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8 years ago
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INTRODUCTION

In the land called the Little Red Dot, a young manager by the name of Fang Jun Kai has just finished his compulsory 2-year army service. With his Diploma in Sports Science and a strong passion for management and football, he was handing out CVs to various Football Clubs in hopes that he would be able to find an opportunity to break through the management scene.

One club, the Young Lions, has been on a lookout for someone to stand-in as their interim manager for the upcoming season as their previous manager, Fandi Ahmad, was unable to continue his duty as their manager due to personal reasons. Although inexperienced, Jun Kai impressed the Chairman of the club to show that he has certain potential to be a decent manager who won't cost them much, considering the fact that Young Lions is always predicted to end up being last due to the fact that majority of the team consists of the youngest age group that the league has to offer.

https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/PqOWxFpKkSHzyd6P841XpFBbksErY8Ajflj00m3V.png


During the press conference, the turnout was little as the name didn't ring any bell as it did when Fandi Ahmad, who's considered probably the best, if not, one of the best footballers that Singapore has produced ever since it gained independence in 1965. Despite that, the pressure was heavy on the young manager as there were a lot of doubts about his skills and ability to manage due to his lack of experience. With no history of managing football other than playing a game called Football Manager, it's no surprise why this would be so. However, this did not affect Jun Kai's confidence in himself that he will work something out with the team.

https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/zwDQSqLSdBWjeCif0ZYy02HJBLA7Kv2xpIR10BBt.jpg


As Jun Kai enters Jalan Besar Stadium, the home stadium of Young Lions FC, the players look towards him and there is a sense of doubt if this young manager could improve them. He's about the same age group as the players and no experience in managing, and this affected the morale of the squad as they felt that they're not being taken seriously by the big people in the club that they decided to pluck a random guy to lead them to greater heights, which did not help as they media has predicted they'd end up last every year.

He gathered the players, introduced himself, and asked everyone for their cooperation and hard work so to ensure that they will prove doubters wrong.

SQUAD OVERVIEW


https://i.gyazo.com/28dbf22b612ceaaf2a898471d4ee7b03.png


The depth of the squad isn't that fantastic, with it being heavily supplied down the spine of the team but no other options other than the left-wing position.

As it currently stands, Young Lions FC has the youngest average age of players but has the tallest players in the Singapore Premier League (SPL). This would probably mean that its players are generally fresh and also still rough diamonds yet to be cut for them to be considered a good squad.

For its defenders, their jumping and strength are considered way below average than the rest of the league. This could cost a lot of problems when defending corners or crosses, especially when the opponent uses a tall and strong target man. Not to mention, without any fullback present, that could cost further problems in trying to reduce the frequency of crosses coming in.

For its midfielders, they are all around below average compared to the rest of the league. Again, this could cost a lot of problems as the midfield is considered the heartbeat of the team whereby most of the thing that happens in the game is in there, as they would help transition the team from attack to defense and vise versa.

Lastly, it's attackers are good on finishing and jumping, below average on long shots and heading and pace, while being the worst in anticipation, off the ball movement and acceleration. Overall, as I've guessed earlier, it's a group of inexperienced young players with potential yet to be reached. No wonder they're predicted last.
TinakoFM
10 years ago
1 day ago
1,522
Always enjoyed when I've managed in Singapore myself.
Best of luck with the Young Lions!
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8 years ago
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Always enjoyed when I've managed in Singapore myself.
Best of luck with the Young Lions!


Thank you for your support!
Dan
12 years ago
4 months ago
16,964
Good luck mate, be fun to follow.
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8 years ago
3 years ago
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PUTTING THE SQUAD TO THE TEST


There's only one way to find out the true strength of the team, and that's to actually put them through matches and see how they perform. I decided on forming a tactic that would be a heavily defensive formation with a counter-attacking threat if the situation permits. This is because the team is like playing a Premier League's U21 team in the Premier League itself, the gap of the skill and experience is just too big. Going for an all-out attack will just result in a lot of goals being conceded without us scoring anything for the most part due to the gap in skill.

I know there are probably tactics out there I can pluck and play but I decided that I would like to at least take a shot at creating my own and see if I can understand the game's logic in formations. Otherwise, the kind of story I want to write where I can have interactive feedback with the audience wouldn't happen. Saying that, if there's something you see in my tactic that could be improved, do feel free to reply with the reasoning so as to share with me your knowledge and be part of this story, as it would be more fun that way.

https://i.gyazo.com/573c37eb8657455e697d4fecb204eda6.png


Anyway, getting back to the story, the pre-season started off with decent results where we only lost and drew one game, while winning the rest. This gave the Young Lion fans some confidence in the Jun Kai, which he really felt as Young Lions played more games. However, being inexperienced, he did not prepare other tactics and thought sticking to one that worked for him during the pre-season would be sufficient enough to last him throughout the season.

Unsurprisingly, the lack of tactical knowledge and managerial experience showed when the actual season kicked off and he lost the first 4 games convincingly. It wasn't big defeats that put the team to shame, in fact, it was expected of the team considering the quality of the players and the manager, but still, that didn't stop the fans from immediately have doubts about the manager's skill. Social media hate was spreading like wildfire the more losses the team took blaming it on the manager's ability.

Sitting in his office, Jun Kai thought to himself that maybe he should tweak his tactics and device more tactics to experiment around the team. Otherwise, not so soon will he get fired from the job if this performance keeps up.

https://i.gyazo.com/ac36a648e13d39856f6885ddb6d996e1.png
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8 years ago
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Sorry guys for the late one, I'll be posting every Saturday for most of the time but yesterday I had army duties I had to fulfill so I couldn't really play or post.

I hope you guys enjoy this week's post.
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8 years ago
3 years ago
50
Good luck mate, be fun to follow.


Really appreciate that you're gonna follow this series.
tongey
14 years ago
1 month ago
1,101
It's a tough start in league action for you mate, but it'll improve. The players will still be learning how to play your tactic, which looks alright to me. You can start to train players to play those positions needed now and specifically buy them in for that reason.

Good luck as you continue the league action!
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A STEP TOWARDS THE RIGHT DIRECTION


https://i.gyazo.com/33456ed8a1f47423a8f76f5f1d9fdc88.png


Determined to change the luck of the club, Jun Kai decided to look into his tactic and tweak some changes. He was convinced that the 3-2-3-2 tactic he was playing was the best way he could employ his best players. He didn't have enough players to suffice any wingbacks being played.

However, he knew that the way he shaped his players to play wasn't working also in the league.

What he recognized during the games was that a lot of time they conceded a goal was that there was always an unmarked player in the back post, or the other team was just banging in long-range shots. So he decided on making do tighter markings while also changing their playstyle to a more counter-attacking style rather than an all-around defensive style where their objective was mainly not to concede which didn't work as they still conceded every game. I mean, if you're going to concede either way, might as well try to score once in a while.

And then all that was left was to put it into the test yet again.

https://i.gyazo.com/63a8d932d766a774c2651d6f19db8257.png


This change showed promises; promises that showed the tactic was working and that this was maybe the tweaks he needed to make from the start.

A lost to adjust to the tactic, and slowly as the tactic gelled with the players, it was quite obvious that this was definitely the right way to go about. We even snagged a win from Niigita.

Would this run continue? or would it be just a 5-game fluke?
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8 years ago
3 years ago
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As always, thank you to the viewers who check on this story once in a while, and those who follow and waits for the next update.

Again, sorry for the late upload as again, due to personal commitments I couldn't upload yesterday. However, I hope you enjoy this turn of fortunes that the club has enjoyed for at least the 5 games they played.

Do let me know if there's any way I can improve whether it may be the tactics or my story-line telling.
Andrew♣
13 years ago
1 year ago
238
The back post issue is probably due to the lack of proper full backs, as tongey said you can either retrain players to play there or hopefully sign some players in the next window. Good to see results improving a bit anyway, interesting save so far...

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