Chokopop

Self-diagnosed FM addict
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On this years FM I have decided to tackle a journeyman save, and turn it into a story.

I will be starting unemployed, with no coaching badges and sunday league reputation. The leagues loaded are as follows:
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I only have two rules for myself.

1. No downloaded tactics - I use them on my regular saves, but that would ruin the fun in a story
2. For the sake of realism, I will not manage club and country at the same time. If I take a national team job, I will resign from my club.

My manager looks like this:

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*Note: This will most likely be my main save, so updates should be plentiful.

Let's get started.

 
The job is mine!

It took a while, as I may have set the bar too high on some of my job applications. But it's now January 7th, and I was approached (I didn't even apply) for a job by Næstved Boldklub playing in the Danish First Divison, which is a higher division than I would've expected to be given my first job. Being Danish, I was aiming at starting off my managerial career in my native country.



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Club Finances:

The finances are a mess. We're £653k in the red, which is huge debt for a club in the Danish first division. We're also £1.82k over our wage budget, so my first task will be to cut down the wage budget.


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League:


Næstved are predicted to finish 8th, but are currently sitting 11th in the league. Not only are we in great financial troubles, we haven't even managed to justify it by performing in the league. The aim this season will be to avoid relegation, and get our finances back on track and avoid possible administration.


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Expectations:


Expectations are simple. Avoid relegation. I should say, they sound simple. We might only be 3 points away from safety, but with this team it's impossible to say whether or not I will be able to fulfill these expectations. There are no cup expectations, as we were knocked out of the cup before I arrived.




Squad and tactic will feature in the next post, to avoid it getting way too cluttered in the beginning.
 
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Squad:


The squad is really thin. There is no real depth, and the reserves players, apart from the three I've promoted, aren't worth anything either. How the club are over their wage budget is beyond me. The squad is as follows:



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Key Players:

These are my key players in goal, defense, midfield, wing and attack.

GK: Andreas Raahauge


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Good young goalkeeper on loan from FC Midtjylland. We'll have to worry about getting a new on in the summer, but for now he'll do.

Defense: Henrik Kildentoft


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Even though he's 31, he's our best defender. And a right-back at that. His 12 marking and 12 tackling are gonna work wonders in this league, where player quality isn't at its highest.

Midfield: Henrik Bødker


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I have chosen Bødker for various reasons. First, he's arguably our best midfielder, even though he is going to be played out of position to suit my formation, and he's a former SønderjyskE player, which is my local club. So it's a small part due to sentimental value.

Winger: Berat Beciri

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He's not fantastic, but he's only 20 and will probably be a key player for me, for a number of years if I can hold onto him. His 13 pace is going to work wonders in the league, and hopefully he'll become even faster.

Attack: Tobias Perch-Nielsen


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Arguably our best striker, and will have an integral part in the team. Can double as an attacking midfielder if need be.


Formation:

This will be the formation I'm going with. I'm looking for defensive stability, whilst hopefully killing teams off on the counter attack. Time will tell if it's the right move. Our main objective is to survive in the league, and that starts with not conceding a lot of goals.


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It's the winter break in Danish football now. I have two friendlies in February that I will keep you updated on, and then the league restarts in March.
 
Good luck with this, interesting place to start and with it being the winter break hopefully you can get your team ready to fight relegation on the return of league football
 
Thanks! Yeah, I hope we manage to survive, if only by a small margin. It would be bad to start off my career with a sacking after 6 months.
 
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February Results


I played 7 friendlies, as opposed to the 2 that were scheduled when I joined. Mainly to get fitness and tactic familiarity up.




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Randers FC are a struggling Superliga side. They just hired a new manager a couple of weeks before I joined Næstved, and would've perhaps hoped for a draw. Still, only a 0-1 loss and completely dominating possession shows promise. Unfortunately, Henrik Bødker picked up an injury in this fixture, and will be out for 7 weeks.








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We were completely dismantled against Czech side Bohemians, having a total of 35 shots against us and only managing 1 ourselves. The fact that we limited them to 1 goal shows fantastic promise, to our defensive aspect.




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An impressive 2-2 draw against Superliga side Viborg FF. Another game where our goal was bombarded, but we managed to limit them to only two goals, whilst notching 2 goals ourselves.




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Our first friendly victory, against Second Division side B93. Tobias Perch Nielsen with a hattrick, and we againt completely dominated possession, despite our counter-attacking mentality. We limited them to two shots, from which they unfortunately scored 1 goal.



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Another 0-1 loss, this time to German side VfB Lübeck. Another game where we only conceded 1 goal, against a better side. Unfortunately for us, Harun Keser gave away a penalty, causing us to lose the game.



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Great 3-0 win against Lower Division side Stenlille. Tobias Perch-Nielsen with another 2 goals. It looks like we're about ready to start the season, and save our campaign.



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We won, but I'm slightly disappointed by the fact that we only scraped a 1-0 win. Again we absolutely dominated possession, and Tobias Perch-Nielsen is on fire, which is a great sign for the upcoming last half of the season.


Next, the first month of my career...
 
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March 2017



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What a start! 3-0 against struggling side Vendsyssel, gives us a great boost in our race for survival!


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Devasted, but expected. Hobro are leading the first division by a country mile, and didn't expect much from this game. Onwards and upwards!



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A draw against Fredericia isn't the worst that could happen, although I would've liked to take all three points.



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Another scoreless draw in a match we completely dominated. We should've had all three points. Teams above us are dropping points, but we can't catch up.



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We were absolutely smacked. That was the fourth game in a row without a goal from us, and I've started to realize that a change in tactic is needed. So...


We're lining up like this now.



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And...


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It worked! We absolutely dominated Vejle Boldklub, who are 2nd in the league. A narrow victory, but a victory nonetheless. We did get help by a 94th minute penalty, but overall an impressive performance against a top side, away!



The league table looks as follows, end of March:


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With the victory against Vejle, our disastrous month ended on a high, moving up to 10th and out of the relegation zone!
 
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