Nuremberg - July 4th, 2022

I have joined Bundesliga 2 side 1. FC Nürnberg as manager. The club was apparently manager-less, as I have replaced current club Director Dieter Hecking. This is a club that has caught my eye for several FMs now but I haven't ever had a serious save with them, usually moving onto other saves after one or two in-game months. Hopefully, this time will be different. Here's some basic info about the club:
 

Founded in 1900, Nürnberg are one of Germany's more successful teams, at least historically. They currently play in the Max-Morlock Stadion, which has a capacity for 50 thousand people. However, since becoming one of Germany's top clubs, they have become the record-holders for the most relegations from the Bundesliga with 9. They last played in the top tier in 2019 (18th), haven't played consecutive Bundesliga seasons since their relegation in 2014 (their 5th consecutive season) and their longest streak came between 1985 and 1994 (9 seasons). They are by no means a small club, but there's definitely a lot of potential for growth and for me to become a club legend by achieving their first Bundesliga title in at least 56 years and hopefully breaking a couple more records along the way.

First Division Titles: 9

First Win: 1920 (after winning the regional Süddeutsche Meisterschaft)

Last Win: 1967-68

Cup Wins: 4 (Last in 2006-07)

Best European Performance: 1961-62, Champions League (then European Cup) quarter-finals

Others: 4x Bundesliga 2 Champions, 31 regional Championships

21-22 Season: Bundesliga 2, 8th place (51 pts)
22-23 Season (IRL): Bundesliga 2, 14th place (39 pts)

The squad (we'll go over it in the next post) should be good enough to fight for promotion in the 1st season, although the board only expects a top half finish. The transfer budget isn't too big, but the team has already brought in 20 new players this season so there isn't many holes to fill. As we go forward, I'll try to keep a German core while adding some spice to the squad with Mexican players or players from interesting nationalities (that aren't usually seen in the top of world football), we'll also go over the tactics in the next update.

Thanks for reading this brief introduction! Any comments, feedback or whatever is appreciated.

Good luck!

Squad Report

With only one preseason game under our belts (a 4-0 win against VFL Osnabrück), here's the main crop of players that will get minutes this season:

The Starting 11

GK Peter Vindahl - DEN - 24 y/o - Loan from AZ - 66/100

The danish loanee has good overall ratings, with good handling, reflexes and distribution which is good enough to make him our starting goalkeeper this Opening Day.

DR Enrico Valentini - ITA - 33 y/o - 63/100

Long-time Nürnberg player Valentinii can play down both wings, although he is currently only a natural right-back. His crossing, work rate and stamina are still good enough to get the job done at this level so hopefully he'll contribute on both ends of the ball.

DC Christopher Schindler - GER - 32 y/o - 67/100

About to begin his second season with the club, Schindler is a good technical center-back with an aerial presence. He'll also be our captain, who can hopefully guide us to success this season.

DC Florian Hübner - GER - 31 y/o - 67/100

Alongside Schindler will be another German in his second season with the club. Hübner's good positioning, strength and aerial presence make him part of the starting line up.

DL Jannes Horn - GER - 25 y/o - Loan from Bochum - 63/100

Another versatile wing-back, Horn's excellent pace, crossing and work rate make him a dual threat that we certainly hope can aid us reach our goals this year.

MC Florian Flick - GER - 22 y/o - Loan from Schalke - 73/100

The best player on the team, although just in on loan (no option to buy), Flick has great work rate, stamina and tackling attributes that make him our defensive midfielder of choice.

MC Johannes Geis - GER - 28 y/o - 65/100

Geis, with 6 years of top tier football to back him up, is set to begin a 4th season with us. He possesses excellent passing, vision and technique that will hopefully see him be a devastating creative force this season.

AMR Benjamin Goller - GER - 23 y/o - 60/100

A Schalke product, Goller has yet to live up to his full potential although his dribbling, pace and acceleration will certainly be an asset for us this year.

AMC - VACANT

AML Danny Blum - GER - 31 y/o - 64/100

The best winger on the team, Blum's crossing, pace and acceleration will hopefully see him pick a good assist number in his return to the club he left in 2016.

ST Kwadwo Duah - SUI - 25 y/o - 62/100

A candidate for top goalscorer according to the media, Duah has blazing speed, which paired with good dribbling and composure will certainly make him a goalscoring threat whenever we have the ball.

The “B” Team

GK Christian Mathenia - GER - 30 y/o - 65/100

Mathenia's excellent reflexes, handling and concentration will make him a tough competitor with Vindahl for the starting spot.

DR Jan Gyamerah - GHA - 27 y/o - 60/100

Jan is a solid overall player, he'll definitely be getting a decent amount of minutes behind Valentini.

DC James Lawrence - WAL - 29 y/o - 62/100

The Welsh international is our only left-footed center-back, which will also mean he has plenty of minutes on that side.

DC Fabian Menig - GER - 28 y/o - 59/100

A solid backup that can play anywhere in defence, Menig will be a good rotation option.

DL Tim Handwerker - GER - 24 y/o - 61/100

Handwerker can play anywhere down the left-wing, although he is naturally a left-back. His offensive capabilities will make him a good back up who gets plenty of minutes.

MC Jens Castrop - GER - 18 y/o - Loan from Köln - 63/100

A versatile midfielder, his performances will dictate if we pay the $1.5 million optional fee to see him reach his Superb potential with us.

MC Taylan Duman - GER - 24 y/o - 63/100

Another versatile midfielder, Duman will play mostly in center-mid although he can man all 3 attacking mid positions and could even fill in at right-back if needed.

AMR Eliot Muteba - GER - 19 y/o - 58/100

A speedy youngster, Muteba will have to improve his crossing and off the ball ability if he wants to have a future at this club.

AMC - VACANT

AML Mats Møller Dæhli - NOR - 27 y/o - 63/100

A technically gifted player, Mats will get plenty of opportunities to showcase his passing ability both down the left wing and as a central attacking midfielder.

ST Felix Lohkemper - GER - 27 y/o - 61/100

A solid backup, Lohkemper has shown he's up for the task ahead by scoring 2 goals in our preseason match.

Reserves

GK Carl Klaus - GER - 28 y/o - 62/100

DC Sadik Fofana - GER - 19 y/o - Loan from Leverkusen - 59/100

MC Lino Tempelmann - GER - 23 y/o - Loan from Freiburg - 62/100

MC Fabian Nürnberger - GER - 22 y/o - 61/100

MC Gustavo Puerta - COL - 18 y/o - Loan from Leverkusen - 61/100

AML Erik Wekesser - GER - 25 y/o - 57/100 (Transfer Listed)

ST Pascal Köpke - GER - 26 y/o - 61/100

ST Christoph Daferner - GER - 24 y/o - 57/100

ST Erik Shuranov - GER - 20 y/o - 60/100

Top Prospects

DC Louis Breunig - GER - 18 y/o

AMC Can Uzun - TUR - 16 y/o

AMR Hong Yun-Sang - KOR - 20 y/o - Loan from Wolfsburg

ST Leonardo Vonić - CRO - 19 y/o

ST Jermain Nischalke - GER - 19 y/o

So we have a good core for the Bundesliga 2, we should be able to play attacking football and challenge for promotion this year. However, our core is also pretty old, with several of our starting players older than 30, which isn't bad short-term but if we want to grow into a competitive Bundesliga side, we need to get younger starting next season. This shouldn't be too difficult of a task, with several of our prospects ready to feature with the top team, especially those in positions in which we lack depth.

Next time, we'll go over our July/August fixtures. Thanks for reading! As always, any comments are welcome.

Best of luck with this mate. Always enjoy a German save, and the money is massive when you get in and progress up the Bundesliga!

July Report

Our official debut was a disappointing loss at St. Pauli's Millerntor-Stadion. Both of their goals were in the last 30 minutes, and with 5 shots on target we have to feel like we should have gotten something out of the match. We had a slight possession edge and were getting our passes on target, but the finishing wasn't there (although their goalkeeper also had a pretty good day). Overall a disappointing but not disheartening result, hopefully the team will come together and play even better next time.

We have filled the AMC spot after looking at a couple of options. Daniel Didavi and Giovani dos Santos were asking for way too much money ($600k each) so we had to settle on 33 year-old Serbian Miralem Sulejmani for ⅓ the asking price. Sulejmani has had a good career, playing for Ajax, Benfica, Young Boys and will now play in Germany for the first time with us.

Unfortunately, we also had to sell a player. 31 year-old defender Florian Hübner has left for Augsburg for $1.2 million. Their initial offer was of $600k, nearly matching his suggested value. I thought asking for double would deter them but they straight up accepted, and just like that we're looking for a replacement center-back.

Another veteran comes into the team in the form of Hatem Ben Arfa. Both of the attacking mids come in on one-year contracts to help us push for promotion, though they may be rewarded with a new contract based on performance.

We come back against rivals Greuther Fürth, with sub Köpke getting the point-winning goal. Our creative apparatus still isn't working as expected, and our strikers have been unable to finish the few chances they get.

Unfortunately, debutant Sulejmani has gotten a serious injury just 20 minutes into his debut.

We have filled our central defender hole with youngster Samson Baidoo, who comes in from Salzburg on loan. He's a cheap option who'll do a good job as a 4th central defender.

For the final game of the month we finally got our first win against 3. Liga Ingolstadt. I don't like relying on an 88th minute own goal to win, but a win is a win and hopefully we can pick up a couple more of these as the season goes on. 

Thanks for reading along! Next time we'll look at August's games and begin to look at a couple of stats as we get more performances under our belts.

Show Spoiler

Long time between reports, I went on an 11-day work trip and I'm a biologist so of course I was in the middle of nowhere with no internet or anything.

August Report

We start off the month by playing some decent football up top and some very bad football at the back. This results in us scoring 1 out of 6 shots on target, while Regensburg score 3 out of 7. However, (judging by xG) we generated better quality chances than them, so no big changes are needed yet.

Next, we play what has to be one of the most disappointing matches I've ever seen. We allow 5 goals in 20 minutes, get one back and then generate nothing for an hour. All of this at home. Nothing more to add.

We continue our winless streak away to Sandhausen. 

After the disappointing run of games, I made some changes to player instructions that should help us play the way I want us to play. It seemed to pay off, as we pick up a huge win against Hamburg. Danny Blum showed up big time and our defense was really solid, getting 6.7, 6.9, 6.9, 6.6 and 6.8 ratings.

This final win takes us out of the relegation zone, a very disappointing start to the season but we're now moving in the right direction. September is a short month, games-wise, so with us getting enough rest and facing direct rivals at this point of the season, we should continue this upward trend.

Analysis shows us performing below average defensively and offensively. Our tackling seems to be OK, but we're conceding too many goals. We're generating good chances (with a high Np-xG) but not converting them.

Hopefully next month sees us find the light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks for reading! As always, any comments are greatly appreciated.

September Update

We follow up our impressive win by drawing one of the teams close to us in the table. Both teams had decent chances so a draw is a fair result, even though I feel like we should have scored at least one.

We go from a goalless draw into another goalless draw, this one more stressful than the last one. We had 5 shots on target against their 1, and we have to feel like we should have won that one.

We go into the international break goalless once more, as better opposition shows us how to take care of the match. This time we had 7 shots on target against their 5. Unfortunately for us, one of theirs went in while we couldn't capitalize any of our chances.

A very disappointing month, especially coming off the Hamburg win. However, cohesion is slowly moving towards the green and I've managed to keep the club atmosphere a positive one, so I'm hopeful our adventure in Germany is far from over.

We use the one week break to play a friendly and keep our players fit. I decided to start the players who have had the least amount of minutes this year. This result gives us a lot of hope for the rest of the season. What's more, proving to me that our players can actually score goals!

On the analytical side of things, we've slightly improved. We should be able to keep moving in the right direction as the season progresses.

October is a busy month and we'll have to face the likes of 3rd place Karlsruhe and Bundesliga side Köln in the 2nd round of the cup. Thanks for reading!

October Update

I'll just let the results speak for themselves on this one. Our very bad start continues as we fall to last place. Meanwhile, the board and the players are losing their support for me. If our form doesn't pick up in November, it might as well be the final update.

A win against Kiel gave us hope of our bad fortunes finally ending.

We had a tough draw against Fortuna Düsseldorf. We played well but managed to add only 1 point.

Eliminating Köln gave us even more hope about the team moving in the right direction.

Then our team just collapsed.

Here's the table:

In November we face Magdeburg (3), Hansa Rostock (16) and Paderborn (17). These are definitely must-win games for us, although I will be content if we draw Magdeburg. The board have told me they'd give me until the end of the season, although certainly if our poor run continues they might rethink that.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

November 2022 Update

Going into the winter break I only had one goal in mind: keep my job at Nürnberg.

This mission started off on the left foot, as we lost for the third game in a row, this time against Magdeburg.

This led to the board meeting with me once more, this time a points goal was set at 11 points from 5 games. This means getting at least 3 wins and 2 draws in the following games. 

We managed to get 3 points against a struggling Hansa Rostock squad, a commanding win that hopefully puts an end to our poor run of form. It was pleasing to see both Daferner and Sulejmani score their first goals of the season, although we would have hoped this happened earlier than the 16th game.

In our last game before the break, we faced Paderborn. They were in last place (in which we previously were, before our last win), so we hoped for back-to-back wins in this game. Daferner scores again as we go into the winter break with another win. 

Here's the table as the season goes into the halfway point.

It's now going to be almost 3 months before we play in the league again, plenty of time to play friendlies to bring morale back up and clean up the squad a bit. I'll get rid of players who are not playing to expectations and/or don't want to be here and hopefully bring in capable replacements.

Thanks for reading!