Patrick Herrmanns Hermits (A Gladbach Story)

This story begins with an unlikely turn of events, I began with Sevilla, they had a good team, consistency was an issue I will not lie, but I was getting moderate success untill one day after a 4-0 defeat against At. Madrid I got the sack, so that was in like January, there was one job available, The Gladbach one, and the rest is history, They approached the ever growing reputation manager Oliver Travers, to replace their previous manager, Lucien Favre, who had gone to Dortmund (I'm not sure who Klopp joined) I was looking forward to a challenge, the team overachieving in 5th surprisingly as their star player (we all know) Marko Reus had joined Dortmund in the summer, so yeah I had a team full of quality players, most of who we're up and coming which made it even better, so now all we needed were the results to match the team. Already I noticed we we're lacking in a ball winning midfielder (which is how I like to play) We had a lot of attacking mids and wingers but we didn't have any depth in the defensive midfielder department, all we had was the ever present Havard Nordveit. I immediately agreed to get a guy called Carlos Sanchez on a free for the summer (we didn't have a lot of money anyway, our wage budget was pretty poor indeed) Then we finished the season in 11th, which when you compare the fact that we we're in 5th when I took over is pretty bad but still we did pretty good in the ECL getting knocked out at the last 16 against Juve on away goals (1-1 first leg at home, 0-0 2nd leg away) which when you look at those results is pretty harsh lets be honest.

In the summer I signed Ryan Donk for 3.3 million from Club Brugge, I then signed Manu Del Moral, for 1.1 million from Sevilla, a bit of a gamble but Juan Arango was reportedly getting past his peak and I needed to find someone who could be versatile and had good pace, then as soon as I made Ter Stegen the captain for the season, I found out he was injured for 3-4 months with knee tendonitis, I immediately knew, that due to the fact we couldn't survive without a quality goalkeeper I signed a guy called Lars Unnerstall on a loan from FC Schalke, till the end of the season. I'm going to be completely honest here, we probably wont keep Ter Stegen for long realisticly, and if Unnerstall continues to perform the way he has in his opening 6 games then he will be a good replacement choice in the near future, or I may sign him as a rotation policy player, as I must admit I am very impressed with his good form already, and Ter Stegen had a few shocking games last season (In one he got a 3.7 and I had to sub him off at half time, when i fined him 2 weeks he wasn't happy which I find odd). I will upload some screenshots in the near future, I would now but my steam isn't responding to me so I will just have to leave it.

Interesting beginning, Im going to follow. Screenshots always add to the atmosphere of a story

As I post this I am nearly halfway through 2013-14 season, I'm nearly in December now and I have had a generally mixed season, we're in 9th, many players have performed well but the league table is very tight as there isn't many points between higher positions. Below is the league table



As you can probably see there isn't much room between many spaces, like even though some players in our team have performed really well this season, I still can't seem to get the consistency in terms of results and pushing them up the league table, generally I would love to aim for about 5th place, I know the board are already happy with my respectable mid table position, but really in the long run who in the heck wants to finish there unless you don't have much money or just promoted etc.

Here I will show the transfers I performed at the beginning of the season :



A lot of my transfers have performed fairly well I must say, even though at the time I wasn't really sure how well they would actually end up performing. Donk has been solid alongside Dominguez as my new defensive duo, and Sanchez as become a good squad player as that was what we needed, Del Moral has been okay but I must admit I only signed him for the now, not the long term future, I need to get someone better in that left wing position. Plus then there is Unnerstall who has been very solid since I have signed him, he hasn't made any mistakes or had any bad games as of yet that I can remember, plus I'm put in a tough position as during the next month team captain Ter-Stegen is coming back from injury and I will have to play him again. Below are is my team at the moment, and my fixtures played at the moment.





We have failed to be that consistent this season as you can probably see in the fixture list, lately we have just recovered from a league losing/failing to win streak, and before in the season we we're just drawing games which is all well and good but you need to pick wins up in-between.

Below I will cut to the chase and just show all of my team sheets from all of my League and Cup Matches this season:



That was my first cup game away at Munster, and first game of the season, we thrashed them and controlled the match quite comfortably, though I knew there was still a lot of work ahead especially in the league. It was also a good game for Del Moral as he made his debut and scored a well deserved hat trick and won man of the match aswell.



Here we beat Dusseldorf 3-0, a very solid start to the season and De Jong proving to me why he is the best striker at the club as he also won man of the match.



Now this was the result that brought us back down to earth after our first two wins, It's fair to say that Rudnevs had a stormer against us as he tore apart our defence with a hat trick, and our defence wasn't very good because of it, Donk having a poor game, and Dominguez wasn't much better either but the work was far ahead and we needed to work hard after that loss, especially after HSV finished below us in 16th the season before.



Now this was the beginning of an average run of draws for us in the league, this was a pretty boring game the score kind of says it all anyway but we got an early lead and then Hannover got a penalty which apparently wasn't a penalty and when I complained in the press conference after the game nothing happened to me so I suppose it's fair to say we where cheated.



This was another odd game, we controlled the game as the stats suggest against the underdogs but we just couldn't find that winning goal after they made it 1-1 so it ended as another draw.



Now this was one of those games where you just have to think what might have been, I was skeptical at the beginning of the match but after getting an early lead we we're playing well and comfortably against an under performing Dortmund, then in the second half they shocked us and grabbed two early goals,which kind of shows the difference in class between us and them, I suppose in many ways we we're quite lucky to keep it at 2-2 after that but in hindsight I think the draw was probably a fair enough result.



Now Stuttgart, we we're underdogs before this game so I think a draw was a fine result to get, especially as Stuttgart where 2nd and we we're like 7th, so we could of even took the win really but like I've seen all too many this season finishing has been quite poor when we need it the most. Another Draw 1-1.



Now this was a better result, none other than I should of expected after all them boring draws, so De Jong did what he was so good at doing, and we we're already clear before halftime 3-0, they got a goal back which made it a little bit more cagey but in the end we went away with the win and that's what matters the most.



Now these where a pair of minnows, I hadn't even heard of but still it was a tough game and we did take a while after coming from a goal down to get the win but still it was what we needed to start a deserved winning/unbeaten streak, my super sub Branimir Hrgota to score the winner.



I'm surprised we even won this game, Bremen we're a good side and even though they where underachieving a bit, still a dangerous threat, and they started the game really strongly, until we got a goal against the run of play, then when they equalised with Baba (one of my former Sevilla players) they seemed to settle down a bit, then in the second half we controlled the game and got the winner with a Del Moral goal, which gave us a deserved 2-1 win.



This was one of those games for us where nothing was going into the back of the net, it also started a poor run of form from my perspective and it did come as quite a shock, even to ourselves at home as we rarely ever lose there, but still we didn't do ourselves justice with our poor finishing yet again.



Again we had a cup game against a weaker opposition, and we won 4-1 with a Mrappa brace giving us the win, and also giving him man of the match.



Now this was a frustrating game, as not only did my cb get sent off in the 6th minute after two silly bookings (Donk), Sanchez also got sent off in the 86th minute which made me question if we we're being a bit aggressive, but still we where never going to win with 10 or 9 men, and they scored a winning goal which was kind of about right.



Again we played rubbish, and with another stupid sending off in probably our biggest game of the season Bayern where always going to get the win, and in the 67th and 77th minutes Martinez and Petersen benefited from our man down, we probably wouldn't have won anyway as they are strong.



It wasn't half scrappy again, controlling the game and then getting an early lead in the 13th minute with a Mrappa goal, after seeming comfortable Dominguez got sent off for a 2nd yellow in the 80th minute, but nevertheless we held on for our deserved win after some late Nurnberg pressure.

So that is about it from me for now, as you can probably see, our season has been pretty scrappy at times and we have had to grind some results out from nowhere, if there is anything you would like to see or anything you would reccommend to me in terms of new signings (I only have 785k) then please comment Thanks for reading.

The last time I posted in here, we we're inconsistent drawing, picking up the odd win blah de blah de blah...I have turned the team into a winning team as of late, we got Marc Andre Ter-Stegen back, and we have been brilliant at the back, his dominance is showing and when I was praising Unnerstall before, I can see now that the difference in quality between the two is HUGEEEEEEEEE. Ter Stegen is the whole package, dominating his area, not only does it help having a proper captain now (instead of a makeshift due to his injury), we are winning games instead of losing them.

Another thing that happened in January...I sold Granit Xhaka, Bayern made an offer of 24 million (he was having a good season) and I simply knew that I couldn't refuse, plus I wanted to replace him with Fran Merida on a free agent but he got snapped up by Celta Vigo right before Bayern came snooping for Xhaka. I don't think we will miss him that much though tbh, he is good but I have seen better if you know what I mean. Good luck to him at Bayern though obviously. Also I agreed to sell a player called Lukas Rupp to Mainz on a free transfer, I wanted to keep him but tbh I wasn't playing him much this season and it's best for the whole club if he went to a club who would play him more often.

Here is the table now:



Here is my team at the moment:



Here are all my remaining fixtures:



And here are the transfers we made in January:



As you can see we are doing well in the league, we sold a few players in january but still we are doing quite well at the moment, here are all the games I have played since my last post:



This was a strange game, I remember being really angry with our performance at half time because we had gone up through a really early manu del moral goal, and then they hit back 3 goals to make it 3-1, I gave the team some of the hair dryer treatment, and boy did it work! we got 2 goals back through Nordvelt and Xhaka, and then my super sup, Peniel Mrappa went on to score the winning goal which made me delighted.



Man this was an annoying game alright, we we're 1-1 for most of the match, in the 80th minute we we're all over them, throwing everything at them to get the win, but their goalkeeper Timo Hildrebrand was saving everything, so then in the 87th minute they snatched a winning goal through Teemu Pukki, and then in the 93rd minute Michel Bastos took a scrappy free kick, and Huntelaar did what he does best as a goal poacher and scored a tap in. Frustrating game as the possession suggests we controlled them.



Next up was another big game against Leverkusen, We we're all over them the whole game and we couldn't get that winning goal that had kind of failed us all season long, but still it was a good result as Leverkusen are a strong side.



Next up was Wolfsburg, who we're right ahead of us in the league, we we're again unlucky in this game as we had a lot of chances but unlike the freiburg game, we couldnt get 2 more goals to win it or even draw it unfortunately, so it ended 3-2 to them, another unlucky result.



This was always going to be a win for us, as FSV where in the 2nd division, we controlled the game and although we could and should have scored some more goals from Del Moral and Hanke helped us to a 2-1 victory which we duly deserved.

Now we had a 4 week break from that game to our next game as they normally do in Germany, plus it gave us time to recover from a tough run of matches and also I had the chance to sell a few players if i chose to.



Next was the derby between us and Dusseldorf, it was also the return of our former striker Igor De Camargo who had joined them in January, it was a very scrappy game with few chances and a lot of bookings but in the end we got the winner through Peniel Mrappa who has had a habit of scoring important late goals this season.



Now we played HSV, we had lost to them in early in the season so I was determined to make it even, and they did not let me down, we controlled them for most of the game and Hermann, Dominguez and De Jong got on the scoresheet to make it a very important win for us.



Another surprisingly one sided game in our favour, the difference of Ter Stegen in net and his captaincy was beginning to show clearly, as we we're playing a lot better since his return, and it must also be noted that this was the first match we played without Granit Xhaka, so it was a good chance to see how his replacements would fare, and Hrgota had a brilliant game, constantly linking up with De Jong in attack to make it an easy win for us.

Thanks for reading, I will probably next update this at the end of the season.

Nice update! Love the many screens of all fixtures!
I thought Stranzl was good enough for a 1st team place, but Donk seems to do the job good signing indeed!
and 24 M for Xhaka - what a deal

Keep it up - you can be in europe next season!

Hey, yeah I'm sorry I haven't been playing this file much lately, I have been busy with college work but I have started playing it again and now we are in October of the new season, I bought a few new players so I will be sure to update you all soon

So where I am now is October, we had a shaky end to last season and a shaky start to this season but now we are back up and running, and doing well in the league and the europa league aswell (we qualified!!!!!!) I would be lieing if I said I didn't want to move up to bigger and better things, but it takes time, and quality players, that is something we are currently working on, but hey you never know this could be our breakthrough season where we get ourselves back into that top 4 where the glory days of Marco Reus and Dante are long gone.

I left you in February 2014, still about 3 months from the end of the season but I'm getting there, so here are the games that followed from now untill the end of the season, also I agreed to sign Hiroshi Kiyotake from Nurnberg for 8.5 mil, a bargain replacement for Xhaka (and much better too!!!).



A very good win for us, this installed a lot of confidence into our ranks and with goals from De Jong, Dominguez, Del Moral, Zimmerman and Sanchez it gave us a much deserved win and showed our control over Furth.



A really great comeback against a very strong dortmund, we looked like we had ran out of ideas when we we're 3-0 down at HT and Dortmund looked very comfortable, but I gave them a harsh teamtalk, made a few chances and we got 3 goals back to draw with Hermann and Hrgota scoring twice.



Another solid win against an underperforming Stuttgart, we controlled them for most of the game and then we got 2 goals from Sanchez and Mlappa in the second half to win 2-0.



The next game was an away game against Freiburg in the QTRS of the german cup, we took the lead through Del Moral, but we couldn't hold it on till the end of the game so they equalised, then in the 117th minute they scored the winning goal to ensure we got knocked out, still a good showing though from us in the cup.



This is where we went on a dodgy run of results which could have effectively harmed our europa league qualifying hopes, We probably didn't deserve to lose but they we're always going to have the home advantage and in the end we lost 3-1, a sole consolation goal by De Jong, to give us a loss.



This was going to be our final win before we went on a 5 game winless run, we beat AUE 3-2 courtesy of a brace from Luuk De Jong and another goal from the veteran Juan Arango, we just held on aswell to claim the win in the end.



A game we probably should and could have won, we we're all over Bremen for most of the match despite them taking an early lead, but we equalised to save us at least a draw in the 75th minute through our ever so reliable striker Luuk De Jong. A well earned draw against a good side.



This was another game where we we're on the backfoot, we took an early lead through De Jong but Frankfurt came back at us all guns blazing, Del Moral got another goal for us but in the end we got beat 4-2 by a resilient Frankfurt.



One of those games where you control throughout but you just cant steal the win, we got a lead through Del Moral and Arango seemed to make it comfortable but luck wasn't on our side and Mainz got 2 goals back in a relatively short space of time and equalised. the game ended a draw.



We battled hard but we we're never going to find this one easy, Nils Petersen was on fire that day for bayern and although we nearly got a draw, almost matching Bayerns possession, we just couldn't and Bayern got the win like they so easily do in the bundesliga.



Games like these I really hate in football, dominate a game, have so many chances, the away team gets 1 or 2 puts them away, whilst we go home with nothing, they got a sneaky 85th minute winner and we went home without a win in 5.



It's fair to say I could not have planned the timing of this any better, we didn't play that well against Schalke, it was always going to be us the outsiders but we snatched a goal through a penalty so carefully put away by De Jong, and went home with a great 3 points against a very strong team, the stats suggest we got lucky!



Our luck was turning in our direction again now, a good solid win and with goals from Del Moral and Sanchez we went home happy as an even game turned in our direction, our defence again showing its importance throughout the entire season.



I really don't have much to say apart from this was a bore draw, well I say bore but Leverkusen we're closer to the win than we we're as they had a lot of chances but our defence held on and snatched an important draw against another good team.



Mentally you could probably tell we we're on our holidays in this game, we got a 0-0 draw, we we're on the backfoot for most of the game but you can hardly blame them as they had enjoyed a very good season, finishing in a well earned 7th and Europa League football next year to look forward to!

So now the summer transfer window was upon us, I decided to splash some cash here and there and bought a few key signings for next season, it must be said we needed some better players to step up our ambitions. This summer there was repeated interest in our 2 of our best players De Jong and Hermann, I was rejecting offers of upto 22 million for De Jong and around 7-10 million for Hermann, just because I knew De Jong was irreplaceable due to his great goalscoring record for me, and Hermanns creativity was in no doubt.

This was the end of season table in case anyones interested:






Here above these all the players I signed this summer, and sold a lot aswell and loaned people out. Also I mutually terminated Alex Silvas contract in-case anyone was wondering, after literally 2-3 games he complained that he wasn't played enough and went unhappy so I just thought I would get rid of him to put the teams interests first. He had a terrible attitude and I fell out with him. If anyone has any suitable centre back reccomendations that would work alongside Dominguez well I would be delighted, tbh I'm skint atm but long term planning is still useful

Here are the signings I made:



An experienced international with Argentina, I was wary of Oscar Wendt as he was the weak link in our back 4 plus I thought we needed someone more attacking and well known, so I made the step to buy Monzon.



A regen I got on a free transfer, he has some decent potential and stats so he could well make it.



Mato Jajalo, a new cm, nothing more to say than that really, an all rounded attacking style central midfielder who I thought would give us a bit of an edge in the final third.



NOW. This is the one I was REALLY looking forward to, I must be honest, he has started the new season with Gladbach like a house on fire, fits in really well around our team, gets into positions, gets a lot of assists and goals and I just think he's amazing, I would recommend him to anyone. All that's missing now is a megapack face :p But really great player, I'm so delighted at this bargain we pulled off.



I know it may not be relevant as of yet, but I'm going to show you it anyway, this is my team that has largely started the season.

Here are some of my most invaluable players:



A menace in the box, one of my favourite strikers on this years fm, a bit slow for a forward but it really doesn't show, his record last year spoke for itself.



Nordtveit is a very important player to me, He is the instrumental ball winning midfielder who breaks up plays and is also very composed with a ball at his feet, his attacking isn't that amazing but still he is great in the air and a brilliant team player for any side.



Patrick Hermann (the guy this whole career is built around) my team would be nothing without this little magician, he is great with a ball at his feet, running at defenders, crossing balls in for De Jong and Del Moral.



The captain fantastic of my team, he is still learning but in a few years time he could become the best goalkeeper on the game if hes lucky, obviously he may not be playing for us by then but yeah I just like to make the most of what I have now, so he is a great goalkeeper and as most of you guys will know one of the best on fm 13.



This guy is a great defender, so good in the air, barely ever makes mistakes, thats what Dominguez is like, composed, solid, one of my most important players in this team.



This is the league table in October 2014, we have enjoyed a solid start to the season but I think with the players we have we should be going even higher than this. Anyways thanks for reading, I will update you all with the start of the season games soon, and thanks for reading

So this is the start of the season, when I left off my team had finished in a very impressive 7th, qualified for the Europa League and signed a couple of key players, from the funds supplied by the sale of Granit Xhaka. We are now prepared for the start of the season, and I will just cut to the chase instead of talking anymore about last season and the pre-season, which tbh there isn't much to talk about anyway as I've already explained most of my brand new signings and sales.



First game of the season, to qualify for the Europa group stage, we we're always going to win this game comfortably and that we did in good style, De Jong scored a hat trick and we dominated them, an own goal by one of their players also gave us another goal. A good start.



Another crushing win over Gorica, we used our attacking power to our advantage and this took us through to the next Europa league stage.



This was a crazy game, I didn't think we we're going to get knocked out at this stage but like many shocks happen in the early stages we we're pipped on penaltys by Cottbus, a very hard game against a surprisingly tough team to beat, it wasn't the end of the world anyway as we could now put our focus into the Europa League and the league.



Another crushing win in the early europa league stages, we beat St PAts 8-1 away with a dominating display from our attackers, this was all very good preparation for the tough season ahead.



Man was this a frustrating game, our defence was already beginning to look weak, Semb Berge seems to have a habit of making costly errors for goals and generally isn't really the most solid and consistent of cbs, though still the stats suggest we we're unlucky but still they took their chances and we didn't, its as simple as that. A poor start to the season.



Another domination of St Pats, De Jong was already turning into the most deadly striker in the competition, he was putting in a claim for the golden boot as early on as this, he netted a great hat trick and an early opener from Semb Berge gave us a deserved win over 2 legs.



This was a good result for us, in a game that was sparked by an early opener from De Jong we found it hard to hold on against the mighty Bayern but still when Nils Petersen equalised that still gave us a good result in a 1-1 draw.



A tough game, I usually find HSV hard to beat and this game proved no different, they took their goals early and even though on paper the game looks pretty even we weren't enjoying a good first few games, especially as my ambitious new signings weren't beginning to come good yet, but there was a lot of time and it's early days.

After this game we we're drawn in our Europa League group stage with Espanyol, LOSC Lille and Otelul, This was a good group, not easy but not too hard either.



A game which we had a lot of chances and made them pay, Jajalo and Kiyotake got their first goals for the club and another goal from Hermann gave us a good 3-1 win to start Group C in the Europa League.



Finally, at long last our first win of the season was upon us, with a nice comfortable 5-2 win over Frankfurt with goals from Hermann (2),Castro, Jajalo and Del Moral it was a great victory and gave us some confidence.



Another comfortable win, AUE have never been a great side so we we're always going to be the favourites, goals from Kiyotake, Hermann and Del Moral gave us a deserved win.



It was always going to be hard away at Stuttgart, we didn't have enough quality to upset them so they took all 3 points due to a goal from Nicolai Muller.



Another one of those games where you control and edge out in the shots department but you can't win, they took advantage of us and got a late 81st minute goal through Stuani, so we came home empty handed.



A great win for us against one of the strongest teams in the league, Huntelaar gave them a lead in the 10th minute but even though they had more chances we came back strong and got a 77th minute penalty which De Jong scored, and then not long after Hiroshi Kiyotake gave us the winner so we came home with 3 points against a great team.



A game which we surprisingly controlled against a lackluster Hannover, we we're without our best striker Luuk De Jong due to injury and Peniel Mlapa took his chance with 2 goals, with the 3rd goal coming from Hiroshi Kiyotake. Hannover got a consolation through Mame Biram Diouf in the 81st minute but it wasn't enough and we got another important win.



A game in which we took our counter attacking skills to an advantage, Kiyotake got another goal to mark a fine start to his Gladbach career and then Nordtveit and Del Moral got on the scoresheet aswell, Lille got a goal back through Idrissa Gueye also but they couldn't make it turn in their favor.



A dissapointing game for us as a team, we controlled from start to finish but Leverkusen got two goals before and after half time to secure a 2-0 away victory for them, we had a lot of fixtures and De Jongs absence was hurting us.



De Jong was back with a bang! Jajalo opened the scoring up in the 10th minute, and then De Jong followed this up with two strikes in the 23rd and 50th minutes. A good solid win, this was turning into a good season for us.



Another solid win over Lille, an early strike from De Jong and a brace from Manu Del Moral helped us on our way to victory, we we're dominating Group C and qualification was settled after this game, all that mattered now was who would finish 1st, us or Espanyol.



An even game turned into a good win for us, Ter Stegens brilliant reflexes we're beginning to make the difference in some of these games for us, A brace from Del Moral and a goal from Dominguez helped us on our way to a 3-1 victory, unfortunately they injured 2 of my key players (Hermann and Kiyotake) for 2 months each so things got a little nitty gritty and tough after this.

I will follow this up with more match analysis's soon, thanks for reading.