FM22 - Managing Down Under

Club name: Adelaide United Football Club
Founded: 2003
Stadium: Coopers Stadium
Best league finish: 2016 A-League Champions
Best continental finish: 2008 AFC Champions League runners-up

2020/21 Season
A-League: 5th, eliminated in the semi-finals by Sydney FC
FFA Cup: Suspended due to COVID
 

Current squad

Captain: Stefan Mauk (AUS, 26 y/o, MC)

Highest paid: Craig Goodwin (1.09 million USD a year, AUS, 28 y/o, AML)

Top prospect: Mohamed Toure (AUS, 17 y/o, AML)

Board Expectations

A-League: Mid-table

FFA Cup: Not important

Save objectives:

 Win the AFC Champions League for the first time in club history; Develop a club based around a core of Australian players

November Update

So for some reason the game dumped us on the 1st of November to start off the save. This means we missed pretty much all of the preseason, the registration cutoff dates and the beginning of the cup (Adelaide United were eliminated in September by Macarthur FC). Whoever was the manager during the October deadline had the brilliant idea of only registering 5 first team players which means we've played this month's fixtures with Adelaide Youth players to fill out the squad.

Considering all of this, I think we've done pretty good so far…

We fit in two more friendlies, which we won easily with our actual first team squad. Then, we surprised everyone by winning our league opener away to Perth Glory with goals from Ryan Kitto, Michael Jakobsen and 16-year-old Musa Toure. We went on to lose our only home game so far, our only goal coming from George Blackwood in the 78th minute. Two draws against Perth and Melbourne Victory close our participation this month and that leaves us in 5th place (out of 12).

Hopefully we can keep on not losing until the registration window opens on the 14th of January. Then I should be able to register an actual first team squad and hopefully make a push for the playoffs.

We'll start off December by visiting Brisbane Roar.

When I start my save properly on the 9th I will be having Australia loaded. Can Wellington Phoenix still not get into the Champs League?

Sounds like the last manager really messed you over! 🤡 Decent start with that in mind, as you say.

I need to do a save in Australia too, been watching the league for years so not sure why I haven’t yet.

Adelaide were very good years back when they had the likes of Cirio and Isaías, the latter has rejoined them I believe.

December Update

It's definitely not fun playing with a squad of 80% youth players who are nowhere near A-League level. Giving new Scholarship contracts to 16 y/o Jonny Yull and 18 y/o Yaya Dukuly allowed us to play them without having to register them. Yull will slide right into the starting XI as a center mid while Dukuly will stay on the bench as first-team winger Ryan Kitto is actually registered.

We lost our first of the month against Brisbane, just a bad game overall.

In the game against Melbourne City we surprisingly managed to take the lead, however our inexperienced defense couldn't hold it until the final whistle.

We finished the month with a draw against Central Coast. Again, we started off by scoring before they scored 3 goals. Ryan Kitto played wonderfully and two assists by him, finished by Blackwood, gave us a point against the second place team.

We haven't won in 6 games although this last result feels like a win. The good news is there's only two games left before we can register the rest of the first team and hopefully 17 games is enough time for us to push into the playoffs.

Comments

bigmattb28 - I have no idea about Wellington, I'd assume they can't just as they can't irl

Skinner - Can't wait for the registration window to open haha. I've never watched the A-League, given their matches start at 3 am where I live but I think it's a very interesting league. They have playoffs just like the Mexican league does so it's a format I'm used to. Isaías is one of the few quality players registered, and he's played pretty good (7.11 avg) so far.

Thanks for reading!

January Update

We played out best game of the season so far against Macarthur FC. Two set piece goals put us up going into half-time, some great defending and a 93rd minute goal gave us our second win of the season!

Despite dominating the first half possession, we went back to the dressing room down 2-0 against Western Sydney. Blackwood got one back on a corner and then tied us the game to finish off a great play by Kitto. Just like that, we managed a 3 game unbeaten run.

With only two days of rest, we visited Sydney FC. We rotated even more as some players were tired, even playing some gray players. The result was as expected though the result was closer than expected.

We were finally able to register players, which means I can field a proper squad now. Now for some reason, we have to release all players who are not registered and have their salaries count towards our cap. We won't miss them much, to be completely honest, but it hurts us having all that dead salary on the cap.

After another two days of rest, we went into our first match with an unfit first team squad. Things weren't looking good after 3 minutes but a penalty just one minute after put us leveled once again. In the end, our quality broke through and we got a convincing 3-1 win at home.

We had several players win the U23 Asian Cup: GK Dakota Ochsenham, AML Mohamed Toure and MC Louis D'Arrigo with Toure winning MVP.

We played badly against Newcastle, getting only 2 shots on target. Our seat begins to get hot so hopefully performances improve as the team starts to gel.

We ended the month away to Melbourne City. We took the lead in the 85th but couldn't hold on for 10 minutes as they tied it in the 91st.

A disappointing month overall as we haven't been able to climb up the table. 

We sold Jacob Tratt for 1k, his contract was expiring anyway. We also signed a couple more players to scholarship contracts, which mean they don't count against the cap but could be able to play in case of injuries or tiredness.

We start off February by receiving Western United. Hopefully the board grants us more time and we can start getting results.

February Update

We come back with a dominant win at home that finally sees us move up in the table.

We couldn't find a way in a heated game in Brisbane, losing 2-1 with 13 shots on target.

In the next match, we edged a win against Melbourne Victory to put us closer to the playoff spots.

We played our last match of the month against Wellington Phoenix. We took the lead before half time but they managed to turn it around for a disapponting loss.

With two months remaining in the regular season, I think it's still a realistic goal to qualify for the playoffs. The team is coming together and hopefully we can win the games we need to win in order to get there at the end of April.

We begin March by facing Wellington Phoenix again, this time in New Zealand.

Thanks for reading!

March Update

We fail to win the second game in the Wellington double header. Definitely a lot left to improve, especially if we do end up making the playoffs somehow.

With my seat getting hotter again, I selected a team based on training ratings for the game against Macarthur FC. The result was less than satisfactory.

Next, we faced Western Sydney, the team in last place. A dominant win ends our 3-game skid.

After a week of rest, we're back home to face Sydney FC. The players picked up where they left off to end the month with another 3-1 win.

With 5 games left, we're only 5 points behind a playoff spot. We start off April by receiving Perth.

Thanks for reading!

April Update/Season Review

We start off the month with the great news that 17-year-old Jonny Yull was named Young Player of the Month for March.

Our first fixture of April was a 1-0 loss against one of the teams challenging for first place, Perth Glory.

Another home game, this time a win against Macarthur FC, kept our playoff hopes alive going into the last three games of the season.

Next we completely dropped the ball against Newcastle with an early penalty miss and a 66th minute equalizer. This draw meant we couldn't afford to lose any more games if we wanted a top 6 finish.

A late goal from Wellington Phoenix sealed our fate, there would be no playoffs for Adelaide in 2022.

The last game of the season was a boring draw against Western United to secure 8th place in the 2021-2022 A-League Season.

So this was our first season in charge of Adelaide, we really could have done better although that issue with the registration really messed with our chances to do anything for the first two and a half months of the season. In the end, we were just 6 points behind a playoff spot, meaning we could have gotten in if we kept our concentration the full 90 minutes of a couple of the matches we drew or lost.

Awards

Despite only appearing in 10 games (7 starts), Dylan Pierias is named signing of the season. At 22, I hope this is just the beginning of a great career with us.

Here are the rest of the awards and our best XI:

Thanks for reading!

Offseason Update

It was a quiet offseason for us before the preseason began in July. Below are the results so far:

We've also made a pair of movements so far, sending DL George Timotheou ($200k) and DC Nick Ansell ($175k) to Melbourne City. This means I'm looking for suitable replacements, preferably Australian though we have 3 foreign player slots available.

We still have a couple months before the season begins in October, though in August we play our first cup tie visiting Highfields in the first round. 

August Update

We played our first official game of the 2022/23 season: a visit to Highfields FC in the first round of the cup. The result was as expected, a commanding win even with a slightly rotated squad.

After our win, we were drawn away to Western Sidney Wanderers in the second round. In the meanwhile, we played two friendly games as we're getting our fitness up before the season begins in October.

We've sold two more players in Isaías (to Linares of the Spanish 3rd division for 32 thousand dollars) and Stefan Mauk (to Western United in a player exchange for DL James Meredith). Isaías asked for a new contract, where he asked for 4x what he makes right now, which I considered unreasonable. This led to him handing in a transfer request. Mauk refused to renew his contract, which meant he had to be sold before he left for free. We still have 1.5 million dollars in transfer budget as well as 600k in wages to fill a couple of the spots we have left to fill.

Our second signing was one that had been arranged beforehand, leftback Carlos Henrique joined on a free from Corinthians. The young brazilian will be Meredith's backup this season, hopefully replacing him in the near future.

Here are the profiles of our signings:

Show Spoiler

 

We close the month by facing Western Sydney Wanderers in the second round of the cup. After Kitto tied the game in the 83rd minute, we went through on penalties with Dakota Ochsenham (who has been called up by Australia for the first time!) being the hero. We will face Eastern Suburbs FC in the quarter finals, so we can start to imagine the cup semifinals.

Next month will consist of two more friendlies and the Eastern Suburbs game.

Thanks for reading!

Interesting post, thanks for that. I have taken on the task of managing Caroline Springs George Cross FC way down the leagues, utilising a decent Australian mod that allows. Really enjoyable but tough that as soon as any of your amateur player excels, they are poached by a club further up the food chain. Two promotions in two years for me so far.