A Road Less Travelled - From Freiburg to Glory

[taida]

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STREICH OUT!
Recent news has broken from Freiburg im Breisgau, as Christian Streich has shockingly resigned from his post as SC Freiburg manager. No reason has yet been confirmed, but rumour has it that, after successfully guiding Freiburg to the Europa League by finishing 5th​ in the Bundesliga last season, Streich didn?t want to take the chance of falling to relegation, which seems to be a repeating theme for Der Sport-Club. There has been talk of former SC Manager and current Cameroon Manager, Volker Finke returning to the hot seat, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

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SHOCK APPOINTMENT!
More news from Freiburg as Unknown Scottish Manager, Michael Wilson has taken over. Many fans of Der Sport-Club are unsure why Fritz Keller has hired a man with absolutely no experience in football whatsoever. Keller, however, has responded that risks must sometimes be taken in order to progress in football. Left with a strong team, Wilson has been tasked with keeping the club in a mid-table position, as well as the Third Round of the German Cup and the Group Stages of the Europa League. Most people view Oliver Baumann as being critical to any success the club may have, but Baumann shares the concerns of the fans, thinking that Wilson?s appointment will bring no good news to the club at all.

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From this point on, I?ll deliver the story from my own perspective, instead of a news report style. Not done one of these in a loooooooong time, but I need a reason to do a long-term save. Goals for this are simple;

-Win the top title in the top 5 divisions in Europe (England, Italy, France, Germany, and Spain).
-Win the Champions League.
-Win the Europa League.
-Win the European Super Cup.
-Win EITHER the European Championship or the World Cup.

I have Spain, France, England, Italy, Germany, Scotland, and Gibraltar loaded down to the lowest divisions (Gibraltar is just to see how the league develops). Main members of the Freiburg team (as well as the best prospect from my young team are as follows);

Oliver Baumann
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He?s been at Freiburg for his entire career, and, since the 2010-11 season, has been virtually indispensable in the Goalkeeping position. He?s only 23 years old too so he hasn?t reached his peak. I?ll have to do everything I can to keep him in this team.

Matthias Ginter
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One of the many products that Freiburg has created and, at 19 years old, will probably attract the attention of a lot of big clubs around Europe. Easily my best defender, and can play anywhere up the middle of the park.

Gelson Fernandes
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The former Manchester City player is going to be a useful player in the middle of midfield. Great teamwork, as well as exceptional work rates mean he will be doing what he can to get the ball back when he doesn?t have it.

Youth Player
Richard Issifu
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The German/Ghanian is the best product we have in our youth academy by far? even if he wasn?t produced by our academy (produced by RB Leipzig). I may have Fallou Digne mentor him or send him out on loan, since he?ll be a big part of my future here at MAGE SOLAR Stadion.

 

[taida]

FORMATION USED

For teams weaker than me, I've chosen to use an adapted 4-3-3 with a CDM and a STL and STR. This formation takes advantage of Mike Hanke's ability to head a ball.

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For stronger teams, I use an extremely deep lying 4-2-3-1, with 2 CDM's, ML, MR and CM. Again, this allows for Hanke to play the lone striker role and, with Pilar and Schmid, still takes advantage of Hanke's heading ability.

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PRE-SEASON + GERMAN CUP 1ST ROUND

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Pre-season went exceptionally well (minus the loss to Southampton, who deserved to win that match). Schmid and Pilar really were creative forces in those matches, even though they didn't really get much in the way of assists (Schmid got 4, Pilar got 0.) These matches set us up for the first round of the German Cup against non-league Magdeburg. We should be defeating them with ease...

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0-0 (0-3 on penalties, Freiburg go through)

I'm not sure how we got through on penalties, or why it was such a close match. We were the better team for the whole match, yet we let them get a total of 14 shots off, 7 of which were on target. We can't let this happen against Monchengladbach in a week, let alone against Dortmund in a fortnight. In terms of transfers, nothing has been done as of yet, but Philip Hosiner is on his way if he accepts the contract that was given to him. He'll act as rotation with Mike Hanke.

 

[taida]

REVIEW: AUGUST
For lack of a better phrase... we're in a s**tload of trouble right now. 4 games played in the Bundesliga, 3 Lost, but a morale boosting win against Hertha. The match against Dortmund was rather promising, giving us our first league goal and we came close to scoring again a number of times. However... Hoffenheim demolished us and we should have gotten a draw against 'Gladbach, but Gu?d? missed an important penalty to seal the 3 points for 'Gladbach. We're also missing 3 top players through injury; Mike Hanke (Striker), Vladimir Darida (Midfielder), Oliver Baumann (Goalkeeper), with our captain Julian Schuster (Midfielder) wanting to leave us for league rivals Hamburger SV. We did, however, sign Philip Hosiner... but at a big cost as our finances took a hit. Hopefully this will clear up but I need to get this pressure off quickly... or it's Auf Wiedersehen Freiburg...

League Position: 14th
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A mere point above the relegation playoff spot... at least we're close to our pre-season predicted position (13th)

Results
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The Dortmund match was the closest match we've had... but the Hertha match (going on stats) was a bit of a smash and grab.

EUROPA LEAGUE GROUP
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A win against Sheriff wouldn't be hard. Definitely worried though because, given our current form, we could very easily finish bottom of this group when we should, realistically, be aiming for third or fourth.