***The Official Football Manager Thread***

[gopher_guy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kobalt

Finally finished ahead of either Real Madrid or Barcelona. Woot!! 4-0 loss last year, 4-0 win this year for CL. I was so happy when Spurs beat Real Madrid.

Clear out your ****ing inbox!

[gopher_guy]

Year 3 with St. Pauli is going pretty well. Sitting in second place just after the January transfer window, looking like promotion will be a very realistic goal. Lennart Thy, the striker I plucked off my reserves 2 years ago is in beast mode this season, 16 goals in 21 appearances.

Ever since I switched to a 4-4-1-1, and really focused on a possession game (lower tempo, stick to positions, retain possession, work ball into box), I've been doing well. I have a couple very solid central midfielders who are able to control most games.



It's nice to have one of these games go my way, seems like it always goes the other way for me.

[NoDakHusker]

Quote: Originally Posted by NoDakHusker

Spoiler Finished my first season at Dresden and I am incredibly happy with how the season came out. I absolutely love this team and the way things came together. I wasn't able to make any transfer moves this season other than sell a few dead weights to help the financial woes of the club. I had to make do with what I was given from the start. The media picked us to finish 14th in the 2. Bundesliga, just outside of relegation. The board's expectations were a mid table finish at best. The team came out losing the first 2 matches of the season and proceeded to go on an 11 match unbeaten run, 8 wins and 3 draws to climb atop the table early on. A return to average form saw the team come back to reality for a bit coming out of the winter break. A few injuries and bad luck resulted in some tough results, including having to squeak out a couple of draws against teams sitting in the relegation zone. Dresden had allowed the least goals in the league through 24 matches and sat in 2nd place, when star keeper Benjamin Kirsten suffered a training injury that put him out for the final 9 matches. The defense played well throughout the year, but this loss at the keeper spot and poor form on the attacking end saw Dresden suffer a streak of 6 winless games - 5 losses and 1 draw - heading into the last 5 matches of the year. Sitting in 5th place, they had to come together to finish strong. Dresden secured a very solid 4th place finish, winning 4 of the last 5 matches by a combined score of 15-5. A team projected to finish near the bottom was in the fight for promotion throughout the season. A hell of a season, I'm very proud...even though I really wanted to at least get 3rd place to have a shot at promotion. I love the players on this team. AM Robert Koch led the scoring with 14 goals and 4 assists, he had a nice year playing in all 34 matches. ST Zlatko Dedic followed up with 12 goals and 6 assists. He's a really solid player, although he can be inconsistent and is very streaky. At one point he went 12 hours of playing time without scoring and then proceeded to score a hat-trick in one half. By far my favorite on this team is Algerian AM Idir Ouali, incredible speed and a perfect winger to have on the attack, he creates so many great chances. He led the team with 10 assists and added 3 goals as well in 26 matches(missed some matches due to injury). He's also just been called up to his national team for the World Cup. Awesome. Thanks to the money brought in from placing 4th, I have some breathing room for contract renewals. Ouali and Koch are returning, as well as some other key players in my squad I plan to keep if they're wanting to stay. My biggest concern is at the striker spot, where Dedic was good at times, but horribly inconsistent and my other strikers showed no ability to finish whatsoever. I'll be looking for some help there, as well as rounding out my defense a little more. On to the off-season! I want promotion next year!

Second year at Dresden is in the books and it didn't come as easily as year one did. Matches in the first half of the season did not pan out too well:

Spoiler

A big winless streak early put us in a hole going into the winter break. We sat in 14th and were fighting to avoid dropping into the relegation zone. Far from the successes we enjoyed in year one. During the January transfer window, I brought in a new keeper from another German side and a few mids to help with depth, as injuries played a part in the poor performances up to that point.

Second half of the season:

Spoiler

What a way to go out. Other than laying an egg in that last game against St. Pauli, the team played much better and became a real goal scoring machine for a bit there, at least compared to earlier in the season. Although this increased scoring also led to just as many goals being conceded...so take it as you will.

I was able to pull this team out of the lower end of the table into a 7th place finish. I could've been 5th place with a win against St. Pauli at the end, but alas it wasn't meant to be. League table at the end of 2015:

Spoiler

I almost gave up on this team in January, it seemed there was no upside. I stuck with it, though, as I knew there was time to change and make it work. I'm quite happy with a 7th place finish given the early season struggles and financial instability due to a loan payment that is on-going for several more years.

My contract expires at the end of this season and I'm not going to renew it. I've enjoyed every moment at Dresden, but I just don't feel this club is capable of winning anything in the next several years. I didn't expect to lift any trophies in 2 years or anytime soon, rather the direction of the the board and myself just aren't meshing.

The search is on for a new home.

[Kobalt]

Lost to PSG in the first knockout round of CL, so no repeat. However....




I didn't expect this as I sold my starting LB, and 4 CBs before the season. Had to retool on the fly.

Spoiler

[jvalverde88]

Lyon has claimed another victim.

[The GIGGAS]

So I started that dynasty that I was talking about a bit ago, link's in my sig. Let me know what you think. I'll be playing my first game tomorrow, I think, and we'll see from there. I probably will get the highlights onto YouTube, and then post it as part of my match recap.

[Anners]

The 2014/2015 Gold Division belongs to me! As you can see, if you can get any sort of consistency you will probably win the league. Also note, Lyons Utd won the league last year, finished bottom this year. I did exactly the same in the Caribbean Club Championship, getting past the First Round but only getting a solitary win in the Group Stage again (2 wins should see me through).

I also had the Caribbean Championship with St Lucia, though we didn't get past the first round, but we should have done, if it were not for a Bermudan comeback. We managed to beat Monserrat, draw to Dominica and lose to Bermuda after going 2-0 up. We still don't have any good players and the two English based players (Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Dominic Poleon) still don't want to play for us.

[jesmith29]

So, is it a bad sign, when you're loudly cursing one of your players and threatening to transfer list him?