Does the new tactic work?

I have changed my tactic to a 4-2-3-1 to see if that can improve my form. My first match was at home to Tromso for my second leg of the EURO Cup 4th Qualifying Round. We went into the match with a 2-1 advantage.

The match started well for us and I was really pleased that we were playing better under the new tactic. We took the lead after 15 minutes when Claudio Pizzaro smashed in from 10 yards out. We continued to dominate and we doubled our lead straight before half-time when Pizzaro played Hernanes in and the Brazilian duly slotted home. I was thrilled at half time and was especially pleased with my 4 more foward minded players as they were all playing well. The second half seen us continue to dominate but the match finsihed 2-0. I was pleased with the performance and was glad that we got through to the next round. I hope we can play like this again in the next game, which was in the league.

Man of the match as to be Pizzaro for setting up and scoring a goal.

Before my next game, the EURO cup group stages draw was made. We were drawn along with APOEL, Maccabi Hafia and Braga. I feel we should progress through this group with relative ease.

My next game was away against Gladbach and I really wanted to take my European form into the German league.

We didn’t play well the whole first half and they went in deservedly 1-0 up. I was raging at half-time and was allowed a sigh of relief when Hernanes smashed in from 20 yards from a free kick. They should have won as the had many chances in the dying stages and I was dissapointed with our performance. Gladfully, it finished 1-1. To sum it all up, my best right back is now injured for 5 months which is extremely annoying.

I am not going to change the tactic again as the confidence in the team is building slightly and I hope that after a while when they are more confident they will perform better.

It is now an international break and a 13 day rest for me after a frustrating start with Bremen. We had 3 wins (all in cup competitions though 😦 ), 3 draws and 1 loss, which sees us in the 2nd round of the German Cup, in the group stage in the EURO Cup but 15th in the German League! 😦 I hope that after the break my players will come back and play better.

So, can I answer the question whether my new tactic works or not. My answer right now is ‘I’m not sure!’ 😀 If it doesn’t work after the international break I will probably go with 4-4-2.

Thank you and wish me luck!

Let the battle commence!

It was now time for my first few competitive matches with Werder Bremen. Our first game was away against Trier in the 1st round of the German Cup.

It was a chance to test my squad out against some weaker opposition but it turned out to be tougher than I expected. We scored the first goal though on 19 minutes as an amazing turn by Claudio Pizzaro allowed him one on one with the keeper and he slotted home. I thought the floodgates would then open but then to my suprise Trier scored straight before half-time. At half-time I told the players to do it for the fans and to immediate effect we scored two minutes after the break. Pizarro showed his skill again to play Hernanes in for a goal on his debut. For the rest of the match we were on top and they never really looked like equaliazing. The match finished 2-1 to us.

I was pleased with the result and the 2nd half perfomance. The man of the match had to go with Claudio Pizarro with his goal and an assist.

Before the next match was the draw for the EURO Cup 4th Qualifying Round. He were drawn against Tromso and we will play away first 🙂

The next match was my first league game with Werder Bremen, home against Nurnberg. It is a team I would expect to beat but there are no bad German teams so I am not going to get complacent. Before the match, we were given the boost of the arrival of Nabil Dirar, whom I said we were it talks with on my last post. He shall give us another option on the wide areas from the bench.

The match started off quite poorly but we were posing a threat from set plays. Finally, we got a break when Naldo got fouled in the area and we had to a penalty. To my disbelief, Claudio Pizzario missed the penalty. Frings will be on them from now on. We continued to dominate the half and made lots of chances but we couldn’t convert any of them. I couldn’t believe it was 0-0 at half-time. We were looking very dangerous from corners, thanks to the guide from Football Manager Guru. I told the players we can win this and they obviously got my message, putting HUGE pressure on the Nurnberg defenders but yet again they couldn’t score in the whole of the second half. I was dissapointed with the result because on another day we coud have won 5 or 6-0 if we took our chances and we deserved all 3 points, but we only got 1. (Football can be so cruel! 🙂 )

Man of the match has to go to the Nurnberg goalkeeper Raphael Schafer for somehow keeping out so many shots.

My second league match I expected to be much harder, away vs. Stuttgart.

We started the match well and found ourselfs in the lead after 16 minutes after Naldo headed in from a corner. After this, we created very little and Stuttgart deservedly equalized on 38 minutes. The first have ended with the scores at 1-1 and I told the players to do it for the fans. They didn’t react that much though as Stuttgart were in complete control for the second half. The match finished 1-1 which was a bit of a steal on our part.

Man of the match: Naldo for scoring for us and defending like a here (got a rating of 9!)

The first two league matches have not been brilliant so I decided that if I didn’t win my EURO Cup match in midweek I would change tactic to a 4-4-2. The squad isn’t gelling yet and a more simple tactic might work to gel the team together more. I must test my current tactic once more though against Tromso in the EURO Cup 4th round qualifying.

Before the Tromso match, we were drawn against Kaiserslautern in the German Cup 2nd round. I decided to make a slight change to my line-up before the Tromso game, bringing Mariusz Lewandowski in for Tim Borowski. I will play Lewandowski as a DM so Frings will move up to CM to play along side Hernanes. I want to give Frings a bit more attackive freedom. Also, Clemens Fritz has the flu so I will have to play Pasanen at right back.

The match started off well for us and we took the lead on 16 minutes through yet another Naldo header. We were in complete control but an error by our centre back Mertesacker allowed a Tromso player to smash it in from 25 yards out. We had played reasonably well and we desrved to be in the lead so I was frustated that they had equalized. Thankfully, Torsten Frings showed some class by scoring a good goal from 20 yards out. It was 2-1 to us at half-time. The rest of the match was quite poor and it finished as a 2-1 victory to us.

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We should now qualify for the next round considering we are playing the 2nd leg at home. Man of the match: Frings for a great performance in centre midfield. About the tactic, I am still not 100% convinced as our goals came from a corner and a long range shot. I shall give it another chance though as I have tweaked it a little before my next match against Hoffenheim so I would like to see if my changes have worked.

I don’t really want to describe this match and this picture is all you really need to know

A very poor result and it sums up my first few games in charge, dissapointing. I don’t know whether my team needs time to gel or whatever but I am going to create a new tactic to see if that works.

I am not going to get too down-hearted though as it is early days and the problem is fixable, hopefully 🙂 !

Thanks for reading and all comments will be appreciated.

Werder Bremen – Pre Season 09/10

I have just been appointed as manager of Werder Bremen and I hope I can lead the club to glory and to bigger and better things. The first month of my time at Bremen would be very important as I would have to make my own stamp on the team.

Transfers

I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself in the first season so I went for an easily achievable ‘Top Half Finish’. My expectation myself is to do much better than that but there was hardly any difference between ‘Top Half Finish’ and ‘Continental Cup Qualification’. I was given a slightly dissapointing transfer budget of 5.25 million.

That meant I had to sell some players to get some money.

Transfers out

I managed to sell Hugo Almedia to Barcelona for 11.75 million which was brilliant but the fee for Aaron Hunt was slightly dissapointing. He went to AC Milan for only 4.2 million. This was most likely because he only had one year left on his contract. I was pleased though as I now had around 16.5 million for transfers after adjusting the wage budget.

Players in

So far, I have brought in 4 players. The most expensive one was Hernanes, a Brazilian centre midfielder signed from Sao Paolo

He is a very good player that will be in my first 11. Also, I have another Brazilian midfielder joining on a Bosman in January. Here he is:

I really like this guy and I am delighted to have bought him. I had to offer him more than double than what he asked for as lots of clubs put in offers for him. I guess I was a bit lucky to get him 🙂 When he joins my new midfield three will be Frings, Hernanes and Jadson and I am delighted with that.

I have also bought two young players, Robert Lewandowski and Marco Verratti:

Lewandowski is a young Polish forward that is quite famous in Football Manager 😀 He has a reputation of becoming a great player and I am pleased to have bought him as a back up to Pizarro and also as one for the future.

Verrati meanwhile is an Italian 16 YEAR OLD that I have lots of hope for. In many other FM 2010 games he has turned into a great player and I was delighted to snap him up at a small fee of only 500k.

The other player you can see on that list is Mariusz Lewandowski (no, no relation 😀 ! ) who is an experience Polish defensive midfielder/centre back.

The German season starts quite early so I am still in talks with one player who I am likely to buy, here he is:

Nabil Dirar is a skillful Moroccon winger. He is a bit of a risk on my part as I am spending around 2.5 million on him but I like the look of him and he should cover my two current wingers well.

Overall, I am pleased with my transfers with Werder Bremen, what do you think?

Pre-season friendlies

Here are the results of my pre-season friendlies:

I do not manage my pre-season friendlies, my assistant does, so I don’t take these results too seriously. They are alright results though and I am looking forward to managing Bremen in competitive matches.

So, what do you think about my activity in the transfer window and my results in pre-season?

My next post shall be about my first month or so with Werder Bremen. Please comment your opinion and I will be delighted to reply.

Thank You

Werder Bremen – Squad Analysis

In this post, I shall be looking at the Werder Bremen squad to see what areas are the team good in and what the team are bad in. I think for this season I shall go with a 4-5-1 with a flat back four, a DM, two CMs, two wingers and a striker. Note: If you want to view these pictures in full screen you must click on them as I have made them as big as I can.

Goalkeeper

My best goalkeeper at the moment is Tim Wiese. I am pleased with his stats so he shall remain goalkeeper in the next few years most probably. Also, we have decent back up in Christian Vander. This area of the pitch I am relatively pleased with.

Right back

My current best right back is Clemens Fritz. I am pleased again in this position as he has good stats in all of the technical, mental and physical areas that are needed for this position. His back up is a Finish defender called Petri Pasanen. He is very useful as he can play all along the back line. This position also I am pleased with.

Left back

In this position I differ to my assitants advice. He says that by best left back is a Tunisian called Aymen Abdennour. He is only 19 and his technical abilites are not great so I think he will be back up to my choice of left back, Sebastian Boenisch. He is a young prospective German with great technical and physical abilities but he still has to learn a little on the mental side of the game. I like him though as he has too great feet so could be employed at right back if Clemens Fritz gets injured. I am pleased with this position and also with the right back position as there is lots of options for rotation as there are lots of back ups in the squad for these positions.

Centre Backs

Strongest CB:

I believe that my best centre back right now is a Brazilian player called Naldo. He has amazing stats for a centre back and he looks like he can really be a rock at the heart of the defence along with my other centre back.

Other CB:

My other centre back is a tall German called Per Mertesacker. He has great stats also and should be very dominant in the air as he is 6’6. He should play well with Naldo and I am delighted with these two as my strongest centre backs. There are a couple of back-ups for my CBs but it would be ideal if I could get another good centre back in just incase on of these two get injured.

DEFENSE OVERALL: Overall, I am delighted with my back five but ideally I would like another centre back in. Also, I am pleased that 4 out the 5 are German! 🙂

Defensive Midfielder

As I’m sure you know, Torsten Frings is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world and I am truly delighted to have him in my team as captain. Torsten has excellent technical skills and truly amazing mental skills which is very helpful considering he is our leader. He should be brilliant for us and I just hope that he doesn’t get injured as if we lose him our team will probably struggle. I will look to buy a back up for Torsten in the first window.

Centre Midfielders

Strongest CM:

Our strongest centre midfielder is probably Daniel Jensen, a Danish player that is experienced and overall has good attributes. Although, he is injured for SEVEN MONTHS so I will have to look to buy someone to cover for him and maybe even break into the starting line-up considering that our quality of centre midfielders in not the greatest.

Other CM:

Our other centre midfielder is Tim Borowski, an experience German who has played for us most of his career. He is a strange looking player who is 6’4 but acts as a playmaker. I think he is okay but I’ll have to have another look at him before I make my decision whether he is good enough or not. There is very little back up for the centre midfield position.

MIDFIELD OVERALL:

Overall, if my best three midfielders are fit they positions are reasonably strong. Although, the back up is poor so I will need to bring in a couple of players for these positions.

Right Winger

My best right winger is a wonderkid called Marko Marin. He is extremely quick and his technical attributes are very exciting but I’m not so sure on his mental side of the game. He will need to learn on this but I’m certianly going to give this guy a shot as he is a great prospect and could turn into a world-class player. I have good back up in this position which is good just in case it doesn’t work out for him this year.

Left winger:

In left wing is probably my joint favourite (with Frings) player in the Werder Bremen squad, Mesut Ozil. He is a brilliant player with amazing stats and he is only 20! He should be brilliant and I full expect him to shine and become one of the best players in the world. I am delighted he is in my squad. I also have Aaron Hunt incase Ozil gets injured.

Striker

My best stiker is the very experienced Claudio Pizzaro. He has played for many top clubs and I hope he can pick out his top form for us this year. I have great back-up in this position too with Hugo Almedia and Markus Rosenberg.

FORWARDS OVERALL

Overall, I am very pleased with my front three and I will not make any changes to this I think.

OVERALL

Overall, I am very pleased with the squad depth and the only postitions I may need to buy players for are CB, DM and CM.

Thank you for reading my squad analysis. It has taken a while to do this but I am pleased with the quality of this post and I hope you enjoyed reading it. My next post will be about my pre-season transfers and friendlies.

All feedback is truly welcomed and appreciated. My best 11 can also be seen below.

Thank you.

My Football Manager team will be……. Werder Bremen

So, after asking some fellow FM bloggers I have came to the conclusion that for the remainder of the time until Football Manager 2011 I am going to be Werder Bremen!

Werder Bremen are a German club that in recent years has been reasonably succesful in the UEFA Cup. My aim with Bremen will be hopefully take them into the Champions League and to experience some Domestic success. I believe that the German league is not out of the clubs reach and I hope I can certainly come close to this in my first season.

Tomorrow, I shall post a squad review and show my season expectations and some more screenshots on my new team. Right now, below I have a picture of their badge and their club information.

Thank you and I shall post tomorrow most probably.

Welcome to ‘The Football Manager Experiences’

Welcome to my new blog, ‘The Football Manager Experiences.

In the blog, I will be looking to share my Football Manager Experiences with you and I hope you will enjoy reading this. I hope it can also be a place for Football Manager Discussion and debate!

I shall be posting every few days or so and in the next few days I shall be thinking about who to start a career with on Football Manager 2010.

Any suggestions would be deeply apreciated.

Thank you and enjoy!