As the world turns

My original plan was to honor Stam by taking over Olympiakos and leading them to glory in the Champions League. So I took my world-class reputation, loaded Greece, and went on vacation. Wouldn't you know it, I got no offers from any teams other than the bottom-feeders of the Greek Superleague?

So I reloaded my save game and loaded 5 of the top leagues according to the 2011 UEFA coefficient - Holland, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Croatia. Spain wasn't loaded because we just won the Champions League from there. I also didn't load England because I've already won boatloads of things with Newport County in the past. The plan now is simple. I'm going to go on vacation indefinitely until I'm offered a job. The first team to offer will determine the next country I coach from.

#40661 joannes3000 : My original plan was to honor Stam by taking over Olympiakos and leading them to glory in the Champions League. So I took my world-class reputation, loaded Greece, and went on vacation. Wouldn't you know it, I got no offers from any teams other than the bottom-feeders of the Greek Superleague?

So I reloaded my save game and loaded 5 of the top leagues according to the 2011 UEFA coefficient - Holland, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Croatia. Spain wasn't loaded because we just won the Champions League from there. I also didn't load England because I've already won boatloads of things with Newport County in the past. The plan now is simple. I'm going to go on vacation indefinitely until I'm offered a job. The first team to offer will determine the next country I coach from.

What an achievement winning the treble with Granada.

Why don't you actively seek some of the open job opportunities that always open up after a season instead of sitting back and wait for an offer to drop in?

Whoa! Incredible story! Hopefully you'll get a job at Italy! Or maybe Germany. Cheers mate!

Portugal, Boavista

Chapter 2 begins as I bid a fond farewell to Granada FC. Granada will always hold a special place in my heart as the first team to give me the opportunity to be manager. I hope that the success I helped bring to them over the course of three seasons was proper payback. Now it's time to head... Northwest to Germany.

After spending a few months on vacation I received an offer from HSV that I accepted. I took over the team on 31 October and got right down to business. Ten games into the season I was called on to revive a floundering team that, for all of its talents, had limped out to a 2-2-6 record that had them in the drop zone. The first order of business was to decide on the best formation for the team, and it was decided that a standard 442 was going to be installed. The players that will play big roles for us are Son Heung-Min (ST), Mateo Kovacic (MC), Janis Jansen* (MC), and Gojko Kacar (DC).

Another thing I noticed is that we're going to need to get our finances in order. We're currently spending nearly 1.1m per week on salaries and I'm far from impressed at the talent we have at that salary range. We're going to start reworking the roster in January and see what we can do to get the budget under control.

One final thing I want to get improved sooner than later is our coaching staff. At the very least I need to convince the board to give me two more staff members - a second GK coach and a second fitness coach. We'll work on improving the overall coaching staff in the upcoming months as well. The average star rating of our training staff is a 3 and we have 5 star training facilities so I want to leverage that as best as I can.

We hit the ground running in my first month on the job at HSV. 3 wins, 1 draw, and no losses helped to quickly turn morale around on a team that was unacceptably sitting in the drop zone. I'm still getting a feel for the team, however, and the team is clearly still adapting to my tactics; as evidenced by our erratic performances. We beat Hannover 2-0 by playing a lot of possession football. We only took 9 shots but put 4 of them on target and 2 of them pas the keeper. A 2-2 draw against Kaiserslautern frustrated me, as we allowed both goals on stupid penalties. The 1-0 win over Hoffenheim illustrated how much learning there still has to be done. We played sloppy on both offense and defense and were lucky to get away with a win. We followed that game with a glimpse of the future, however. We put 5 goals on the board againt Nurnberg and looked fluid on offense for the first time in my tenure.

We have three league games before the New Year and we will get a stern test. We match up against Leverkusen (3), Dortmund (2), and FC Bayern (1). I supposed we'll truly know how this team stacks up by the time we finish this daunting run of games. With the goal always being European football, we are currently 6 points adrift of Wolfsburg and the 6th and final continental slot (EUROPA). Meanwhile, we are 6 points clear of the drop zone.



I also got to coach in a EUROPA League game this month. We dispatched Galatasaray on the strength of a Son Heung-Min brace. That win puts us in 2nd place by 1 point over Galatasaray with two games to go. And I suppose we are still mathematically alive for the top spot, which Tottenham holds with a 5 point cushion over us. I'm hoping for a strong showing against Tottenham, who we play next month so we don't have to rely on the final game. We will play 4th place Sion who have yet to win a game, but I really don't want to leave it late to determine whether or not we advance out of the group stage or not.



We're into the third round of the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) where we will match up against Second Division team Furth.



I'm sure there will be some minor tweaking with the roster over the next month or so, but for the time being this looks to be our rotation.

Are you still using the tactic in your LoL guide? Any chance you could upload it? I've created an FMScout FC team and would like to use the tactic on there. Also, I would like to create you as a coach on my team. Do you accept the job offer?

Could you please upload a screenshot of Mathew Leckie from Gladbach? Thanks.

#40878 Mikethemanc : Are you still using the tactic in your LoL guide? Any chance you could upload it? I've created an FMScout FC team and would like to use the tactic on there. Also, I would like to create you as a coach on my team. Do you accept the job offer?

Funny enough, I was going to see if there were still spots open on your FM Scout team yesterday! I think it would be fun to be a coach and I graciously accept.

I'm using a variation of what's listed in the LoL Guide. I'd be happy to upload it for you to use when I get home this afternoon.

#40905 OliverAUFC : Could you please upload a screenshot of Mathew Leckie from Gladbach? Thanks.

Sure thing. Best bet is to add me on Steam (same user name) and leave me a message so I don't forget.

#40952 joannes3000 : #40878 Mikethemanc :
Are you still using the tactic in your LoL guide? Any chance you could upload it? I've created an FMScout FC team and would like to use the tactic on there. Also, I would like to create you as a coach on my team. Do you accept the job offer?


Funny enough, I was going to see if there were still spots open on your FM Scout team yesterday! I think it would be fun to be a coach and I graciously accept.

I'm using a variation of what's listed in the LoL Guide. I'd be happy to upload it for you to use when I get home this afternoon.

Yeah if you could do. I downloaded one the other month and wasn't sure how to load it into the game. Any idea?

#40955 joannes3000 : #40905 OliverAUFC :
Could you please upload a screenshot of Mathew Leckie from Gladbach? Thanks.


Sure thing. Best bet is to add me on Steam (same user name) and leave me a message so I don't forget.

ok will do

#40964 Mikethemanc : #40952 joannes3000 :
#40878 Mikethemanc :
Are you still using the tactic in your LoL guide? Any chance you could upload it? I've created an FMScout FC team and would like to use the tactic on there. Also, I would like to create you as a coach on my team. Do you accept the job offer?


Funny enough, I was going to see if there were still spots open on your FM Scout team yesterday! I think it would be fun to be a coach and I graciously accept.

I'm using a variation of what's listed in the LoL Guide. I'd be happy to upload it for you to use when I get home this afternoon.


Yeah if you could do. I downloaded one the other month and wasn't sure how to load it into the game. Any idea?

Using Windows 7, put the .tac file in the following folder:

Documents -> My Documents -> Sports Interactive -> Tactics

#40905 OliverAUFC : Could you please upload a screenshot of Mathew Leckie from Gladbach? Thanks.

I remembered. ^^

#41014 joannes3000 : #40905 OliverAUFC :
Could you please upload a screenshot of Mathew Leckie from Gladbach? Thanks.


I remembered. ^^

Thanks mate!