far too quick, but in this particular season - where I was still recovering from the disillusionment of the early campaign, that was even truer than usual. Here's how things rounded out in the 2015/16 campaign, and the flurry of activity that saw me playing pre-season friendlies, with new faces, before I knew it...

Promoted Too Soon?

** WARNING ** 

This update is a bit ‘all over the place’ – as was my head for much of the period covered herein. I can only apologise.

Based on the table for the previous two Bundesliga seasons, I set myself a points target of 36 for survival, a tally that would’ve seen us stay up by a country mile last season, although would only have been enough for a relegation playoff spot in 2013/14. So, with a 34 game season, that’s a little over a point per game on average.

That was my only goal, and after three defeats in three games I wasn’t exactly full of confidence...

...particularly as we were to play host to the Hispter’s dream-team of Borussia Dortmund next.

KSC : Season 2014/15 Finishes

Last time out I was talking about our pseudo-4231 formation, using a tweak on the Central Winger concept developed by JLAspey, and I left you with some detail around the superb performance against Aalen. 

After the Aalen game we continued our fine post-break form with three more wins (conceding just twice in the process), before a 1-1 draw at home to Sandhausen reined us in slightly.

Introducing the Three Amigos

Early season saw us off to a great start, despite suffering a run of injuries that included losing Yabo and Mast for a couple of months each. We hit the ground running with two league wins, followed by a DFB-Pokal victory over local minnows Saarbrücken which featured a brilliant performance from young Jimmy Marton (1 Goal, 2 Assists). The latter would earn us an away tie against Borussia Dortmund in the next round.