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#214657 Gloria al Sammarinese...and myself
simoncoyne
#214652 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
#214647 Dans Journey Around The World [FM15]
simoncoyne
#214455 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
As usual, I'll split my August recap into two posts, one for the action on the pitch and another for the transfer window and roundup. My fourth season in charge of FC Bayern started with a trip to newly promoted Eintracht Frankfurt, back in 1.Bundesliga at the first time of asking. From there, it was the home opener against traditional rivals Werder Bremen. It doesn't get any easier as we then have to travel to Gelsenkirchen to take on Schalke, before wrapping up the month at home against Bayer Leverkusen, a team we have had lots of problems with during my time in charge of Die Bayern.
A great way to start the season, even though we were on the road I used my traditional 4-2-3-1 formation against a weak team I wanted to go at early. The Nord/Süd Derby against Werder was particularly satisfying and a great way to start the home season - that's now 19 straight Bundesliga wins at Allianz-Arena going back to the 2014-15 season. Schalke was always going to be tough; they may have 16th when we played them, but the way they played against us shows they won't be there for long. That match gave me my first chance to break out the 4-3-2-1 for the first time in the league. Finally, a wonderful performance against a side that has caused us real problems, and the 20th-straight Bundesliga home victory to boot!
Here's the league table after August's matches. Dynamo Dresden is not enjoying life in the Bundesliga right now. Koln and Frankfurt are the other two new teams:
Also this month, in fact on the Thursday before the Leverkusen match, was the draw for the Champions League group stages:
I'm happy with that draw. None of those teams really worry me; even Atletico is a shadow of its former shelf.
The next post will contain a review of the transfers for June, July and August. I'm not planning on making any more purchases, but if my players keep getting hurt, then who knows?
#214350 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
One more signing thus far, picking up goalkeeper Timo Horn from relegated Borussia Monchengladbach. He'll join us at the end of this season, after I decide what to do with Dejan Stojanovic:
Finally, a signing who I had and lost. My scouts unearthed this young Turkish regen at Trabonzspor and I had agreed to a €5.25 million deal as a sign-and-loan-back deal. Unfortunately, right after he agreed to contract terms he suffered a sports hernia and my board canceled the transfer after he failed a medical. This was ridiculous because he wasn't even going to join me for another year! Oh well, I just hope I can re-sign him for the same amount once he has healed.
I'll do a final review at the end of August. I don't anticipate signing any more players, but I do hope to sell a couple of more and loan some out. My squad has mostly been bolstered by the arrival of sign-and-loan-back players from previous seasons, which has allowed me to sell some big name players for huge profits. Now, it's off to play some matches!
#214346 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
2016/17 Season
My fourth season in charge of FC Bayern Munich started with a plan for the close season, a plan that started out perfectly and quickly went to shit. But before I get to that, in and amongst the pre-season friendlies were two matches that actually counted, the DFB-Supercup and the first round of the DFB-Pokal. Between our four straight Bundesliga titles and a cup victory the previous season, this is our fifth-straight appearance in the Supercup. And as we did the double, an opponent must be found for us. I hoped it would be against Stuttgart, cup runners-up, but the team chosen was the runner-up in the Bundesliga, our old rivals Borussia Dortmund.
Drama in Dortmund during the close season, as it looked for a while like manager Jürgen Klopp was going to let his contract expire. However, he signed a four-year extension at the last moment, so I'll be locking horns with "Floop" for a while yet. In other manager news, Joachim Löw was released from his position as coach of Die Nationalmannschaft after a disappointing appearance in Euro 2016. He's been replaced by Thomas Tuchel, the former Mainz manager who got that club into the Champions League for the second time in three seasons.
So after five pre-season friendlies, we travelled to Dortmund for the Supercup. How would it go? Quite well, in fact:
More silverware (my 10th since joining the club) to start the season. A great start as we showed early dominance, only for Dortmund to kick it into another gear after Januzaj's goal. However, we weathered the storm and then took back control of the match toward the end of the half, only for Schweinsteiger to get injured right on half time. We continued to be the better team in the second half, consistently searching for a second goal to wrap up the match but never managing to find one. We swapped to a more defensive posture toward the end, but they failed to get an equaliser and we celebrated in front of their supporters
The second, and last, competitive fixture in July was the first round of the DFB-Pokal, or German Cup. As is custom, the lower-rated side hosts the first round, and so we travelled to Saxony-Anhalt to face VfL Halle 96. This was actually the second time I've faced them, having beaten them 5-1 in the first round of the 2014/15 Cup. My squad depth is already starting to come in handy with injuries to Schweinsteiger, backup keeper Dejan Stojanovic and the abscene of Florian Thauvin, who's at the Olympics. Still, even a weakened XI was never going to be a problem against an Oberliga (fifth tier) side:
Here's the list of July fixtures. I sent out what was essentially a reserve team side against Newcastle, resting everyone who was going to be in my team for the Supercup three days later. I wouldn't even have accepted the friendly, but they offered us half a million euros to show up, and you can't turn down that kind of cash...
Tactically, I've been playing around with a formation that I can use with my "Plan B" defensive match plan, and I think I've got it. Instead of using a 3-5-2 with two DM, wings in the middle of the pitch and a lone AM, I've taken my favourite 4-2-3-1 formation and tweaked it, dropping down the two MF to become DMs and the attacking centre mid to become a more traditional CM. This now 4-3-2-1 keeps the wings closer to the attacking third along with the lone striker. The result is a formation that basically concedes the wings in the middle of the pitch whilst gumming up the centre and providing for distribution possibilities as the left and right backs and wings link up:
(The formation as used in our match against Halle 96)
I used this formation in combination with Plan B match plan for the first three matches, before switched back to "Plan A" (A for attacking) and the 4-2-3-1 for the last three friendlies. I'm pleased with the results and look forward to using it in some tricky away matches this season.
Well this post has gotten big, so I'll post my new players in a separate posting.
#214299 Royal Eagles - Succession Game FM15
simoncoyne
#214168 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
(P.S. City have already offered me €27.5 million for Stefano Denswil but there's no way I'm selling him.)
#214158 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
And here's my Best XI for 2015-16, which I forgot to include in my last post:
I've done up a spreadsheet and I've got a plan for this year's transfer window. I know who I want to move on, who I want to re-sign, and who I want to loan out. Thankfully, I don't really need many more players, just another defender (ideally one who can play anywhere along the back) and maybe a striker. Any other signings I make will be loaned back to their old clubs for a year or two. Hopefully, I won't have to spend much of my €117 million (now €169 million) transfer budget.
I think I hit on something - I signed those three regens from my last post, and I did it as soon as they were "introduced". As a result, none of them had signed with an agent so I was able to get all three on very favourable (to me) pre-contracts that will take effect once they turn 17. I'm going to make this my standard procedure from now on - especially as two of them have already signed with agents in the past week!
#214145 Dans Journey Around The World [FM15]
simoncoyne
#213925 Dans Journey Around The World [FM15]
simoncoyne
#213870 Dans Journey Around The World [FM15]
simoncoyne
Judging by that logo, it looks like you might have landed yourself a job with one of the Red Bull family of football clubs:
Hopefully next year they'll give you some of that sweet, sweet energy drinks money in the form of a decent transfer kitty and wage budget. Good luck for the rest of the season!
#213864 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
You already knew about the job offer from Monaco. I rejected that, of course, which meant I needed to sign a new assistant manager to replace the retiring Johan Neeskens. I tried looking at Dutch and German folks first, but whilst I found some promising candidates, I thought I could do better. That's when I found this guy, one of Rafa Benitez's backroom staff at Liverpool and Napoli who was cut loose when Buster Bluth got the sack. He wanted to be a HOYD, but it's amazing how offering him twice his asking price (which still ended up being less than I was paying Neeskens) will make a guy change his mind:
And here's the best of my youth intake. I must say, I'm very disappointed in this year's class. I've found that with Bayern, I've become a regen snob. I won't even consider signing regens unless they're 3 stars or more. Here's the only three that fit that bill:
Oh well, you can't have everything all the time I guess...
#213858 BMG x2
simoncoyne
Nico, have you sent that in to SI? That's the kind of thing they'll fix in the next database update...
#213857 BMG x2
simoncoyne
It could be worse...in my Bayern save, Gladbach just got relegated!
#213603 Playing as your local team
simoncoyne
Considering playing as them this time around though. There's no other viable options (for me) in an A-League save.
#213418 Cleansing Europe - one nation at a time!
simoncoyne
#213411 The Search For Glory
simoncoyne
#213171 BMG x2
simoncoyne
Well, there is that problem...
#213166 SS2 6NQ - Southend Utd
simoncoyne
I checked tonight and my local shop definitely has their copies in the back so I'll pick mine up after work tomorrow. I still think I'll keep playing my FM14 game for a bit and wait for the first patch, so cheers guys for finding all of the bugs for me.
Good luck with Southend. As I've got my own League 2-to-Premiership game planned, I'll be following your career with great interest.
#212948 BMG x2
simoncoyne
If you use Euros as your currency, it makes the transfer budget look bigger!
#212924 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
Yeah, it really was an easy decision. I was a bit disappointed to see, I was hoping for a bigger budget than that. I guess they're having financial issues IRL too.
I'm happy at Bayern. I've been making all these signings for the future so I'd like to see how they turn out. Januzaj, Denswil and Thauvin are just the tip of the iceberg.
#212920 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
Thanks for the commiserations Johno. The transfer budget was probably the main reason I didn't take the Monaco job. Not to worry though. My transfer budget for 2017 at Bayern is a bit more...robust
#212729 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
For a rich club, that's an awfully poxy transfer budget. And there isn't a lot of room in the wage budget to manoeuver. Plus, that salary they're offering me? For a point of comparison, I'm on 110,000 a week at Bayern. I know that manager salaries don't have an impact on the game, but that's insulting.
They're a good side, and they finished one point off of PSG this season, but I'm going to have to pass.
#212721 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
We finally (and by "we", I mean "I" because this is the 17th cup win for the club) win the German Cup. This means that I have officially met all of the board's expectations from the start of the season, as well as my first league and cup double. It was never close, but we couldn't seem to manage to score until the second half. I knew the breakthrough would come, though - Stuttgart never really had it.
Good news for Hertha Berlin: because Stuttgart and us both already qualified for Europe, they got the European place reserved for the cup winner
And then, the Champions League final:
The exact opposite of the DFB-Pokal. City were always in the control and we never really had any right to win. Even when we got a goal back, and had some chances at an equaliser (including a ball that was put in the net after the whistle had gone for offside), had we managed to win I would have to say that the better team lost. It was a bit hard to take because, after that Chelsea tie, I thought we were a team of destiny, but it gives us something to work for next season!
Finally, a personal accolade:
So I've got that going for me, which is nice.
#212552 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
Thanks for that!
We shall see....
#212520 In the shadow of the Yankees
simoncoyne
I have no great affinity for either NYCFC or Orlando, but I think I'm going to have to do a game with either of them just to build the squad.
And IRL, David Villa's loan ended after four matches, but it was NYC that pulled the plug.
#212305 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
A great run to end the season, with two matches remaining. By 12 April, this had happened:
After defeating Lille in the Champions League, we were drawn against Chelsea. And what a tie it was. Here's the first leg, away at Stamford Bridge:
I thought we were in big trouble when we were down 4-2, but thanks to Stefano Denswil (gotta love those goal-scoring centre halfs!) and his two goals, the second coming with 10 men following Thauvin's injury. We managed to put ourselves in a strong position, effectively needing only a draw because there's no way that Chelsea would get four away goals also, right?
Here's the second leg, home at Allianz Arena:
Well, I stand corrected. But you can imagine my excitement when Ribery's goal went in, and you can also imagine the barricades I set up afterwards.
That tie set up this final:
A chance at revenge for them dumping us out of the Champions League last year. And you know this team is very good at getting its revenge.
Spare a thought for Hertha Berlin, who defied expectations and hung around the Top 5 all season. They found themselves in 4th place (and a Champions League spot) going into the last weekend, only to have exactly none of the results go their way, ending up in 7th place and dumped out of Europe entirely. Meanwhile, on our end, history was made:
The complete results for the two months:
The Champions League and DFB Pokal results to come in their own post...
#212294 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
Thanks guys. It's always good to know I'm not just talking to myself. If you liked that tie against Porto, wait until you see the semi-final tie against Chelsea!
#212189 Bayern and Beyond
simoncoyne
A great way to start the month, with a demolition of Werder Bremen (the first team to beat us this season) followed by a smashing of Porto that sent us through to the next round of the Champions League. However, both those wins were at home, and our away form has been quite poor of late, as evidenced by the next two matches. The Hamburg match was courtesy of a 90th minute winner (ouch!) whilst we were never competitive against Hertha and found ourselves down 3-0 at half time. Thankfully, Dortmund also dropped points, so our lead in the league remains at 11 points with six matches left.
Finally, a road win, and quite a decent one against Lille in the Champions League. When Salomon Kalou put them ahead 1-0 in the 13th minute, I thought we were going to go down to our third successive defeat, which would have been the longest such streak since I took over. Thankfully, the whole team responded with Lewandowski getting the equaliser, Muller the match winner, and Januzaj an insurance goal direct from a free kick.
One more thing about the Werder match - this is something I've always wanted to do, and now I've done it:
Next update will be the year-end review. Hopefully we'll be playing until the end of May...