The Raise of RB Leipzig

I did a season with RB Leipzig on FM14 but stopped it has their philosophy of possession football did not agree with me however on FM15 they want attacking football which is something I can deliver. Their squad is open to be rebuilt in the summer has there are some older players that are not good enough for the 1.Bundesliga if we get promotion.


I was not able to feild a full strength side for any of the games so the players could get use to my tactics which will now take longer for them to gel. This will probably take a few games of the regular season for them to get upto speed. Daniel Frahn is my leading goal scorer despite being my 2nd choice striker behind Damari. I would like to see Damari to score on a more regular basis in the 2nd half of the season.


The relegation battle could be close has the teams could drag others into the fight for survival. The fight for the 2nd place covers 10 teams at the moment with 7points separating them which is not alot when teams could beat eachother.

DFB-Pokal

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 1 is about the smaller clubs taking on the bigger clubs. FC Bayern v Wolfsberg should have been the game of Round 2 but only got interesting when it went to penalties. Round 3 sees Dortmund v Werder Bremen which should be the game of the round.

I will not be adding new players to the squad this season however I will rebuilding both the playing sqaud and the backroom staff has there are a lot deadwood in both areas.

Good luck

Thanks Johno.

I have finished the season and here is the update.


Towards of the end of the winter break I managed to fit in 2 friendlies so the players had shake of any any rust built up over the break. The important thing is that we build up the momentum we had going into the winter break. Kaiserslautern were the only team to beat us in the league. Damari started to score on a more regular basis which led to score 23 league goals and become the club’s top scorer.


The remaining automatic promotion place and the 3rd playoff place went to the final game to decide who would finish in those places. Ingolstadt needed a miracle on the final weekend to escape the regelation playoff. 2.Bundesliga is a very competitive league where every team could beat each other on any game day.


We had a good run in the DFB-Pokal and nearly made in to the semi finals which is not too bad for a 2.Bundesliga team. We have se the bar for the 2015/16 season where we should be aiming to repeat this or go one round further.

New Players


Bjorn Jopek was signed Union Berlin for £3m. He has the potential and room for growth to become a decent 1.Bundesliga winger. He faces a difficult challenge of keeping Forsberg out of the line up.


Kyle Bartley signed on a precontract agreement from Swansea in June. He should be a good solid defender and form a partnership with Kalas after Compper leaves.


Tomas Kalas signed for £2.3m from Chelsea.

I cannot believe I got Kalas on the cheap. He should develop into a top class defender.

I have signed a few more players while writing this post and have completed the preseason also started the 2015/16 1.Bundesliga season. I have the club record for signings of spending £15.5m. It is proving to be expensive for Leipzig but it is necessary to get the right sort of player into the squad so the club has a good chance of staying up.

Cristian Bonilla will be joining the club on 1/1/16 from Atletico Nacional for £450k. He will be my first choice keeper when he arrives. This is not the first time I have had him in my squad, I signed him for Seattle Sounders on my attempted Pentagon Challenge.


Edgar Ie joins from Bacelona B team for £800k. He has the potential to be a top class central defender. Barcelona could have got a lot more than £E800k for him and hopefully he can prove to be the best buy of the decade.


Marvin Plattenhardt signed £2.5m from Heartha Berlin SC. He is going provide very good competition for Jung for the left back position. He is a perfect fit for my formation and tactics.


Panaglotis Tachtsidis was a free transfer after being released by Genoa. He is going fit in well with Khedira and Demme has they are all the same type of midfielder. I first came across him on Champ Manager 2010 when he has 18yr old wonder kid with decent stats to make him a starter at his age.


Pavel Mogilevets joins us from Zenit St. Petersburg. He is a different type of midfielder to the other three. I hope can he complement the other three when selected.


This preseason was hectic with lots of friendlies to gel all the players. The games against Rangers, Milan and Roma were to give to me an indication of where the club is likely to be in the Bundesliga also highlight areas of weakness within the squad. Denis Thomalla looks to have increased his chances getting selected for the starting eleven no harm at all but he has to pass Damari and Frahn.


The 4-0 win over Hannover was our biggest win in the Bundesliga and it shows that Damari can play at this level. I replaced Coltorti with Dahne and I was proved right has Dahne did not concede a goal. I will be giving him a run of 6 games and then I will see who has the better stats. The Wolfsburg game was the first time Thomalla has started a game and what a way to start with hat-trick in just over 20 minutes.It shows that Thomalla can be a goal scorer at this level also push Damari and Frahn for their places. We were unbeaten for near;y 4 months before a losing a close against FC Bayern. Damari and Thomalla can be goo strikers at this level however Frahn has been struggling to find the back of the net which will harm his chances of getting a contract extension. It seems that Kalas and Plattenhardt have had a positive impact on the back four has we have not conceded as many goals I thought we would.


I thought we would be somewhere between 10th and 15th at this point of the season but to be 5 points behind FC Bayern is beyond believe. Werder Bremen are paying the price for not adding to their squad in the summer and they need to do so in January if they stand any chance of staying in the Bundesliga. Hannover, Frieburg, Dusseldorf and Bremen have 17 games to secure their place in the Bundesliga. Dortmund have recovered nicely after a poor start while Wolfsburg have fallen away after a good start which them near the top of the table.

DFB-Pokal

Round 1


Round 2


Round 3

Hamburg SV are having a good run despite a poor season in the league and caused an upset by knocking out FC Bayern.

I am hoping to get rid of few players in January while looking at getting players on pre-contract agreements or buy them with a loan back clause.