The Kids Are Alright -Season 5

Out with the Old…

There is good and bad with a Youth Only Save, and depending on what your point of view is some issues can be both.

No Scouting to worry about, other than next opponents
No Transfers to worry about, at least coming in
Squad depth can be an issue
Sometimes you are forced to play bad players because you have no other option.

The list can go on, but for the moment, these are the primary issues, and to be honest the first two not being a factor means I am breezing thru seasons, because I am not spending time on scouting.

But we are five seasons in now, and that means most of the older players I have inherited have gone, sometimes against their will, and there are quite a few Youth Players starting/coming off the bench. What does that mean?

This:

I tend to be pretty…agnostic when it comes to formations. Do I have preferences? Yes. Am I going to try and fit my squad into those preferences? If it means I will not be hurting myself or the club in the long run, sure. On the other hand, in order to get my best players on the field, if that means I have to go with something a bit….different, I will.

Circumstances didn’t exactly force me into this formation, or it’s mirror, but the fact is this let me get my best players, established and up and coming, on the pitch, and if we are being honest, for me it’s been a solid formation. When it works, it works, and when it doesn’t it doesn’t.

These are the base instructions, and I tend to be more of a pregame/in game manager when it comes to making changes.

Speaking of Changes:

Voicu is in an interesting position for me, he’s a young player with potential in a position I have some pretty good younger players, and getting first team playing time here was going to be iffy, so we sent him on loan.

In the January transfer window, there weren’t a lot of surprises. Sporin had lost a couple of stars, I blame the scouting department, and he wasn’t going to see a ton of playing time here. The fact his Attacking and positional attributes did not visibly change also tells me that if he was improving during training and the Youth games, it wasn’t by a lot, and if the needle wasn’t moving by a lot, he was probably close to his potential.

Florin Ilie was part of a good D(C) rotation, but being primarily a D(R) he was a bit miffed when we didn’t play the asymmetric that suited him best. When Craiova came asking about him, he wanted to go. After negotiating, I think we got a fair deal for him.

Brădău is similar to Sporin, a player with potential who after three years of training and some spot starts was over taken by other players. I think he could be a decent squad player, but hje wanted first team playing time. I don’t know that he will get it at Iași, but he will probably get more time there than he will here.

Everyone else who left was either an earlier Youth Intake player with no future here, or an older player in the same boat.

Predicted to finish 15th with 600-1 odds, I knew we were better than that. I was aiming for mid table, top of the Relegation Group.

We had all of a week before Training started, and we got to work on the new formation right away, and it started to pay off immediately:

The 4-0 against FSCB was nice, and I was happy with the draw against Cluj until for some inexplicable reason one of their defenders fouled us in the box on a corner kick, and Matiş tucked it away for the last gasp win. The loss against Gloria Buzău was frustrating for several reasons. One is that my guys assumed that because they are recently promoted and are the other relegation pick, they are a bad team, and as a result put in a halfassed effort, the teams average rating without Murariu’s 7.2 is a 6.2. The secondis that they assumed they could turn it on when they needed to, and when they did Gloria Buzău counterattacked and scored their second goal, and would have had a 3rd if not for a brilliant save by our keeper. Losing at Farul Constanţa is not a bad thing, truth be told they are the team we could be if we were also able to do transfers, but as it stands they are about 5 years ahead of us in terms of Youth development, but we will get there. Eventually.

September was great. We had a long break, came back primed and rested for a busy October, 8 games in 24 days sort of busy, and promptly crapped the bed. The good news was that two of the three teams in our Cupa României group games were lower Liga, so I was able to play mostly rotated sides, but at the end of the day, the 3-0 loss to Argeş left us 3rd in the Group, tied with them on 10 points, and they not only had the goal differential but the head to head.

We went into the winter break in 4th place, thanks to only losing the one game against a U Craiova squad that if we are being honest, could beat you 3-1 or lose to you 3-1 depending on which version of their team shows up, and I was thinking it would be nice if we didn’t have to play in the relegation group. Of course, finishing the top of the relegation group mean you get a chance to play for European Football, I am not sure why, the Romanian Football Association does things its own way because they can apparently…but I was riding pretty high, our Youth Intake preview was good, and we had 9 players called up for International Duty. I was feeling good, the team was feeling good, our chances were good, so of course we did our best to throw it all away.

We could have lost every game in February, we probably should have, but with the draw at Voluntari and the win at Chindia, we clawed our way back into 6th place, and into the Champions Playoff Group.

And then came the good news of the save:

Not too shabby, especially when you consider that at this level of football, and compared to our squad, 5 star is probably 115 to 125 Ability, and you can go far with a team made up of those sort of players. On the other hand though:

That’s 8 Youth Players with Horrible Personalities. And I think I have seen more players with ‘Low Self Belief’ this save than I have in any other save since I started playing FM.

Vince Vágó, Florin Vlădilă, and Robert Chiseliţă are the best of a good bunch of players. Vágó is already on the high side of Average when it comes to his Physical and Attacking attributes, and while his Defending Attributes are on the lower side, his Possession Attributes more than make up for them. He has DLP written all over him, and if his Composure and Movement Attributes come up, he could be a mainstay in the midfield.

Tiberiu Alexandru, Class of ’25, is the next Keeper in waiting, but Florin definitely has first team potential. The problem is how do I get rid of this whole ‘Low Self Determination’ Issue. I could try and get him in a good mentoring group, but he also needs game time to improve, maybe a loan when he’s older will help?

If it weren’t for the Low Determination and Injury Proneness, Robert Chiseliţă could be a very good D(LC) His Physicals are already solid, as are his Defending Attributes. His Attacking and Possession skills are lacking, but what else do you expect from a 16 y/o kid? If some of those Movement Attributes come up, he could also be a capable DM

Of Eusebiou Iacob, Victor Niţă, Lennart Meyer and Robert Hexan, I think the one who doesn’t belong is Meyer. Yes, his starting attributes are nice, but he came in at 4 stars and is now a 3-4 star sort of player. The fact the has has a Balanced personality is more than a little salt in the wound, because I think what we see with him currently is what we are going to get. On the other hand, Robert Hexan is one player who I think will be better than he appears to be. Yes, the Low Determination is a killer, but his Physical and Defending Attributes are quite solid, and he’s also solid with regards to his Composure, Decision Making, Anticipation and Technique, plus he has the one thing you cannot teach: Height. at 6′ 4″ and 165 pound already, he’ll be on the bench at 17 getting some first team playing time. Maybe we can play him into a better personality.

The season finished out a little better than expected. Yes we finished at the bottom of the group, but with exception of the Cluj match, we played pretty well, even in our loses. The highlights were beating Farul, who finished 2nd overall, and getting our revenge on Cluj. Craiova, the League winners, beat us handily, but that’s not unexpected. We finished the season in 6th place overall, a long way from relegation, and quite a few youth players had plenty of quality playing time as well. As for the new formation (and it’s mirror), they worked out quite well.

51 goals from our top 4 attacking players is very nice, Matiş and Teodorescu also chipping in with 20 total assists is also very good. Dan Pureca, starting at WB(R) most of the season, made the most of his skills by chipping in 10 assists as well. Of the squad we inherited when we took over, only a few are left. Marincu, Pureca, Matiş and Murariu are the last, and Murariu is probably going to be leaving soon. Luckily we have several good candidates to replace him.

In other news our new stadium build is going well, the club is happy, the fans are happy, I do not expect to see any big changes this coming season, and to be honest I would not expect another top 6 finish. But I have been surprised before…

The Kids Are Alright -Season 4

“Custer had a plan too…”

Usually when do a more Youth Oriented save, I am at a club I am building up, there’s a decent amount of solid to good older players that will carry us forward, as as my youth progress from raw 15 and 16 year olds to 18 and 19 year olds with potential, they go out on loan or if they are good enough, they go onto the 1st Squad bench.

Here at Timişoara, I don’t have that luxury. While the older players I have are OK, there aren’t enough of them to carry the team forward, which means any youngster with potential not only gets first team playing time, they go right into the Senior Squad. There they not only get the playing time they need, they develop, and some have turned into players who are quite good. Like Darius Niculcea.

He’s easily the first good player we’ve had come thru the Youth Intakes, his first season as a part time starter he had 24(2) stars, with 1 goal, 3 assists, and 1 POM. Last season as the full time starter he 3 goals, 6 assists, and 1 POM, and both years he was selected to the Romanian U21 Squad.

So of course 5 games into the season Napoli offered 400K for him, I didn’t have a release clause on his contract, and he signed with the Italian club. They did offer him on loan back, and I accepted.

That’s how I am going to approach this going forward. If a club comes after one of my players, I am not going to ask for a loan back as part of the deal, but if they offer it to me, I’ll consider it. In this case Nicucea is the best D(R) I have, so I accepted it, an he went on to have 1 goal and 12 assists with us before leaving.

TRANSFER’S

Ursan, Păunescu, and Chivu are all Youth Players that I didn’t think were worth a grade, meaning 2 star potential or less. The fee’s for Ursan and Păunescu are based on future performances, and I doubt I will see them.

Zamfir (pan flute not included) was part of the Youth Intake the year before I took over, a defensive player who could play all 3 positions on the back line. He was decidedly average in all of them, and as a result did not get a lot of playing time. For whatever reason, Dinamo Bucureşti made an offer for him in the Spring Transfer window, and after debating whether or not to file a bug report, I took it. Who am I to stand in the way of a club making a bad financial decision? I’ve my own bad decisions to make. Chindia Târgoviște is a Liga II team, and to be honest if they are spending €100K on a middling winger like William Popoviciu, they aren’t getting promoted anytime soon IMO.

We are starting at least 4, and possibly5 players from the the ’25 Youth Intake. As I mentioned above, I don’t have the luxury of sitting them in the U19’s and waiting for them to develop, so they’re going to be starting. Yes, it’s Boys v Men, but it build character.

That’s the slogan for the next few years: Construiește caracterul!

The goal is to avoid relegation. Acts of God aside, we aren’t finishing above midtable anytime soon, but avoiding relegation is an achievable goal. The question is how close to relegation are we going to be. My mantra has always been I am ‘mostly’ ok with losing, as long as we keep it close. I don’t know how long I can keep repeating that though.

There’s no middle ground. We’re either losing close, usually, or winning. The lack of draws is concerning. The low point was losing to a Liga II side in Hermannstadt in the Cupa României First Stage on penalties. Răzvan Matiş missed a PK in the 20th minute, then scored in the 117th to put as ahead, but the defense fell apart and they scored in the 120th…and then three of my guys missed their PK’s.

The first half opf the season was painful, but there were a couple of bright spots. Marius Marinescu started the season on two and a half stars, and at the midpoint he was up to Four. Along with 8 goals and 3 assists. Vasile Mihăescu, from the ’26 Intake, is starting at DM, and he’s improving, which is good. Goran Simedru, from the ’25 Intake, is also having a solid season at D(C).

As down as I was about some of our performances, at the half way point were were in 12th place with 16 points, and our goal differential was -6. One of the things in our favor was that both Gloria Buzău and Oţelul Galaţi have won 2 and 1 games respectively.

The New Year got off to a good start, as we did not lose until we played a very good FC Argeş squad, and our last loss before the League split was against last years winner Universitatea Craiova

Our Youth Intakes Are Officially Manic…

They are calling it a ‘Golden Generation.’ I’m thinking it’s 14 Karat Gold…

This is a screenshot of the best Youth Intake players to come thru this season:

3 Unambitious
1 Unsporting
1 Low Determination
1 Fairly Loyal
1 Balanced
2 Fairly Professional

This from a HOYD who is Professional. Next years had better be better than this…

Marin Neague is a pest of a winger, in that he’s all of 5′ 2″ and 100 pounds, but Physically speaking is good…except for the Strength. And Work Rate, and Balance. His Attacking and Possession skills are also average, but this is a good foundation to build from, assuming his Unsporting self wants to improve.

Paul Koszma is already pretty good on the Physical and Defending categories, and his Technique is also decent as well, but again, her Personality is going to be the biggest impediment to reaching his potential.

Adrian Vasiliu is our 3rd (or 4th if you count the year I wasn’t here) 5 star potential Keeper. I do not know how much longer Rareş Murariu is going to be the starter, he made some noise about wanting to leave in the January window, but Adrian will be in the race to become the 1st Choice keeper. Of course, of the 5 Youth Keepers I have, 3 are Unambitious…

And I somehow missed 4 and 5 when nicknaming them…I’ll figure out a format, eventually.

Dan Secreteanu can play the left side of the pitch, but I think I am going to make him a D(L), maybe a wingback, as his attributes are already average in those areas. If his strength comes up, and some others as well, he could be a solid contributor for us.

Ilie Formagiu, 6’4″ 170 pounds at 15 YEARS OLD Ilie Formagiu, will start playing next year. Off the bench, unless he just bodies someone out of the way. Physically and Defending wise, he’s Average, but his Good Work Rate and Jumping, and his Excellent Bravery, should be an asset in Set Pieces. I think he has the best potential out of everyone who came in this Intake, now it’s up to me to not screw him up.

Dan Popescu…I am not sure what to think of him. Good Agility, Endurance, Quickness and Determination, average Possession skills, he has the potential to be a solid winger for us. But again, that personality…

I really want to like Armin Caraiman. They have him as a Target Forward, and from a Physical point of view, I can see that. His Attacking and Possession Attributes though…but in his defense, his personality is going to be an asset. If his Positioning and Concentration Improve, he might be a better DLP…

Lucian Ilie already had Good Technique, Fitness and Work Rate, but I am not sure how he would fare on the attack as a Mezzala. The good news is that Attribute wise, his is ‘Meh’ at every position except Roaming Playmaker, where he’s “Bleg!’ We will have to see where is in a couple of years…

Marian Tudor has the making of a solid DLF already, with Good Composure, Flair, Finishing and Technique. Aggressive as well, but I can’t help shake the feeling that what we see is pretty much what we are going to get. This is one time I wish I were wrong, but I am a fan of players with Determination, and the one thing we can stay about him is that he’s not…

Paul Freanţ could be a solid AM(C) if his physicals improve, if they don’t he will most likely be an M(C) in a CM/DLP sort of role. The problem is that’s a crowded position for us, and if he doesn’t stand out right away he might not get the playing time early.

Thats going to be an ongoing theme with the save going forward, with a lot of depth, some of it potentially quality depth, in some roles, finding who is the best performer is going to be hard.

But I didn’t choose this sort of save because it’s Easy. I chose it because I thought it was going to be easy…

We did more than enough to avoid relegation. Marinescu looks like the real deal, he’s been too consistent this year for me to believe otherwise, and we had some very solid performances across the board.

Matis had a solid season for us, but several teams are interested in him, and keeping him might be a detriment to the younger players in his position. Răzvan Teodorescu gives me hope that all my ‘Unambitious’ personality trait players will improve and be good, if not great for this level, of contributors

Oh, and the board has plans of it’s own as well it seems:

We beat the odds again, and I believe we have the makings of several quality younger players ready to step up and take over the next couple of year. The climb to the top is going to have some ups and downs, and a lot of plateaus as well, but I believe we are definitely on the way up. It’s going to be a slow process though, but one I am looking forward too.

I hope you all are looking forward to it as well, thanks for reading!