Blue Domination in Bulgaria

932 1

ViIgnatov

5 years ago

1 month ago

21 May 2020 13:42:02

So, I took Levski Sofia, after a very disappointing performance in the first half of the season 19/20 with Sunderland, noticing how the Bulgarian team were fairing - not very well for their stature. I immediately applied for the job and got accepted. When I look back to the expectations of the board(really sorry for not providing a screenshot of everything from 19/20!), I had to reach the final of the Bulgarian Cup, Finish in a Europa League place and that was that. On top of that, at the moment of my appointment as a manager, the board were looking to sell the club! A sticky situation, eh? The team was a consistent one, having stars like Stanislav Kostov at the front, Paulinho and Stanislav Ivanov on the wings, Khaly Thiam(who was injured at that time until the end of the season..) and Filipe Nascimento as a strong midfield double and the most prominent names at my defence - Holmar Eyjolfsson and my captain Ivan Goranov. All the other players were regular starters or a squad player and I had many options for rotations. In the first two weeks, I had several friendlies as it was the winter break, so I had time to tweak and experiment with the tactics and formations. At first, I opted for 4-1-2-3 DM Wide and a Tiki-Taka style as the team had the attributes needed for that style. It didn't work that well and the season already has resumed! In the second match, I switched to Control Possession and switched to 4-2-3-1 Wide, which worked perfectly! Win after win in February, several draws in March and a devastating loss to future champs ludogorets, had me at 5h place at the finish of the Preliminary phase of the championship. Now, let me explain the weird system of the 'Premier' Bulgarian league. All 14 teams play a whole season and afterwards are divided into 2 paths - Championship Play-offs(6 teams) and two groups for the Relegation zones(4 teams each). 2nd and 3rd place are automatically into Europa league land and the 4th plays a play-off against the 7th overall(or 1st from the relegation zones) for the additional place. You see where this is going, lads. I had to push very hard to the 4th place and I still had hopes for a place in Europe, after I beat my fierce rivals CSKA-Sofia in the Semi-Final of the Cup. Alas, I lost the final and all that left was the play-off. That match was, naturally, the most intense of my career with Levski. Started really strong, then the guys from Cherno More(Varna) had me drawn and I had to beat them at the Extra Time! I was in Europe! Another important notice: the team was taken over and had fresh injection of money in the transfer and wage budgets and I started to plan my future transfer targets.

Transfers. Now, as seen in the screenshots, in the winter I sold S.Kostov but bought a few players who were a fresh breath into the team. Promoted some of my U19s into the first team, sent some on loan and was waiting for the big summer transfer window.

Now, I am playing the 20/21 season and I expect to finish it 3-4 days, so stay alert for the update, cause it will be huge!

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