We drew our next two games 1-1, one away and one at home, but I was more concerned with matters off the pitch. Silvano Varnhagen was attracting interest from HSV, and I was teetering on the edge of letting him go when they upped their offer to £1.1m against his value of £400k, but I decided to leave the ball in their court in the hope that they’d give up. Whilst I would like to ultimately adopt something akin to this 'Moneyball' style approach from @putnielsingoal we really don’t have the squad depth or resources yet, and Varnhagen looks a good young prospect.
Meanwhile Selçuk Alibaz, the hero of our first season, was apparently being scoped out by Slaven Bilic – manager of Beşiktaş; that wouldn’t have worried me too much, except the next day Alibaz came to me asking to be transfer listed. Rather than cause an upset I agreed, whilst setting his asking price to roughly twice his perceived value. I know that he’ll still be upset (or at least concerned) if he doesn’t leave during the window, but I always feel that a player has less reason to be aggrieved if I list him but he gets no offers; I have no idea if that is reflected in the game engine, it’s just a personal thing.
After six games, and our first defeat, we were facing an injury problem. Conan was ruled out for 5-7 months, whilst Varnhagen was crocked for a couple of weeks (a problem as he was covering for Yabo – still a month from his return). With Mast still absent, and Daniel Gordon picking up a knock, the first team squad was starting to look a bit thin to say the least.
On the bright side no-one came in for Alibaz, and on September 2nd he withdrew his transfer request. Even brighter still was this little result the following weekend, with Valentini and Jimmy Marton leading the line in a Treq-A/F9-S partnership...
Valentini was the star of the show, with a goal and a pair of assists, but there were a couple of nice flashes from Marton too. Also notable was the input from Sven Mende, with three key passes and an assist for our third choice playmaker. It was the performance of this pair, particularly with their likely frequent exposure during the ongoing injury situation, which made me to decide to take a look at player development.
THE THREE AMIGOS
In this save, for the time being at least, I’ve assigned the training of the youth side to my Under 19s Manager. I’m doing the hands-on stuff for the first team though, and there are a number of young prospects who are going to benefit from some close attention. Whilst I’ll be doing similar things for all of them, I’ve decided to focus on three in particular, and to give some frequent updates on their progress over the coming months. All are (currently) considered as having between 3.5 and 4.5 star potential, and all are currently rated at least two stars below that perceived potential. These are the ‘Three Amigos’ who could form part of the spine of our next generation.
In terms of Stats for the season so far, here are their key details:
It should be noted that the Cup game, in which all three featured, was against significantly weaker opposition. That doesn’t make their respective performances any less pleasing, but it adds some context.
In terms of the individuals here’s the current state of play, along with my thoughts and plans.
NB: Picture from the start of the season, so doesn’t reflect minor attribute tweaks resulting from appearances so far.
Currently he’s on a standard Central Defender training regime, and I’m happy to combine that with some playing time in the run up to Christmas. At that time I’ll review, with an eye on trying to develop his passing game if all of his key defensive attributes are coming on well by then. If not then I’ll pick out the key ones to focus on.
Bauer has a Personality and Media Handling profile of Balanced/Level-Headed. I’ve plugged that into the Personailty & Media Handling Guide routine, along with his known attributes, but unfortunately it’s that rather ‘vanilla’ combo that doesn’t tell you much at all – aside from the fact that he’s likely to rate moderate to high on the Loyalty scale, and on either Sporting or Professionalism. Assuming I’m using the thing right, that is.
I’d like to get some tutoring in play to develop those personality traits, however I don’t have a lot of options. Currently he’s working with Jan Mauersberger (Fairly Professional, Reserved) but only really to try and impart some of Mauersberger’s 14 in Leadership – hopefully without eroding what could be a stronger existing Prof rating. Should we achieve promotion this season then I may be in the market for some new faces at the back, and tutor-suitability will be a big factor.
Sven came to Karlsruhe from Stuttgart as a teenager, and a loan spell in the lower leagues last season paid off – five goals and six assists giving him some vital experience. Currently rated at 1.5 out of a potential 3.5 stars, it’s unlikely that he’ll be a long-term player for us but he has the potential to make a name for himself and develop into a leading 2.Bundseliga player. If (when!) we get to the big leagues, either he’ll be a decent backup option or we’ll make some money on him.
At present I’m not really sure what his best Role could be, but I’m leaning towards an Advanced Playmaker. There’s obviously work to be done, but already you can see that even a small amount of game time is seeing some across-the-board attribute increases. With Varnhagen and Yabo returning to fitness he’s likely to find game time less frequent to his two fellow youngsters, but I’ll try and find opportunities to bring him off the bench for a run out at least every third or fourth game.
Clearly his creative and passing game needs a boost, although I’m taking a more general approach just now. I’ve got him on an Attacking Midfielder regime, to try and increase some of those creative attributes whilst also looking to push his Acceleration into double figures. It’s a far from essential trait for a playmaker, but I’d still prefer to have it a touch higher than it is.
I’ll take a look at him in December, and tweak the training plan then. I’ll also take a look at what game time he’s had, as he may be a loan candidate if I can’t keep him in the rotation.
Balanced and Media Friendly, he’s another relatively closed book in terms of hidden stats. At present I have no tutors available, once Yabo is back I can use him – although he’s not a particularly strong character himself (Fairly Professional/Level-headed).
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| Look at that cheeky smile, who wouldn't want him to succeed? |
Jimmy is going to be the really interesting study here, a 1.5 star rating at present and a potential of 4.5; according to our coaches he’s a Bundesliga striker in the making, and if I can keep him sweet we could have a good ten years or so out of him.
He’s not a big lad, and there’s some strength work needed as well as a good chunk of mentals. The early signs are good on his key technical traits, and I can only see them increasing with first team exposure. He’s in a good place as he fits in well to the Poacher role, and with both of our key men being big units there’s plenty of scope for him to play as foil to their Target Man. In addition, when I play in the 4-2-3-1 shape, he can perform as a False Nine and concentrate on opening gaps for the more experienced trio that will sit behind him.
All things considered, he’s always going to be on our bench – if not starting the game – and I’d expect to see him well into the high teens or low twenties in terms of appearances of some description.
At present he’s training up as a Poacher, and it’s the combination of Composure and Anticipation that will benefit from development. I’m tracking him on a monthly review, and will be looking to focus Composure sooner rather than later.
Unfortunately, as is a common issue across our squad, we’re light on quality tutors. Jimmy shows as Balanced/Media-Friendly and my only option at present would be Enrico Valentini (Fairly Loyal/Short-Tempered); with only 10 in Determination, therefore no scope to increase Marton’s own 10-rating, I’m not looking to impart what look like poor personality traits on a hot prospect youngster.
Given the situation with Tutors (or lack of) I’m going to start monitoring those Agent Offers that come through my inbox for veteran players. If I can pick up a free agent or two, and get them on one-year pay-and-play deals, then it might be worth a move if the right personalities come up – otherwise I’ll have to go without for now, and look at my options as and when it comes time to strengthen the squad.
So those are my plans for these three guys, but do you feel I’m missing a trick here? Would you be looking at different prospective roles for any of these lads? Please speak up, share your thoughts even if you’re as unsure as I am, conversation can only help.
TACTICALLY SPEAKING
Whilst I’d like to play the ‘high pressing’ game favoured by many, at present we don’t have the personnel. In an attempt to create some pressure though, what I’ve taken to doing is identifying one or two opposition players to ‘Close Down – Always’ via Opposition Instructions.
As a general rule I’ll look for players with low Composure and Decisions, my thinking is that these are the sort of players who’ll get rattled easily – and who I can force into making rash passes. If that aids us in creating quicker turnovers of possession, especially if its high up the pitch, then all’s good.
QUICK UPDATE
We followed up the Sandhausen result with a second five goal haul, taking apart Paderborn by a 5-2 margin and going top after 8 games. Four goals for Ilian Micanski had me looking at the prices to buy a replica shirt with his name and number (€80 or so).We followed that up with a fine 2-0 win over Kaiserslautern, with two more for Micanski, but injuries to Marton (7-10 weeks) and Bijker (3 weeks). With our next tie being the cup game with BVB Dortmund, the injury list was getting into worrying territory.
So that's it for this time, but as always you can offer input here (in the Comments) or on Twitter (@flipsix3_FM)
Next time out I'll be looking at the 'big' Cup game, and setting out the groundwork for what I expect to be a long-term project within my Karlsruhe save. Until then happy managing, and thanks for reading.
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