Leganes 16/17: January Blues

Hi everyone, We are now at the 1st of February and as such has played just over half the season and are at the end of the January transfer window. ‘Disaster’ is a word that is thrown around a lot in modern terms, so of course its the correct term for my first save on the new game.

I must also apologise as I have only recently released that I have been referring to the season as being 2015/16 when in fact it is 2016/17.

Anyway, on to this disaster of a season, we have now played 22 games with a grand total of 18 points and find ourselves in 19th place:

As you can see even though we are in the drop-zone, one victory take us out of it and two could take us as high as 13th; so even though it has been a disaster so far it can be turned around very quickly. Notable other performers are Sevilla (who are continually changing place with 1st place Barcelona on a weekly basis) and Las Palmas (who might not be as big a surprise if you know about the amount of money that they spent this summer).

The heavily defensive system that is being used and clearly be seen in the results as most matches are very low scoring:

Not once have we conceded more than 3 goals in a single game but at the same time we have never scored more than 2 in a game. The win against Atletico is clearly the highlight of the season; a game that we had 1 shot to there 31, so we kinda FM’ed FM with that one. On the negative front the defeat to Alaves and the draw at Deportivo are the worst; we dominated Alaves and I felt like it was our best attacking performance of the season but unfortunately just couldn’t find the net and the draw at Deportivo is disappointing as we were 2-0 at half time only for Gabriel to get sent off with 10 mins to go and Deportivo to score two late goals from corners – 2 dropped not 1 gained.

In the Spanish Cup we had the expectations of reaching the 5th round (entered in the 4th)and as such I saw it as a chance to rest the main stars and give the younger players some game time:

To get past Deportivo – even on away goals – was still a great achievement for my second string side. Villarreal blow us away in the first leg but we played with real quality in the return which was great to see with a side who had an average age of 22.

So on to the playing squad and first the new transfers for the January window:

Transfers in

Jorge is a player that I had originally tried to sign in the summer but did not have the funds, he is an 19 year old ball playing defender who will hopefully become a figurehead at the back for years to come. Also on a side note, I cancelled Insua’s loan after this transfer as I felt like we did not need 5 first team centre-half’s in the squad.

Nwakali is a young central midfielder who will come in as a back-up with Medjani going to the African cup of nations. I highly doubt we will see a lot of the youngster but you never know if he takes his chances well.

Dani Mallo is a 38 year old goalkeeping veteran who has been brought in till the end of the sign as back-up whilst our two young goalkeepers go out on loan to gain some much needed experience.

These transfers have left us with the following playing squad:

A good size of squad with most of the players competing for a first-team place every week. As you can see goals come once in a blue moon for most players but this is not a problem due to our high standard defending. Oscar, our summer signing, has been unregistered for the second half of the season due to the fact that he is on a contract that would require us to keep him next season if he plays one more match and I don’t fancy paying him 15.25k a week again to have him sit on the bench. Our best player so far has been winger Darwin Machis, who is also our top goal scorer with 7.

We will be very lucky to keep him on next season but I would be happy to part with a large chunk of our transfer budget in the summer to keep him scoring for us and not against us.

So there we are so far, will we go down? Survive on the last day? Find out in the next update!

Thanks again for reading guys, as usual I would be very grateful if you would share the blog and also follow us on twitter @wedidntsignbaba.

 

Leganes 16/17: Pre-Season and Transfers

Hi guys and welcome to my first blog post since the release of Football Manager 2017 Beta; I have decided to start a long term save in the Beta in order to get myself used to the new game and more importantly to blogging about the game (So apologies if it doesn’t meet standards). Anyway if you have read my other post then you will know that I am starting with newly promoted La Liga side CD Leganes with the other goal of the save being to eventually win the title.

Considering the start that Leganes have made in real-life (Best start to a La Liga season for a club in their first season in the top tier for 50 years), the expectations for the first season and very low and even made me doubt if this club was one that I could turn around;

The fact that the President isn’t even expecting us too stay up in the first season shows just how big a challenge this is, I myself am just aiming to avoid relegation and maybe even climb to 14th. The Spanish Cup is going to be almost like how the big clubs in England use the Capital One cup and is just an opportunity to rest star players and give the back-ups a bit of game time as the main focus is on La Liga.

Anyway after looking at the squad I realised why the President wasn’t very confident with no Under 19s what so ever, all the ‘B’ team players on amateur contracts and half of the first team on one year loan contracts with no future fee. I therefore looked at bringing in youth whilst also looking to fill voids in the squad.

Lucho is an 18 year-old goalkeeper who will be the back-up this season, he is currently 2 stars but has the potential to be 4 and a half stars; He should be our No.1 for many of the coming years.

Flavio Ferreira is a former Malaga Centre-Half who’s last few seasons have been pledged with back problems but I am confident that with the right training, the 24 year-old can be a critical player in our squad.

Jose Pozo is a former Man City youngster and at still only 20 he has a big future ahead of him, he will play mainly in the shadow striker role but will also be back-up for the Defensive wingers.

Juan Carlos Paredes is 1 of 2 deadline day signings as I felt our other right back Bustinza was not of the quality that I was looking for (He made the most mistakes in the opening 2 La Liga games). Even though he is currently in on loan, he was on the transfer list from Watford so we maybe able to strike a deal at the end of the season if he performs well.

Oscar is an Attacking midfield Spanish veteran who was brought in with an hour to go due to our high amount of injuries (8 so far), he is on a 12 month contract and I doubt he will stay past this.

In terms of the players that have left the club; Bustinza was mentioned before hand; Bianco was a very poor young defender I was surprised that such a highly reputable club like Udinese would take him, even for nothing. In addition to these two I also cancelled two loan moves, Brignoli and Unai Lopez. Brignoli was not needed after the purchase of Lucho and Lopez did not have the physical capabilities to play in my system (if I had known about the injuries then I would of kept him but Oscar is just as good).

So now on to the playing side Pre season; we played 7 games in total with a record of 3-3-1.

Clearly the main thing to see here is the 3-1 away win against Ligue 1 sign Bordeaux which was fantastic for my small, unfit squad. However, the very next game brought the main disappointment as we were beaten by Real Madrid B in a game that we did not respect the opposition correctly with us playing essentially our ‘Second’ team and were punished for it.

We have also played the first two games in our maiden La Liga season and I’ll let you judge our performances before I give my thoughts:

Well an undefeated start for a time that just has to keep its modesty aint half bad!!! If anything we were unlucky not to have won each of the game and considering we could only have 4 subs in each game due to injuries, things can only get better!

Now onto the tactics that will be used at the start of the save. All 3 slots have been used and each one has a specific function to serve the team.

Now before you go mad that this is the most defensive tactic you have ever seen be prepared for more further down. this tactic aims to frustrate opposition that tries to flood the midfield and play their way through. As it is on counter it allows the speedy wingers to take the ball from our 18 yard box to the other at the speed of lighting. This has so far been our weakest tactic but has been used the least and will need to be trained further to become prolific.

My attempt at developing Tiki-Taka in the new game. This tactic is one that I will base the youth development on (taking inspiration from La Masia) and I fully expect it to be our main tactic in a few years time. For now it will primarily be used in friendlies and cup games to allow current players to also get used so that they can adapt when we eventually switch to this style of play.

I told you it got worse… But in all honesty this tactic is already looking like one of the best I have come up with; this is what was used against Bordeaux and Villarreal. It works by have very fast wingers and shadow strikers who can run onto the ball against slower defences. Also defensively it is very hard to break down (the only goal we have conceded was from a corner). The plan is to use this in the majority of away games and against top half sides at home to try and grind out results.

Thanks for reading guys, I hope everyone is enjoying the new game and having success with the Beta. I will provide the next update at the end of the January transfer window. in the mean time please share the blog and follow us on Twitter @wedidntsignbaba .

 

First FM17 save

Hi guys, so with the release of Football Manager 2017 just a matter of weeks away i have decided to write a brief blog post about my first save in the new game and i have decided to go for newly promoted La Liga side Leganes.

Club Deportivo Leganes is a Spanish football team founded in 1928 and are based in Leganes which is situated on the outskirts of the Spanish capital Madrid. Their ground is the Estadio Municipal De Butarque which holds 10,954 people and they are currently playing in their first season in the Spanish top tier after being promoted in 2nd place in last seasons Segunda Division.

In real life they have produced the best start for a promoted club in La Liga for the last 50 years and currently find themselves in 9th position within an admittedly unpredictable La Liga season so far. This was one of the reasons that i was attracted to this particularly club after hearing about their successes on the Spanish Football Podcast.

In terms of playing squad, they were the only La Liga club not to fully fill out their 25 man squad for this forthcoming season; however, they do look like a club that has went for quality over quantity by splashing the cash on players such as 22 year old midfielder Gabriel (£7.5m) and former Liverpool and Monaco centre half Carl Medjani. They have also brought in 8 players on loan including Unai Lopez from Athletic Bilbao and Darwin Machis from Granada, two players that i have been a fan of on previous games.

In terms of playing style i think it is pretty clear that we need to aim for a counter attacking style due to the fact that we are a newly promoted club and the level of talent that plies their trade in the league. I plan to use the Beta to try and set up 3 solid counter attacking tactics that i can use for this side.

Expect any few posts about what i have found during the Beta but the really action won’t start until the 4th of November when the game is finally released.

Thanks for reading guys and if you could both share the blog and follow us on Twitter @wedidntsignbaba that would be much appricated.

Welcome

Hi guys and welcome to We Didnt Sign Baba, a Football Manager blog that will kick off at the release of Football Manager 2017. I’m guessing most of you’s won’t get the pun in the name so let me explain; In Football Manager 2012, SI accidently but Baba Diawara in the Celtic squad and anyone who played with them during that game will have known that this man was a god, as a Celtic fan it’s said to think that the best player i’ve used with Celtic didn’t even play for us. Anyway i will update the blog in due time with my idea for my first save in the new game which i hope you will all follow!