2022
Youth Cup Knock Outs
ROund 2 is 1 leg and fictional extra time! Quarter-FInals are 2 legs
MANCHESTER UNITED MID SEASON REVIEW
Division 2 looks a little stronger this season with Genoa(91) and Leverkusen(90) joining from Division 1 along with Augsburg (89) Flamengo (89) and Sporting (89) being promoted from division 3 plus the relegation of Newcastle(88), Galatasaray (88) Sevilla(88) and Roma (88) to division 3
I spent some time in the close season trying to exchange some older players for youths and exchanging youths, in order to reduce the average age of the team and to build for the future. I also made 4 players available at minimum value to division 4/5 clubs, and sold two. I will however keep Dimitri Payet until he retires as he is only worth £2.4M and may not go down again for a while as he is playing well for Marseille. Apart from him, my oldest player is 28.
(1) My first deal was with Paddy (Anderlecht) which saw Luis Pizzi(90) 32yo leaving United and Sardella(82) 19yo and Nelson(83) 22yo joining us. This releases an older player for 2 youngsters with a future
(2) My second was an external transfer in “Naoufal Bannis” a 19yo Feyenoord player, replacing Edison Azcona who is 18yo.
(3) I made a mistake and had Taylan Antalyali(85) 27yo on the transfer list rather than for exchange so I had to accept the offer from the “The Godfather” at Lyonnais
(4) Due to (3), I had to take on Juan Ramirez(85) a 28yo Free Agent, who will be a squad player covering both defensive and attacking midfield
(5) I finally decided to let Jovic(90) 24yo go to Paddy at Anderlecht with Fred(90) 28yo and Diawara(88) 24yo coming the other way. This will bolster our Defensive midfield position and allow us to bring in Baumgartner to the first team into an attacking midfield role
(6) I sold Reggie Cannon(83) 23yo face value to Independiente of Division 5
(7) Sebastien Caceres(83) 22yo left us for division 5 side Olympiacos in a face value deal
(8) I agreed a deal with Paul at Dynamo Moskva for Andrea Belotti(91)28yo
with Fran Beltran(87) 22yo and Reece Oxford(83) 23yo coming to United
(9) Anton Evremov(73) 18yo was sold external to create a space for Oxford
Some people say I don’t do any deals or bring in youths, but thanks to Paddy and Paul I have.
We still have an average rating of 89.0 for the best starting 11, (87.77 for our best 18) and therefore would expect to finish in 15th place or generally between 10th - 17th. We have only managed to swap first team players around and have not received any rises for the existing ones, but I hope to finish between 6th - 14th this season as I was unsuccessful in trying different tactics and formations last season trying to combat 4231B.
My main target will be to avoid relegation from which will be a tough division in season 17. I have also received the following message “This season your Chairman expects you to avoid relegation”. It’s great when the targets are aligned between Chairman and Manager. Looking back over the last few seasons, 47 points should see us safe.
The new season started very well for us commencing with a 1-1 draw at home to Santos followed with a 3-0 win away to Everton, a 2-1 win at Monaco, a 1-0 win at home to PSG, a 2-0 victory away to Flamengo, a 2-0 home win against Schalke and a 1-1 draw away to Anderlecht . Our good run finally came to an end with a 0-3 home defeat to the 4231B of Valencia. Still top, but only on goal difference. Rodrigues Fred, one of our new signings and returning to United, had scored 6 from 7 from a defensive midfield role.
We have just reached mid season and from our 19 games have achieved W8, D5, L6, and 29 points, which is exactly the same as at this stage last season and leaves us in 7th place in the league. Our predicted finishing position is 15th so we seem to be doing ok, however, we were in a similar position this time last season and we just avoided relegation. We have only achieved 17 points from a predicted 24 at home, but away we have achieved 12 of a predicted 2. Overall, we have achieved 29 points from a prediction of 26, so all is looking good for a higher finishing position than last season, but we need to improve our home form.
How am I doing at United? - This is my third season
Promotion in my first season with United from division 3 was not a bad start and reminds me of my start with Besiktas. I had achieved the highest league position and points total for the 4 seasons that United had been in division 3.
Season 16 in division 2 was alright but we found it tough, just avoiding relegation. We finished 12th, which was within our target range for the team.
Season 17 has started well, but the form has started to tail off a little and so is a concern
Espanyol mid season review
19 games, 21 points and currently sat 17th but with a 4 point cushion to 18th. Its been a strange first half of the season for Espanyol.
After an ok start, away defeats to Manchester City and Porto and home defeats to Benfica and Stoke saw the Spanish side lose four on the bounce finding the net just once and conceding 6 goals in the process. It left the club with just 13 points from 15 games, firmly in the drop zone, and needing an injection of hope from somewhere.
Fast forward four games, and Espanyol have taken 8 points from 12 with credible draws against Bayern Munich and Chelsea, with wins coming against Verona and Levante. In this mini run the club has scored 4 and conceded just 1.
In the domestic cups, Espanyol exited the cup in round 3, with a loss to Benfica. Whilst they faired much worse in the domestic shield exiting in round 1 to lower division opposition in Rubin Kazan. Given the club fielded reserve teams for all these fixtures, then priority was firmly on the league.
Espanyol cruised through their European SMFA shield group winning all 6 games, and qualifying for the next stage.
In total , including league, cup, youth and Europe Espanyol's record stands at.
PLAYED - 31
WON - 14
DRAWN - 7
LOST - 10
GOALS FOR - 45
GOALS AGAINST - 25
CLEAN SHEETS - 16
Espanyols core strength has definately been their ability to keep clean sheets with that being achieved in 51.6% of games.
interestingly the club has averaged scoring 1.45 goals a game, although this is heavily inflated by the clubs great form in Europe. With the league goals to ratio just 0.84 a game.
The team has a season finish target of 14, and have this week completed the signings of Suarez and Firmino both 93 rated, with the hope of increasing the goals for column in the league. Given the team has achieved 21 points in the first half of the season, barring a disaster you would expect the team to improve on that over the second half of the season and retain its division 1 status and get close to achieving this seasons objective of 14th
Youth Cup / Shield Knock Out Draws Season 17
Find below the know out draws for Season 17 Youth Cup / Shield
Rounds 1 and 2 will be over 1 leg as usual. Quarter-Finals onwards 2 legs.
Fictional Extra Time in the event of a draw.
Saturday 2nd April - ROUND 1
Saturday 9th April - Round 2
The most successful manager in YC history - Alex Mclean will be delighted with the draw - although no doubt wary of Ruts Benfica - with GinoBet predicting one of Benfica or Man City to make the final. In the bottom half of the draw - Dan Payne and Dario Savinao will be leased that they wont be scheduled to meet until the semi finals as well if everyone progresses.
In round 1 a few former winners face off - with Stephen Partington's Roma facing the inconsistent Youth Side of Dan Wallace - the winner of whom will fancy their chances away in Sevilla and facing Gordon. The first ever winner of the YC - Doc will be in the YC knock outs for the first time in a long time but will face Sampdoria.
The losers of Youth Cup round 1 drop into Youth Shield Round 2 and the likes of Gursi (Cologne), James Mckenzie (Chelsea) - defending YC manager Heath Brown (Arsenal) and Walter Gogh (Partizan) will all be hoping for easy rides. In round 1 of the YC - Jay Jones has done very well to make the knockouts and will be delighted to be rewarded with a home tie, likewise David Inglis at Zagreb. Last seasons Youth Shield semi-finalist Ignazio Barraco will wary of a nicely developing Independiente side in Round 1 though.
What's been going on at Dynamo...
Its now two and a half months since I took the reigns at Dynamo Moskva so thought I would share how things have been going so far. Sitting in 4th spot in the league and 5 points off top spot is decent and I probably would have taken that before the season started. Form is a little up and down but that is to be expected in a division where most of the teams are very evenly matched and teams will always pinch points off each other.
My nateral instincts when taking over a team is to trade/sell off all the older players for younger lower rated players but with a higher ceiling. The uniquness of T100 and the contract situation meant I had to look at the task in a different way as lowering the rating of the first team could lead to me failing to meet the "top 15 finish" and getting the sack after only 1 season in charge.
Signings so far:
Andrea Belotti (91 rated - 28 years old) - Fran Beltran, Reece Oxford and £7m
This is my most important signing to date. I felt a 91 rated forward could be the difference down in division 4. He hasn't set the world alight so far and hoping for a much better 2nd half of the season from him.
Jesus Gallardo (87 rated - 27 years old) - Jordan Amavi
Came as part of a deal for Jordan Amavi to take over the starting LB spot. A down grade by 1 rating point but felt it worth while to recieve the other players that came as part of the deal.
Mohammed Bayo (85 rated - 23 years old) - Jordan Amavi
Came as part of a deal for Jordan Amavi. Has a good goalscorring recordin the French league for a struggling Clermont. Has been linked with the likes of West Ham and fingers crossed he gets move in the summer.
Adamo Nagalo (78 rated - 19 years old) - Jordan Amavi
Came as part of a deal for Jordan Amavi. A graduate from the Right to Dream Accademy and playing for Danish top tie club Nordsjaelland. Already established as a starter and I have high hopes he moves on to a stronger European league.
Ebrima Darboe (76 rated - 20 years old) - Jordan Amavi
Came as part of a deal for Jordan Amavi. The young Gambian international was a part of the first team int he African nations, getting to the Quanrter Finals. Hasn't seen much in the way of minutes for Roma this season, only really getting a chance in the European games but its always going to be difficult under Mourinho who doesnt often give youth a chance. Been linked with a move to big European clubs. One for the future!
Theo Bengona (86 rated - 26 years old) - Danny Da Costa
Right back Danny Da Costa was level 4 concerns when I arrived and I felt I needed to find the best deal I could for him. I had a few offers and this was the one I accepted. Bengonda is having a decent season for Genk scoring 10 league goals in 28 appearences from the wing. An out side chance of a ratings increase but good depth in the main.
Moussa Wague (82 rated - 23 years old) - Danny Da Costa
This was the 2nd part of the deal for Da Costa. Picking up a 23 year old Barcalona player sounds good but this lads career has stalled dramatically. A mixture of serious injury, loan spells and Covid has meant a once promising talent is in the wilderness. He isnt going to make it at Barca so will be important to see what club he terms up at next.
Jordan Beyer (82 rated - 21 years old) - Diego Costa
Having picked up Belotti I had no need for Costa. Central Defence is the weekest part of my team so was able to pick up a young prospect getting regular game time for Monchengladbach.
Chidera Ejuke (86 rated - 24 years old) - 2.4 mil
Picked him up for depth mainly and felt he had a chance at rising looking at his real life numbers and he did get a plus 2 up to 86 in the Russian review.
From External
James Trafford - young Man City keeper impressing on loan at Bolton.
Shea Charles - young Man City academy prospect
Oscar Bobb - young Man City academy prospect. Impressing and not far from the first team squad.
Marko Ilic - 24 year old Serbian GK playing in Belgium. Capped by his county and with luck hopefully a bigger club will take a chance on him in time.
Osvaldo Rodriguez - Playing in the Mexican League. Simply sighned as depth as he can play right and left back.
Tom Van de Looi - Young Dutch midfielder playing for promotion chasing Brecia. If he is playing in the Italian top flight next season he could see a significant rise.
Sargis Adamyan - just picked him up as he has scored 5 in his last 5 for table topping Club Brugge. Probably too old now to progress much but adds to the squad depth.
Vincent Aboubakar - Took a punt on him when he was ripping it up at the African nation hoping a European team would sign him. He is too old in truth though and he will be shipped out once his transfer ban ends.
Bradley Dack - Super talented player currently making a come back after some terrible injuries. When I signed him it was looking like Blackburn were Premiership bound but the wheels have come off. I will hold on to see if he is a Premiership player next year.
Aleix Garcia - Ex-Man City player. Still young and playing for promotion chasing Girona. If he is playing in the Spanish top flight next season I would hope his rating will improve.
Jacob Murphy - Has been a regular under Eddie Howe in what is a much improved Newcastle team. Currently 85 rated but a rise to 87 must be a possibility looking at his numbers and if so will become a good option.
In summary I am pleased with the way things have been going. I have a chance at promotion if I can stick around the playoff picture in division 4 but it tough as a lot of the teams are a much of a muchness. A bit of luck and keeping my better rated players bit will be the key.
Goals the key.
As we head towards the half way point of the season Espanyol find themselves just above the relegation zone in 17th. Its been a challenging first half of the season with the team struggling to score goals. 14 goals from 17 games is a poor return as Morata has struggled to find the net consistently and fill the void left by Aguero's retirement. Only the bottom 2 have scored less goals, and this has been the Catalyst to the manager securing the signings of Firmino and Suarez.
In contrast at the other end of the pitch Espanyol have one of the divisions tightest defences having comceded just 18, which is 5th best in Division . As we head towards the end of the month, the manager is hoping the added fire can increase the clubs chances of reaching the contractual goal of 14th.
"you'd like to keep your key players, especially those with improvement in them. You work hard enough to bring them to the club. Ultimately though in such a competitive league results are what you are judged on and ours have just not been good enough so far this season. We are a trading club, and pride ourselves in being open to deals. It keeps things fresh and interesting. We are genuinely excited about the pending arrival of Firmino and Suarez who are division 1 and division 2's top scorers respectively. Its been commented that Oyarzabal is an assist machine and he has certainly played his part in doing exactly that this season. However we cannot escape the goals for column. Less than a goal a game is not enough to keep us out of trouble. We continue to add youth players to our squad, who will hopefully become our next major assets. We are at that stage now, where our trading is reaching a conclusion. We'd like another right back, but beyond that I think once all our transfers are complete we have a very workable core first team. We have never been a team to settle on one formation and our business will probably see us change things a little for certain games. "
Young starlets get international recognition.
Espanyol youngsters, Van Hecke, and Khadra have been called up for the forthcoming under 21 internationals for Holland and Germany respectively their first call ups at this level.
"we are genuinely excited by the potential in these two.
Van Hecke, has so much composure on the ball, a great range of passing, excellent in the air and is quick. He is fazed by nothing and reminds me very much of a young Henning Berg. He has a lot of exceptional talent to compete with for international honours with Holland, so to get the call is most pleasing.
Khadra is another, as a youngster he was released by Dortmund but has shown he has some exceptional skills, speed, can create a goal and can also score them. Its been a big breakthrough season for him, and is one who can go on to big things. This has been recognised by Germany and like Holland this is a significant call up for us. We have found the need to trade some of our youngsters to keep afloat, but with the confidence that we have other young players who are going to get better and become big assets for this club.
We continue to search the globe for potential improvers we can polish up, whilst we have other youngsters who we hold big hopes for, like Jordan James, Tyler Onyango, Emre Demir and Alvaro Bastida. When you see players start getting international recognition, it gives you a buzz that your recruitment is working and solid foundations are being put in place.
There was literally no youth policy here when I arrived. There have been some eyebrows raised at some of the young players we've let go, but these are players I brought to the club and i'm not affraid to part with an asset to ensure the first team remains serviced and competitive. I've not been here a full season yet, and the benefit of our business will start to show in the coming seasons. We are in transition, we are rebuilding the club, with a high turnover of players to get us in a position where we can compete both short term and long term.
Its a bit rough at present, we are in the relegation zone, struggling to cope with the loss of Aguero and out of form. Division 1 is competitive, the standard of opposition is much greater than what we have right now. However new players will arrive before the end of the month, to aid us through this current campaign. This is my 12th year in SM, and I'm confident in my own ability to build a competitive team capable of competing for honours. We think things through, and decision is not taken lightly. Sometimes we give far more than we should in the transfer market, but we are not affraid to do this. Other times we drive a hard bargain and want far more than others are willing to pay. Football is about opinions and that one player you rate highly, others do not. We will continue to chip away, let the haters hate but in the end we know where we are going and what is needed to get there.
Espanyol make mid season changes to stop the rot.
Espanyol who are very much in transition have moved swiftly in the transfer market to try and stop the slide towards division 2. The club despite being solid at the back have struggled for goals in the league which has resulted in the club dropping into the relegation zone.
Out goings:
Merino 91, Morata 91, Henrique 88, Pino 87, Sancet 85, Sousa 73, Oyarzabal 92, Garcia 84
Incomings
Wijnaldrum 93, Suarez 93, Firmino 93, Herrera 90, , Vlasic 89 Akturkoglu 85, Perraud 86.
"Contractually we are on the brink of the sack. You never want to part with younger players who are going to just keep getting better, but its pointless building for the future if another manager takes your job and benefits from your hard work. We've opted to bring some higher rated players in but also some decent under 25s who have improvement in them. I'm never affraid to gamble, or change direction. We've a lot of young players, who i feel need a little experience around them. Staying in division 1 is our objective and I think we can improve on our position with these signings. We have a few weeks to wait until all deals are completed, but im satisfied with our business"
Flipping Hamburger
We're one third of the way through S17, so it's as good a time as any for a quick review and update of how things are going here in northern Germany.
This is Hamburger's second season back in D3 after relegation from D2 in S15. It feels like a long time since we hit the heady heights of promotion to D1 all the way back in S11.
We had a miserable time in the top flight, finishing bottom with a record low points total. Not entirely unexpected, and not much fun.
We lost in the playoffs in S13, and then avoided relegation to D3 in the final game of S14, before plunging back down the following season.
We knew back then that we needed to do some work flipping an aging first team - an aging first team that had been assembled from trading younger players for higher ratings to get promotion after years in the D3 midtable wilderness.
Since our D1 (mis)adventure, I'd been building my youth team (which I'll come back to), while trying (and failing) to maintain a aging higher rated first team to sustain at least D2 football. Our first season back in D3 saw my aging team floundering in midtable again, so I sold off most of them for some younger lower rated players... and then also started getting better results.
Which got me thinking....
Now, most seasons I like to start with some new-fangled formation and tactics that is finally going to blow the notorious SM match engine wide open, before reverting back to the tried and trusted 4231B attacking-direct-down-both-wings formula that staves off inevitable relegation and puts you back in with a decent chance of promotion, but not quite.
Last season was no different. 4222 (which I've used successfully in one other game world) was my stupid, stupid choice for S16.
In a nutshell, my stupid formations yielded a weedy 28 points from 26 games, while good old-fashioned 4231B produced a sturdy 27 points from just 12 matches - title-winning form!
It was a no-brainer. Like DP 91 before me, I had proved what everyone already knew. S17, therefore, I would stick with 4231B, with a few tactical variations for playing home or away against stronger or weaker teams and collect my D3 title. Mission accomplished!
Thankfully in SM, nothing ever works out quite like you expect it to, and with just 9 points from 8 games religiously sticking to Plan 4231B at the start of this season, something had to change.
We switched to Plan 442 (short passing), which we used successfully in friendly games at the end of S16. Can't remember who I stole that idea from, but fairly certain it's not something I can claim any credit for.
Since then, we had four straight wins, including at then second placed Wolfsburg, prompting disbelief and self-loathing from the Wolves' gaffer.
Anyway, early doors to get too carried away, and disappointed to manage only a draw at home to second bottom Napoli on Sunday when a win would have put us in second place. Especially after being two goals up. But delighted to be up there and in contention at this stage.
Back to my youth team. Another good start in the Youth Cup. We've sacrificed a lot to try to build a strong and successful youth setup over the past five or six seasons (youth squad highlights from a year ago: U21, U20, U19, U18).
But it had to be done, and while there are others who could have, and have done, better jobs - and faster - at their clubs, I'm still pleased with the work here.
We got to the Youth Cup semi-final last season, and the aim has to be the final this season. Even though this looks like the strongest Youth Cup competition I can remember. No doubt SM will now have me heading for the Youth Shield at the earliest opportunity!
Season 17 Division 1 Stats Break 2
Because Why Not !
Was still working on the template to generate the output and charts when I put up the first article ... get ready for installment #2
Stats Break A | Possession
Just like you tell you players before every match, if they don't have the ball, they cannot score. And then you go play Super Attacking Fast football and berate them for turning the ball over and losing possession .... wait ... what was that ......... aha ... yep .... nope .... yes you do ...
The profile of possession is what you would expect to see ... a few anomalies ... Levante and Hellas ... and Benfica and City competing well but not (*yet) showing in the results. Now let's look at the home and away stats ....
Barca bring their own ball and at the end of the match kick it to the opposition and say 'there you go, you can play with it now' ... Real Madrid and Levante ... Levante ... what is in the water in that city ... some form of go-go juice ? We might need to look at scoring efficiency v time of possession at some point in the near future. The mid-table is congested with teams that are able and capable of catapulting up the standings ... the bottom end of the table clearly populated with sides that just don't have the talent to put out to compete on equal terms just yet ...
The big buddha's up the top like to play keepie off even away from home ... and are good enough to do it. Levante, clearly without the benefit of the natural springs of home hold the ball a bit longer. Arsenal, can't score in the last 30 mins also cannot possess the ball away from home ... what is going on ? Benfica hold that ball, but are just not getting the results at the moment.
Now this is the interesting chart .... the Possession Delta ... Home v Away.
A positive number (pale green) is the average of your home possession being greater than your away possession. For example, Barcelona, through 10 matches, averages ~4% more possession at home, than when they play away.
A negative number (red) means you are averaging a higher possession away from home. For example, Levante, averages 6% more possession away from their natural go-go juice springs, than they do at home sprinting around the park like a team of Yannik Bolasie and Tony Yeboah semi guided missiles.
Arsenal dominant at home on the ball, but right now it is all like the death throes of the Wenger years ... as we say in Texas ... all hat, no cattle ... just struggling to get it done. Alex has City holding onto a lot of Etihad home ball, also looking to launch his season over the next few fixtures. Some interesting stuff in here.
Stats Break B | Naughty Naughty Boys
And now we turn to the discipline side our game ... the yellows and the reds ... the AS Roma's ...
Copping a YC during a match is, or even multiples, part of the game. Copping a YC before you take a free kick ... don't get me started about the anomaly ...
Some sinners here ... and some saints ... Gav definitely getting his charges fired up ... the ball and the man come at you ... only one goes past. Stoke could probably use a little anger and fire, could kick start their season ? Dortmund playing clean and fair ... without too much mongrel in them too. Let's go look at the home and away splits ...
Who are the brutes and who are the 'clean' teams ... Fortresses in Munchen and both Madrid's ... these boys playing with an edge ... even Arsenal gets a little nasty at home. Liege and Stoke playing like gentlemen ...
Some timid teams away from home ... Porto like to mix it up ... but AC Milan going hard, studs up. Juventus playing fair (you don't know hard it is to say that with a straight face ...... IRL Dan .... IRL !!). Dortmund take their technical fair football on the road as well. It does look like tackling style is not just a switch in the tactics ...
Stats Break C | Sneak Peak ...
A preview of some future stuff ...
Well it’s good night from me, and it’s good night from him, good night
Until the next update .... and remember ... if nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through !