Aberdeen - Road to the Title

[mikeymilne29]

This is going to be my first attempt at a manager's story so please don't expect too much!

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I have chosen Aberdeen for two main reason's. The first is its rich history as which can be seen just by looking at its past achievements.
The second reason is that they also happen to be my local team!

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I will be progressing through the season with regular updates and would very much like any feedback you may have.


Initial thoughts


Having taken the time to look through the clubs details it is very apparent that Aberdeen has a weak back room staff setup. Demands may need to be made early on to increase coaches and salary's in order to capitalise on some of the very high potential youth players that currently grace the squad.

I would like to play attacking football as I feel Aberdeen have of recent years focused to much on trying to defend or control the game. Fast paced counter attacking is going to be my choice, I shall need to cover this in more detail later on.

 

[mikeymilne29]

Update one - The Players.

First thing's first, I had to take a look at my squad to try and decide on my tactics for the season and also to identify any potential weaknesses that need tending in the short term.

The key young stars within the squad are

Scott McKenna
Scott Wright
Lewis Ferguson
Sam Cosgrove
Chris Forrester (I am only just including him as he is 25)

I have also identified some players who are starting to get a bit older and it is unsure how much longer we should hold onto them.

Shay Logan - 30 - Solid option at the back but for how much longer.
Niall McGinn - 31 - Should we look to move him on now while we can still get a decent return?
Andrew Considine - 31 - Has been a fantastic servant to Aberdeen over the years but perhaps its time to wind down.
Mark Reynolds - 31 - Appears to be a little more injury prone now, likely won't make much appearance within my career.


I took the decision to move Gary Mackay-Steven from the squad and only managed to get 900K from a move to Blackburn, he did however leave amicably so no issues were raised. My feelings on this were that I wanted to bring Scott Wright into the first team on a more regular basis and I also wanted to bring in Ruben Lameiras from Plymouth. (He was a solid option for me in FM18)

I have also transfer listed Andrew Considine and Mark Reynolds. With Max Lowe available now and Mark not in my plans this seems like the correct decision for me.

Transfers IN

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I focused mostly on bringing in some good potential youth players with the exception of Ruben Lameiras as I felt that we have a pretty good squad already given some of the on loan players who were already at the club.

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** In my next update I will take a closer look at the formation and tactics I wish to take this season along with our training plans. **

 

[mikeymilne29]

The Tactics & Training

So now it is time to take a look at what my main formation and tactical decisions are going to be for the most part. I don't believe in mixing up the formations too much throughout the season. There will be some games where some little changes will be required.

After looking at the strengths and weaknesses of my squad I have decided to run with a 4-2-3-1.

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I am looking for direct fast paced play which should (with the players available) create a lot of goal scoring opportunities. I want to focus on being the aggressive offensive team. I fully expect to be required to tweek this throughout pre-season.

My starting 11 should look like this in most games.

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This starting 11 shall be rotated to include some of my important young players like Lewis Ferguson, Chris Forrester, Sam Cosgrove.

Fingers crossed that this will work. Pre-season shall tell!

Training

I will be honest, I am not fully up to speed with the new training setup. I do however feel that after having a good look through the option of asking Tony Docherty to arrange the team training will be okay. The suggestions seam to show that this option works well. (I may be completely wrong about this so please let me know!!)

However individual training shall be set to the desired positions that I would most likely want to see each player in. I do feel that having the team split into units is a nice touch and reflects a real life situation much better.

As I mentioned in my initial thoughts on the team, the back room staff are not the best. I am going to have to make some changes to try and improve on the quality of coaches and training.

Below represents my first foray into the staff market place. Robbie Stockdale (Coach) and Roger Cross (Scout) are my two key acquisitions so far.

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[mikeymilne29]

Pre-Season Results & First Official Outing

Pre-Season Results

So pre-season was good, better than I thought it might be. The team are feeling very positive and the familiarity with our chosen formation is now high.

Results from Pre-Season are below.

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So far there appears to be no need to make any major changes to the tactics. I am however questioning the Wing Backs being switched to Complete Wing Backs and perhaps changing my lone striker to a pressing forward to try and squeeze the opposition early on in the oppositions half. I may try this out at a later date.

First Outing - Aberdeen vs Vaduz

Vaduz should not represent too much danger to us. I am confident going into this one that we should come out with a win.



Aberdeen 6 - Vaduz 0

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Well a little better than I had anticipated. I fully expected a win but by six goals was something else!
Especially pleased with the performance of Niall McGinn and Ruben Lameiras who played fantastically until being injured in the first half.

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Positive start to our campaign but lets not get too carried away with one result, we still have another leg to get through.


Disaster

View attachment 28060I was not expecting to be hit so early on with an injury like this. Especially not to Shinnie.. This changes things almost entirely within my midfield. I am going to have to look at loan options for midfield as Stephen Gleeson & Greg Tansey are both injured also.

Initial thoughts are to take a look into the transfer market and see who is currently available for loan.
I thought of Scott McTominay who I loaned in FM18, however he has already been snapped up by Cardiff for this season.

Thinking cap on, I start to look for a suitable ball winning midfielder and I come across a player that requires a little bit more scouting, Beni Baningime, who is currently at Everton. I will need to leave this just now for the scouts to do there work.


Aberdeen vs Vaduz (Second Leg)


Vaduz 0 - Aberdeen 2

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Not as impressive a second leg but a win non the less with a weakened squad. I am pleased with the result and again Ruben Lameiras pulls out a quality performance to help secure the win.



Euro Cup Draws Aberdeen vs Domzale


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Our next Euro Cup outing will be against Domzale who are a side I have absolutly no knowledge about. However I am feeling confident that we should still pull a strong result from this.


First League Game

My focus however is firmly on our first outing for the Scottish Ladbrokes Premiership against Rangers.

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Not an ideal game to start with especially given out weaker condition at the moment.

Injured players include

Graeme Shinnie
Mark Reynolds
Greg Tansey
Stephen Gleeson

However we do now have Shay Logan back from injury which should be a real boost.

In this game I am going to throw caution to the wind and allow James Wilson to play as a pressing forward with the hope this increases the pressure on Rangers defence. I may regret this...


Aberdeen 4 - Rangers 3

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Stressful to watch about sums this match up. Hats off to Joe Lewis who made some absolutely crucial saves

We managed to go two goals up with Scott Wright and Ruben Lameiras giving us the lead.
Morio Bolatti clawed one back for Rangers and not long after substitute Andrew Considine putt away a header from a Niall McGinn free kick.
Joe Worrall brought Rangers back into the game with a close range finish.
Ruben Lameiras slotted through a perfect pass to James Wilson who neatly put it away.
Unfortunately Daniel Candeias has a terrific game and managed to grab Rangers their 3rd goal.

All in all I am happy with the result. We created plenty of opportunities and perhaps our lack of finishing is what holds us back a bit.

 

[mikeymilne29]

August Summary

I think that moving forward I shall proceed to supply monthly updates. So this post shall cover the remainder of August.

August Remaining Fixtures

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Player Update

Stephen Gleeson returns from injury
Lewis Ferguson is in need of a rest (Slightly worrying given how early on we are and his game time)
Dean Campbell has been promoted to the senior squad to help with depth in midfield
Frank Ross has been promoted to the senior squad to help with depth in Attacking Midfield

Players IN

Derik Osede - Free Transfer - Brought him in on a free transfer and he appears to have good attributes to make a strong ball winning midfielder.

Baptiste Chailloux - Free Transfer - Solid Youth potential

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Euro Cup Update

Leg 1 of our tie with Domzale

Domzale 1 - Aberdeen 1

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A very poor start sees an own goal from Scott McKena. We dominated the first half with 58% possession but failed to create enough chances.
The second half see's Lameiras being sent off for two yellow's (Fouls are an issue I need to address as we received 8 Yellow Cards)
Thankfully James Wilson sent in an equaliser in the 91st minute to keep us alive.

A much harder first leg than I had anticipated.



Leg 2 of our tie with Domzale

Aberdeen 5 - Domzale 0

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I made a couple of tweeks to the tactics just before this game. Mainly switching Scott Wright to also be a Inside Forward as well and also asking them to play down the middle.

As you can see we did not just win but we completely dominated and created many opportunities on goal. I still feel too many shots are off target so I may need to play around with the "Shoot Less Often" option.

Happy to be progressing through to the next round where we shall be up against HNK Hajduk

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Leg 1 of our tie with HNK Hajduk



HNK Hajduk 0 - Aberdeen 2

View attachment 28043A rocky start with both Lameiras and Lowe being injured in the first half. Ending 45 minutes at 0-0
Frank Ross finally hit a strike from the edge of the box to bring us 1-0 up
Scott Wright thankfully followed up quickly to bring it 2-0 Aberdeen
McGinn also now being injured, Stevie May having to take his place (My only option!)
However Stevie May is quickly injured and with no more subs I am forced to go down to 10 men.

The Final Whistle couldn't come quick enough!

The downside to this victory is the injury list it has created..

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Leg 2 of our tie with HNK Hajduk



HNK Hajduk 1 - Aberdeen 2

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Through another round and ready to keep fighting!



Betfred Cup Update

We have been drawn against Morton for the Betfred Cup 2nd round, Thankfully this should be a nice easy game.

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Aberdeen 3 - Morton 2

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So... the score line clearly does not reflect how the game went. Yet again we created lots of opportunities with 26 shots at goal, however only 12 were on target, I still feel this is a good on target amount but something needs to change clearly. One of Morton's goals coming from our own player as well..



League Update


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The result against Hibs is disappointing. However I feel it was a close game given that so many of our players were unavailable for this match.

The league table currently looks like this.

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August Summary and thoughts

Performance wise I feel like we have been on par with how I hoped. An unfortunate defeat which you could argue was down to my poor activity in the transfer window to ensure I had enough quality depth in the squad.

Tactically I am pleased with the teams performance. I am considering changing the central defenders slightly as I feel we may just be a little too open at the back.

Next months target is to further strengthening the back room team and possibly have a think about any tactical changes.

 

[mikeymilne29]

September

Septembers Schedule

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Septembers schedule offers some very closely arranged matches which is going to push my squad on there fitness and endurance. We will be ending the month with the obvious title contenders Celtic.

Player Updates

With the last of the transfer window taking place this month I decided to add a few additional faces to the team.

Purchased
Name	Team
Fahad Mohamed	Free Agent
Charles-Henri Vital	Free Agent

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Two more younger prospects added to the squad.

Loaned Players
Name	Team
Lewis Morgan	Celtic

Lewis Morgan has been brought in to try and add a bit more depth to my Attacking Midfield. I am now beginning to regret moving Gary on..


Staff Update

As mentioned in last months update I am keen to make improvements to my backroom staff. I had a busy month improving mostly the coaching staff. This saw Barry Robson and Gordon Marshall leave the club as they simply were not up to scratch.

Staff
Name	Position	Cost
Henrik Larsson	Res Assistant Manager	1k p/w
Edgar Davids	Reserves Coach	850 p/w
Ross Husband	Under 18's Sports Scientist	120 p/w
Jonathan Greening	Coach	1.4k p/w
John Keeley	Goalkeeping Coach	1.3k p/w
Barry Wilson	Coach	900 p/w

Two big names were brought in which I was pretty excited about given that I grew up while both players were in their prime. Henrik Larsson, although always on the oppositions side simply couldn't be faulted as being one of the most deadly strikers to play in the SPL. Edgar Davids always had something special about him and I am very pleased to have both join our club.


Tactical Changes

This month I decided to make a couple of changes to my tactics. I switched to playing a more narrow formation and also I made the decision to change the defensive roles slightly which in my hope would make our back line a little more secure.

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Competition Updates

The above is all good and well but how did we get on this month.


Euro Cup
We were drawn into a group that will absolutely be challenging to overcome.

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Our first group stage match was against Ludogorets Razgrad.
We managed to notch a win and grab the 3 points but only just thanks to a wonderful strike from Frank Ross. Not the most convincing of starts to our group stage campaign.

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Betfred Cup

The Betfred cup saw us face Dunfermline in the quarter final

They did not pose too much of a threat however we did rely on two penalties to take the win which is not ideal.

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We have now been drawn against Motherwell in the Semi Final which will take place next month.


League Update

This for me is the most important part of our update. My aim this season is to be within 10 points of Celtic at the end of the season as I simply don't feel we can compete with them this year around.

Our league results have gone as follows.

Aberdeen 1 - Kilmarnock o
St Johnstone 1 - Aberdeen 5
Aberdeen 3 - Motherwell 2

So far so good. At this point we have won every game this month but the final match is against Celtic. My thoughts going into this game were simply to see how close we could finish to them.



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I absolutely did not expect to grab a result so early on against Celtic!
I can't remember being so nervous as we managed to go 2-0 up, once Celtic grabbed one back I had almost accepted that they were going to equalise and then likely win in the final minutes.
The modifications to our defensive line (And Joe Lewis playing fantastically) managed to hold them at bay and allow us to finish the month unbeaten.


League Table

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This is how the league looks at the end of September. We are sitting top, although I doubt for very long.
Rangers have really struggled so far loosing 4 games now.


Disaster... yet again

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I really need to take a look at what I am doing as yet another injury, okay this is McGinn so I almost expected this but the timing couldn't be worse with so many injured already.

And then this...

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How many more.. a loan player not useless for months..

 

[mikeymilne29]

October Update

So here we are, in October and the first piece of news I receive is following up on the end of last month...

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Fantastic.. The decision I have now gone with is to try and improve my backroom staff, specifically the medical team.

With that in mind I have made a few staff changes this month.

Staff IN
Name	Position	Cost
Jeff Clarke	Head Physio	£825 p/w
Adam Kerr	Head of Sports Science	1.3k p/w
Jeff Hyde	Sports Scientisit	£350 p/w

Staff OUT
Name	Position
Adam Stokes	Head Physio
Graham Kirk	Head of Sports Science

Results

Euro cup

This month be played BATE and KRC Genk. We managed to win both matches which has left the group table like this.
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Betfred Cup Semi Final

With a heavily injured team, this semi final outing did not go to plan. We did manage to scrape a victory in extra time after James Wilson was sent for an early shower.

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Elsewhere Rangers pulled off a 1.0 win against Celtic in the other Semi Final which has left an Aberdeen vs Rangers Betfred Cup Final.

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James Wilson will be serving his 1 match ban for this final so I just need to make the decision as to who shall replace him!


Ladbrokes Premier League

Our league performance was nothing to shout about with a 1.0 defeat to Hearts.

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This has allowed Celtic to close the gap to us at the top (Only a matter of time I suppose)

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[mikeymilne29]

December Update (Missed November)

Apologies, I was a bit caught up in the game and completely missed November!

Tactics Update

With the new update my previous tactic being used has become far less effective. I have spent the last couple of months (Game Time) trying to find a solution to get me through the remainder of the season. I am currently running with the two below tactics.

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So far I have been having mixed results. My defence appears to have weakened significantly with my team now conceding more than they have done before. To be honest I am still looking for the solution!


Players In

I have continued to take on some additional younger players in the aim to prepare the team for the future.

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Staff In

As you will remember from previous posts, we have been having issues with injuries this season. The below staff members have been added to the team.

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Results

A bit of mixed feelings with regards to the results. As our Euro Cup efforts are paying off well our League performance has slipped. This is down to a few factors like fatigue, injury, tactical changes (Due to update).

Unfortunately we lost to Rangers in the Betfred cup final.

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The league table shows us trailing Celtic by 8 points with a game in hand.

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[mikeymilne29]

End Of Season Update

Well we have over achieved well and truly beyond what I thought.

We managed to make it all the way to the Quarter Finals of the Euro Cup and suffered a 4-3 defeat to Milan.

The real bonus for me was that we run all the way to the final game for the league title.

Unfortunately we didn't manage to take advantage of the final game. We finished just 1 point behind Celtic...

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The biggest issue I am now facing is this lovely message I have revived....

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Any suggestions on a replacement for when he leaves?!?


Here is a list of our results.

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Now its time for me to ask for some feedback.

What do you think? suggestions and ideas on both my thread, posts and in-game suggestions.

Thank you for reading Season One!