Season 1
Aberdeen 2022
We are starting off from the weakest point with an Aberdeen team in over a decade. I have been a major doubter of what Dodgey Dave Cormack is up to with this team and now that i am left in charge of the team of conference players his recruitment team has brought in over the last 2 seasons. Except the strikers Miovski & Ramirez are great. Relatively the squad is not good for the long term except 16-year-old Alfie Bavage there is nothing to get excited about here so I'll look to buy low and sell high while as usual hunting for the best regens the game can supply.
Squad
As expected the squad is not bad for the SPL but useless in the long run. Definitely, top 6, should be top 3 but miles off the old firm (Ugly sisters)
GKs
Smokin Joe Lewis & Kelle Roos are of similar skill levels and i should probably play Roose over Lewis
The breakdown shows that not only does he fit my system better but destroys Lewis on all the main GK playing stats. Wish I looked closer at this before 3pm on the first Saturday of the season.
Defense
One of my best friends who's a season ticket holder filled our WhatsApp with repeated messages up to and beyond deadline day about the lack of depth in the defense. Jeez was he right! We opened the save up and at a stretch had a back 4 and a sub-LB who was possibly my starting ML.
From the free market, i got an utter gem in former Dutch international Jetro Willems whose career has somehow fallen further than his 2019 season on loan at Newcastle to the German 2nd division. He had no interest through the first week of the save and was interested in joining me, but only if he got every penny from the wage structure which he has smashed. The hope is his transfer fee in a year or two time will more than makeup for it. The man of a thousand positions Ross McCrorie will start at DR with Jayden Richardson rotating in. Similar thoughts with my other addition Michael Hector back at Pittodrie after a successful season on loan up here in 2013/14. A class above everyone else we have at CB
Including former Wycombe man Anthony Stewart. A fantastic brick house of a defender who had historically bad passing stats when he played in the Championship in 2022/21. Reflected here with a 5 from the people at FM. He will start ahead of Scales and fellow backups Hayden Coulson & Jack MacKenzie.
Midfield
The deepest area of the squad.
Ramon Azeez is the only addition i have made to the squad but he was the backup choice. More on that tragic tale later. Like Hector, he's a step above the other MCs and i expect him to start with our only clear future cash cow Connor Barron who FM did the dirty on. Class little player we have there. Ramadani is my type of no-nonsense tough MC who is more than capable of backing them up with Liverpool Loanee Leighton Clarkson.
Out wide it seems there is a fetish for MRs. Shayden, We do love our (J)(H)(S)aydens done we!
Sorry, so he looks to start and is on a similar lower-league level to Cal Roberts. I need them to gain value quickly so i can sell them off and get Ryan Duncan the promising teen into the starting 11. Currently have a tough call on loaning him out to play every week or hope he develops at our better facility. Leaning toward loaning out but we have a month to decide. Starting on the left is our best midfielder Vicente Besuijen who will have no competition from the reliable old hand and now backup Jonny Hayes.
Our 2nd and 3rd best prospect Alfie Stewart, now the club and League Cup's youngest-ever scorer along with Adam Emslie will get featured in the first team through the season. I hope.
Strikers
Everything you could dream of in a front 4. Miovski looks class, better than his star rating and Duk is right up there with him to form a fearsome front line that should score lots of goals. Ramirez would get a start for at least the 9 other non old firm teams and is probably the best backup striker in the league.
Then the 4th man. 16 year old Alfie Bavidge. In the real world, he started the u18s season with three hattricks in three games and looks like the best prospect to come out of the club since Ryan Fraser. First time in ages I've been excited about unleashing a Don from the u19s on the first team and he should be the only player from this squad i go out of my way to hold onto for the whole save.
Summer Transfers & Other notes
I earlier mentioned a midfielder that got away. This is the man
He agreed on terms, slightly less than Willems would eventually cost me. As time went on bigger clubs came in. I thought we were goosed when Rangers came in so i maxed out what i could offer to try and secure what could have been the best MC in the league but if i had a 1% chance at that point all hope was lost when Porto entered the chat. They are actually paying him £4k less than i offered which is insulting till you realize he's signed up to play for a 1st seed team in the Champions League over a team that's not even in Europe.
Hopefully, this is the only time i need to post the League cup qualifiers. We won the group but only just after a worrying slip-up at 3rd division Kelty Hearts.
The Tactic question always comes up so here it is. It's a cross between Mike Bassetts we play 4-4-2 and the Klopp rock and roll football. MCs are the only one that is totally dependent on what the player prefers to play for position. GK, DC's, and ATT never change. Wingers depend on the required balance of the team. Will be more defensive for hard games, and more attacking vs weak. Always use a maximum of 4 players to attack whatever the formation with the majority on support. Team and player instructions are kind of the same game dependant, more relevant once you have time to scout games vs opponents.
