Valiant Vasteras [2024]

As the second half of the season progessed we hit a really good run of form. The team were happy with the tactic, they were settled and fit and confidence was a high. A good combination. The team seemed relaxed as well. With fairly low expectations so long as we finished above 8th place we could chalk the season up as a success.

I wanted more though and as we played more games we started to edge closer and closer to the top 4. Then gradually it looked like we might challenge for a spot in the top 2. At one point we were only 2 points adrift.

Nerves kicked in though and the bigger squads told on our fairly small and young squad. Towards the end of the fixture list we had to play 1st place Degerfors and 2nd place ??? and we lost both games. So not only did we miss the chance to close the gap but in true 6-pointer style they extended the gap and with 2 games to go 3rd was the best we could hope for. We just had to hold on. Which I was worried might be difficult, especially considering our lost to (in my mind) rivals Degerfors.

The team rallied well and....we did. 3rd place was ours.

The more things change the more they stay the same. Over the course of the career I've played 4 seasons or so in the First Division North. I've finished 3rd twice.

The first time was with 'Tuna City, and the following season I built on it and got promotion.

The second time obviously with Degerfors. I didn't get a chance to build because of the sacking but I considered it a good omen that they also then finished 1st the following season. If we follow the tradition then 1st place should be going to Vasteras in 2025!


And I'm fairly confident. We did really well the season. Exceeded expectations  and ended up, briefly, in the promotion tussle rather than mid-table. The team is pretty strong and the players have progressed. With one or two recruits I think we should do well next season. The only thing I'm worried about is how hard it is to get out of the division generally. One automatic spot with the title and then one play off place. We'd have to play well from the off.

Again though I'm fairly confident we can do that. The tactic won't be new and I know how the players work. Some of them have come on a great deal.


Player(s) of the Season

Very difficult to chose so I didn't bother and just went for 4. In no particular order, Broberg, Al-Azhar, Khalaf and Hammenskog.

Broberg gradually became first choice striker and got a reasonable 10 goals in his first season. He needed rotating because he always seemed knackered after playing a game. At first I thought it was a combination of being young and having low natural fitness. In actual fact I'd forgotten that I'd also said he could play the full 90 for the reserves...and he had been. Broberg played over 50 games this season! Whoops.

Al-Azhar was a monster in midfield. I actually played him in the IF role and he was dribble through the defence like Messi at times. He was always a danger.

Khalaf was in the DLP position and he controlled the game really well. He'd pop up with a goal threat at times but usually he was just out passing the other side and creating space.

Next to him was Hammenskog in the BWM role. He was sat just behind Al-Azhar and would win the ball back from the opposition and either A) run with it and take a pop himself or B) run, open space and lay it on for Broberg or Al-Azhar. He would also pop up in the box at odd times and make a real nusance.

I could have added my wingbacks to the list as well. Jeppsson and Asberg shuttled up and down the wings like mad. Defending, passing and attacking. Often they would end up on the end of the move, appearing out of nowhere.

Next Season

We just need a few players I think. A striker with real goal threat to compete/rotate with Broberg would be good. Some more support for the wingbacks would be nice (though I have a Mexican left back from my youth intake who'll be stepping up too) and maybe a replacement keeper as Max is getting on.

Aside from that I don't think we need to do much. We don't have a vast amount in the bank or left in the wage budget but I think there'll be enough for a few players. Stability and gradual improvement will do!

Halfway in and time to think [2023]

Not time to panic yet but we've not been as ruthless as we'd like.

Consider we have a very young squad I'm okay with 2nd, especially seeing as 1st place hasn't gotten away from us. The tactic seems to be working quite nicely as well but as you can tell from the squad details we don't have many goal outlets.

I had started to notice in the match engine that we were taking quite a few long shots. We were putting together some amazing passing moves but quite often we would then pull the trigger outside the area. I had a look at various post match analyses and confirmed my gut feeling. We liked to shoot outside the box.

You could also see the problem in the passing to an extent. Plenty of passing everywhere but in the box. The ball was coming to the attackers outside the area and the shot was coming from there. I looked at the heat map and things started to click. I needed to move the defensive line. I needed to push up so that when we started a move we started it on the halfway line, not in our half, so that more breaks would be made into the box rather than just outside.

So I changed it. Another thing I'm considering changing, although not yet is long shots. I might tone it down. The problem is whilst we are wasteful Stahl and Bajric actually get a few and as they develop and get better they're getting closer and closer. So I'm leaving that change till later.

Overall I'm happy with things. I like the club, I like the league, I like the country.

Closer than it needs to be [2019/20]

18 games. The halfway point. And we were still 1st.

Only by a point though. Not really at the stage where we were running away with the title. We had managed to cut out the draws though and get more wins. Unfortunately we also suffered our first loss of the season to Dunfermline. Rubbish. The secret hope of an unbeaten season died.

The team was doing well though.

Byrne in particular as he managed to break an Aberdeen record.

The best thing was he was actually a consistent goal a game striker as well. He didn't go on mad scoring runs, bagging double hatricks, and then score nothing for weeks. Game in game out he would pop up and grab a goal.


Obviously with him doing so well he then went and pulled a hamstring. Comrie and Guz will have to step up in his absence. I don't see them quite getting the same goal tally though.

Aberdeen Ahead [2019/20]

10 games in and things have started reasonably well. I say reasonably as it does need qualifying. Aberdeen should be cruising through this division with a cardboard cut out of a manager in place. Unfortunately for them they have me so there was less cruising and more holding on for dear life as we go speeding over pot holes.

So, 10 games in we found ourselves in a respectable 1st place, with 20 points.

I know we can't really do better than 1st place but we could have done better than 20 points. We dropped quite a few points and ended up making heavy work of it against teams we again should have been thrashing.

The fixture table gives something away though. Something that should off set some of the lacklustre results. We were off to the Challenge Cup final!

Okay not exactly the crown jewel of cups but it's all about building success and a cup helps. Helps even more when....

 Byrne went to town on them. A first half hatrick destroyed them completely. Aberdeen bagged their first ever Challenge Cup (and I could add it to the CV!).

The team was doing well, and with that cup won and behind us we could start to concentrate on getting back into the SPL. Byrne and his 16 goals in 16 games was a very good sign.

To an already good squad I added another two players on a free.

Both young and full of potential. I had a feeling Broich would be making some first team appearances soon.

Just a blip [2018/19]

Ahem....

If you ignore the 4 initial defeats in a row that doesn't look too bad does it? Take that board...my job status has understandably gone from precarious to stable. 1 loss in 16 games will do that. It will also catapult you up through the table as well.

10th is much better, and with 46 points we only have a 5 point (6 if you consider the goal difference is a bit much) gap to close in the final 15 games. We're in the right form for it and team really seems to be fighting. I made a few changes and they've really worked.

First of all despite his age and how good Nilsson is meant to be Cameron is my starting striker. He gets goals and he provides them.

Secondly Pearce and Nolan don't get to play unless there's no way round it. I don't care what their stats look like they are worse than useless. Situ and Austin have it covered in the centre of defence and have it covered pretty well. I don't have to worry about Hanlon messing things up as I've moved him on for £1m to title chases Wigan. All part of the master plan to ruin them from the inside.

I also have to say Danny Rose and Gosling have been great. They irritate me because they pay so little attention to me (relatively low rep manager I guess) but they have been playing really well. Rose in particular. He reminds me a bit of Alan Smith - the determined tackling high up the pitch, not the being a thug bit. In the last match dived in with a tackle, dispossessed the right back just outside the area and then took it round the keeper. It reminded me of an Alan Smith goal.

The transfer window is open and I have just over 550k to spend. I don't think I'll be signing any super stars but I'll have a hunt. With 15 games to go I only really need to make sure I get into the play offs so my signings can be youth or cover.

Saving Grace [2018]

A new season, a new start and a whole new set of...disappointments.

Actually that is a little harsh. This season just hasn't been going very well. It's been very hectic but not positive for 'Tuna. I was actually getting to the point where I was counting down and thinking, "...at game X if the table looks like this then I'm off." And other variants. I just wasn't enjoying things. I was enjoying FM but it seemed like things were getting a little stale at 'Tuna.

Part of this was down to some terrible form in the league...

...that lead to us being here after 10 games.10th with 12 points. Not great, but not terrible either.

What was making it worse was that the recent change in form had pulled us up and out of the relegation zone but we seemed to be fairly lucky with results. The team was playing okay and deserved points but we weren't finishing games off very well and key players just weren't stepping up. As you can sort of see here...

...I know it's only 10 games in but there's not a lot of goals there, and that's part of the problem. We don't look like scoring anywhere near as many as we did last season and we look pretty limited in what we can do on the pitch. Totally down to not having a decent left back I think. I know I said I was eager to recruit because the team was good enough but I was wrong. Horribly wrong.

Svennson on the right is playing amazingly well. Last season he only played a little there and moonlighted as an emergency left back (though not very effectively). This season he's at right back and he is just marauding down that wing. In a similar style to Molder. He's carving space open, getting involved and is a really attacking threat. All whilst staying secure at the back.

On the left....well Nino Johnasson is okay defensively but isn't offering anything going forward. Wallinder likewise, and when I play Manns there I get a little more out of the DL position but then I leave a huge hole in the middle of the defence, that my other DC's don't fill very well. I don't gain enough in attacking threat by moving Manns to offset the loss in security at the back.

The knock on effect of this is that who ever is playing as AML is having to do pretty much all the attacking work down that side. Which gets tiring and predictable. The left back will move forward and be a passing option but they won't run and attack with the ball, they won't run without it and open up space...they just sit there for the back pass from the tired and frustrated AML.

So I need a DL. Problem is no one who looks half decent wants to come. I don't want to panic buy so I'm not going to rush but it leaves me with two options really.
1) Change the formation so attacking from the DL/R positions is less important.
2) Retrain Wallinder a little for the wingback role and hope that he improves. This option also involves crossing my fingers that I can scrape by this season if he doesn't get more attacking.

Ideally there would be that extra option of bringing someone in but that's not working. As I mentioned nobody wants to come and I think I know why. We're still semi pro. I want to ask the board if we can go pro but I don't even have the option - apparently even with no debts and 1m in the bank it is still too expensive. I then asked, well can we at least scout a little bit outside of Sweden then to try and recruit? I thought maybe Finland and Norwary might be a good place to get a few less fussy players. The board said no, apparently Sweden is good enough for us...

Another issue (I know, moan moan moan) is that squad morale has plummeted. A few squad players want to leave because they want to play more, a few want to leave because they think they've peaked here (may be some truth to that), a few in the reserve team are sick of being there and others are just a bit down because of our form.To the point where the board are paying attention to squad harmony.

My plan to deal with this has two parts. Part 1 has been implemented. Every complaining player in the reserves was released on a free. Part 2 is a work in progress...just play better and get some results. We're still doing better than the 15th predicted by the media but the players are unhappy all the same (as they should be - we're better than 10th).

The poor form, moaning, lack of turning pro and general board arseyness left me wanting to leave but two things have happened that mean I'm not going to make a hasty exit. I'm going to hold on. So long as I'm not in the relegation zone at one of the key points in the season (15 games, 20 games and 25 games), and even then I might hold on for a while if it's only a few points, then I'm staying.

So what has changed my mind and staved off my general 'Tuna weariness?

First of all the board did agree to this...

...I know I won't see the benefits for a while but at least they're willing to invest. My youth products are already pretty good, this would be a step towards maximising the potential of them and maybe progressing (or making money).

Second I got this...

...oh yes. I know it's not the most glamorous role but it is a stepping stone and I like the (semi) realism of it. I'm not jumping straight into international management. I've earnt some kudos domestically and now my half Mexican-half Irish manager gets to cut his teeth with the youth team. I would have preferred the Swedish youth job but because the Swedish league is active I just can't compete with all the Swedish staff for the job. Not yet. So Ireland U19's it is. They have no competitive fixutures to speak of after being knocked out of the Euro Qualifiers so that gives me plenty of time to sort the team out.

Anything else to report? Well I did add the MLS, which will become active in December. Mainly because I was reading a chapter from Soccernomics and a quote stood out in it - 'The MLS is crying out for a dynasty'.

I might give creating one a go in the future. I know the plan is to stay with 'Tuna for now but if a job in the MLS came up then I'd be off. Building a real dynasty there is too tempting. Likewise a move to Scotland to break the Old Firm completely. Kilmarnock won the title this year, and Dundee Utd the year before, but no other team in recent memory in the game (or real life I guess) has put together a run of titles like Rangers or Celtic.

And relax [2017]

And.....we can unclench. 9th with 40 points. Survival has been assured, with a couple of games to go.

Relegation didn't look too much like a possibility as we held on fairly firmly to that 9th place. There were a few blips and a few losses crept in but overall we didn't take the fatal nose dive that the media were expecting (and predicting with every loss).

The squad performance picked up quite a bit as players settled, thought I'm not sure how well it shows in the stats*. As an aside I've been thinking of running something of analysis on some of the starts I have from each seasons match stats. I'm not quite sure what sort yet because of the sheer amount of variables but maybe with a few more seasons data I can think about looking at performance as related to some of the stats I've been focusing on like pass completion.

I've been noticed again and offered a job.

What I also did was turn a little traitor...

It was just too tempting. Birmingham, in League 1, with a squad good enough for the championship. A team from the second city and ripe for some real success. Unfortunately they turned me down. I think those are the kind of jobs I want to go for. I'm happy building with 'Tuna but a sleeping or fallen giant would be great.

Next Season

What to do? Where to recruit?

I'm not looking really for any players. Sounds a little daft but I think the team is good enough to survive. I don't want to rush into getting any players. Maybe a stunning left back would be great but I've got a lot of young players who deserve a chance.

If I can get a few cheap or promising players I'll add them for depth but otherwise we're going to try and keep the squad stable.

*Weeks of marking has pretty much fried my brain and I'm not going to go in depth with this end of season review.

Takes real effort to be this inconsistent [2017]

The elite season is a bit longer at 30 games than the other divisions we've been in so I decided a snapshot after 5 games might not tell a great deal. I decided on three updates at 10, 20 and then finally the end of season at 30. But I got a bit over excited and so the first update is at 11 games.

Not that it makes much different. We're sitting mid table but we're not far from the drop. Largely because we've been all over the place form wise.

We've had some good games, and we've been unlucky, but we just don't seem to be able to finish games off. It's to be expected I guess and this should rightly be 'Tuna's most difficult season to date but it's a little frustrating. Everyone likes to win and we should have a few more to our name really.

Maybe the inconsistency has something to do with influx of players, younger players? Never mind. They're doing pretty well and will only get better. The real revelation youth wise has been my left back - Ninos Johansson. He got called up from my youth team as a back up but because of injuries he slotted straight in and has been doing well. Not as well as Hansen, the DL he replaced, but not bad for a youth product.

Speaking of Hansen the traitor set up the only goal when we played his team.

The team isn't quite firing on all cylinders yet. Look at the pass completion rate...

It's just below what I would like, across the board really. But that all adds up to a few more incomplete passes, more interceptions, loss of possession in certain areas. That needs tightening up but I think it's going to be a case of waiting to see whether that will solve itself as the team settles and the players develop.

Anyway, season prospects? I think mid table would be nice. I'd take that right now if I could. I don't see us making an inspired push for the top half of the table. A relegation dog fight seems more likely based on current form. That said I don't mind the fight so long as we survive.

Topsy-Turvy 'Tuna [2016]

Well this season is keeping even me guessing as we bounce around. In the last update for the middle of the season we'd fallen off the pace and looked a little bit...well crap. I was really worried that we were just going to fall further and further away from Vasalund who were sitting pretty in 1st place. They'd just beaten us to extend the gap.

What has happened though has gone against that. We've managed to fight back to first. Although fight back might not be the most accurate way of phrasing it. We've clawed our way back whilst Vasalund and Vasteras have faltered.

Those recent draws we had occurred around the same time as a dip in form for the others. They dropped points with draws or losses. We crept up and then eventually overtook them.

Five games to go then. Can we do it? Erm....yeah maybe. I should actually be more optimistic as we're looking on to get more points this season than last but it's still very tight at the top. I don't feel like the team are performing at their peak either.

Pass completion isn't great and Felic is out for most of those final 5 games. In fact he's probably out for all of them when you consider match fitness too. Viggeborn has been doing well as a straight replacement for Felic. Perhaps too well as I'm sure he was listed as a ML/ST when I bought him...now he's just a ST. I'm guessing that he was in the process of being retrained for the ML spot and then when I signed him I didn't continue - so now he's lost it.

Kamara is almost certainly out for the final 5 games too. And Lundesvall might only make it back in time for the final couple of games. Can probably see why my optimism is waning a little.

What you might also notice* is that a lot of players have decided to jump ship. Molder, Hansen, Tinnerholm, Ekholm and Muqdisi. Of those Molder and Hansen will be big loses, and Ekholm might be considering he's my back up at right back.  I don't really care about Tinnerholm and Muqdisi. Neither of them have lived up to even my quite low expectations of them.

I just couldn't get them to stay though. Most of them wanted out or wanted more than I could offer them. I've not tried to recruit yet because I think my two options for squad building depend on whether I get promoted or not. If I wait and get promoted I can recruit, hopefully, a better standard of player. If I don't get promoted then I think I need to gut the team. I'll need to get rid of deadwood and free up wages for the next push.

I don't really fancy a big rebuild of the squad though, so I'd better get promoted then.


*And what you might also, also notice is that the individual training for most of the players doesn't seem to change much. I did initially change it quite a bit but because of the level of my coaching, and the fact most players are part time, very little seems to change stat wise for a lot of the players. I do change things up every now and again but as the changes aren't huge I don't get much benefit from changing them often.

Off the pace already [2016]

 

It's odd. Things aren't going well but they're still going better than the board and media expect. We hit a sort of slump. Or perhaps more accurately we're still getting results but we're dropping points.

2nd is still good. But we're 7 points behind 1st. And they just beat us. We're performing okay but we're just not clinical enough. Games aren't getting finished off and some of the players (the unhappy ones) seem a little lacklustre. You can see it in the stats to an extent.

An injury to Hansen revealed something as well. Without him I have to play Manns at left back and we suddenly become very bad at attacking (in comparison). Whether we're controlling or counter attacking. We can still do it but it's not as effective. It means my next buy, if I want to stick with this system, is another attacking left wing back.

There was another knock on as well. With Manns moved over Gregorcik went in at DC. Suddenly we became a bit frailer in defence. Which put me in a bit of a pickle. He's not as good at soaking up the pressure that the defence might come under when counter-attacking, but he's also not very good if we get outnumbered when trying to control. Luckily Hansen came back after a short while but I was left a bit stuck. I had no idea which one to choose and in the end I was looking at just going back to standard for a while.

Prospects for the season? If we keep dropping points like we have done we won't get first. In fact we need a big improvement to pull Vasalund back. What I think is more worrying is that I can see us being over taken by Vasteras and Karlslund if we're not careful too.

Getting that playoff place is essential this season. Well getting promotion is one way or another. We've hit our wage limit for this level I think at around 5k. It's not going up anymore. A few players are getting on a bit, like Wikstrom and Felic, and the replacements aren't quite ready yet. Some players just want to leave as well. Kamara isn't interested in signing an extension. If we don't get promoted the team for the 2017 season will be older, weaker and I'll have less room in the budget to fix things.

Which would leave me with a career/journeyman dilemma. Do I stick around if the going gets tougher? I have to admit I'm already feeling a certain amount of wanderlust. I've had some job offers and although they weren't more tempting that 'Tuna City they were at a good level.

Now I don't want to make the same mistake as my previous career game - I don't want to leave a club that I've been gradually developing for a new club that actually might be a bit of a downwards or horizontal step. I would just have to build again but I'm not looking forward to the idea of repeated seasons in the First Division North.

If I don't get promoted this season I think I would have to stick with 'Tuna but consider very carefully any job offers that come my way. Hopefully though it'll be a moot point, I'll turn things around a bit and get promoted. That's the plan.

Half Full [2015]

At the half way point in the season the glass is very much half full for 'Tuna. We're riding relatively high, far beyond what was predicted by the media/board at the start of the season. Promotion doesn't look impossible at this point. I think the top 4 could shift around quite a bit between now and the end of the season but I think we've got a good chance of keeping pace.

1st place is perhaps a little misleading. Not wanting to be all negative but survival is key still. That's goal number one and with 25 points we're not that far away from the 30 point target.

The have been playing pretty well despite being unsettled by injuries. We're definitely over reliant on Felic at the moment and that shows a bit in the matches we've lost. When he's not played well (i.e. had a game where he somehow doesn't know where the goal is) we've struggled and dropped points.

We've also had a few decisions go against us. Or I've thought they've gone against us. I've served a one match ban for complaining. We had a run of three games with three penalties and I moaned about them all.

So how are they shaping up?

 Generally speaking the pass completion is where I want it to be. DC's Manns and Sundberg aren't great but I think this is where a trade off comes in. Manns in particular runs with the ball out of defence really well and when he loses it it tends to be further up the pitch. As such it's a little less dangerous. Quite often though his runs actually produce quite a bit of danger - he links up with Molder and Abohwo, and they swap places and overlap really well. So long as that keeps happening I'm willing to put up with 69% for completion.

Celsing isn't doing too well pass completion wise and that's hitting his assists. If he ever gets a good run without an injury then that might change.

Goal wise after Felic they are spread amongst the midfield a bit. We're not as prolific as last season, not even close. I'm really torn about what to do. If I could get another striker in then I would but I'm not convinced about the quality of the ones I can actually recruit. Magnusson is still on free and still won't discuss terms with me. Everyone else looks like they might be okay but at the end of the season, when our rep increases a bit, we might have much better choice.

At the moment I'm leaning towards letter Berner and Muqdisi be my back ups for the Treq position and see if I can muddle along.

Defence wise we're not leaking too many. Largely down to Bergh...

Well actually we are shipping quite a few but it could be worse.

Also, in other new I got my first job offer.

Not really tempted by Eastleigh or the Blue Square South  The budget is twice ours but they're over it and...I'm having fun here. Doesn't really make sense to move from a....promotion chasing...team to a middle of the road team (sorry Eastleigh). Career wise it doesn't make sense.