Aberdeen Back where it all began

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr_Grieves
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Just don't make the mistakes ive just made in preseason ending up with 8 players ( Lewis Vaughan sold to Rangers for an under value £100k and Kenny Mclean & Frank Ross heading to OZ but still 5 over) outside the 25 man squad as the urge to get a stronger team takes over with money freed up :D
Board expect to be atleast 2nd (as top 2 make the champions league) and ive upset players trying to tell them Europa league should be the aim pmsl.
Good luck look forward to see what you do over the summer bud
 
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good luck! you did deserve that, hopefully you can push on now with champions league football!
 

Scottish Cup Final 2018/19

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Aberdeen Vs Hibs

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Formations
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Hibs line up in a very seasonal if not a bit late Christmas tree formations.




Aberdeen 3-0 Hibs
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The dominant performance that will happen one week and the next we'll be abysmal. Thankfully this week we were dominant. Jota broke the deadlock and with Klein injured Alex Ronningen stepped up to double our lead. The second half never turned into much but Ryan Christie ended a poor first season with the final goal of our treble season.



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Scotland
June Fixtures




Squad
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Everyone's back but with the Euro's a year away i'll have too look at the squad as injurys start to catch up with McArthur






European Championships Qualifier Match
Scotland 3-0 Iceland
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Darren Fletcher wins his 100th cap joining King Kenny Dalglish as the only two players over 100. If all goes to plan his 103 and record breaking appearance will be against England at Hampden in Spetember. But back to the game. The first half was tough as you would expect but Iceland were a different team in the 2nd half and we rolled over them to win with ease.


European Championships Qualifier Match
Iceland 1-1 Scotland
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This was more like the Iceland of 2016. The first half Iceland were the better team then in the 2nd half Scotland were the better team. A draw was a fair result overall. Poland had back to back games with the Faroe Islands winning both with ease.



Table
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Looks very interesting. England were away playing there European League finals where they lost in the Semi's and Belgium were the inaugural winners.

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Just read through all this, really got me gripped! Your absolutely bossing it and it seems like such a fun save. Tempted to start in the SPL myself and knock Celtic off there perch.

Will continue reading, keep it up!!
 
Congratulations on the treble mate I only made a double myself lol good luck for the new season
 
Calpol19 said:
Just read through all this, really got me gripped! Your absolutely bossing it and it seems like such a fun save. Tempted to start in the SPL myself and knock Celtic off there perch.

Will continue reading, keep it up!!
Click to expand...

Cant say i've ever had a bad save in Scotland. Always a challenge to overcome.

Celtic - Need to build a team to challenge the Champions league, unbeatens spl season
Rest of the SPL - Try to build a team to beat Celtic then the above^
Lower League - Pic up free players t get you into the SPL then survive
 





End Of Season 2018/19 Review





Scotland
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Two seasons finishing runner up to the old firm are all forgotten as Aberdeen win there first league title in 34 years. Celtic the only other team that had a look in all season deserve the champions league spot but will look back in terror at the last 2 weeks. The league was in there hands and they lost it. Rangers made no impact on the title race or in Europe and even worse perhaps only just held off Dundee for 3rd spot. Lots of work for Paul Lambert over the summer. Team of the year i would give hands down to Dundee, especially as a bribe if they would stop beating me. The big question is how long can they hold onto Paul Hartley before bigger teams come calling. If Dundee get team of the year Partick Thistle get the most improved team award. Alan Archibald getting this side into the Europa League is hte greatest thing to happen to this side since John Lambie. Hearts made a late season comeback to ****** a top 6 spot from Hibs at the last game before the split. Quiet but harmless seasons for Falkirk and Inverness while Raith's mid season form was just enough to keep them safely in the top flight for another year. Hamilton fell to the play offs and Ross County had by far the worst top flight campaign so far with only 3 wins all year and a total of 19 points

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Championship winner St Mirren led by Former Alloa youth coach Owen Kelly return to the SPL along with Dunfermline led by former Dons coach Paul Sheerin and after a 6 year absence. So next season Motherwell, St Johnstone, Dundee Utd and Kilmarnock will remain in Div 1. Alloa & Dumbarton will not as they are relegated and replaced by Livingston & Forfar, Coult the championship get any stronger? Leaving League 1 are Stranaer & East Fife with Stirling and Berwick coming up. In the relegation play off Hawick made a bid to return to the league but Montrose beat them 3-2 to hold on.



Big 4 league review
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Ok i Missed the German league but Bayern won by 13 points with Dortmund, Leverkusen and Freiburg in the Champions League
Atletico Madrid won the three way race in Spain this year. Bilbao getting the final Champions League spot in Roberto Mancini's first season. Nice to see Malaga back in Europe with there 5th place finish
Glory Glory Man Utd! Jose wins the League at a canter with the Spurs & Arsenal close in tow and Man City in 4th which was enough to see Pep Guardiola sacked and amazingly replaced 4 days later by current Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp who in turn is replaced by Massimilliano Allegri. Chelsea Liverpool & Leicester enter the Europa league
Much like last year in Serie A as Roma lead Napoli in the title race. Juventus's failures last year were made worse this year as Inter gain revenge and nick the final champions League spot off them. AC Milan join them in the Europa League






Early Summer Manager Changes
Maurice Malpas - Ross County
Grant Murray was the 3rd Ross County manager to loose his job in a year. Good luck in the Championship Maurice!




Aberdeen 2018/19
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Emir Dilaver had another good season, Shame he acted like a prat through it and was outplayed by teenage left back Granger. All of the youngsters did well this year. Msakni being the worst but i knew when he got the job he wasnt ready. Jullien's arrival made Eric Mathoho dispensable. Jack's end of season form will leave me thinking about his future. And for the front 4 Jota, Klein and De Preville are just missing that last midfielder to make us a perfect front line. Frizzel and Dickson on the bench will be unfortunate to not be in the 1st team reckoning next year.




Aberdeen Fans player if the year
Matthias Klein
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This award usually lead to a player leaving us. I have no plans to sell Klein. He's contracted till 2023 with no buy out clause and he wont get a new contract without signing one without a no buy out clause! Only way he'll leave is if Mr Milne forces a move through




Aberdeen Finances
Final balance £18.5m +£9m
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We doubled our balance in one year but a £9m gain is a huge worry after making £20m off transfer deals. The £8m lost to the shareholders & tax man didnt help.



Other Competitions


Champions League
Paris SG 3-1 Atletico
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Money finally wins Europes biggest prize. Will there ever be a season Barcelona & Atletico dont go to war with each other. No Real Madrid you ask? Well they finished 3rd behind Liverpool & Roma


Europa League
Tottenham 2-0 Lyon
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French domination of Europe was stopped by Spurs becoming the first Europa League winners to win the trophy without going through Aberdeen.




Scottish teams in Europe 2016/17
Rangers - Champions League group phase
Aberdeen - Europa League Last 32
Celtic - Europa League Group Phase
Dundee - Europa League Play off
Hearts - Europa League 3rd Qualifyer


Aberdeen move up 12 spots to 54th in the European Rankings
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The SPL can also thank us for a big jump in what we get for entering European competition after next season
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Awards


SPL Player of the year
Matthias Klein
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3rd year in a row the golden boot winner takes the overall award. Lewis Grabban's season on loan to Rangers didnt help them to defend there title despite being there best player and Nick De Preville prove to be a great addition to the team & league.


SPL Young Player of the year
Matthias Klein
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SPL Top Scorer
Matthias Klein - 25
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With Dembele & Rooney out of the way the paths cleare for the natural finishers sitting in the lurch to fight it out. Next years Klein vs Griffiths may be even closer and lets hear it for John Baird. More goals than a combined total of the past 2 seasons.




Scottish team of the year
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A nice portion of Red and we have 6 players selected. Rangers get 1 and he was only in on loan haha!



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Pre Season 2019/20




Another summer and another year we loose on our players and signing others due to our size. Not much inspiring about our signings as we sell £20m worth of players 4 players leaving were players i had long and short term plans for but 3 of them were center midfielders where we were overloaded with players. Jota would be the only players leaving that i think we'll really miss.


Thanks to Celtic pretty much we are right into the Champions League group phase


Start with the sad story of Steven Naismith. Fought for 2 years to get back in the international team and at in one moment it all could be over
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Speaking of Scotland we are now up to 10th in the world Rankings after the summers results
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World Cup 2022 Qualifying draw
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What that means is in this draw we are the No1 seeds. Russia and Switzerland will be tough games that could make a top 2 place hard but a perfect group for what will be a developing team come that time.






Manager Changes
David Hopkins - Kilmarnock
Stefano Pioli - Juventus
Antonio Conte - Sevilla
Jorge Sampaoli - Freiburg




Season Targets
SPL - Title challenge, over 75 points, less than 8 defeats, Improve on last season
Scottish Cup - Win if were not in Europa league action
League Cup - Back up players till later stages
Champions League - Group phase
OR
Europa League - Last 32





Pre season friendly's
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Probably our best summer. Big wins against Premiership sides Middlesbrough & Bournemouth as well as thrashing German giants Dortmund. Man City were a step to far as second half goals from Sane & Sterling beat us.





Pre Season Prices
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Celtic are favorites, Just! Aberdeen started the summer as favorites but loosing so many players in the summer is expected to cost them. Hearts Chris Cadden is the only non Aberdeen or Celtic player in the Media's dream eleven. Hibs are set to be Scotland next upcoming force as a consortium have taken over investing almost £5m and adding old man Lee Wallace, potential SPL star Abdoulay Diaby and two Hamilton players is enough to make them (6.5) I'd lay my house on those odds in real life however. Raith, Dunfermline and St Mirren are the teams expected to be fighting the drop.






Transfers

Our growing reputation has helped us spend almost £5m on English Premiership squad players that i expect to walk through the SPL. Another £5m is spent on the youth team and a £10m profit is the end result.






Aberdeen Transfers
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Second year in a row that were almost at £10m in transfer profit,




In


Marc Roca - MC
View attachment 110795
SPL experience? Check! Premiership experience? Check European experience? check! Everything you could ask for in a semi developed 22 year old Spanish midfielder. Joined Arsenal as a teenager from Espanyol spending most his time on loan to Alaves, Middlesbrough and last year Celtic. Why Celtic didnt have a clause to pick him up is beyond me but for £1.4m i'll see much more than that back for him in the future.


Ben Gibson - DC
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The former Middlesbrough man has had a crazy past 3 years. Earned a £10m move to Southampton to replace Van Dijk. That failed miserably and now he's signed on at Aberdeen to save his career. Earning £26k a week along the way a whole £11k more than the next highest paid. How long will that work out?


Kevin Diks DR - LOAN
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We lost our right back Emir Dilaver and thanks to high wages, impossible work permits amongst other reasons stopped us picking up a quality right back and the U19 depth is for lack of a better terms **** for right backs. So on loan for one year only we have the former Vitesse prodigy


6 Youth players join from all over Europe and our new favorite North African hunting ground
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Out
The most productive summer we've had so far, Too productive in fact. Our biggest deal is for midfielder Adrien Thomasson. We got one good season out of him but when a bid over £5m came in it was clear his time was up. He showed a desire to stay but our depth and Mainz's money proved to much. Next out was another player leaving after one season, Spanish player Jota. The latest example of a buy-out clause getting the better of us and this time there;s not the same quality waiting to take his place. Speaking or talent i was looking forward to bringing Alen Brtan through to the first team over the next few seasons but old man Arsene Wenger, approaching his 23rd season at Arsenal made a crazy offer of £3.3m now and a further £4m in future fee's. Now he looks good but not that good and the money will go towards the next youth prospects. Emir Dilaver, Scott McKenna and Jim Stewart were all in a similar situation, Contract was up next summer and the offers we got were very fair. Biggest loss of the summer has to be Branislav Micic. He was going to go onto huge things at Pittodrie but days after i discovered a £450k clause in his contract and had offered a new deal Dutch team Feyenoord got the steal of the century. Scott Wright failed to develop while the youths go out in search of 1st team experience.




World Transfers
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All the headlines are Marco Verratti's world record move from PSG to Man City who would go on to spend another £60m on Dortmund winger Christian Pulsic. Lots of other big players moving around. Lacazette to Man Utd and Icardi to Arsenal catching the eye.




SPL Transfers
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I shuffled down the page a bit as Aberdeen dominated the top 15 moves with Rangers and Celtic only having 1 player each in the way.





Squad
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Msakni, Granger and Klein developed into top SPL players despite all being very early in there careers. De Preville, Lundemo and Jack complement them with there experience.




Youth team
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Vojtech Franc looks even better than the scouting suggest. Rey, Mcauley Ronningen are all ready to contribute to the first team while Adam Smith may someday join Alan Granger as a career player from school.




Starting 11
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5 Changes spread all ove the team, possibly our biggest so far. Gibson and Roca gives us substance to our spine. Lundemo may finally get his chance in the first team while Frizzell will get his chance.



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August


A place in the Champions League groups give you a £10.6m bonus! Que new youth team and a rare first team signing that was of course a bargain



Fixtures



Aberdeen 3-1 Celtic
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What game to kick off the season. Frizzel and Florian Kainz got a goal aside in the first half but a few tweak like Jack marking key man Ayoub out of the game and attacking down Celtic's 18 year old left back's wing and assists from Diks for one of two Klein's goals prove that to be a winner


Betfair Cup 2nd Round
Dunfermline 2-3 Aberdeen
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We'll be playing these guys in the SPL and they could cause some problems for some teams. The Dons were never comfortable even with our strongest team.


Partick 0-5 Aberdeen
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A top 5 team and a step up from Dunfermline and we humiliated them. Sorry we didnt Klein did on his way to scoring all 5 goals and probably even more transfer interest through the month


Aberdeen 3-0 Inverness
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Starting to feel like a different team we have this year. A own goal, Christie and Klein had us 3 goals clear after only 12 minutes. the following 78 may have caused a fan protests as i told the team to take a breather and put some u20s in for a run out.


Aberdeen 6-0 Dunfermline
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A third big win in a row with a clean sheet but this time we got a lot of help from Dunfermline rather than just being good. Not to take away from ourselves De Preville scored 2 goals in the first 2 minutes but between that and my 3 defenders scoring in the second half Dunfermline had 2 players send off giving us as easy a win imaginable going into the international break.



Table
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Aberdeen and Hibs lead the way unbeaten, Diaby looks like a inspired signing. Less inspiring are the old firm. Rangers with 4 points Celtic with 3, tied for the relegation play off spot. Early days i know but what a sight.




Champions League Draw
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In our first Champions League appearance we were the last team out of the hat and thank goodness for that as the final two groups were the easiest. No top drawer teams and as 4th seeds i fancy our chances against Sporting for 3rd.


Celtic join us in the Group phase. They were not so lucky
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Actually i would have said Rangers in the Europa Group are not much easier than ours.
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Transfer deadline day



World Transfers
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SPL Transfers
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Not quite sure what Celtic's waiting for but we made all the big moves all be it two of them were sales. Celtic did not appear on the list much but signed 5 top 4 league players on loan and picked up Scotland No1 David Marshall coming back to where it all began. He might get the captains gig too since Scott Browns been moved onto Hapoel Be'er-Sheva. Serves him right for not unretiring from international duty when i asked him in 2016. Rangers too loaned a pile of players from the Premiership




Aberdeen Transfer




Borja Garcia AM
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When god takes a cruciate ligament with one hand he gives your best player in the save with the other. I've signed Borja in previous FM games and he looks to be the star our team needs going forward. He got 20 goals in the Spanish second division a few years back and following his side Girona's relegation last season he had a buy out clause of £1.6m. Some how nobody picked up on this and with a whole lot of luck we have our man to lead the midfield.




I spent £6m of the £10m Champions League money to add 5 new u20 players. One Joe Smith is good enough for the first team but no work permit despite having 9 caps! I'll loan him out till he gets one, hopefully next summer and he can take over from Rooney perhaps.
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Out
I planned to sell Eric Mathoho this window and with time running out Espanyol put in a bid and we got £3m for him. Next big transfer coming in was for Marius Lundemo. Red Bull Leipzig offered £5m and rather than the hassle of trying to sign him up to a new deal i let this happen .Of Course Kenny McLean was going to get a season ending injury a few days later but it all may have worked for the best. Cammy Smith went out on loan. Hopefully he'll go for good next summer. Two youngster go out for first team football.



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Scotland
September Fixtures




Squad
View attachment 110568
Not many changes. James McArthur's injury has finished him off so Jack, Gauld and Bryson will fight for his spot next to Fletcher. Tom Cairney gets the nod in replacing Steven Naismith with our own Ryan Christie backing him up




European Championships Qualifier Match
Scotland 0-2 England
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Darren Fletcher equalled King Kenny's cap record and thats where the good news ends. England were just classes ahead of us but we kept the door shut till the 61st minute when Harry Kane put the auld enemy ahead. We had to attack and in doing so opened the door for Oxlade-Chamberlain to secure a big win for England that should secure top spot for them




European Championships Qualifier Match
Faroe Islands 2-8 Scotland
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How often in history has both major international records been smashed in the same game. Darren Fletcher won his record 103rd cap and right after Half time Leigh Griffiths scored his 4th of his 6 goals in the Faroe Islands that took the goals scoring record from Denis Law. Burke & Ritchie got a goal each on the right wing and we fell behind in the 3rd minute, Facts that will be lost on reflection of the day where it was also the record scoring Euro qualifier game, and Griffiths 6 goals beats the Hughie Gallachers previous record and finally Griffiths has scored 10 goals this year for Scotland. What a day

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Table
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Our next game will be against Poland and a win there would secure top spot. Failure would mean either we need a result at Wembly or need England to beat Poland on the final day when they will have already qualified



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Nice start but risky strategy iam half way through the season and iam still trying work to out how to get fluid football working in Scotland on this version of fm.
For instance 1 game we beat the Roath Ravers 6-0 then the next games we lose to Hearts, celtic and against Dundee United we chuck away a 2-0 lead in a 6 pointer at Tannadice then we go and hammer Inverness 3-1 :D :D :D
Ive switched to press more, taken off be expressive and retain passing and the game seems abit more helter skelter now as the back 4 cant defend and the strikers remain a gamble from 1 game to the next despite being injected with pace.
Jonny Hayes was forced to retire at just 32 in a rare home 1-0 defeat to Dundee United forcing us to bring in Sito from Valencia who is exceptionally quick but hes been a flop so far considering hes walking in from La Liga and doesn't create or score much .
On the other wing Ryan Kent on loan from Liverpool seems to be good but not justifying a fee with 6 months left on his anfield deal and seems to be more of a scorer than a creator of chances lol.
Hopefully you can find the right rhythm and chemistry iam still having a good season but pretty underwhelming domestically compared with where we should be haha.
Unlike you however iam considering any job offers on competition of my badges (next December) just to keep the save interesting and fresh, I wont actively seek any new teams they have to approach me and offer more than my existing deal with the dandys 1st.
 
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Teddybear30 said:
Nice start but risky strategy iam half way through the season and iam still trying work to out how to get fluid football working in Scotland on this version of fm.
For instance 1 game we beat the Roath Ravers 6-0 then the next games we lose to Hearts, celtic and against Dundee United we chuck away a 2-0 lead in a 6 pointer at Tannadice then we go and hammer Inverness 3-1 :D :D :D
Ive switched to press more, taken off be expressive and retain passing and the game seems abit more helter skelter now as the back 4 cant defend and the strikers remain a gamble from 1 game to the next despite being injected with pace.
Jonny Hayes was forced to retire at just 32 in a rare home 1-0 defeat to Dundee United forcing us to bring in Sito from Valencia who is exceptionally quick but hes been a flop so far considering hes walking in from La Liga and doesn't create or score much .
On the other wing Ryan Kent on loan from Liverpool seems to be good but not justifying a fee with 6 months left on his anfield deal and seems to be more of a scorer than a creator of chances lol.
Hopefully you can find the right rhythm and chemistry iam still having a good season but pretty underwhelming domestically compared with where we should be haha.
Unlike you however iam considering any job offers on competition of my badges (next December) just to keep the save interesting and fresh, I wont actively seek any new teams they have to approach me and offer more than my existing deal with the dandys 1st.
Click to expand...

You really need to stick to a tactic. I tinkered in the first season but now all i'd really change is if were away to the Old firm or playing most European games i go counter and chuck in more defensive instructions. Same goes with training. The training has to have a degree of focus on players learning there position and the teams shape. Never got fluid working in this game. Went to control or structure
 
In Europe against stronger teams I was playing a contain tactic.
While this works at Ibrox and somewhat at Parkhead in general it seems far to negative for being at home with the players I have in this squad so I have to try to play more attractive football, the difficulty on the save is finding a balance between winning and entertaining football as this seems tricky in Scotland compared with England or mainland europe ;).
Will hwoever take your advice on board though bud and win or lose domestically I will be less like the Raneri of old and more like last season's Raneri lol .
 
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September



We're still unbeaten after two months of action.




Fixtures



Hearts 1-4 Aberdeen
View attachment 110403
Both teams scored in the 18th minute but after that we settle into our new found love of thrashing teams. Ronningen's penalty on the half hour put us ahead for the first time. Frizzell and Roca got goals from the midfield


Champions League Match 1
Sporting Lisbon 2-2 Aberdeen
View attachment 110402
Our first venture into the Champions League and we were soooo close to a result. Sporting scored the first goal as one of there 3 forwards Alan Ruiz scored. Our teenage wing back Alan Granger pulled us level and soon after Matthias Klein amazingly had us in the lead going into the break. Through the second half we looked solid at the back without creating chances ourselves. Sadly Colidio nicked a late equalizer to grab what could be a priceless point. £437k prize money for the draw


Rangers 0-2 Aberdeen
View attachment 110401
Remember when the first game back in Scotland after a European game would be a struggle and usually a excuse to drop points? Well not today Adam Frizzell scored 10 minutes in and again 10 minutes from the end as Rangers miserable start continues


Betfred Cup Q/F
Dundee 1-2 Aberdeen
View attachment 110400
This game took 80 minutes to come to life when super star signing Borj Garcia opened the scoring with what looked like the winner with 10 minutes to go. Dundee and Ross McCrorie who looked to have ended our long winning run to a end until starting striker for a day Alex Ronningen won the came in the 92nd minute.


Aberdeen 4-0 Dundee
View attachment 110399
Having a quiet month including a few games off but today he managed a hattrick in the first 32 minutes to make sure the Dundee game was not as much of a struggle as 3 nights ago. A Injury time header from Ben Gibson got a 4th right at the end.




SPFL Table
View attachment 110398
Aberdeen and Hibs have streaked clear at the top with both teams winning 7/7 and are 8 points clear of Dundee & Falkirks battle for 3rd. Celtic have sneaked back into the top half while Rangers are only up to 7th. The bottom 3 are already standing out as Dunfermline, Raith and St Mirren the 3 smallest clubs.




Europa League
View attachment 110397
First game down and both British teams had good results on there European travels.



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