KEZ_7 - Comments

That is a lot of transfer business! Interested to see how that impacts you in the coming season. good luck

Good luck with this. Always like to see someone in the lower leagues, even moreso when it's the lower, lower, lower leagues!

I always seem to lose to my reserves and it gives me a shock everytime 😂. More to do with match practice than anything I'm sure. Good luck!

Future 2.0
So - I felt the need to split this save and don't know where I'll take it from here, meaning the updates may stop at least for now. After holidaying without getting a job until November 2021, here are my options moving forward and I welcome all of your thoughts (including if you think I should stay!). I do have a preference which I'm going to try, but welcome anything you think.





??

To finish the season we played league winners Hertha - who battered us and European contenders Hannover, who stole a win but couldn't break into the top 4. 2 shoddy games which I think could have made my mind up about the new season.


Very happy to come 13th - something so far from anything I thought we could manage this season, it almost gives me the hope to continue.

Ah. Maybe this gives me hope too...

WELL! March saw all-but-confirm our place in the Bundesliga next season as we picked up another big win against Wolfsburg, right before the horrible trio of Leverkusen (who beat us to keep the manager in a job), - a strange fixture gap which I didn't see coming - Dortmund (who we were awful against) and then Bayern (who tore us apart with Memphis and Bailey) - thankfully, however, results elsewhere meant we secure the place with games to spare! Frankfurt tied us up, as they continue their charge toward the Champions League, whilst fellow strugglers Freiburg did the same.


What a season - for all there are 2 games to go, a lot of what's going on is settled and I never thought I'd see a table looking like this. Hertha (who we face next by the way) have raced to the title, despite finishing down in 9th last season, before we arrived - they do have Malcom on loan from Barca which I am sure is helping! On a similar note, 2nd place Frankfurt were 11th last season WHAT IS GOING ON?!

Future
For all I don't know what I'll be doing for this coming season, I've made sure that 2 of the clubs best players are staying put!

Holy shit, we might do this.

Outstanding, if annoying that we didn't win our most winnable game - but that's just how I seem to roll on FM . That win at Gladbach is probably my best on this FM, in terms of changes working and tactical switches translating onto the field.

Up next we play Wolfsburg, at the start of our killer run - although both Bayern and Dortmund are in the process of changing their managers which might open some doors for us through uncertainty and maybe even for me in terms of jobs becoming available. Incredibly, of the teams above us at the moment, only the top 2 and RBL haven't changed their manager for one reason or another.

Another 2 points and I'd like to think we're safe - then maybe they'll let me know about budgets and I can think about what I do next!

A bit of insight into the biggest challenge we have!

So, January comes and goes with us not doing any business aside from 2 players leaving to lower the wage bill - literally nothing else to report on that front! We had a couple of friendlies where we lost to a 2.Bundesliga side and then beat some locals, but it's the competitive games that really pleased me.

Good to beat rivals Bochum and put some breathing space between us and them. As we moved onto 3 tough games I was hoping we could keep the scores low and did somewhat better than that, 2 draws and a defeat - which could have been 3 draws were it not for a 97th minute penalty conceded against RBL... although saying that, Hoffenheim had a late winner chalked off by VAR for something I'm still not sure on.

Those points lift us up to the heady heights of 14th, but more importantly 6 points ahead of the relegation play-off which is 16th and 9... NINE points ahead of automatic relegation - where I thought we'd live for most of the season. My target of 35 points is in reach with 12 points needed in the final 12 games. I just hope we can do it soon as March and April see us face Wolfsburg, Leverkusen, Dortmund, Bayern and Frankfurt one after another - I'd do anything to not need big wins in our final 3 games after that.

Jesus this game is getting harder to play although I am pleased to announce that WE WON A GAME... although it was our last before the winter break. Good to get a win, bad for keeping up momentum.

Frankfurt are a bit of a surprise package this season and have been sharing the lead with Hertha (who also beat us), Gladbach and Mainz week-by-week so there was no shame in losing there, but not beating Freiburg was scandalous! The last 2 games brought us 4 massive points - and Berisha's FIRST GOAL FOR US... remember him? The guy we're spending all that money on?!

MIraculously, we continue to hang just outside of the relegation zone but it is getting closer and closer as teams around us get their shit together and start to change managers and revolutionise their squads in the window - which we can't do. Bochum for example, just spent £8m on a striker... ours isn't scoring and the other guy came with us from the start.

Sitting in 11th with the likes of Kasper Dolberg in their ranks, this was really attractive and these are getting harder to turn down - but my mission is to keep Kaiser where they are for this season, maybe after that my head can be turned!

Now to start this section - 1 win in 11 games sounds awful, however, when you note that there were only 3 defeats and THEN look at the teams we played, it isn't half bad! Here are the results:

A KEZ_7 special in September - drawing every game, but our opponents (bar Holsten) should all be beating us, given the stature of their clubs. Our one win against Darmstadt was a great performance with 10 men (trying to make things harder for ourselves as ever) - even though they are bottom of the league, but a battering from Gladbach afterwards didn't make things feel much better. November was a month to be proud of, one I was dreading from the start of the season and so coming away with 2 points is actually mega.

With over 1/3 of the season played, we sit in 13th with 13 points, which isn't brilliant as I want about 35 at least to stay up! We're punching above our weight even now and so god knows what could be to come in the next few months, especially as we have nothing to spend in the January window.

So with a big season ahead I felt there was a lot of work to do to make this squad good enough... work that I'm still not sure our budgets can managed. Survival in this division is obviously the aim, but even failure to do so would grab the club more than £25m in prize money - an incredible amount given our seasonal wage budget is just over £4m just now.

The wage flexibility we did have went largely on securing some of our bigger players who demanded a pay rise, the rest went on getting us some decent free transfers. Berisha from Salzburg is likely the pick of the bunch - or at least he bloody better be as we're spending £17k p/w on him, just shy of 10% of our budget. I'm hoping he can bag us some goals and be the target man we need in the more direct system I've decided to try in an effort to Warnock my way to safety.

Latibeaudiere from City is a great raw talent but young and I really would have liked to have brought in a more senior centre back to get us going. A scary stat - of our starting 11 for the first league game, 6 of the side were with us in 3.Bundesliga...

Our jam-packed preseason showed some decent signs for our direct methods, taking some decent results in the Netherlands where we managed to beat Ajax and then only really lost to the 2 biggest sides we played in Bournemouth and Inter in our final showcase game.

Onto competitive matters and we suffered the ignominy of going out to a lower league side in the first round of the cup, having been giant-killers ourselves in both of the previous seasons... oh how times change. We lost to Bremen with a super strange goal, where our own Mads Albaek decided to cross the ball into HIS OWN BOX for an opponent to head passed our keeper - something I genuinely haven't seen on FM before and struggled to record using FM but will try. Finally, the big one, our first home game back in the Bundesliga saw a mini goal-fest as we raced ahead of Bochum before almost throwing it at the end. Good to get 3 points so early!

I'm back at this save having given some of our SUSIE On Tour Challenges a shot over my time off work - here's hoping I can kick back into gear with this one and have another good season.

Cheers

Scoring:

League:
Winners – 50pts
Runners Up - 30pts
3rd - 4th - 20pts
5th - 6th - 10ts
7th - 8th – 0pts
9th - 10th-5 pts
11th - 12th - -25 pts

Cup:
Winners - 25pts
Runner Up – 15pts
Semi Finalist – 10pts
Quarter Finalist – 5pts
Second Round Exit - 0pts
GroupRound Exit - -10 pts

Qualify for Europe via Cup or League:- 15pts

Extra:
Rivalries – HJK and TPS - 5pts per win (Competitive games only)
Awards – Manager of Year, Top Goal Scorer – 5 pts each
Sacked - -25 pts and the challenge is over

Rules:
Manager
- Must have badge set to recommended - Continental Pro Licence and playing experience - Regional boxes ticked
- You may not manage any other teams during this process

Files:
- You may not use any editing, scouting or other programmes to aid you
- You may only use the official Save Game file (posted below)
- Your save must be made available for review by a moderator if requested. Failure to do so will see your score wiped
- Saved games must be set to a fortnightly autosave

Screenshots and Deadlines:
- Screenshots must be posted IN THIS THREAD no later than 8pm on Thursday 31st January 2019.
- Screenshots Required are: Your manager profile (proof of reputation), the end of season Fixture List with results, end of season League Table anything else relevant to point scoring (i.e. top goal scorers or cup runs). Transfers etc. are welcome but not necessary.

First time for everything

50 points for me again!

Info in the thread linked and my save is attached

Stop 2 - May and June 1st


Running Total: 5pts
So 4th place: +20pts
CL Winners: +25pts

Final Total: 50pts!

Cheers @Shedender - it was unlucky but given the number of games we're playing, I am glad to drop at least 1 competition! Injuries are an absolute killer and I wish I'd done more to bolster the squad during January.

Stop 2- March and April

Thank god for Bale's free-kicks! He really has been the best player in my save so far, scoring some really important goals and dominating a lot of teams OR rescuing us from the bench as I've tried to rest him as much as i can. His goals against Barca gave us 5pts, but also virtually handed the title to Atletico.

Rival win v Barca - +5pts
Running Total : 5pts

The schedule is intense at the start of this! My players are shattered

Stop 2 - January and February

Current Total: 10 pts

Transfers

Kind of realised we needed cover at left back and a decent level striker... realised after signing Dzeko that I could have gotten Werner for the same price, but nevermind! Blame my scouts.


Results


Out of the CdR which is a bit embarrassing and takes the 10pts we have away from us. Drawing with Atletico and losing to Barca, means we don't pick up any rival points as yet either.

Running Total: 0pts

Ha beating Spurs to win it is amazing! Seems like the DoF is pulling things together a little better too?

In terms of the bookings/fouls, there is the option to Stay on your feet/not dive into tackles in the tactics screen, often reducing the pressing intensity can have the same outcome too, as players aren't in the position to cause the opponents any trouble.

With the posts - post how works best for you! I've found that posting too often can distract me from the save!

That's good to know as at least it gives you an element of control and discussion - i.e. like when you need this striker! Looking forward to seeing what Adams does in the next window

Wow, that's a shame for your team really but could it load you up with a load of cash?!

Interesting that the DoF doesn't seem to pick up on the concerns and act! Have you had much success marking players as a target? Or have you not done that/is it ineffectual? Really got me interested, this.

I thought this too, it's a dilemma I have in all of my saves like this!

Always a slog in those lower leagues though - a tough call @fraktionmarback?

That is insane!!

That's a rough fixture set, playing the teams above you! Hopefully you can do some damage and steal a spot from one of them

Challenge 2 – Real Madrid – Woes (Los Blancos Christmas )

Start Page:

First Trophy and Points:

Club World Cup: Winner +10pts

Running Total: 10pts

Yeah, also really intrigued by the DoF thing to see how it functions. Will keep a keen eye on this too!