I Would Just Like to Thank...

In a news item that left me welling up inside, I was announced as the OFA Managers' Manager of the Year yesterday. The OFA has been a very competitive football association with a lot of good, vocal managers, so to come out on top is a huge honour for me!I'm not going to make a huge speech, but I will give some big props to Si Ayres and his Stansted Rockets team. He and I entered the gameworld together from Larsson and set out with a plan to effectively share players - either through loans or signing players to sell on to each other with a healthy sell on percentage attached!This partnership has definitely paid dividends and I would urge any readers of this blog to look to set one up with another side. A couple of the youngsters I got from Simon went on to play huge roles in my three official youth trophy wins, and in return I signed players that he couldn't (due to my superior scouting skills) and then sold them onto him. I like to think both of us ended the season in a stronger position than we would have been had we gone it alone.
Time also in this blog to go over some of the newer signings for FCV. Yesterday in particular saw an influx of new players as I snooped around chat lobbies and my shortlist!

First up is versatile attacking Frenchman Romain Billaud. His previous manager is someone I know from Larsson so when I saw him in transfer auction I had to ask Dave what potential he had. Dave told me 4*, so I jumped in and picked him up for a shade over £60k. Sice then, he's been an integral part of my senior and under-21 side, playing in both midfield and attacking positions.
Following Billaud came another batch of young talented players, 2 of which came from the same team. Yuri Negara, a Ukranian attacking midfielder, and Marco Poggi, a young Italian centre forward, both came in from The Menagerie, one of the better youth sides in the gameworld.
Bidding for Negara was fierce, and I eventually picked him up for around £87k after my opening bid of £25k was quickly surpassed. Poggi was a monster bargain, and I picked him up for a measly £10k.
Next through the door was Argentinian holding midfielder Cristian Benitez. This transfer was a bit of a gamble, but his manager assured me he is a 4* prospect and he looks to have a good attribute base to build on. Benitez cost me £140k, instantly becoming my record signing. I hope he lives up to his fee!
The final few players came in yesterday after some chatting in one of the lobbies. Nick Masters came in to back up Jefferson Benitez in goal for £100k. Eric Baidjoe (a 4.5* prospect according to an ex-Larsson friend) was snapped up for £90k. And in the deal of the season so far (for me at least) I picked up Leandro Lopes Ferreira for an insane £65k, because his manager only plays youth!

Party in Vaduz!

Fans of FC Vaduz lined the streets as their heroes paraded 4 official trophies from their first season in Valderrama. The youth team were responsible for three of the trophies, whilst the senior side secured the Open FA Qualifying League G title.
Junioren-A (U21s) proudly showed off their Open FA Youth Cup and Daily Quickplay U21 cups, and the Junioren-Cs (U19s) also had a Daily Quickplay trophy to show for their efforts. The senior side secured the title with 1 game to spare and ended up winning the league by 3 points, finishing with the best goal difference in the process.
So in honour of this great opening season, let's get stuck into the FCV End of Season Award Ceremony.

Open FA Recognition Award - Jefferson Benitez (most clean sheets in OFA QLG)

Top Senior Goalscorer - Prince Agyemang (45 in 106 games)
Top Youth Goalscorer - Jamie Russell (144 in 331 games)
Senior Player of the Year - Prince Agyemang
Although Prince is currently in auction and will be leaving the club tomorrow evening, he has been superb this season. Agyemang had a knack of scoring goals at important times, including several during the title run-in that brought the league trophy to the Rheinparkstadion. His average was a touch low and he has developed a few red arrows which is part of the reason why he is now being sold. But wherever he ends up, Prince will always be remembered by the fans of FC Vaduz

Youth Player of the Year - Dan PatrascuPatrascu was the first player through the doors of FC Vaduz once the starting squad had been selected. And what an impact he has had. Averaging 7.18 in over 300 minor youth games, and a massive 7.40 in more than 70 major games, Patrascu is a clear stand out player at youth level for FCV.

The David Esposito Award for Youth Graduate Excellence - Andriy ZguraNamed after the finest Liechtensteiner to graduate from the FCV Larsson academy, this award recognises the most promising and best performing youngster to graduate from one of FC Vaduz's youth academies. Zgura clocks in with a 3.5 star potential and has played in more than 100 youth games, averaging a shade under 6.90 - comfortably within the 6.8 minimum needed in order to progress as a player. Both Andriy and the FCV management will be hoping he can continue to perform well next season.

So all in all a great opening season for FC Vaduz. Another post is coming very soon summarising the ins and outs at FCV, so stay tuned!

Challenging on two fronts

I've recently discovered the great FML Get Sacked podcast and have been listening to episodes for several days now. One thing I picked up on was someone talking about the best way to start from scratch. The basic gist was to focus on a senior side, look for players with a high reputation, and try not to pick up players who are too old.
With my team doing pretty well senior wise (spent most of the time inside the top 60 of the gameworld and leading my qualifying league) and my youth team making themselves at home inside the top 10 of the youth rankings, I thought I would speculate on some of the reasons why I have managed to find relative success on both fronts.

Tactics
Without a doubt, my tactic has contributed to my success. My narrow 4-3-3, as seen in the screenshot below, is one of those tactics considered by some people to be a 'cheat tactic'. However, it seems most of this criticism is directed by people who either can't get a tactic right for themselves, or don't know how to counter narrow formations. Since I began playing FML, I've probably been through 7 or 8 different formations before settling on a 4-3-3 towards the end of Larsson, partly because my wide players were a bit plops. When I moved into Valderrama, I purposefully focused on central players when signing my initial side. In addition to finding the right tactic, I also spent time working on a match plan that plays to my team and formations strenghts. I use this plan even when I am online playing games, it saves shouting 5 or 6 instructions every 20 minutes! I know some people haven't set up match plans, but for me they are of major importance.It also helps if you can adapt your formation depending on how the opposition sets themselves up. AI games against CPU clubs are a good way of finding out which styles, widths etc work best against different formations. It took me a while to crack the 4-1-2-1-2 formation but now I tend to win more than I lose against it, which is a major step up from where I was in Larsson.
Player selection
As I have stated in a few previous entries, I aim to head towards a youth-oriented set up fairly soon. I'm sure there are a lot of other managers who plan to head down the same route, and I can't blame them! But before I even entered Valderrama, I accepted that certain sacrifices would have to be made.
First off, a deep squad is essential. With injuries seemingly more frequent, back up players have a major part to play. Signing extra depth meant I didn't have as much to spend on new players from the off, but you get those players at base AF and base wage, so if there are handy players in the starting pool it seems the logical way to go.Secondly, versatile players are very handy. I have several players who can play in 3 or 4 different positions and that can really help out in an injury or suspension situation. It also widens the market when it comes to selling the players too.
Lastly, old players can play a part. A lot of managers steer clear or 31+ year olds because it can be difficult to sell them on. However, with the difference between last and top of the first season's qualifying league being nearly £2m, and older player who can do a job for a season before being released can play a major part. See Carlos Alfaro below, he's 36 years old and cost me £6k in wages, but has repaid my faith with big goals and assists, and has helped me get to a position where I am very likely to end up with at least £2m in prize money.
Attributes watch
The last point I want to touch upon for the time being is the importance of certain attributes. My previous post covers this in more detail, but effectively by searching for players with strong numbers in certain attributes you can improve your side without having to pay through the nose. Formation specific attributes are definitely worth looking into - for my narrow formation I tend to forego pace in my midfield and look for better passing, positioning and creativity attributes. It gets pretty congested in the middle with 3 CMs so if they are able to find space and pick a pass it helps tremendously.

So a pretty brief overview, but hopefully there are some pointers in there that could help you compete on one or both levels in FML

Finding young talent, and not paying through the nose for it

I love the new judging potential system. Before 1.4 and the reset, if you had JP level 5 you could run a search for any players above a certain potential ability. If you were one of the first people to get to JP5 you had almost a free run at high-potential players (at least, the ones who weren't blatantly going to be amazing from their starting attributes). But as more people gained the skill, it came down to whoever had the most money to chuck at the player, leading to massively inflated wages for young players.
Now - under the new system - everyone can judge potential from the off, but learning JP skills decrease the time it takes to learn a players potential, as well as increasing the accuracy of the assessment. This leads to a free agent market with less competition for players, as it comes down to which players each manager chooses to assess rather than just inputting a minimum potential into a search filter. Many managers develop their own searches for talented players, focusing on key attributes for each position. I'm no different, but I try to find a balance between the right attributes and a player who no other clubs are interested in. This normally involves 'softening' the search criteria, ie dropping some minimum attribute requirements from 15 to 10. I'm going to use this post to demonstrate some of the filters I have used, and the players I found as a result.
The first key attribute for me is Jumping. As can be seen on this superb blog www.fmlnumbers.blogspot.com, Jumping is a key attribute for most positions on the pitch. Ordinarily I would search for players with 15 for jumping.
After Jumping, required attributes vary between positions for me. I've listed some of the keys for each area of the pitch below.

Central defenders
Strength, tackilng, marking, positioning, work rate, concentration, acceleration, pace, bravery

Full backs
Marking, tackling, crossing, dribbling, work rate, teamwork

Central midfielders
Passing, teamwork, work rate, creativity, flair, composure, natural fitness

Strikers
Acceleration, pace, composure, finishing, off the ball, strength

Note that I have only listed the attributes I look for in players who fit my narrow 4-3-3 formation! The key is not necessarily to stick all the above attributes into a search filter but to mix and match to compare search results. My idea was to find players who were strong in some areas but slightly lacking in others - giving me more chance to sign the player without competition and back the player to improve given competitive match experience at a youth level. As you can see from the screenshots of example players above they are swimming in green arrows. I only have basic coaching skills so I think this shows that there is no substitute for match experience - but ONLY at a level at which the player can play well. Players playing above their level will suffer from bad ratings and development will become stunted.
Now I'm not saying that these filters I use are definitive, feel free to experiment yourself with certain attributes. The key, I stress again, is to allow a little more leeway to expand the search results to include a few rough diamonds. There are definitely better youths in valderrama than the guys I possess, but these guys have got me to number 1!

On top of the World!

We've done it! After entering my first under-17 competition and winning it without losing a game, FC Vaduz moved to the number 1 spot in the Youth Rankings. My players seem to be really settling into my 4-3-3 formation and it helps that I have some very talented players who are eligible to play at all age levels. A couple of 16 year olds (Patrascu and Tello) have made several appearances for my senior side in competitive matches.
I know we aren't going to be on top forever, but I will always have this moment, and this picture!

Resist the RQ

I'll put my hand up, I have done my share of rage quitting (RQ) throughout all my gaming. Online shooters, sports games, casual games of cricket in the park - I really don't enjoy losing. In my first slice of time with FML earlier last year, I was pretty bad. I didn't enjoy watching my team getting trounced, so I let them get on with it themselves whilst I did something less stressful, like defusing nuclear weapons.
This time around, I purposefully set myself the aim of developing my side using academies and young free agents. This gave me a long term goal and an excuse for losing the majority of my games at the start. Give it 7 or 8 seasons, then I should start competing.
However, my team have far and away outperformed my initial expectations. Obviously I'm not moaning about my early success, but this has let to me expecting more from my teams than I initially wanted to. And so the possibility of the dreaded RQ creeps in again.
I am writing this in the aftermath of RQ2, in the hope that it might prove cathartic; that the stress will flow from my fingers onto the keyboard. The reason for the quit is trivial really, some awful performances against some pretty poor teams. It's something I have seen quite a few people comment on, either in the chat rooms in-game or on the SI Forums - why do teams suddenly lose form and go on a poor run of results? It's not something I really want to ponder, provided my boys pick their form back up soon. The teams below me in my league are clawing points back, and I could do with a win or two to keep the cushion and the pressure on. I really don't want it coming down to the last game. In my first season last January, all I needed was a draw in my final game to secure the league. In the 94th minute (I'm sure only a couple were added on per the fourth official) I conceded, comdemning me to the runner-up spot. Again, I know I must sound like I'm whingeing over a decent league position, but I was pretty peeved. Another dose of last-game heartache would be a pain, for sure

(Very nearly) Top of the World!

Things are going well for FC Vaduz at present. My senior side have spent most of their existence inside the top 40 of the game world which has pleased me immesurably considering I have barely paid any attention to the first team squad since choosing my initial squad. In fact, every signing I have made after confirming my side has involved a player under the age of 21!

And this policy has paid dividends as Junioren-A (U21s, do keep up!) are currently 8th in the world having previously been as high as 2nd. My narrow 4-3-3 formation matches the players I have really well and I have 4 players with an average rating of over 7, which is pretty impressive at youth level.

My current combined rankings (34th in Senior, 8th in Youth) put me 3rd in aggregate world ranking!

My financial projection is a little poor at the moment (I can't even afford to bring in a trialist on £200 wages!) but I'm fairly hopeful my currrent sides can get me to the end of the season and bring in plenty of prize money! With my youth academy due to be completed tomorrow, I am also looking forward to a steady influx of (fingers crossed) talented Ukranians to develop or sell.

So, in short, the future looks bright for FCV. As long as I can get back out of the red sometime soon!