Football Manager 2020 Discussion Thread

[Mpache]

5 hours ago, Bluebird Hewitt said:

Ref was a bit shit there. 

As Dan mentioned, look at the fouls.

He let a lot of them go! Andorra the dirty twats.

[Bluebird Hewitt]

8 minutes ago, Inti Brian said:

As Dan mentioned, look at the fouls.

He let a lot of them go! Andorra the dirty twats.

In Dan's defence, he got what he wanted as he mentioned he wanted to rub teams up the wrong way. 

[Dan+]

On 13/04/2020 at 02:06, Dan said:

2020/21 - FC Andorra

What I want to turn Andorra into in both the short and long term, being totally honest, is a shithouse team. I want us to be aggressive, I want us to bend the rules, I want us to rub teams up the wrong way and wind them up.

 

9 minutes ago, Inti Brian said:

As Dan mentioned, look at the fouls.

He let a lot of them go! Andorra the dirty twats.

 

This is what we like to see. The club are disappointed with the result but feel the bigger picture is looking healthy.

[Mpache]

Just now, Dan said:

 

 

This is what we like to see. The club are disappointed with the result but feel the bigger picture is looking healthy.

Considering you injured Andrea Dona for 4 matches on purpose, you have succeeded I must say 

[LFCMike]

23/24 season finished.

The 3-6 home defeat to Morton was our fourth loss in a row and I honestly questioned whether we'd blow a play off spot nevermind second. We went on an outstanding run after that though including a penalty shoot out win over Motherwell and finished second comfortably in the end.

So we'd play the second play off round against the winner of 3rd and 4th. Which was Morton, FFS.

2-0 down after 17 minutes of the first leg, here we go again. We managed to pull level before halftime but eventually lost 3-2.

Second leg at home and we never really got going in the first half, finding ourselves 0-1 (0-3 agg). They scored early in the second half and it was tie over. A 2-5 aggregate defeat. Another season in the Championship.

Had some news that might be a game changer for us though in the form of a billionaire investor. Interesting to see what my transfer and wage budget will be next season to try and help us out of the Championship.

Morton went up in the play offs. I got a job offer from them not long after. No way they'll survive the SPL though

[Mpache]

We are on course for our first trophy  

[Mpache]

Never mind.

Penalties are broken btw.

[Dan+]

Absolute state of that  fucking hell.

[The Palace Fan]

15 goals at the half way point. Second bottom. We are in real trouble.

[Smiley Culture]

Was bored and not really feeling getting stuck into a new FM save so was just messing about and I’ve found FC Vaduz play in the Swiss second tier but qualify for Europe most years through virtue of competing in the Liechtenstein FA Cup. 

Started with them and just had a bit of a big win in the 2nd Qualifying Round for the Euro Cup in the shape of a backs to the wall, smash and grab of a 1-0 at Levski Sofia in front of 61 fans, all of them being our fans. I’m almost certain to lose in the second leg but Strasbourg lie in wait for the winner. Another 250k+ in the bank would be pretty huge at this level, though. 

[LFCMike]

So it was a busy summer. Armed with a huge transfer and wage budget for this level. Makes a huge difference in the calibre of players we can attract from being able to offer players £1.5k a week to £5k a week.

Anyway, before we really got going we lost our two brightest prospects. Was more gutted to lose Grigg after just one permanent season. Chelsea met his release clause though so we couldn't stand in his way.

Our net spend ended up being just over £3m. I tried to sign a few experienced players as we've had a very young squad since I took over. Our two most expensive signings are ones for the future.

[Smiley Culture]

FC Vaduz - Season 2019/20 - Swiss Challenge League

As I said on here before, Vaduz are from Liechtenstein but play their football in the Swiss second tier, yet have the added bonus of competing in the Liechtenstein FA Cup, which affords them the opportunity of European Football most years, having won the cup forty-seven times. It was this that drew me to Vaduz. I want to lead the club back to the top flight but also start competing on the European stage, with qualification to the group stage, and to look at bringing through youth players from Liechtenstein. 

Ahead of the season, three players come in on loan. Marcus Hober, a central midfielder from Borussia Dortmund II, striker Ousman Manneh from Werder Bremen II and winger Julian Justvan from Wolfsburg II. 

This season I am looking for a top five finish, progressing as far as possible in Europe and qualifying for Europe again by way of winning the Liechtenstein FA Cup again. 

July 2019

FC Vaduz 4-0 KI (Euro Cup Best Placed 1st Qualifying Round 1st Leg)

Manneh 9, Prokopic 22, 25, Milineacu 79.

We should be beating part-time Icelandic sides with ease and we did just that. One foot in the next round straight away. 

 

KI 3-3 FC Vaduz (Euro Cup Best Placed 1st Qualifying Round 2nd Leg)

Cicek 45+2, Milinceanu 61, Prokopic 85. 

Not happy with this performance, there's no way we should be drawing with these. 

 

Levski Sofia 0-1 FC Vaduz (Euro Cup Best Placed 2nd Qualifying Round 1st Leg)

Krumov o.g 31. 

The old cliche of a smash and grab. Expected nothing here really, I expected more from Levski but an away goal and a clean sheet was vital. 

 

Chiasso 3-1 FC Vaduz (Swiss Challenge League)

Coulibaly (pen) 10.

Awful. Well beaten after leading and a bump back down to earth giving us a reminder that domestic football is where our priorities truly lie.

 

 

August 2019

FC Vaduz 2-2 Levski Sofia (Euro Cup Best Placed 2nd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg)

 Prokopic 64, Milinceanu 77. 

Superb. I expected a tough game here and really, expected a defeat here and 2-0 down within 20 minutes, it looked as though my fears were correct, despite a much more even game this time around. We were lifted by Big Boris' goal and pushed for the equaliser on the night and duly got what we deserved.

 

Kriens 2-0 FC Vaduz (Swiss Challenge League)

Shit, again. Well beaten and the inquest after this match led to the abandonment of 4-1-4-1, which had its successes but at domestic level just didn't suit. 

 

Strasbourg Alsace 3-1 FC Vaduz (Euro Cup Best Placed 3rd Qualifying Round 1st Leg)

Manneh 83. 

Honestly, we weren't far off here. I started dreaming of a shock as the time ticked by at 0-0 but the deadlock was broken after 71 minutes. We stuck at it but I thought our luck was out when a shot careered back off our goalkeeper and went in for the second. We pulled one back two minutes later and I was delighted that we'd given ourselves a slim chance but that was distinguished by a third goal deep into injury time.

 

FC Vaduz 4-0 Stade-Lausanne (Swiss Challenge League)

Justvan 26, 34, Milinceanu 50, 81. 

The change of formation to 4-4-2 felt vindicated here. The performance at Strasbourg was promising so to win so comfortably was more than pleasing. 

 

FC Vaduz 1-3 Strasbourg Alsace (Euro Cup Best Placed 3rd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg)

Manneh 9. 

The game was all but over straight away, Strasbourg scored after 5 minutes and even after Manneh's goal, we still needed three goals to win. Strasbourg's quality shown through and they scored another two before half-time to put the tie to bed. I didn't expect to get this far so it's been pleasing to get as far as we have and to see the clubs finances looking healthy so early on. Need to get this far again next season should we qualify. 

 

FC Vaduz 1-0 Wil (Swiss Challenge League)

Milinceanu 54. 

This certainly wasn't a classic and we contributed to how poor a game this was but managed to do what Wil couldn't do, we scored. 

 

FC Vaduz 3-1 Winterthur (Swiss Challenge League)

Prokopic 7, Milinceanu 77, 90. 

No idea why but it seems in this league that you get a couple of home games and then a couple of away games and this was our third domestic home game on the spin, so it was pleasing. The change to 4-4-2 seems to have been seamless and has provided the results we needed.

 

Schaffhausen 1-1 FC Vaduz (Swiss Challenge League)

Sulungoz 6. 

Disappointing to draw this, when we led for 82 minutes. It's times like this when you need to hold out for a win. 

 

Lausanne 0-2 FC Vaduz (Swiss Challenge League)

Milinceanu (pen) 34, Manneh 73.

This was a big test for us, Lausanne had won five of their six games at this point and topped the table. I wasn't overly confident looking at our away form and rode our luck early doors and could have been a goal or two down but the penalty seemed to take the wind out of Lausanne and the second half was much more even and thankfully we grabbed a second. 

 

 

September 2019

FC Vaduz 3-3 Grasshoppers Zurich (Swiss Challenge League)

Justvan 7, Manneh 30, Cicek 35. 

Grasshoppers are the big boys at this level and should be winning this league at a canter and to be leading 3-1 at half-time was excellent, we'd simply been brilliant. To then capitulate and come away with one point instead of three was disappointing but I would have taken a point beforehand, however, to get a point in this manner was tough to take. 

 

FC Vaduz 2-2 Aarau (Swiss Challenge League)

Rahimi 10, Justvan 45. 

Playing against the bottom of the league, who hadn't at this stage. We went behind twice and had to fight to get back into the game twice. Probably the most frustrating game so far, I know we're better than this and know we should be winning this but we struggled here.

 

Wil 2-4 FC Vaduz (Swiss Challenge League)

Manneh 9, Justvan 25, Milinceanu 38, 64. 

The first double of the season in the bag. We didn't look like losing this and was comfortable throughout despite Wil pegging us back to 3-1 just before half-time. With the damage done, the second half was a bit dull but we did get a fourth before being pegged back. 

 

10 games played in the league, 4th in the table. I'll take that for now. October sees us join the Liechtensteiner FA Cup, at quarter final stage, which should be relatively easy. I think we can sustain this league position and possibly push for a top three finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mpache]

Vaduz and Andorra FC on the forum. Interesting, someone needs to do San Marino FC next!

[The Palace Fan]

It doesnt get much more tight than this....

Rotherham and Hull City have very winnable fixtures too.

[The Palace Fan]

Thought the Hull victory had saved us.

[The Palace Fan]

MK Dons just got promoted via the playoffs

[LFCMike]

So at the half way point this is how things stand. Gutted to lose the cup final to Hibs, especially after beating Celtic and Kilmarnock along the way. 

I think it's safe to say we'll be playing in the SPL next season

[LFCMike]

This lad was meant to be a bit part player this season, one for the future. 18 goals in 9 league games

 

[LFCMike]

We've got an unbelievable opportunity to win the Scottish Cup. After we knocked Dundee United in the fifth round, there's just three SPL clubs left in the competition - Morton, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock (all in the bottom 5 of the SPL)

[LFCMike]

The league was done at the start of March. Nine games left when we were confirmed Champions I think. 

Quarter final of the cup we got taken to a replay by Aberdeen. Won 0-3 at their place to go through. 

Morton were up next in the semis. Revenge for the play off defeat last year, 3-0. 

The final against Kilmarnock. I was confident as we'd already knocked them out of the Betfred Cup earlier in the season. A comfortable 2-0 win.

Can't wait for next season. Think we're in good shape to survive and push towards the top half of the league. Just hope I can keep hold of Mbeumo. What a signing

[Mpache]

An update.

We lost Felix Niessen for 76M. Sadly I had to get rid, it was either that or lose him on a free as he was on his final year on his contract. Just a reminder in case you haven't seen him, this was him.

My replacement for him was to just put Berardi back in striker. I have 3 other attacking midfielders and Domenico fits the bill for a complete forward just fine. This is my current squad.

So how are we doing this year?

Last season we had a great season, but we sadly just about missed out on a Champions League spot. We finished 5th on the final day, we needed Roma to drop points and they didn't very unfortunately. They beat Sampdoria 1-0 and finished in 4th.

This is how the table looks this season.

I can still realistically win the title, but I'm not getting ahead of myself. My aim this season is to win the Europa League and finish in the top 4. If we can get more than that, great. I'm not holding my breath though. I will consider this season a failure if we don't win the Europa League and finish below 5th, as that will mean we have stagnated.

As for the Europa League, we drew a group with Zenit, Tottenham and Young Boys. We only lost 1 game - home to Zenit. Had we won that, we would have topped the group. Not sure entirely what happened there though, bit of an unfortunate result.

We drew Lyon in the first knockout round. Tough games but how did we do?

We won on away goals! We then drew Schalke and won that as well, so we are in the quarter final. We have drawn Hertha Berlin, who aren't going to be easy but I consider weaker than Lyon and Schalke so I think we can definitely win. In the semi, we will either play Sporting Lisboa or Wolfsburg should we go through.

[Dan+]

FC Andorra - 2022/23 (Part two)

I thought I'd do a quick update before my run-in because I can see that being quite bloated, without wanting to give too much away. Last time I left you, this was the table.

 

 

We look steady. There's a long way to go of course, but we look in a very good place right now and if I was a betting man (.....) I'd have to say I expected us to stay up, but of course, there is a long way to go.

The World Cup came and went. I had my eye on Derlis Mereles and his Paraguay side as the only Andorra representative in the competition, and wouldn't you just know it?

 

 

They went and put England out on penalties, and in even more typical England fashion, it came via England peppering them for 120 minutes and Miguel Almiron equalising in injury time. Spain picked up their second World Cup courtesy of a winner from Mikel Oyarzabal.

Back to domestic action. December saw us play a cup game against a lower league side which we won very easily, but January didn't quite go to plan.

 

 

Pretty grim reading on the whole. Needing extra time to win at Barakaldo was disappointing given we'd beaten them a lot easier when playing them in the league. The fixture list hadn't been kind with the Madrid double header but to follow it up with another comfortable home loss was worrying and the first time I thought we were in a bit of trouble, but we picked up arguably our most impressive result of the season by beating overachieving Alaves away from home. Alaves' overachievement was annoying by its very nature though as it took one side expected to be down there well out of the picture - though Sevilla on the flip side were having a complete nightmare of a season and sat 19th. The problem is I expect both of them to regress to the mean and that means neither will go down.

February started well with a very important home win over Levante which gave us some breathing space, but we were dragged right back into it by the rest of our results, barring one very comfortable win at Sporting Gijon. January loanee signing Jordan Millward running the show, the only signing of the month.

 

 

What was quite striking was how few goals we were now scoring. We weren't really demonstrating many strengths at all - very seldom keeping a clean sheet and now not even bagging at the right end. It's a worrying combination going into a tricky March where would face Barcelona twice, and as expected, leave empty handed. In-fact, I came out of March thinking we were going to be relegated.

 

 

Draws with Almeria and Rayo may have been acceptable if not for the other one, but I think we needed four points from those two personally. To then go and lose comfortably to Athletic Club at home left me very worried. This was the point where I thought we were going to go down after all. Others around the bottom had started picking up points and Sevilla as expected had totally left it for dead with a strong run of form. April would see us make a dreaded trip to Real Madrid.

 

 

What a ridiculous mixed bag of results it was. That Real Sociedad loss caused me to make a tactical switch ahead of the Real Madrid trip and go back to our old 4-2-3-1, and my god it worked a treat.... for three games. I mean that alone justifies it I think, they were superb performances and results, but the two that followed were massively worrying and have ploughed us right back in the shit after I thought we would pull away. We have five games left, and I leave you with both the table, and the teams down there with their run ins. This one is going to the wire, and it's going to make for a very interesting part 3.

 

[Mpache]

Malaga has a very difficult run of games. You might be fine @Dan looking at that. You'll still definitely want to win a game or two.

[Mpache]

We did it lads.

[Dan+]

FC Andorra - 2022/23 (Part three - the run-in)

So here it is. Three from five would drop. I'd rank us as just about likely to survive due to the points gap, and I think if we did manage to beat Malaga, we would be fine.

 

MD 34 - We were predictably beaten comfortably at Atletico on my birthday, but on the whole I actually think it was a quite good matchday for us as Malaga lost at Espanyol and Almeria were thumped at Levante, and to me, Almeria looked absolute certs to drop. Real Sporting drew 1-1 with Getafe - with Gijon stealing the point in the final minute, a huge blow for Getafe.

 

MD 35 - Villarreal away. Villarreal had been disappointing all season and with so much on the line for us, I thought we'd pull something out the bag. How wrong I was. I can accept getting soundly beaten at Atletico, but not Villarreal. It was another 3-1 loss and frankly it could've been a lot more, we were out of the game by about half an hour. It was worrying, four defeats on the spin. Getafe got an impressive point at Celta Vigo, but probably needed a bit more. Malaga lost to Atletico Madrid at home as expected, but in the other bottom of the table clash, Real Sporting thumped Almeria away from home. Almeria became the first side to drop. one down, two to go, and thankfully the ineptness of the others meant we'd gotten away with the crap we'd served up. Real Sporting were looking less and less like dropping and actually not that big a concern to us. Malaga looked like the biggest threat. Fitting then, that Malaga it was who were our next opponents.

 

MD 36 - This is the fixture I've had my eye on months. This one was massive. For me, arguably, the biggest game in the history of the club - how can't it be? Once again, I keep stressing it, but I build my transfer policy around turning up in games like these. The fact Malaga still had to go to Barcelona meant that a win for us would all but relegate them. If we won, and Getafe lost at home to Real Madrid, we were safe. We started the game well and blew an absolute sitter through Gyokeres, but we were soon in front as a free kick was met by the head of captain Sam Hughes, his weak header beating the Malaga goalkeeper who seemed to lose his balance in the incident. Poor goalkeeping - I wonder if Ivan Villar, the goalkeeper who turned us down in pre-season for Malaga, who couldn't get in ahead of this clown was regretting his decision yet?

We came out for the second half but it was looking like it was going to be trickier than the first, which was surprisingly comfortable really. Malaga attacked us but we didn't really give them a sniff, and to be honest, I don't remember them forcing too many moments where I was scared. 85 minutes on the clock and my right back Jordi Calavera gallops into the box and is brought down. I am so relieved. This will be given. The incident is checked by VAR. I wait. I keep waiting. Free kick. It was outside the box. It absolutely wasn't in a million years. It was clearly inside and I was genuinely amazed at what I was seeing - would've been fitting given Calavera had spent most of the season giving penalties away himself. Instantly you get that sinking feeling that maybe it isn't going to be our day. We pull out the tricks. Time-wasting, tactical fouling, tactical substitutions, clogging the midfield further, we make it a slog and we absolutely love it.

We hit injury time and I think that even if we do throw this away, we are likely to survive as Malaga were still 4 points off us - it would require Getafe or Malaga beating one of the big two. Malaga looked beaten, and two minutes later, were. Andorra 1-0 Malaga was the full time result. There was a pitch invasion. We weren't safe yet but we were all but there, it would take a horrible swing for us to drop. Malaga knew they were fucked.

Getafe then took on Real Madrid. An away win would have us mathematically safe. It arrived. No mistake from the giants. Andorra had survived. 6 weeks of pre-season, the most farcical fixture pile-up we could've asked for and the smallest budget in the league, and we're safe with two games to spare.

A word on Goncalo Loureiro. The Portuguese defender who turned down the chance to make his loan move permanent here in the summer, despite persuasion from his new friend and Andorra captain, Sam Hughes, to sign for, you guessed it, Malaga. We are cold blooded. We are vile. Fuck with us and this is what happens.

_____

The final two matchdays mean it's between the other three to go down but it's pretty obvious Real Sporting are going to survive, though matchday 37 provided an incredible incident as Malaga beat high flying Bilbao 1-0 with a late goal, and then Sporting incredibly managed to lose at Alaves despite leading 0-1 in the 93rd minute, meaning it would go down to the final day - though still requiring a miracle as Malaga went to Barcelona, who needed a win for the title. Getafe's failure to win at Almeria saw them join them in La Liga 2 next season.

The final day was slightly underwhelming as Barcelona scored in the 2nd minute, and Malaga had to win the game and hope that Real Sporting lost their game. They did, but Malaga ended up losing 4-0 anyway, so Malaga were relegated. Barcelona may have done it but really, we all know Andorra sent Malaga down. Andorra finished in style - picking up a shock 0-0 draw at Girona despite having a very changed team and Girona flying high in the table, and then turning over Sevilla 3-1 on the final day. We'd done it in style in the end.

_____

 

 

So there you have it, survival achieved and what an achievement it really is. We're progressing at a fantastic rate and I really feel like we can gradually chip away and eventually push for European football. Osasuna bounced back up and will meet us for the first time, Granada and Deportivo are coming with them - the latter a ground we have significant memories at, will be nice to go there again, and to hammer them again hopefully. Eibar bottled promotion in sensational style, losing 4 of their last 5 to get pipped to 2nd on the final day, to then lose in the play-offs. Hideous.

Upon our survival the board announced that another new stadium is coming. We have spent precisely one year in this ground, and we're already leaving it behind. Regulations in La Liga mean our ground must hold 15,000, the new one will hold 17,000 and will be ready for the start of the 2025/26 season, so we still have two years here, but why in gods name did they not just expand this one? We will be leaving the FC Andorra Stadium, for the.... FC Andorra Stadium. What's even funnier is that Andorra National Team play at a ground that holds 3,300 and haven't moved into ours, so our current ground, which will be the second biggest ground in the country, will be completely un-used

Buzzing though. This is becoming my favourite save in a long time and I'm nowhere near done with it.