Bayern and Beyond

Gladbach how on your heels this season!

Do you have to keep us waiting?

I scored five goals in the first half once against Bohs in the League Cup, we only won the game 6-1.

Thanks for reading Wilc94, glad you're enjoying it. I do have rotten luck in the Champions League, and that continues as you'll see again.

Dan, it's nice to have the competition, but Gladbach was an unexpected rival!

Well, Shedender, I don't want to keep you in suspense anymore, so let's get on with it:

December 2018

Well the answer to the question, Shedender, is that we beat Freiburg 5-1 and Bernard was hurt (out 3 weeks with a fractured arm). Kind of anti-climactic, really. All of our goals came before halftime, and yes, we changed tactics, but only to move to a balanced approach. I'm quite surprised we stopped scoring completely. We then had a full week off before our next league match against Schalke. What was a even match filled with great defensive plays on both sides came to life when a Kurt Zouma pass split open the Schalke back four and allowed Pierre Hojbjerg to walk it into the goal. Unfortunately, Sebastian Rode scored three minutes from time to make the score 1-1. That put us in a foul mood, and we took it out on Grasshoppers, winning 4-0 as Thomas Muller got back on the scoring track with a hat-trick and Julian Brandt made the most of a rare start (as he's stuck behind Muller on the depth chart and can hardly get a game in). That made the final Group A standings look like this:



Four days later, the same 4-0 scoreline against ever-so-slightly more talented opponents, 4th-placed Leverkusen. Hojbjerg got us off to a dream start and Muller added his league-leading 14th goal. The win kept us two points ahead of Gladbach, but they had a game in hand, due to play Schalke on the same day that we had our DFB-Pokal match against Pep Guardiola's Hoffenheim. We won, 3-1, but so did Gladbach, and we found ourselves in 2nd place going into the final round before the winter break. The good news is, we were scheduled to play 18th-placed Dresden. The bad news is that Gladbach played 17th-placed Hannover. We won, 3-0 and Muller scored yet again (his 15th Bundesliga goal of the season). As for Gladbach:



Confirmation that we were not named Herbstmeister for the first time in five years. On a brighter note, look at these selected stats from the first half of the season:



Of particular note, have a look at the "Team Goals" section. Ozil and Muller have been on the pitch for 52 league goals. We have scored...52 league goals. Those two have been on the pitch for each of the goals we have scored so far this season.

As for the Champions League knockout draw - we got Juventus. Sonovabitch.

Gladbach still flying, could be a close season as you said unexpected rivals there!

How are Gladbach and Mainz hovering at the top of the table? Insane! Keep up the good work with Bayern though.

Yes Dan, Gladbach has been off to a great start. But as you'll see, some familiar faces are starting to assert themselves.

Gendo, I'm not sure why Gladbach is doing so well, they had been relegated earlier in the save and this is only their second season back in the top flight. Mainz, on the other hand, has been consistently good throughout this save, with the exception of one season when their manager left to become the Germany manager and they finished near the drop zone as they got used to their new (and current) manager's style.

January/February 2019

A very quiet winter transfer window, as I didn't bring anyone in and only let two players go:



Despite interest, I wasn't able to get the money I wanted for Lorenzo Insigne (stupid Dortmund trying to lowball me). Rather than him rotting in the reserves, I let him go out on loan to Tottenham in the hopes that he'll impress and I can get a bidding war for him next off-season. I have a €33 million sale clause in the agreement, but I doubt Tottenham will exercise it. It'd be great if they did, though.



Patrick Weber was a youngster that really didn't have a future at Bayern due to his 2.5 star potential rating. He was valued at more than €1 million, however, so I didn't really want to let him go on a free. I signed him to a contract and decided to sell him at the earliest opportunity. Hoffenheim came in for him about three weeks later - I got €1.8 million and a next sale clause.

As far as the results, I had three friendlies and two matches that counted in January, then a full slate of matches in February:


As you can see, it wasn't pretty to start 2019 as we had not one, but two scoreless matches, a 0-0 draw at home to Hertha Berlin and a 1-0 loss at Mainz. I'm sure the players wanted to prove they could still score, so score they did in an amazing 11-0 (no, that's not a misprint) win against Hoffenheim highlighted by braces from Ozil, Julian Brandt, Kurt Zouma and Thomas Muller, extending his Bundesliga scoring lead with two goals after the score was already 9-0! As you can imagine, that's a personal record and one I doubt I'll ever break. Amazingly, we still sat in second place despite the win, the loss and the draw.



Momentum was most decidely in our favour in the mid-week match against Hannover and we made the best of it, winning 3-0 against a team that was actually below Hoffenheim on the ladder. Muller scored his 18th goal, and Januzaj, who got a ton of assists in the Hoffenheim match, chipped in with a goal of his own. That win saw us climb back to the top of the table as Gladbach drew and Leverkusen and Dortmund both won to push BMG down to 4th. A second consecutive road match, this time to Frankfurt, ended 2-1; the result kept us three points ahead of Dortmund and ensured that, no matter what happened, we would stay top when we faced Der BVB at Allianz-Arena in a week's time.

We seemed to control the match and possession, but credit to the Dortmund defence, who was outstanding. Nothing seemed to work until right before halftime when Gabriel Barbosa played a lovely through-ball that Muller ran up on, slotting it home for Bundesliga goal #19 (and his 30th overall) and a 1-0 lead that stuck. Unfortunately, in the 83rd minute Philipp Lahm picked up his 5th yellow card of the season; this suspension by my captain marks the first suspension by any Bayern player since I took over as manager back in 2013! Lahm's bookings seem to be up - I think it's because he's compensating since he's lost a step due to age, making it vital that I bring in Benjamin Ferner as his replacement next season.

Our 2-0 loss to Köln was an aberration, but thankfully Leverkusen also lost, preserving our 3-point lead. Our focus, however, was on what was sure to be a tough Champions League match against Juventus in Turin. I was hoping to escape with a draw, 0-0 or maybe 1-1 so we could get an away goal. So you can imagine my surprise when we found ourselves off to a flyer and up 3-1 at halftime. We were scoring for fun, and I had switched to a defensive mentality by around the half-hour mark - and we still scored two more goals after that! Juventus pulled a second one back toward the end, so I shut it down, switching to a 5-4-1 that really played more like a 5-2-2-1 with extreme defensive tendencies and an emphasis on time-wasting. That worked, and we left Turin with a two-goal cushion and four away goals in the bag!



This happened before the Hannover match. I'm not sure what the "struggling in the league" comment was all about - we were second, one point out, and ended up top at the end of that match. As for favouring Dutch players over Germans - well, duh.



The standings at the end of February. We're back top, but it's still tight. Leverkusen is starting to assert itself, and Borussia Monchengladbach has managed to climb back into 3rd place. My next update will be at the end of March with hopefully some more good news.

11-0 win against Hoffenheim is superb despite them struggling! wow! Nice to see you begin to move clear

Thanks Dan, it was a surprise, that's for sure. We're finding our rhythm at the right time, and a big reason for that is our defence.

March 2019

The month got off to a great start with a 4-0 pasting of Kaiserlautern, another struggling side in the Bundesliga this season. From there it was the DFB-Pokal quarter final against Werder Bremen, currently in 2. Bundesliga but due to be promoted based on their performance so far. We handled the lower-division opponents easily, but it was a costly victory as Thomas Muller got injured in the 87th minute and will be lost for two weeks minumum. This gave Julian Brandt the break he was looking for, and he performed well on both the right and left wings. Adnan Januzaj really picked up the goalscoring slack, scoring a brace in our 4-2 win at Wolfsburg, whilst Brandt opened the scoring in our victory over Stuttgart.

Whilst I was afraid Muller's absence would hurt us against Juventus, our performance in the first leg gave us a comfortable margin, and we just focused on playing our style. Januzaj scored again (it'd be nice if he scored this frequently when Muller is healthy), and Juventus could only managed 1 away goal (they needed 4). We drew PSG in the next round, a problem as we failed to beat them in our two Champions League group stage matches this season.



What a match between the top two teams in the Bundesliga! We fell behind Monchengladbach early thanks to Shawn Parker, and five minutes after halftime found ourselves with a 2-goal deficit. Six minutes later, Richeldy Bazoer came up huge on a corner kick, then Muller, on as a second-half sub due to match fitness, provided the equaliser. However, Parker struck again in the 89th minute, a counter-attack that came up huge for BMG. That said, we had an instant reply in stoppage time, only for Barbosa to be ruled offside. And that was the end of that.



Even with the loss we are still four points clear of Monchengladbach with 6 matches remaining. More importantly (to me) is that we are now the stingiest defence as well as the most prolific scorers. There'll be no rest after the international break, with mid-week matches every week thanks to our participation in the Champions League!

One competitive match and one friendly this team, as we play Azerbaijan first before our friendly with Norway. Injuries are the theme of the month, as we had no fewer than four players suffer injuries after the squad had been announced. This was good in that I was able to bring in some new players, particularly with the friendly so that I can see how they do against quality European opposition. However, first up is the qualifier, and we need experience and talent to put a bucketful past the Azeri and knock Austria off the top of the group:



Not exactly what I was looking for, but as you can see, we were never really troubled in this match. Not one bit. Their only shot was in the first five minutes of the match. Fabregas played very well and deserved his goal. Thiago scored the other goal (actually the first one). Jese played well in a substitute role for the tired Isco, so of course he got hurt in training and was sent back home. The standings for Group J in qualifying:



As for the friendly, of course Jese got hurt. But that allowed me to start my third-choice right wing, Pedro, and what a revelation:



It's a career resurgence for Pedro, as the PSG man scored a brace against the Norwegians. The funny thing is, he usually plays on the left (and in fact did so for me against Azerbaijan) but he was dominant against Norway on the right. At age 31, he's obviously not a long term solution for anything, but it's nice to know he's there and can most likely do the business if called upon. It's weird, though, to think that in a couple of weeks time, when we play PSG in the Champions League, I'm going to be rooting for him to fail.

Our next match for Spain will be in mid June with a qualifier against Iceland. This is the halfway point of our Euro 2020 campaign, and I'm quite pleased. I'm confident that we'll qualify, and aim to top the group, because that's where Spain should be.

Despite the defeat to gladbach who are having a superb season another strong month

A quick mini-update on our Champions League tie against PSG:



A 0-0 draw at home, but that's not the worst thing in the world as now any win or score draw in the second leg will send us through. As you can see by the stats, we were the more aggressive team but our shooting was poor. I'm happy for Neuer to win MoM but in all honesty it should have gone to PSG keeper Salvatore Sirigu.

Once again, a draw at home to PSG, and off we go to the Parc de Princes, which has historically been a difficult place for us to get a result. The good news is that, no matter what, we won't have to play PSG anymore this season!

Wow, you dominated the game and you didn't win? I'd have been disappointed with that result, especially 2nd leg in PSG backgarden.

Let's make this interesting, shall we?
Instead of doing the usual monthly reviews, I'm going to recap by competition, with the Bundesliga getting its own posts and the cup competitions done separately. After this post, that is:


After the international break, we hosted Augsburg in what would be our most comfortable match of the month:


Easy from the looks of things on the scoresheet, but there was signs of the trouble to come as Augsburg was actually up 1-0 at the half, before Januzaj and Bernard scored to give us the lead, with a quick-fire double from Ozil and Hjobjerg putting the match out of reach.

Next up was the Champions League match against PSG, which you already know about. So on to the next Bundesliga match:



Not our best work, particularly in that it was our third straight home match. We had lots of shots, but couldn't make them count. This has now officially become a trend. On to the second leg of the PSG tie, with the knowledge that both Schweinsteiger (strained ligaments) and Lahm (twisted knee) are out due to injury:


Following that was a Bundesliga match away to Freiburg. Cover your eyes if you're the squeamish sort:



Outshot our opponents 2-to-1, dominated possession, and yet found ourselves down 3-0 at the hour mark due to mental lapses and indiscipline. Januzaj's goal on 78 minutes and Zouma's in stoppage time really flattered us; this was a horrible match, any way you care to slice it. Not the best frame of mind to enter the DFB-Pokal match away to 2. Bundesliga side Hansa Rostock. However, I was planning heavy squad rotation, to keep key players fresh for the key Bundesliga match against Schalke on the weekend. Would players who by and large weren't involved in this debacle suffer from the hangover?



Well, if I'm being perfectly honest, yes. Another match that we controlled everywhere except the scoreboard. We did enough to get through (barely) and will play in the DFB-Pokal final against Dynamo Dresden. There's a chance that it might be the only meaningful football match we have at the end of the season.

So here is the table, following the Freiburg match:


For the first time in recent memory, four teams are well-placed to win the title with three weeks remaining. We are on top, so destiny is in our hands. However, given the way we've been playing, it's an advantage we could easily fritter away. Here's the remaining fixtures for the title contenders, along with their opponents' current league position:

Bayern Munich
v. Schalke (8th)
@ Bayer Leverkusen (3rd)
v. Dynamo Dresden (18th)

Borussia Monchengladbach
v. Bayer Leverkusen (3rd)
@ Dynamo Dresden (18th)
v. Hannover 96 (17th)

Bayer Leverkusen
@ Borussia Monchengladbach (2nd)
v. Bayern Munich (1st)
@ Hamburg (7th)

Borussia Dortmund
v. Hoffenheim (16th)
@ Eintracht Frankfurt (13th)
v. Augsburg (14th)

Dortmund, of course, has the easiest run in, with nothing but bottom-third opponents and two of them at home, to boot. However, Gladbach is best placed should they see off Leverkusen at home, with matches against the two teams in the relegation zone to end the season. Leverkusen has a horror stretch - the Gladbach/Leverkusen match this weekend will effectively eliminate the loser from contention - but should they win their matches against Glabach and us, they will certainly be worthy champions! Finally, we face a team we usually beat (Schalke), a team that has caused us problems in the past (Leverkusen) and a relegation deadcert that we'll face again the week later (Dresden).

One thing's for sure - it's going to be an very entertaining May.

Mays going to be a huge month! suuperb so far!

The first of three big matchdays. I'll hide the results behind spoilers so you can build the tension. I'll also list the matches chronologically:

Bayern v. Schalke

Gladbach v. Leverkusen

Dortmund v. Hoffenheim

The table after Matchday 32:

Another update to come after Matchday 33. I'm currently playing the first leg of my Champions League tie against Barcelona.

Like the style of the latest update, certainly going to be a tight end! Hopefully you'll hold your top spot!

Oh okay, here's a preview. As you can see from the time bar at the bottom of the screenshot even I don't know the result of this match yet because it's not finished:

Thanks Wilc94, it's been five years since a team has run me close for the title, and there's three of them! With the closeness of the race and the wild differences in strength of schedule, it seemed like a good way to handle the final three weeks of the season.

A very tricky Champions League semi-final tie against Barcelona. We last played Los Cules back in the 2014 Champions League (my first season) and beat them, drawing at Camp Nou and winning at Allianz-Arena.

Someday I'll have to publish the full career of my Jeroen van den Herten character across all of the versions of Football Manager. He actually managed Barcelona from 2007 to 2010 (in FM 2008).

At any rate, you already know that we were up 2-1 at halftime of the first leg at Allianz-Arena. Could we hold on?


A week later, we went to Camp Nou for the second leg:


Next update: Matchday 33 in the Bundesliga

Good luck in the final man

Going to be a great end to the season Simon and should you fall short in yet another Champions League final I think even I will feel the hurt! Gladbach have had a fantastic season in the Bundesliga and kept it interesting until the end, losing more games than them this season poses a question or two. Good luck for the run in!

Thanks Dan, DP91 and everyone else who is reading. I hope you are enjoying these installments and looking forward to see what happens next. Well, wait no further:



So here we are, Matchday 33. If the results fall our way, we could end up clinching the Bundesliga title by the end of the day. However, if results didn't go our way, we could find ourselves finishing in as low as 4th place, which you would think would almost certainly cost me my job.

Eintracht Frankfurt v. Borussia Dortmund

Dynamo Dresden v. Borussia Monchengladbach

Bayer Leverkusen v. Bayern Munich

Next update: Matchday 34 and the DFB-Pokal final

Instead of my original plan, I thought it would be more "poetic" if I did a post for the last three matches of the season, all finals in their own right: the now-pointless Matchday 34 against Dynamo Dresden, the DFB-Pokal final two weeks later against the same team, and the Champions League final against Arsenal.

First Matchday 34, and with nothing for either side to play for (we have been confirmed champions and Dresden have been relegated), I decided to start a different starting XI, and drew heavily from the reserves for my substitutes. This would be a good test on the progress of some of them - how will they do against a side that is on the cusp between 1. Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga?



You can see for yourself, the make-shift side made good! All the players with squad numbers in the 30s are reserve-team players, all five of them on the teamsheet saw action with the least-highly regarded by my staff, Spanish right back Igor, being named man of the match! Bernard getting injured wasn't the worst thing to happen as it allowed me to give Adil Neqrouz more of a run-out; the startlet finished the season as he began it, with a goal in a senior match (he scored a hat trick in the DFB-Pokal first round match at the start of the season). Look for Atilla Tuncer to have more of a substantial role next season as the eventual replacement for Gotze and Ozil; it was nice to see Tonny Trinidade have a solid performance as well.

The final Bundesliga table, then:


After all the drama, it's the usual Bayern/Dortmund 1-2 finish, with Monchengladbach hanging on to claim 3rd spot and automatic Champions League group stage qualification. I'm glad for that, it's the least Die Fohlen deserved. Dresden and Hannover go straight back down to 2. Bundesliga, while Werder Bremen goes straight back up, joined by Bochum. Hoffenheim would eventually lose the pro/rel playoff to Nurnberg, ending their 11-season stint in the top flight and putting Pep Guardiola on the hot seat.

Next up is the Final of the DFB-Pokal, once again versus Dresden. If a decidedly second-choice XI could smash Dresden 4-1, then surely my first teamers would have no problems, right?



Well we won, but it wasn't pretty. As you can see, Dynamo was certainly "up for the Cup" as it were, and we had to work hard to get our hands on the domestic double. Gabigol scored the game winner, but not until nearly the hour mark. The longer the match went scoreless, the more worried I got that Dresden would somehow sneak one and our season's work would all come undone. But the back line held firm, lead by captain and man of the match Phillipp Lahm, and we win the Pokal for the third time in my career.

From there, it was on to the Champions League final. My fourth attempt at trying to grab the brass ring, each against English competition. We failed against Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea. How would we fair against Arsenal, a team that for some odd reason has been made 3-5 favourites against us despite finishing 4th in the Premiership in 2019?

Congrats on your amazing season!

Where do you go from here?

Super season! as Gendo said, whats next?

Well gents, that's the big question, isn't it? The short answer is that my Spain team has a Euro 2020 qualifier in two weeks, haha.

Seriously though, that's what I've been asking myself. Obviously, we've now qualified for the Club World Championship on our own merits, unlike my first year when it was a legacy of Pep's team winning the Champions League IRL. I'd like to manage the team in that, and the UEFA Super Cup, maybe try to match Pep's famous "Year of the Six Trophies" at Barca.

After that, well, I'm not sure. Part of the fun of this year was that the Bundesliga race was so tight. It is getting kind of boring winning the league all the time. However, some of my first regens, such as Neqrouz, are starting to have an impact in the first team now, and I am looking forward to seeing how my youth players will do.

On the other hand, I'm still on FM14 and so FM15 is just sitting there on my computer, waiting to be used. There's three ideas for saves that I have, but my focus is on this one. I'm a bit concerned about all the reports of crash dumps still on FM 15 so part of me wants to wait for a patch before I get too involved in the new version. Maybe I'll keep playing the Bayern game until say, Christmas, and then focus on a new challenge?

One thing is for sure - as I said before, this is my most favourite FM career now. At six seasons, it's also my longest (I have a short attention span!). A large part of the reason for both those things is the comments and encouragement that everyone leaves - playing (and writing) for an audience has inspired me to keep going when I might have otherwise lost interest (and now, after having won all the trophies I wanted to win, is definitely one of those times). So thanks for all your support, everyone!

Congrats on finally achieving that Champions League crown with Bayern Simon, it's been a long time coming!

Well done on a terrific season! Would be good to see you have a crack at winning the six trophies Pep did!

Thanks for the kind words guys, I hope you keep reading and commenting!



Only one match for us this time, our main rivals Austria, meanwhile, had two. We faced weak opposition in Iceland and, I must admit, I took my eyes off the ball on this one:

When was the last time you saw someone complain about winning a match 5-2? When it should have been 5-0, that's when. As you can see, we clearly dominated the match, and Fabregas was outstanding, pulling the strings in midfield and getting two goals in the process. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if he were to retire after Euro 2020.

Isco, Thiago and of course Alvaro Morata also scored for us. Still, up 5-0 with five minutes to go, we let in not one but two crap goals by Gylfi Sigurdsson, the second coming practically off of the kickoff from the first. The implications of this?



We find ourselves behind Austria on goal difference, a fact directly attributable to those two goals. While, with three matches left, both of us half for all intents and purposes already qualfied for Euro 2020 (and we can make it an actuality with a win in our next match), I want to top the group, and I want to do that in style. You can't do that by letting in two soft goals in garbage time...

Good win over Iceland. I'd try and attempt to win 6 trophies in a year