2019
Atlético Madrid: The Future is Now!
After a tough return season to Division 1, Atlético are preparing for an even bigger challenge as they place the fate of their team in the hands of a new, young core of the squad.
A new attacking front four of Felipe Anderson, Douglas Costa, James Rodriguez and Mario Mandzukic has helped ease the pain of the departures of Jorge Koke and Mauro Icardi. However, these 4 aren't who Earle is placing the future of the club on. Instead there are 7 players that Earle is expecting to step up and take the club forward into its new era. These players are Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matthijs De Ligt, Dayot Upamecano, Clement Lenglet, Nicolo Barella, Rodrigo Bentancur and Maxi Gomez.
Having already spent 3 full seasons at Atlético, Gianluigi Donnarumma has established himself as one of the clubs most reliable players. Due to this, he has been named the club captain for the forthcoming season.
Aged just 20, Donnarumma is already on of the top keepers around and averaged a rating of 6.74 last season for Atlético. He has also made 43 appearances for Italy, helping them to the semi-final of the Australian World Cup.
In front of Donnarumma will be one of the toughest fights in the squad. Having signed Matthijs De Ligt from Arsenal, fans thought that he and Dayot Upamecano would be the two starting centre backs for the upcoming season. However, a shock move for Clement Lenglet means that the spots are far from safe. It is likely that the 23-year-old will be a starter due to Earle preferring a left footed player at the left-centre back position. Lenglet arrived at the Spanish capital from Roma and, despite being only 23, is the most senior centre back option in the squad. Although he is the oldest option, Earle believes that Lenglet could be a key member in the squad as they move forward as he can offer guidance to De Ligt, 19, and Upamecano, 20. With that said, the two youths are also being touted as two of the clubs most promising players. Despite their age, both will be expecting to be first team regulars, but with Lenglet likely to start, only one of the others can take a spot. Upamecano arrived early last season but left a lot to be desired from his performances. The Frenchman has attracted interest from other clubs during the pre season but Earle rejected these approaches as he believes the 20-year-old will be able to improve this season and play a major role in the clubs development. With both Lenglet and Upamecano being French, there is potential that a very strong partnership could be formed between the duo. In the way of that partnership stands Matthijs De Ligt. Signed in a mammoth deal from Arsenal at the end of last season, De Ligt was also far from impressive in his 12 games. An average of 6.08 was poor and 2 red cards meant he missed some games and that he will be unavailable for the opening game of the season. But that didn't stop Earle from calling him the highest potential player in the squad. At just 19, De Ligt offers a solid and trustworthy option at the back and is expected to be selected ahead of Upamecano once available. However, all 3 offer world class potential and will be expected to produce top performances this season.
The midfield will also be controlled by a new partnership this season. After starting last season as back up to Roberto Gagliardini and Luis Pizzi, Rodrigo Bentancur will now be the first choice in the centre of the pitch. The Uruguayan started 15 games last season and made a further 12 appearances off the bench. The 21-year-old has shown steady improvement since arriving from Manchester City and is now expected to control the game for Atlético. He has previously been called "a star in the making" by Earle who has made it clear that he is not available to leave for any price. Bentancur has already proven himself an important member of the Uruguay international team, making 15 appearances already. Next to him in midfield will be new arrival Nicolo Barella. Joining as part of the sale of Jorge Koke, there is a lot of expectation on the Italian. Barella made 3 appearances at the end of last season but couldn't display much of his true talent due to the struggle of the team as they closed out the season. However, moving forward, Earle expects that the 22-year-old will become one of the stars of the team and will hope that Barella can repay the faith shown in him over the coming season.
With the loss of Mauro Icardi, many fans were left wondering who could step in up front. For the short term that responsibility falls to Mario Mandzukic. However, the longer term choice will be Maxi Gomez who is waiting to arrive from Juventus. The Uruguayan forward has spent the last 4 seasons developing at Zagreb. During that time he started 81 games netting 33 goals and assisting 13 more. This form earned him a move to Juventus who loaned him back to Zagreb to finish the season. Gomez is set to join Atlético at the end of April but will join Monaco on loan until then. Depending on his form, Earle has said he will not be shy to throw the 22-year-old into the starting line up, pushing Mandzukic onto the wing and Anderson onto the bench.
While these 7 offer first team options, the squad is bursting with young talent waiting for their opportunities to impress. It is expected that Noussair Mazraoui will be given game time at right back in cup games after showing promising signs in the youth tournament last season. Lukas Klostermann will also expect to pick up game time after impressing Earle in his 9 appearances last season. New signing Mario Hermoso will also put pressure on the centre back options after arriving from Fenerbahce. Youth options in the midfield are also impressive with Arne Maier and Amadou Haidara eager to develop in the youth cup. The same cannot be said for Florian Neuhaus or James Maddison who will need to rely on cup competitions for game time now that they are senior squad members, Earle has said that both could be used or may be available for loan. Goncalo Guedes will also be keen to improve on last season after he managed just 1 goal and 1 assist in the league in a total of 37 appearances. Looking further down the youth squad there is a huge amount of potential ready to prove itself, all the way down to the teams youngest player Naci Unuvar. Aged just 15, Unuvar attracted interest from over 25 teams but opted to join Atlético due to the clubs new focus on youth.
Poll Results: New Player Free Agents
UPDATE: Results of the poll.
New players are added to the Soccer Manager database every day. There's often one or more hot, new footballing talent among them who lots of managers want to bid for.
That's all fine for twenty four hours or so. Then, sometimes, players' values increase, and as they do so, the maximum bid increases, too.
For anyone who happens to be able to re-bid, that's fine, and a bit of a bonus. Some of the most sought-after young players can have half the game world or more bidding for them.
If half of those aren't able to re-bid because they're at work, or asleep, that improves your chances of winning!
But it's not really fair on those who, through no fault of their own, simply can't re-bid on a daily or regular basis.
Suggested new rule for Top 100:
All bids on new free agents must be public, and no bids higher than the first (maximum) bid.
Suggested sanction for breaking this rule:
One month ban on bidding on new player free agents, and having to sell the player signed illegally once they come off their transfer ban.
Sanctions increase as per regular transfer ban sanctions for repeat offenders
[crowdsignal poll=10280429]
Atalanta announces 23-man squad for the 10th installment of Top 100
Goalkeepers: Berisha, Runarsson
Defenders: Zabaleta, Gebre Selassie, Stenzel, Masiello, Chester, Lema, Kaminski, Le Marchand, Mohammadi
Midfielders: Sahin, Marin, Beltran, Solari, Ince, Ramselaar, Reynoso, Bittencourt, Borini
Attackers: Gomis, Alan, Minamino
Masiello has been appointed as the Captain, with the duties of Vice Captain being handed to No. 1 goalkeeper Berisha.
Welcoming River Plate and the New Season
That time of year is upon us again and another new season is about to get underway. This season will be my 2nd full season at River Plate and for the first time I'm finally settled with 90% of my squad. So this is just me welcoming these bunch of merry-men to our rivals in Division 4 and some of my youngsters who will star in the youth cup.
As you can see from the 1st team squad there is no mega stars here, just a bunch of honest lads who will fight for the cause. I feel I'm pretty well evened out in terms of a balanced squad, one that is roughly made up of premier league players. 2 1st team Premier league keepers in Fabianski and Dubravka, defence consists of Clyne, Lascelles, Schar, Bednarek,Ismaily and Lukaku. The central midfielders Demme, Lemina, Caceras, Hayden and Billing. Wingers I have Walcott,Marlos, Bernard and Jahanbaskh with Almiron,Romero and Muto giving me options centrally behind our strikers which will be Wilson(15th april signing) and Ze Luis. No superstars but competitive squad. If any deals are to happen the only players I see leaving are Amat and Walcott.
I actually am really happy with our youth squad who perhaps are being short changed by the SM rating system(amongst most other managers) excluding Cordoba who leaves with Llorente for Wilson mid April the rest of the players have 246 league games this season in real life behind them so plenty will rise. I have 4 full internationals amongst this lot as well so again high hopes.
So that's my River Squad who will compete this season, thanks for reading and good luck to all of you this season.
Finally we start playing again
“The season just ended was disastrous (we ended the championship in last place) but despite all the management decided to continue the collaboration with Mr IOLI: five-year contract with the aim of centering the playoffs. The project is always the same: investing in young players and enhancing them! In this perspective, the management has bought Lirola, Blin, Blas, Terrier, Laborde and several French u25s. The loans of Jovanovic, Meré and Tammy Abraham are also important for our line up. We will play with a more balanced system (3-5-2) that we will adapt during the game.”
Genoa Season 10 Preview
As we enter Season 10, Genoa enter our 2nd Season in the top flight, looking to go 1 better with our target of bettering our top 6 finish of last season or come away with some silverware, being much higher than our Chairman's target of avoiding relegation. There are 4 more players due in to join Giovinco as the new (or returning in Giovinco's case) recruits. Stephan El Shaarawy will also be returning on Monday along with Pedro Pereira, with Nkunku and Loftus-Cheek leaving us. Gianluca Mancini moves in exchange for Michael Keane on the 6th April, followed by Tiemoué Bakayoko in exchange for Juan Bernat 2 days later.
Domenico Criscito continues as club captain with goalkeeper Mattia Perin as deputy, keeping the Genoese roots of the club. Salah will remain as the club's number 9, with Seba Giovinco to be used as a suber sub. SES, Ziyech, Oyarzabal, Vinicius Jr & Ox will all be used to support, with our 1st choice pairing of Doucouré & Bakayoko holding the Midfield together. We will be hoping that come the end of the season, Kouamé, Leão, Zaniolo and hopefully 1 or 2 others from our youth team will be at the level to compete for minutes.
For the pre-season, our youth team will be playing the next 3 games against Zenit, Fiorentina & CSKA. With the 1st team back for the final friendly in the Derby d'ella Lanterna v Samp.
Talking Tactics: 3-4-3
Last season I successfully tried out what was for me a completely new formation and tactics, not just in Top 100, but in Soccer Manager generally.
Years ago, like almost everyone else it seemed, I played 3-5-2, and later 5-4-1 A when they seemed to be the formations that guaranteed results. (Those were the days when you could play attacking wide players at wingback!)
More recently, of course, 4-2-3-1 B appears to be the default formation to choose if you want to have any chance of winning. That said, I've had some success playing 4-3-3 B, and I've seen other managers win using variants of any or all of these formations.
Hamburger missed out on automatic promotion, and lost in the playoffs at the end of Season 8, our fifth straight season in Division 3. While we'd seen slow and steady improvement (bar one season), I felt it was time to really go for it in Season 9, as I couldn't bear the thought of failing again.
To that end, I decided to prioritise current player ratings over future, and brought in a number of players who were mostly older and better, expecting that their higher ratings would effectively guarantee me promotion.
In came Vazquez (91), Teixeira (90), Felipe (89) and Schmelzer (89). Out went Mai (75), Ramselaar (87), Soyuncu (88), Ascacibar (89) and Promes (89). The younger and more versatile Moses (90) came in for Coleman (90), while Kagawa (90 - his short Hamburger career never really got going) made way for the more defensive minded Schneiderlin (89).
We started the season playing safe with 4-2-3-1 B in the belief that we would win the majority of games simply because we were better than most of our opponents. It didn't work out that way, of course, and after five games and one win, it was already clear we were not going to be anywhere near the top three.
It was around this time that Malcolm published his much cherished statistical predictions for the season, and impressed upon me where Hamburger's strength lay. Attack. I needed to find a formation and tactics that suited our attacking players.
Another problem I faced was my ageing centre-forward, Aritz Aduriz. He'd had a fantastic season, scoring 17 goals in 35 games since signing from Hellas Verona, but that was in a 4-3-3 B. In a 4-2-3-1 B he was left isolated and the goals dried up. So I really wanted a formation that had three forwards.
Lastly, I had left myself with only two central midfielders, so I couldn't play 4-3-3. That left just 5-2-3, which is a defensive formation, and 3-4-3, which no one plays these days, not since the mad, bad Louis van Gaal with Ajax in the 1980s....
Now, it may not surprise anyone reading this to know that I'm no expert on football matters. As a boy, I could recite every first eleven from all ninety-two football league clubs, and I loved playing, of course.
Later I loved play-by-mail football manager, and wasted many a morning taking Bolton Wanderers from fourth division obscurity to European glory in five seasons over and over again on an early UNIX computer demo version of Championship Manager instead of assisting research into the incidence and prevalence of vertebral osteoporosis in Europe (afternoons were generally spent in a paranoid haze coming down - or to - from lunchtime excesses).
Where was I? Oh, yes. Football. Expert. Not.
Although I was the captain of the school team, I once had to substitute myself to avoid being beaten up by the hard kids. During another game, I had to fill in at left-back while the lad who was supposed to be playing there had a fag with our right winger.
I have a Level One FA Coaching badge (expired), two flat feet, and one remaining bunion. The best individual performances I've seen live are a young Roy Keane for Forest at Burnden Park, and a young John Oster for Grimsby Town. Both were clearly on a different level to the twenty one other players on the pitch.
Nowadays, the only football I watch is Manchester United games, and international tournaments. My 'scouting' is reserved to Transfermarkt, Google, and YouTube.
So, 3-4-3. I would need to do some research.
Fortunately for me, the first result that came up on Google was Strengths and Weaknesses 3-4-3 Formation, and this instantly became my tactical bible for Season 9.
With a couple of tweaks, this became my standard formation, with a direct, attacking style of play down both flanks, and a fast, high pressing game, one defensive midfielder (Schneiderlin), one more attacking playmaker (Bradley), and a target man (Aduriz).
What I found was that 3-4-3 set up with these attacking tactics generally overpowered weaker teams easily. We rarely dominated possession, but we dominated the all-important stat, goals scored.
Against stronger teams, I found it didn't work so well, or I was less confident about using it. In games against my closest rivals (Monaco, Espanyol, PSV and Basel), I tended to play 5-2-3 defensive, hoping for (and usually getting) at least a draw.
By season's end, we missed out on the title by a couple of points and finished third. If only I'd played 3-4-3 in those first five games, we would have won the title easily, I'm sure.
This season, in a much stronger Division Two, I doubt I will play 3-4-3 very often. I tried it tonight in our friendly with a poor Zenit side, and we came out comfortable 4-1 victors, as expected. We even dominated the play.
I think I will need to find another more defensive minded formation and tactics for most of this season against superior opposition, if Hamburger are to have any chance of achieving my Chairman's stated ambition to avoid relegation.
OLYMPIACOS NEWS
Olympiacos transfer news
Since the arrival of Pablo Maggio at Olympiacos club on March 17, many negotiations have been held to reinforce the team for the upcoming season. With a fairly balanced team in all the positions, Maggio incorporated some players known for the Argentine soccer as M.Casco (86), C. Izquierdoz (86), J.Furch (85), P.Cuadra (82) and also to foreigners like the experienced K. El Ahmadi, N. Sequeira, the scorer U.Djurdjevic and N.Stanciu. He also sold the players Thomasson and Gil for which he received in return Argentine goalkeeper Wanchope Abila, young promise Julian Carranza, B.Viana and P.Gerkens. The Argentine coach also confirmed that his captain will be the Mexican Carlos Vela and has not yet defined the tactical system he will use, but everyone knows that he is playing 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-2-2. Maggio spoke with the press and said ........... come to this prestigious league with great enthusiasm, it is a dream come true to be here and I will do everything possible to bring Olympiacos to glory, we do not have a team with players of great value, but I have confidence in making a good season, the negotiations here are very difficult and we had to look for external free players to reinforce us. I ask all our fans to trust us, the road will not be easy, but we will work hard to achieve success.
The Concerned Club, Season 9
Here’s a summary of all the concerned players per club, ranked in order of most to least.
8 players
1. Juventus (Silva, Skriniar, Chiesa, Dembele, Koopmeiners, Vente, Botman, Shabani)
7 players
2. Shakhtar Donetsk (Soares, Blandi, Marcone, Lopez, Nem, Ait Bennasser, Moraes)
6 players
3. Santos FC (Jonathas, Pussetto, Otavio, Alison, Farias, Sasha)
5 players
4. ACF Fiorentina (Kouyate, Perez, Destro, Kakuta, Ings)
- AS Saint-Etienne (Modeste, Hamouma, Haraguchi, Amrabat, Moises)
- FC Augsburg (Rice, Jordan, Gray, Kent, Baku)
- Udinese (Germain, Darmian, Traore, Braithwaite, Benitez)
8. FC Koln (Laguardia, Vlachodimos, Angel, Austin)
- AS Monaco (Cresswell, Sankhare, Romero, Cavaleiro)
- Atalanta (Alan, Stenzel, Marin, Minamino)
- Besiktas (Quaresma, Noboa, Derdiyok, Sinclair)
- Celtic (Maidana, Lustig, Long, Griffiths)
- Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (Latza, Henrique, Carrillo, Sio)
- FK Partizan (Pavoletti, Danilo, Silvestre, Briand)
- Manchester United (Danilo Barbosa, Murru, Angelino, Gabriel Barbosa)
- Olympique Lyon (Kubo, Abdennour, Tibbling, Zmrhal)
- VfL Wolfsburg (Juanfran, Kramer, Torres, Piatti)
18. Aston Villa (Walter, Andersen, Escalante)
- Barcelona (Alba, Bustos, Gumbau)
- Bayern Munich (Kovacic, Zielinski, Golovin)
- Crystal Palace (Ramirez, Larsson, Halilovic)
- Dynamo Kyiv (Rausch, Ceppitelli, Cimirot)
- FC Twente (Honda, Costa, Ayhan)
- Sassuolo (Moreno, Missiroli, Peluso)
- Sporting CP (Fortounis, Oliveira, Sigurdsson)
- Swansea City (Adriano, Wood, Augusto)
- West Bromwich Albion (Fernandes, Dalot, Leite)
- Zenit Saint Petersburg (Perez, Shatov, Mirallas)
29. AC Milan (Muriel, Montoya)
- Borussia Dortmund (De Sciglio, De Jong)
- Dynamo Moscow (El Ghazi, Ozbayrakli)
- Everton (Iheanacho, Duarte)
- FC Basel (Parolo, De Marcos)
- FC Porto (Grimaldo, Pablo)
- Flamengo (Mendes, Vitinho)
- Hellas Verona (Schick, Borja)
- Independiente (Caicedo, Orellana)
- Levante (Chilwell, Clasie)
- Lille (Fernandez, Sliti)
- Lokomotiv Moscow (Ibisevic, Di Santo)
- Manchester City (Bergwijn, Andre)
- Rubin Kazan (Insua, N'Diaye)
- Sunderland (Murray, Hegazi)
- São Paulo (Rodriguez, William)
- Tottenham (Nzonzi, Dourado)
- Valencia (Haps, Hernandez)
47. Ajax (Van de Beek)
- AS Roma (Jovetic)
- Athletic Club (Ighalo)
- Celta Vigo (Osako)
- Chievo Verona (Niasse)
- Club Brugge (Vormer)
- Cruzeiro (Cabaco)
- FC Schalke 04 (Muniain)
- Hertha BSC (Schennikov)
- Internazionale (Valencia)
- Newcastle United (Dzyuba)
- Olympiacos (Rocha)
- Paris Saint-Germain (Coman)
- PSV (Ely)
- Sevilla (Rebocho)
- SS Lazio (Andone)
- Standard Liege (Calleri)
- Torino (Albrighton)
- TSG Hoffenheim (Szalai)
- VfB Stuttgart (Ayoub)
67-100. Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, AZ Alkmaar, Bayer Leverkusen, Boca Juniors, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Chelsea, CSKA Moscow, Dinamo Zagreb, Fenerbahce, Feyenoord, Galatasaray, Genoa, Girondins Bordeaux, Hamburger SV, Leicester City, Liverpool, Montpellier HSC, Málaga CF, Olympique Marseille, RCD Espanyol, Real Madrid, River Plate, RSC Anderlecht, Sampdoria, SC Internacional, SL Benfica, Southampton, Spartak Moscow, SSC Napoli, Stoke City, Villarreal, Werder Bremen, West Ham United
D2 and Overall Top 100 Manager of the Season
I would like to thank my fellow managers for bestowing this honor upon me. They have played a big part in this accomplishment as the sense of community drives me to Top 100 everyday to try to find ways to better my team, so it's all thanks to each and everyone of you. Special shout out to Frank for his exceptional season.
Gursimran Brar
I would just like to congratulate both Frank and Guri on the jobs they have done with their respective teams.
Scott Mckenzie
Special mention to Guri for winning the overall manager award and I look forward to locking horns with him next season.
Frank Hirst
D1 Manager of the Season
It’s great to see my achievements noticed. 6th in our 1st season in the top flight was amazing and exceeded our own goal of a top half finish. I know next season is going to be tough, but we will aim to better ourselves again next season and aim to crack that top 4! Our squad has come on so much since 1st taking over 9 seasons ago with a strong 11 and some fantastic young players coming through, who will keep Genoa as one of the elite for years to come. So thank you to all those who voted.
Frank Hirst
D3 Manager of the Season
First of all wow very surprised and honoured. It's a privilege to be voted manager of the season for division 3 by my fellow managers.
Nathan Prince
D4 Manager of the Season
Thanks to all those who voted for me. I hope Celta continue moving from strength to strength. Arnautovic was my early stand out player but it really was a team effort...
Mister TRX
D5 Manager of the Season
Just happy to finally taste success in T100 and looking forward to division 4 with River. Plenty of hard work went in to transform the club who finished 100 out of 100 last season, completely new squad and we worked hard for our title.
Norman Little
Division 1 and Overall Top 100 Player of the Season
Lionel Messi is the Top 100 Player of the Season and D1 Award winner.
By his own phenomenal standards, magical Messi had a relatively poor season stats-wise, but was the driving force for Barca as they powered to a record breaking fifth title.
Robert Lewandowski was unlucky to finish second in the poll after scoring a colossal 26 goals in 37 league games.
Messi has been by far the greatest player in Top 100 history and long may his form continue. We will be going all out for the league again this year to try and make it a record breaking 6 titles and Messi will be a major part of that ambition.
Scott Mckenzie, Barcelona boss
Division 2 Player of the Season
Yet another incredible season for 34 year old Cristiano Ronaldo, leading Milan's surge to the top of D2.
He was head and shoulders above everyone else in the division.
Ronaldo was the game changer and we should of won the league by more. It showed when he was out - I struggled.
Milan manager Paddy D
Division 3 Player of the Season
Hamburger dominated the individual award for D3 this season, and it was veteran left wingback Marcel Schmelzer who, perhaps surprisingly, saw off teammates Alex Teixeira and Lucas Vazquez.
Schmelz had a brilliant season for us marauding down the left flank. I think he enjoyed himself, too, having a bit more freedom to play in a 3-4-3. We put him on corners, and he caused all sorts of problems with his delivery into the box.
Der Dino Boss David Marsden
