1. FC Union Berlin - Capital Domination


1. FC Union Berlin
Februar - 2021

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Fixtures:

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The month started with a real negative as we were knocked out of the German Cup at the quarter final stage by relegation candidates Kaiserslautern. We did manage a late equalizer in normal time when down to 10 men, however we couldn't force a winner in extra time and lost in sudden death on penalties when young centre back Regulski saw his spot kick saved. We bounced back with a 2-0 win over Bremen in the league before heading to Valencia for the 1st leg of our Champions League 1st knockout round tie. 2 goals in the first half by recent arrival Richard and talisman Schroder gave us a 2-0 lead to take back to the Union Berlin stadium and barring any meltdown we should comfortably make it into the quarter finals from here. Goals from Fofana and Richard then gave us a tight 2-1 win away to Monchengladbach, before Torsten Schroder tore Wolfsburg apart with 4 goals in a 4-0 win. The final game of the month was arguably the biggest on paper, and we fought back fantastically from 1-0 down to win the game 2-1 with 2 second half goals from, you guessed it, Torsten Schroder!

League Table:

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8 points clear of Dortmund with 10 games to go, we should be winning our 3rd straight Bundesliga title from here. Hopefully we wrap the title up with a few games to go to give us chance to give a few starts to some of our younger players.

Player of the Month - Torsten Schroder

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It's getting a little boring writing about Schroder in all honesty, but 8 goals in 5 starts this month just goes to show why we are so clear at the top of the league. Hopefully he is someone who stays at the club for his entire career!

Player Stats:

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I said Schroder may pull away in the goalscoring charts and he certainly has as Noto hasn't scored since the winter break, whilst Schroder has 13 in this time (32 in total). Marvin Muller is still averaging above a 8 rating and surely must be in with a shout of World Player of the Year if he keeps this form up?

Youth Intake:

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Not the most amazing intake in terms of quantity of potentially good players but for the second year running we have promoted a full back with amazing potential. Luckily Mariko plays on the right as opposed to Demir last year who was a left back. He's probably the best player we have produced so far and has the potential to be world class according to my coaches.

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Other News:

1) I forgot to put this in the January update, but French winger Marvin Muller won the European Golden Boy award, following team mate Schroder who won it last year. We also had two players in the World Team of the Year in Julian Brandt and Joshua Kimmich. I'm hoping that we'll have at least 4 players in the team next year though and that we may have someone in contention for the World Player of the Year or World Golden Ball.

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Next update will be a March update, can we continue to pull away in the league and how will our Champions League campaign progress? ​
 
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Looking unstoppable mate, 20 points in front of Bayern!!! :O
 
PatrickLFC said:
Really impressive results in a string of tough fixtures!
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Shame about the result in the cup but can't win them all I suppose!

Lippo255 said:
Looking unstoppable mate, 20 points in front of Bayern!!! :O
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Nice to see them struggling to be honest!

Their squad is starting to age a little and I'm not really convinced about the youngsters they have in the first team. I think Dortmund will be our main challengers for the next few seasons unless Bayern start splashing the cash.
 
Mariko looks the goods mate! Sucks though that you can use him for a few years with him being only 14!
 
Yeti01 said:
Mariko looks the goods mate! Sucks though that you can use him for a few years with him being only 14!
Click to expand...

Yeah, stupid rules. Hopefully he grows a bit as well as he's only 152 cm's XD

On the positive side I think he'll be ready to go straight into the 1st team squad by the time he's old enough to play as backup right back.
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Marz - 2021

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Fixtures:

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We started March off with the second leg of our Champions League tie with Valencia and managed to win the game 1-0 with a Schroder goal just before half time. This put us through 3-0 on aggregate and we will now face another Spanish side in Real Madrid in the quarter final. They knocked us out in the 1st knockout round a couple of years ago, whilst their big rivals Barcelona put us out in the quarters 3 years ago and in the 1st knockout round last year. Therefore I'm definitely a bit apprehensive when it comes to facing one of the big 2 Spanish sides in European competition. After that result, goals from 4 different goalscorers gave us a 4-0 home win of FC Koln before we headed to Munchen to take on Bayern in the lead. We went 1-0 up in the 1st minute due to a penalty from ex-Bayern man Kimmich, however they equalized just before half time through Thomas Muller. The game looked to be heading for a draw when 17 year old winger Wehner came off the bench to slot through Schroder to score an 84th minute winner. The final game of the month was a tight 2-1 victory over Kaiserslautern, a small serving of revenge after they knocked us out of the German Cup last month!

League Table:

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Just the 7 games left and we are 11 points clear, it looks as though the title is coming back to Berlin! Will be interesting to see if Schroder can finish top scorer after losing out to Dortmund's Carlos last year despite getting 31 league goals!

Player of the Month - Thomas Wehner

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No one player really stood out this month, but our young backup left winger got the key assist in the Bayern game and opened the scoring in a rare start against Kaiserslautern.

Player Stats:

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Nice to note that Richard seems to have slotted straight in and is performing to a relatively high level. I also must say that Kimmich's record of 1 goal in every 2 games is very impressive for a centre midfielder!

Next update will be an April review, including both legs of our quarter final tie vs Real Madrid!

​
 
Just read it through great story I think your front three can get you past real
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Champions League Quarter Final - 2021

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1st Leg - FC Union Berlin 3 - 0 Real Madrid

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We headed into this first leg with a full first 11 to choose from, whilst Real Madrid boss Brendan Rodgers decided to line his team up in a slightly unusual 3-3-2-1-1 formation. We started the game pretty well and Julian Brandt gave us the lead in the 11th minute with a fine individual effort. Madrid had a couple of chances to get back in it through Tielemans, however it was us would would get the second goal just before half time when Kimmich drove one past Scuffet from the edge of the area. The second half was all about ensuring we did not concede an away goal, however we caught them on the counter early in the 2nd half and Brandt scored to give us a 3 goal advantage which we held until the end of the game.

2nd Leg - Real Madrid 1 - 1 FC Union Berlin

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Heading into the second leg we had a 3 goal advantage and knew if we could get an away goal then things would be very difficult for Madrid to turn around. We were unchanged from the first leg whereas Rodgers decided to go with a more attacking 3-4-1-2 in order to try and get the goals needed to change the game. Unfortunately for us the game became a lot harder than it needed to be in the 10th minute when defensive midfielder Bertolani got a red card for a reckless challenge in the middle of the park. I considered taking Schroder off and going strikerless but decided to leave him on in the hope of getting that pivotal away goal. He rewarded me just 6 minutes later when we caught Madrid on the counter and he lifted an effort over the advancing Scuffet to make it 1-0 to us and 4-0 on aggregate. This left Real chasing 5 goals to advance and whilst they did exert a lot of pressure on our back 4, they never really threatened to get back into it as Leno stood firm behind a solid defence and they could only get 1 of the 5 goals required.

So, we head into the semi finals where we will be playing our other Champions League nemesis Barcelona, who have knocked us out in 2 of the past 3 seasons!

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Next update will be the April update...​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
April - 2021

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Fixtures:

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In addition to the two Real Madrid games this month, we also had 3 games. The result in the opening game of the month against Hamburg was disappointing as we had nearly a full strength team out, especially since Brandt gave us the lead in the 68th minute, only for that lead to last 8 minutes. We then drew again in the game sandwiched in between the two Madrid games, this time at home to Mainz 0-0. I wasn't too worried about this result as we made 10 changes from the game against Madrid in the midweek, however we did miss a few chances after bringing on our deadly front 3 with 20 minutes to go. It had the potential to be disastrous when we fell 2-0 down to Nurnberg, luckily we pulled one just before half time through Brandt. Torsten Schroder then did what he does best and scored a second half hatrick and fired us to a 5-3 win!

League Table:

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9 points clear and a 15 goal advantage on the goal difference to Dortmund with 4 games to go. We should take the title but I will likely be playing heavily rotated teams in between or before Champions League games though which may make it interesting.

Player of the Month - Julian Brandt

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Got a brace in the key 3-0 win over Madrid in the first leg and managed 4 goals in total over the month.

Player Stats:

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Seko Fofana is having his best season so far after a slight dip in form last year. I was planning on selling him next year to allow Richard to come through but now I'm not so sure.

Other News:

1) Our under 19's managed to win their league title this month, hopefully showing that a winning mentality is forming throughout the club and it is getting installed in players from a young age. Our youth team is also only featuring players we've brought through our academy.

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Next update will be a Champions League semi final update against Barcelona. Can we make it to our first ever major European final?​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Champions League Semi Final - 2021

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1st Leg - Barcelona 6 - 1 FC Union Berlin

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Well this wasn't how it was supposed to go. Just like our 2nd leg in Madrid a couple of weeks ago the game became one way traffic after a stupid sending off from our centre back Niklas Sule in the 19th minute for a second yellow card, just 2 minutes after his 1st yellow! Somehow we managed to take the lead on the break after Callum Chambers' header rebounded back off the post and in off the keeper for an own goal. Messi equalized just a minute later but I was content with 1-1 at half time. If we could have scraped out a 1-1 draw or even a 2-1 loss I would have been happy but Barcelona were rampant in the second half and in hindsight I really should have gone more defensive. 4 goals in 17 minutes quickly took the score from 1-1 to 5-1 and they got one more in the 90th minute from Barbosa, leaving us effectively out of the tie at 6-1 down.

2nd Leg - FC Union Berlin 2 - 1 Barcelona

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Realistically we were never going to get back into the tie but that was further rammed into us when N'Koulou levelled out the away goals in the 8th minute, getting onto the rebound of a Suarez free kick which hit the bar. Fofana did equalize in the 26th minute however we then got our third red card in 3 Champions League games when Chambers got 2 yellow cards in two minutes after the goal. I have to admit this nearly pushed me over the edge and had me tempted to throw my laptop off the wall, but I refrained from doing so and we did manage to win the game 2-1 on the night with 10 men with a Marvin Muller goal.

So that's a 4th year in the Champions League without winning the trophy and without even reaching a final. We've been knocked out by Barcelona 3 times in those 4 years, so it's fair to say I'm developing quite the dislike for them. Oh well, there's always next year!

Next update will be the May update, can we retain our Bundesliga title in the final few games?
​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Mai - 2021

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Fixtures:

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We needed just 4 points to guarantee the title in the final 4 games and after a 4-0 victory at home to Freiburg on the first day of the month, we needed just 1 point in the next game at home to Leipzig. The game was sandwiched between the two Champions League games and so I played a backup team, but we had enough to scrape out a 0-0 draw and win our 3rd consecutive Bundesliga title. The final two games of the season didn't have too much on them but we did manage a brilliant 3-1 win away to Dortmund. We rotated the team a bit for the final game at home to Leverkusen and we still managed to get the win 3-0, with the highlight being this fantastic goal from Brandt...

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League Table:

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Our best ever season in terms of our points return, finishing with 91 points and a GD of 73. 100 goals scored and just 27 conceded. This is an improvement of 8 points on our previous best obtained a couple of seasons ago

Player of the Month - Leandro Yepes

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The Colombian centre back didn't start in the demolishing we took off Barca, but was pretty solid in all the games he did played and bagged a couple of goals himself.

Player Stats:

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Schroder ends the season with 39 goals, an improvement of 1 goal from last year. The player of the season though is definitely right winger Marvin Muller who got 15 goals and 22 assists in 34 starts, with an average rating of 7.94.

Other News:

1) Bayern unsurprisingly sacked their manager after their poor season and offered me a job interview once again. I turned it down though, of course!

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2) We have around £45,000,000 to spend over the summer and around £400,000 spare in wages. However we are currently £3,000,000 in the red, although that will soon change with Champions League tv money, sponsorship money and membership fees. I don't see us spending big this summer unless one of our top young German targets become available or we make a big sale die to an offer which is too good to turn down.

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Next update will be 2021/2022 season preview, which will be my 8th season in charge of the club!​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
2021/2022 - Season Preview

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Transfers:

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We've been relatively busy in the transfer market over the summer, spending £62,500,000 on 3 players and bringing in £89,000,000 from the sale of numerous players. There was one massive sale this summer and it was one I did not want to make as we sold club captain Joshua Kimmich to Manchester City for £45,000,000. He only had a year left on his deal and was refusing to talk about a new one due to feeling as though he wanted a new challenge. Not wanting to risk losing him on a free I offered him out and Man City were the highest bidders. I suppose £45,000,000 isn't a bad fee for a player with one year left on his contract and we made a £35,500,000 profit on him after bringing him in from Bayern a few years back for £9,500,000. Just look at that wage he is on at City, 'a new challenge is really what you wanted, isn't it Joshua?'

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The other main sales were Anthony Rudiger for £12,500,000 to Reading (Profit of £7,000,000), Julian Weigl to Dortmund for £12,500,000 (Profit of £5,500,000), Patrick Herrmann to Monchengladbach for £4,000,000 (Loss of £4,750,000) and Kostas Stafylidis to QPR for £15,000,000 (Profit of £13,600,000). The first two never really got the game time they needed whilst the latter two were just pushed down the pecking order by new signings.

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3 players joined the club, 2 of which are young German players considered to be wonderkids. Both players have dual Serbian nationality, meaning we now have 3 German/Serbian players at the club including Krstevski. Right winger Milosevic looks very good for a 17 year old and whilst only being brought in as backup, should be challenging Muller in 2 or 3 years time if he develops much more. Trajkovic was brought in to replace Kimmich and will likely start in defensive midfield for us (which is where I was planning on playing Kimmich this year to allow Richard into the team). I've potentially overpaid for both of these players but if they reach their potential then they will be money well spent. Finally, we brought in Kurzawa as an improvement upon Stafylidis and we should still get 3 or 4 quality years out of him as he is only 28.

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The signing of Trajkovic only came off as I couldn't sign my main target, Dortmund midfielder De la Hoz. I've tried everything to unsettle him and he did want the move, just not enough to cause unrest in the squad and convince his manager to sell. I even had an £80,000,000 bid rejected at one point (which I wouldn't have even went through with, just wanted to test the water) which shows just how determined they are to keep him. I also nearly sold Sule to Man City for £40,000,000 and Fofana to Liverpool for £30,000,000, however there are no German CB's as good as Sule who I could have signed to take his place in the squad and Fofana is now a club icon. I also thought it would be suicidal to sell Kimmich and Fofana in the same window.

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Squad:

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I'm happy enough with the squad, would have preferred one more top quality midfielder but there is potential in there. Down to 16 Germans in the squad from 17 last year as we loan out the likes of Kellner and Timme. I've taken a bit of a risk in allowing Regulski to take Rudigers spot as 4th choice CB, but Rudiger didn't have to play many games last year so it should be ok.

German Super Cup:

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A disappointing start to the season as we lose our Super Cup title to Dortmund. We did have chances in the game but I can't feel too aggrieved as they were the better team over the 90 minutes.

Other News:

1) I've only just realized that our planned stadium expansion was cancelled, so I had to ask the board to restart it. We do need to wait 14 months before the expansion is complete and it will take the capacity from 36,250 to 47,562.

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2) After a good transfer window and in influx on sponsorship/Champions League TV money at the end of last season, our finances are now looking a lot better.

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Next update will be an August review, including a German Cup 1st round tie and 4 Bundesliga games, the first of which will be at home to Dortmund as we look for revenge for that Super Cup result...​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
August - 2021

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Transfers:

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I decided to go into the transfer market one more time this month to bring in a backup left winger. Thomas Wehner has not developed as much as I would have liked as I never really had the confidence to put him in the team in the place of Brandt. Therefore, we went back for another German/Serbian youngster from Leverkusen for £22,500,000 in the shape of Robert Mladenovic. He's a lot stronger than Wehner in terms of current ability and he also has a higher potential, so it just be money well spent. This also allowed me to loan out Wehner to hopefully get some regular first team football in the 2nd tier with Kaiserslautern.

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Fixtures:

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Just the one slip up this month as we lose 2-1 in Koln in our 3rd league game of the season. We did however get some revenge on Dortmund by beating them 3-0 at home on the opening day of the season and Richard got his first hatrick for the club in the game against Mainz.

Player of the Month - Seko Fofana

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The club icon has taken the armband after Kimmich left the club and has led from the front with his performances this month.

Other News:

1) 1 potential massive problem we have is that both Schroder and Brant are uphappy at the club as they don't believe I adequately strengthened the squad after promising I would do so. Schroder has 4 years left on his deal but Brandt only has 2 so hopefully he comes around soon or I may have to sell him. Luckily, the 4 players who came to me to discuss the issue were quickly talked around.

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2) We've got a new feeder club in Japanese side Higashiosaka Rosa.

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3) The board has agreed to improve our youth facilities once again and it will cost us £4,000,000 to do so.

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Next up will be a September update...​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
September - 2021

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Fixtures:

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Our Champions League campaign got under way this month and whilst it started with an outstanding 5-0 away win against Zenit, we did not follow that up very well, drawing 1-1 with Belgian side Anderlecht at home. I rotated the team quite a bit, especially in attacking areas, and maybe that came back to bite me. In the league it has been pretty much plain sailing with 3 wins from 3 games, scoring 9 goals in the process.

League Table/Champions League Group:

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Just 1 point behind leaders Bayern, who are now under the management of Frank de Boer. I've been surprised by the poor start from Dortmund, who have only accumulated 10 points from their first 7 games.

Player of the Month - Richard

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The Brazilian played very well last month and continued that form into September, bagging himself 4 goals from the centre of the park.

Player Stats:

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I think Brandt and Schroder's unhappiness has slightly affected their form so far this season, although they haven't been particularly bad. Kurzawa has went straight into the first 11 and has rewarded us with some very solid performances.

Other News:

1) Brandt and Schroder's unhappiness about the lack of squad depth has now spread around the squad and is really affecting squad harmony. What is stupid about it though is that Brandt then came to me and complained about the lack of squad harmony... The squad harmony is bad because you are stirring the pot! With just over a year and a half I may have to sell Brandt, but Schroder has plenty of time left on his contract and with no German strikers around of his quality, he'll be staying and I'll hopefully win him around.

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Next update will be an October review, including a early title clash against Bayern...​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
Oktober - 2021

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Fixtures:

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This month has been a bit of a tough slog as I feel our performances have been massively affected by the poor squad morale. We did do well enough though, especially by winning the two big top of the table clashes against Bayern and Schalke. The 3-1 win at home to Bayern kicked off the month, with a brace from Muller and 1 from Schroder. However, we couldn't follow it up as we lost a scrappy game 1-0 away to Hoffenheim and we then lost a Champions League tie away at Anfield 1-0. Luckily we bounced back with the 2-0 home win over Schalke and then beat 2nd tier side Halle in the cup. The final game of the month saw us play away in the Berlin derby and the game looked to be heading to a bore 0-0 draw with just seconds left in the game, but Marvin Muller sent the away end into raptures with a 94th minute strike to keep us top of the league.

League Table/Champions League Group:

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We are now at the top of the league after the win over Bayern, although we did temporarily lose that spot after the loss to Hoffenheim. In the Champions League we will probably be struggling to finish top of the group and if we lose at home to Liverpool in the next game we may even struggle to get through the group.

Player of the Month - Marvin Muller

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The Frenchman's role in the team has become even more important now given that Brandt and Schroder are unhappy at the club and his performances have been exactly what is needed of him, bagging 2 goals against Bayern and the winner against Hertha.

Player Stats:

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Julian Brandt's performances have dropped amidst his unhappiness at the club. I've decided I will likely be keeping him and Schroder till the end of the season and hoping that they become content at the club. I am going to give Mladenovic as much game time as possible on the left in case we have to sell Brandt in the summer and Mlad needs to become 1st choice next year.

Next update will be a November update...​
 

1. FC Union Berlin
November - 2021

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Fixtures:

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The month started off very badly with a 3-1 loss at home to Liverpool in the Champions League. We did take an early lead in the game, however 2 quick goals from Liverpool a red card from Fofana quickly turned the game on it's head. We tried to push forward for an equalizer in the 2nd half but Sterling bagged a 2nd of the game for Liverpool and killed off any chance of a comeback. From this point onwards it was probably the best month of the season so far in terms of performance. Just before the game against Leverkusen I got a message which informed me there has been a lift in squad morale and cohesiveness as Schroder is no longer unhapppy at the club (Brandt is still unhappy unfortunately) and this certainly showed on the pitch. 3 first half goals, 2 from Noto and 1 from Kurzawa, led us to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Leverkusen and we followed that up with a 2-0 win away to Werder Bremen. We then hosted Shakhtar in the Champions League in a must win game, and Brandt and Schroder showed us that they are still a very important part of our team with 3 goals between them in a 4-0 victory, putting us in pole position to qualify on the final match day. Another 4-0 win followed in the final game of the month at home to Hannover, topped of by a fantastic hatrick from Loris Noto.

League Table/Champions League Group:

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We've got a 3 point advantage over Bayern and a 6 point advantage over Schalke. In the Champions League we'll have to beat Anderlecht away to guarantee our place in the knockout rounds, however if Shakhtar fail to beat Liverpool we'll go through regardless of our result.

Player of the Month - Loris Noto

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Our backup striker has a point to prove after Schroder was claiming he had no competition in the squad and he certainly did that this month with his hatrick against Hannover and his brace against Leverkusen.

Player Stats:

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Whilst Brandt has started to improve his performances this month, we are lucky that nearly all our defenders have been at the top of their games all season and so countered the fact Brandt and Schroder have been not as brilliant as they usually are.
Next update will be a December update, with 3 Bundesliga games, our final CL group game and a German Cup 3rd round tie...​
 
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