The engine that is BFC Dynamo is firing on all cylinders. The 4-2DM-2-2 Box formation I am using has a lot of my opponents absolutely flummoxed, and now that I have a good player and capable backup in most every position, I am not as afraid of multiple games in a week as I once was.
So of course, we lost to Bayern in the Super Cup to start the season off:
I don’t know what it is exactly, but they just seem to have our number.
We then scored 13 goals and allowed 4 in our next 4 games, so on one hand that’s good. On the other hand, it took a Yoneyama goal in the 88th minute to draw with Bayern the third game in, but on the gripping hand, hey, not a loss…
Our Champions League group was pretty tough: Wolves, AEK, Benfica, PSG, PSV, Olympiacos, BVB, and Milan. Wolves played us very well, we were lucky to come away with the draw there, and we could have scored more against AEK but I took the petal off in the second half. They had 4 shots all game
October was the month on many games, one every 5 days give or take, and our record reflects it. We beat the teams we were supposed to beat, drew some of the teams we were supposed to beat, and ended up for the most part healthy. The draws at Frankfurt and Hertha are a bit…galling, but the earned them, so I can’t complain too much. As well as we were playing, we should have done better. I am not saying the team has been playing down to the quality of opponents we have been facing, but it does seem that even when I am on the attack and encouraging the guys, they are a bit too…lackadaisical sometimes.
We should have lost all three games that we drew. It took extra time goals in all of them for us to equalize, and that’s a trend I want to continue. The frustrating thing is related to what I was alluding to earlier, in some games, like against HSV, the team was just going thru the motions, a boneheaded play by an HSV player gave us the 90th minute pen and the win. Like wise against BMG, an errant pass was intercepted, bombed down the field, and Yoneyama scored before the whistle blew. The only other incident of consequence happened against Dusseldorf:
If there has been one takeaway from the first half of the season, it’s that everyone has been participating, we aren’t relying on just one player for the assists and another for the scoring, it has been a very good team effort.
January Transfers:
Last season Santiago Viveros demanded a new contract. With Star Player status, and a top wage match clause. Now, I like Santiago, he’s been a very capable AM(C) for us and a team leader, in fact when he made his demands he was team Captain. But consider the following: He’s never started a full seasons worth of games with us. He’s never had double digit goals in a season, or double digit assists, in fact he was on track to have his best season ever this year at BFC (16 goals and 8 assists projected).
So I told him no. And he pitched a fit. So I stuck him the U19’s and stripped him of the Captains Arm band. Most the squad just shrugged and started playing. The only reason he got the games he did this year was that I had enough niggling injuries in my AM(C)’s tha he got a few starts and off the bench appearances. I wasn’t shocked a team made an offer for him, I was shocked it was Hertha for €41.5M. Seeing as how we brought him here for €2.1, and he was in the proverbial doghouse, I am fine with letting him leave.
On the flip side, you have David Brandler. I bought him to start and provide depth at the defensive fullback positions, but due to circumstances, he was the odd man out. He came to me and said “Coach, I’d like to go out on loan”+” and I replied “I can do that, but to be honest I don’t see a future for you here, I am just going to list you.” and €9.5M later he’s leaving.
It happens. Yes, we lost money on the Brandler deal, but we made it up with Santiagos.
Polat Kaya, Junior Meye, Manuel Patino and Pietro Rotunno all needed more playing time than I could give them, so they went out on loan.
FYI, the screenshots for these players are with the new Attribute range I am working with in FM24, where Poor (Red)= 1-7, Average (Orange) is 8-12, Good (Blue) 13-17, Very Good (Green)= 18-20
Enric:
I felt I needed some depth at D(L), and was looking for some versatile as well, and Enric fit the bill. At 500K hes not hurting the budget, and to be honest, if he never plays a game for us I won’t be too upset, getting him was a case of ‘I’d rather have him and not need him, rather than need him and not have him.” Physically very good, and Defending Skill wise very good, his movement does offset his Possession attributes IMO.
Edison Estacio:
Edison is a very good player. Solid Physicals, solid defending skills, good on the Attack, a very good crosser of the ball. Is he €63M good? Hell no. I got snowed on this move. He’s bounced around a bit, Gremio to Braga to Brighton to Forrest, and while he’s never been outstanding, he’s been solid, and that’s what I was looking for. I overpaid for him, Nottingham pulled one over one me. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
Carlos Navarro:
I may have dropped the ball with Enric, but I picked it up on the bounce with Carlos and ran with it. The Mexican International was looking to get out of Sporting, he wasn’t getting his promised playing time, and while €41M may seem high, I am totally getting my monies worth and more out of him. I picked him up because I wanted quality depth at the AM(C) position after Viveros left, and while Meye and Kaya are good, they aren’t ready. Carlos is, and he will be part of the rotation for awhile.
The awards started to come is as well. This bodes wee for the future:
Another draw at Bayern. Behold my shocked face. :-/. We did reach 700 games a a head coach in February though.
We were absolutely on fire in January in February. A Total of 36 goals scored and 10 allowed over all competitions? 13 different goal scorers? Our only last gasp ‘winner’ against Milan to salvage the draw? And we were mostly injury free at this time as well, except:
3-4 month for Shin Splints? This is not Sagi’s year…
I am not sure what happened at Hertha, just that in the second half of the game we couldn’t do anything. I don’t want to blame the schedule (but I could), and I don’t want to blame injuries (because there weren’t any critical ones), we just got out played. It was bound to happen.
We got our revenge by thumping Monaco in the Quarter FInals, and beat Freiburg to get to the Pokal final. Navarro, Palacios, Dahan and Panchekha are a great AM(C) rotation, I may have to move one of them to M(C) to get three of them on the field.
The ‘we only one because the other team screwed up’ win against a relegation zone Werder team should have been a clue as to what was to come, And that was Barca beating us 3-0 at Camp Nou. It wasn’t even a close game, they had 16/6 and a 2.32 xG, while we had 7/2 and a .57. Everyone played poorly.
We couldn’t overcome the deficit, crashing out in the Semi’s. Poor Dusseldorf was the object of our frustration, I believe Navarro was so mad he wasn’t going to play in a Champions League he decided to score almost every time he touched the ball. The win also clinched us the Bundesliga for the 3rd year running, and we closed the season out with a dominant win over BVB in the Pokal final.
There were some other tidbits of news as well:
The end of season Statistics were very nice to see:
Seven players with double digit goals. Five players with Double Digits assists, Stefanov with 19(!).
We’ve a €1325M transfer Budget. €50M of salary we can spend. Next season, were going to go for it all.
Then this happened:
THE FOOTBALL MANAGER BLOG OF FM_JELLICO 