gaz12321 - Comments

May 2020



Only 3 league games this month and solid form shown, the defence is a concern but was what I expected given the switch to an attacking mentality for the season however my centre back pairing that came in pre season seem to be struggling to play together. 19 year old Kim Doo-Hwan has been bang out of form and has lost his place in the side and will be taken out of the spotlight for a while. Mario Garcia has made a decent comeback from injury with 3 goals while Shen Tianfeng continues to impress in front of goal. The pair have scored 27 goals between them in all competitions so far this season.

The 78th minute penalty that gave us a point against Guangzhou was more than deserved and a very impressive outcome against a side that seem unstoppable, after a slightly stuttering start they have been in superb form since and continue to keep my lads at bay on the top of the pile.



Still just a point off the top and with Liaoning 3 behind us the top 3 are starting to break clear of the chasing pack, I wouldn't expect Liaoning to be strong enough to keep up the pace though.



Having gone a goal behind before the 20th minute after a dominant opening from the opponents I feared the worst but when left back Zheng Zheng whipped a free kick in to the top corner it was game on again. We managed to contain them for the remainder of the game but a last minute free kick proved too hot for keeper Wang Dalei to handle and he dropped it into the path of Dan Ishii who gratefully slotted home and advantage to the hosts. An away goal is a positive but progression not looking likely.



A valiant performance and a crazy game, Garcia gave us an early lead and an advantage in the tie that lasted merely 10 minutes before we were pegged back to 1-1. Charles Aranguiz restored the advantage and put the tie on a knife edge, with both sides looking tentative it was Dan Ishii who came up with a crucial strike again for Saitama giving them a technical 2 goal lead in the tie due to the away goals rule. We battled bravely and found a glimmer of hope when Shen Tianfeng popped up with a goal with almost 20 to play but despite dominating the remainder of the game we couldn't carve out the opportunity required and were eliminated from the Champions League on away goals. A cruel blow after such a brave effort.

I've mode some changes to my loaded leagues to give me room for movement across continents, despite the feeling that i'm doing well for Shnadong i'm concerned that China will never have strong enough players to enable a side to win the Champions League so I may be tempted to move on, to give me extra chance of pentagon progression my loaded leagues will be as follows:

China
South Korea (From 26/12/20)

Brazil (From 02/01/21)

Mexico (From 09/06/20)

Germany (From 29/06/20)
Italy (From 29/06/20)
Spain (From 09/07/20)

Just the top league loaded in all the added nations, if I get a move to one of them i'll consider making more changes to the league structures.

I'll be trying to follow this one, great challenge and starting with a league I have followed a little in real life so will be interesting reading for me. Good luck bud.

Thanks for your kind words, the Champions League was especially gutting as I think it may be a while before I get that chance again, judging by the results of fellow Chinese sides it doesn't appear that it's one of the stronger nations in the competition. The squad is stronger this year though, no doubt.

April 2020



A hectic schedule this month with the conclusion of the Champions League groups and plenty of league action, injuries to Ming Yang Yang, Huang Quan & Mario Garcia ensured it would be a tough run for us with Huang Quan's injury being especially bad keeping him out of action for the next 4 months! Luckily I have an adequate youngster to provide some form of replacement in Zhang Xu. Our league form this season started with an excellent 5-1 win and a solid away win that should have been more comfortable making it 5 from 5 but a huge shock came next when we lost 3-1 at Qingdao despite dominating the match, ironically their hat-trick hero was the young striker I released before the season! We returned to winning ways with a solid 2-0 win over Jiangsu before somehow we were held 1-1 away at Hangzhou missing a 93rd minute penalty and 2 clear cut chances following it!





The draw at the end of the month sees us slide down to second behind a Guangzhou side who have been rampant in April mainly thanks to a 20 year old French striker on loan from Bordeaux scoring like it's going out of fashion!



A 2-2 draw with Okayama before away wins at Ulsan & Muangthong saw us comfortably through the group and in to the knockout stages for the second year running, we are once again flying the flag for Chine here with the other sides all going out of the competition in the group stages!



We have been drawn against Saitama UTD of Japan, we faced them in the group stages last season and was disappointed not to take maximum points from them, I am hopeful of progression from this tie.

All in all a decent month considering the amount of games played and the injuries suffered, thankfully Garcia is soon to return and will provide massive relief for Shen Tianfeng who has had a great start to the season but really dropped off at the end of the month. Keep plugging away I guess.

Great season mate but harsh news about the Champions League. Good luck with the title challenge next year.

March 2020



Fantastic results this month, we have given ourselves a very strong footing in a challenging Champions League group with an impressive draw at Okayama in a game that exploded and swung back and forth 3 times before ending 3-3 to add to the 4-2 win over Ulsan last month. That was then improved by defeating Muangthong comfortably running out 2-0 winners, leaving us on 7 points having played each side once.

The league campaign opened up like a dream too with a fantastic 6-1 mauling of one of the top sides in the league away at Guizou Renhe (pictured below), a comfortable 2-0 win over Fuli and a last gasp win over rivals Beijing wrapped up a 100% start with 9 points from the first 3 games.



Very much a case of taking our chances that!

The whole side has started off really well with new signing Aranguiz off to a flyer but a special mention has to go to Mario Garcia, his performance against Renhe was less than impressive which saw him subbed off and dropped for the trip to Okayama and seemingly that gave him the required kick up the arse as he responded with 4 goals from the next 3 games.

My main problem at the moment is Guangzhou, however I feel that I have a stronger squad than they do this season and hopefully if my young players can be consistent enough I can overhaul them. Thanks for the comment and hope your enjoying the read.



Really didn't go my way, couldn't believe my luck but do feel the squad is much stronger this season so hoping for an improvement. Hoping to run Guangzhou all the way this year.


Luckily I have decent wifi connection where I am so there will still be updates though they won't be as regular as I won't get as much game time.

That'll be all from me for a while, gonna be away for at least a week possibly a week and half. Thanks for reading up to now.

Good work so far mate, catching the big 2 already and grabbing some silverware is a great achievement, keep it up.

February 2020



A fairly relaxed pre season schedule with a couple of competitive fixtures thrown in the mix, started off really well scoring goals for fun but nothing too serious for the side. Right back Alan picked up a bad injury in pre season and will be out for 5-6 months so it's a good job I signed the right back.



Once again Guangzhou got the better of me and lifted the Super Cup, the game was very even and only a draw would have been a fair reflection, Mario Garcia had an awful game missing a few good chances and some poor defending at our end allowed Wu Lei to jink through and slot past Wang Dalei to hand Guangzhou the victory.



Much Better! What a performance by the whole side but especially Mario Garcia who brought along his shooting boots and fired in a hat-trick, we were excellent going forward with the new attacking tactic working as i'd hoped, we were expected to be given a thumping but instead we got revenge for last years final. Great start to a tough group.



I have no idea what went wrong here, we didn't even deserve to lose here let alone get a hiding! Good job it's just a friendly.

This guy comes in from Beijing to fill in at right back, due to having 5 foreign players in the squad one of them will miss out regularly in the league and that is going to be my record signing Alan, there was no cover at right back so the signing makes sense and allows me to complete my transformation in style of play as we are looking to be more adventurous this season. Naturally this lads best role is as a complete wing back which will give us more options going forward. He has set me back a large £500k which is a lot more than he's worth but my options were limited with the lack of talented Chinese right backs.



The Champions League Group Stage Draw once again puts us up against Ulsan who we faced in the groups and the final last season, we also have Muangthong United of Thailand who have featured 5 times in the competition but only got beyond the group stage once. The group is completed with Okayama FC (FM's idea of Yokohama F Marinos I assume), the club has no history viewable so I don't know what to expect but Japan is generally strong so i'm guessing it's going to be a tough group to get out of.

Thanks man was gutted about the CL Final but never expected to get much further than the groups in the first place so should be proud of it I guess.

Only concern with that 18 is his leadership rating of 2, not ideal for a defender but should improve a fair bit in time I hope.

Was such a tough choice, think i'll regret but the Guangzhou squad currently looks a bit thin and like it needs a lot of work. However they were offering over £6m budget!

Thanks for following.

After the Guangzhou manager's retirement I saved the game before applying and then saved a new file to apply for the Guangzhou job and was successful, however I have decided to continue with Shandong instead as I feel i'm making good progress and fancy my chances of breaking Guangzhou's domination, lets hope I don't regret that!

Most of my transfer activity has been completed early so here's a summary:



8 players were released at the end of their contracts with the most notable being Daniel Hofstetter, he was a decent player for us and was even captain of the club but already on £62k a week and wanting more than that I felt I can bring in better quality defenders for less wage so made the big decision to let him move on, he made a total of 102 league appearances over 4 years at the club. Josur Xasanov was one of my early signings for Shandong but due to his age he is starting to decline and I feel I can get a better player in. Zhong Qi despite being just 21 and having great potential has been let go as he just simply hasn't progressed as he should have and I can't see him getting close to fulfilling his potential.



This outstanding 18 year old centre back arrives from Korea's Busan I'Park, already good enough to feature in my first team and potentially could be the best centre back the club has ever had!



Velazquez arrives from 3rd placed Jiangsu on a free, i'm really impressed with this signing and feel he is a great replacement for the released Hofstetter, played 83 games for Jiangsu over 3 seasons with an average rating of 7.00. His low concentration stat is my only real concern.



By far my favorite signing this, Charles Aranguiz arrives on a free transfer after Udinese failed to negotiate a new contract for him, this is an incredible signing for us and if he adapts without issue he will be a major part of any future success we could have, he is 30 years old but should still have a good 3 years in him before any major decline.



This is the squad as it stands, plenty of cover in all positions should stand me in good stead to challenge on all 3 fronts again, only position i'm looking to add to is Left Midfield with only Jin Hu naturally able to play there following Xasanov's release, and Jin Hu is still only young.

End of season confidence review, and not as good as I thought it would be given how well we have done this season, far exceeded expectations in all competitions! What baffles me the most is that the board wanted us to be more competitive in the FA Cup ... we lost the final through a 90th minute goal ffs!!



Money being pumped in to the facilities is great to see, got some great young players coming through.



This little gem came through our youth setup in my first season, he's become a first team regular at the age of 18 and looks set for a big future!



The most promising of the new youth intakes, with the right development he will be involved in the first team in no time.

Thanks mate, the Guangzhou manager is set to retire at the end of the season, i'd be an idiot not to go for that!

FA Cup Final 2019





Lost for words, I really am! How we have ended this season empty handed i've no idea, the first leg performance from Wu Lei destroyed us, no matter what I did I couldn't stop him from running the show, we made a game in it in the second leg but lost out to a scrappy last minute goal, all I can say is it just isn't meant to be.

I should be positive about this season but to be runners up in all 3 competitions is tough to take.

Champions League Final 2019



It just wasn;t to be, I can;t complain too much as we got a lot further than I ever imagined, it's gut wrenching to lose it at this stage but we just have to pick ourselves up and look forward to the FA Cup final. The match itself was very even, Ulsan took the lead when Park Hyo-Joon was given acres of space 6 yards out Daniel Hofstetter misjudged an interception, Hofstetter atoned for his error just 4 minutes later when he went up and scored just his 2nd goal of the season from a corner. Both sides had chances to make the next breakthrough but in the end it was a gift from our goalkeeper Wang Dalei that handed Ulsan the trophy, he dropped a tame 25 yard shot on the goal line and the quick reflexes of Park Hyo-Joon allowed him to head it in before the keeper could re-adjust himself. An absolutely awful way to lose the Champions League final, we done everything we could to get back ending up playing a 3-3-2-2 and throwing bodies but ultimately we were left to imagine what could have been. Our key 2 players just didn't really do it for us, especially Mario Garcia who had an awful game!

Gutted.

October 2019



So October's league form was a complete shambles but after the loss to Shenxin the title had basically gone, one more slip up from us or a Guangzhou win in the remaining 3 games would have been the end so I gave up on that, allowing me to completely rotate the squad before the Jiangsu game where we found ourselves 3 goals behind at half time despite being at least a match for them, we managed to get one goal back but the defeat put us under pressure to keep 2nd place. We managed 3 points against Liaoning with another fully rotated xi but with Jiangsu breathing down our necks I played a stronger side against A'erbin on the final day so a 2-0 defeat is a huge disappointment, to my surprise Jiangsu got smashed 5-0 at home to Shenua!

The Champions League run was amazing, a 2-0 home win over Lekhwiya turned around the first leg deficit and saw us advance to the Semi Final where we would face Al Hilal who had advanced at the expense of the impressive Jeonbuk. Once again we were written off by the bookies but a fantastic first leg performance put us in a good position managing to get not just the vital away goal we went for but also picking up a win! Into the second leg and an early Yang Chengbin strike put us ahead but we were instantly pegged back giving them an away goal, one more would have put them through. We continued to hit them on the break with chances being created every time we went forward, the impressive Mario Garcia put us back in front and 3-1 up in the tie after just 23 minutes. Mario Garcia's second goal just before HT was a fantastic strike powered into the top corner from a tight angle. Al Hilal pulled it back to 4-2 with 15 minutes remaining but the mountain was already too high for them. Shandong are in the Champions League Final!!!



So we managed to cling on to 2nd place in what was no doubt an improvement on last season, it was frustrating for me to see our hopes of the title fade away so early but that gave me a chance to focus all our attention on the Champions League. My targets before the season were a top 3 finish and to pick up a better points total than last season so definitely a successful campaign for us. Guangzhou still ran away with the title for the 8th time in 9 seasons but signs this season that they aren't untouchable, however I don't fancy our chances over 2 legs in the FA Cup Final against them!

Super League Player Stats









As you can see from them screens our key players again were Mario Garcia with 18 goals and Huang Quan who bagged 9 goals and setup 13. The rest of the squad were solid but certainly haven't set the world alight and how much we relied on these 2 guys really shone through at the end of the season when they were being rested for the Champions League. Huang Quan was the only Shandong player mentioned at the league awards ceremony with a rightful place in the team of the year.

September 2019



Not so many games this month with an international break at the start, the squad is looking a bit bare at the moment so being in 3 competitions is getting tough but we're powering through as best as we can. On the back of last month's defeat at Qingdao we were held 0-0 at home to lowly Changchun which was another frustrating and disappointing result that leaves Guangzhou a clear advantage as the season draws to a close. We managed to follow it up with league wins against Fuli & Dongya respectively but the attacking talent just hasn't been up to their usual high standards this month.

In the Champions League Quarter Final we battled back away at huge favorites Lekhwiya to draw level at 1-1 through right winger Yang Chengbin only to be left heartbroken by a late strike from the hosts, however the away goal is a massive boost for us and gives us something to dream about ahead of the return leg.

In the other game this month we rode out the FA Cup Semi Final fairly easily with a 1-1 draw to go with our 2-1 advantage from our home win in the first leg, Huang Quan scored the all important goal for us but in truth we should have won it comfortably. A two legged final with Chinese giants Guangzhou awaits, looking forward to that!



Guangzhou have had a far worse campaign this season and thanks to that we are still in with a shout of the title, if we can win our game in hand then the gap closes to 1 point, all we can do is keeping picking up points and hope for a slip up.



To be honest both sides have a similarly difficult run in with a trip to A'erbin who are currently 7th and both hosting Liaoning who are 8th. We face Jiangsu (who are 3rd) at home while Guangzhou have a trip to last years runner up Beijing. We would expect to see off Xiangtoo & Shenxin as comfortably as Guangzhou will expect to see of Chengdu. It could be tight this!



The China U23 escapade was enjoyable although I don't think it will enhance my rep at all, we were understandably knocked out in the Quarter Final by a superior Japan side despite creating more chances, the main thing i've learnt from this experience is that Guangzhou have some fantastic young talent, especially Wang Ming who's been banging goals in for fun this season. Nice to see my young striker Zhong Qi picking up a few goals in the limited playing time he got too.

Maybe not, got carried away, was able to call up a full squad.

Been given the task of managing China U23's for the Asian Games which will be a nice little change of emphasis briefly however I have a squad consisting of 3 players and with a game the next seemingly no time to call up players, pretty weird. Was hoping to use it as a kind of scouting mission at the same time.

August 2019



Guangzhou also opened the month by taking 3 points off of us again putting the title race in their hands, other than that a near perfect month for us but the defeat at Qingdao on the final day was a complete mood killer, injuries to both my natural right wingers meant I had to call on a 17 year old to make his debut (and not a good one!) along with a huge blow with an injury to Huang Quan. Mario Garcia continued his sensational season so far with 11 goals in 7 games!

A 2-1 win at home to Rizhiquan in the FA Cup semi final first leg gives us an advantage but it should have been so much better with a catalogue of missed chances before we conceded near the end out of absolutely nowhere.



With 8 games left to play we remain in 2nd but with Guangzhou not dropping a single point this month the defeat to Qingdao gives us a lot of work to do if we are going to stand any chance of beating the dominant Guangzhou who have 6 of the last 7 Super League titles! Jiangsu are also hanging on to our coat tails and keeping the 3 horse race going, it's set to be a very very tense end to the season but our involvement in the FA Cup and being the only Chinese side left in the Champions League may hinder our run in severely.

Cheers, not expecting to go all the way in the title race, top 2 would be fantastic realistically, will take a lot to overhaul Guangzhou they are too strong.

2019 (So Far)





18 games into the league and as you can see things are going well, currently joint top and keeping pace with the countries big fish Guangzhou but with Jiangsu not too far behind it's still a 3 horse race with 12 games to go. Performances against our direct challengers aren't great and are hindering our title chances with our 3 defeats all at the hands of Guangzhou and Jiangsu.



The Champions League has so far been a success, we were given no chance of getting out of our group with Ulsan of South Korea & Melbourne Heart both favorites to get the better of us but having picked up wins against each of the sides in the group and an impressive draw away at Ulsan we managed to sneak through at the expense of Melbourne Heart in the final game. A surprise 3-2 win away at Chunnum gave us the platform for success in the first knockout round of the Champions League and although it could have been more comfortable it was still a huge result, we put out the barricades for the return and despite falling behind early on we managed to shut out the favorites for the remainder of the game to sneak through on away goals. A tie with Qatari giants Lekhwiya awaits us, this will be incredibly tricky but it's a tie i'm looking forward too.

The FA Cup is going well too with a thumping 5-1 win at home to Fuli before sneaking through on penalties against an A'erbin side we really should have despatched in 90 minutes. A two legged semi-final awaits against Riziqhuan with a potential final against the mighty Guangzhou on offer.



An overview of the squad as it stands, the undoubted stars at the moment are once again Huang Quan and Mario Garcia.





A final note, Guangzhou have announced that they are searching for a replacement for their retiring manager at the end of the season and my name is in the hat, I will most definitely be applying unless we manage to win the Champions League, despite how well Shandong are progressing at the moment.

2018



My first full Super League campaign with Shandong, and a successful one as far as i'm concerned having set my self a points target of 50 points minimum which should have been enough to challenge for continental qualification and we ended the season on 56. The 1-1 draw at home to Guangzhou who ran away with the league title and the 4-1 victory over Beijing are particular highlights from our league campaign.



The final league table, and the 4th placed finish I had hoped for which gave us a chance of qualifying for the Champions League depending on the winner of the FA Cup which would be contested against league winners Guangzhou and 7th placed Liaoning. Predictably Guangzhou demolished Liaoning over 2 legs which secured my first shot at winning the Champions League, not that we're anywhere near ready for that yet, but it's good progress!

As for the FA Cup I won't post a screenie but we got past Shenxin with a 2-1 win before somehow being knocked out by beaten finalists Liaoning 2-1 in the 4th round, so nothing to shout about there.

As far as player performances are concerned one of my first signings at Shandong was Huang Quan, a 19 year old attacking midfielder from Jiangsu who set me back £160k really forced himself into the first team squad and was by far and away my best player over the season being involved in 31 goals over the league campaign scoring 17 and creating 14. Mario Garcia was the other player to catch the eye this season having joined almost half way through the season on a free transfer from Deportes Savio the Honduran striker at the age of just 20 managed 10 league goals in the remaining 17 games and looks like he has the potential to be the catalyst of any future success for the club alongside Huang Quan, 2 truly exceptional signings.

So there you have it, no trophies lifted this season but a success without doubt, I was looking forward to having a shot at the Champions League, the next update will bring me up to speed with where i'm at in the game and things can start becoming more detailed. Hope your all enjoying following my journey.

2016



The final game of the season was all that got cut off the bottom of the screen so i've selected it meaning it's the game in the right panel. Yet again a fantastic campaign and incredibly we retained the title!! Three years running we have won our league now, Kamarudin Shahrom at the tender age of 16 when I started the season made the jump to the first team and managed to notch an impressive 12 league goals! The usual suspects Wisdom & Jaafar were again instrumental in our charge to another title, Wisdom managed to notch 13 goals. This couldn't be going any better!!



We started the season by lifting the Charity Shield with a 2-1 win over Singapore Lions thanks to a brace from young Shahrom. For some unknown reason there was no Malaysian Cup to follow the league this season which I found strange. The FA Cup went much more successfully getting all the way to the Final but losing out by a goal to Singapore Lions, despite a poor performance by our standards we were unlucky to get beaten, this was particularly disappointing being the only Malaysian Trophy that I haven't won and knowing that my Sime Darby days were most likely coming to an end!

The Confederation Cup was an excellent competition to test our abilities, for some weird reason we were made huge favorites for every game but it was something that I learnt to ignore, 2 wins over Ha Noi and another over Churchill Bros was enough to see us through to the knockout rounds but we were narrowly eased out of the competition by Hong Kong's Yokohama FC.

All in all another fantastic season and no doubt that my reputation has been built enough to move on to a nation where I can qualify for the Champions League with China, Australia & South Korea available.

So where to next ...

2017

I spent 6 months out of the game searching for the right opportunity and once again I feel I have landed myself a great chance, in May 2017 I was appointed as the new manager of Chinese 'sleeping giant' Shandong Luneng, languishing in 12th place after 8 games and not far from safety I had 22 games in which to turn it around and try to break the top 4, that would be an incredible feat!



It took a while to get the team playing the way I wanted but as the season went on the team started responding and eventually we got going into an excellent run of form eventually winning 10 of our final 14 games, This was unfortunately only enough to lift us to 6th meaning that we wouldn't be playing in the AFC Champions League just yet but I had been able to assess the current playing squad and start scouting the right talent to come in to the club. I was certainly feeling positive for the next campaign given how well we ended this season and have let the squad know that we were coming back next season to challenge for Continental Qualification.

Thanks for reading, more to follow soon ...

Thanks mate, really landed on my feet at Sime Darby.

Couple of tough months there but a strong finish and you can get yourself a shot in the play-off's. Enjoying the read mate keep it up.