Chapter I - Ipswich town: Fighting for promotion?(Completed)

I'm thinking about changing formation for new season. Which formation do you suggest?

  • 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • 4-4-2 Flat or 4-2-4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4-3-3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4-1-1-4

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1
  • Poll closed .
Joined
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Hello guys
I started a new career as an unemployed manager and take control of Ipswich town without even having knowledge about this team. Media prediction for our first season is 4th. I always play the game with standard formations in this 19 years which I started playing. But during pre-season friendly games, I suddenly developed a 4-1-1-4 formation that worked against athletic bilbao and the game ended 2-2 ! So I decided to go with this formation cause the squad have so many wingers and forwards and I realized that I can use them at same time ! At first it looked like a suicide as we play with only one CM ! But we're 2nd in table, 4 pts behind, with a game in hands.



Ipswich table.jpg




Here is the league standing after 11 games.
as you see, we scored 24 goals with my new formation which I think of it as a suicide attempt in every game !


formation 2021.jpg



This is what I'm talking about ! Too much risk for me as I played mostly 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 in recent years, but this formation is working at this moment. Let's see what's going up next !

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Here's Aaron Drinan who was transfer listed before I arrive. Although He's a 2.5 star rated player, He still managed to score 5 goals and also assisted 4 times in 11 matches.
 
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We're in a good run now, drawing with Hull in a match we were dominating !

With Aaron Drinan scoring goals, we're now at top of the table

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I have to look for some players to add depth to my squad, right back and right winger positions. But we have no transfer budget available, so I'll appreciate if you can help me to find some players for loan.
 
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1W 4D 1L
I'm not particularly impressed with our league performance right now, just one win in six matches ! We didn't have time to do more tactical and technical training to correct the mistakes players made during these matches. Also I had to rotate the squad cause some players were jaded and needed rest.

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But the other teams also struggled in this period of time, so we didn't miss much as we have one game in hand.

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It is frustrating when you can create more chances than the opponent and control the entire game !


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I Think "Flynn Downes" is one of the best players in the club. He's a reliable player who plays DM (Half Back role) in our formation. His pass completion ratio is 95% in 19 games. He also completed 90% of his tackles.

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Also We've got this news ! So what will be happen? Time will tell us. I hope that the new board just let me finish what I've started, because in past FM games I experienced replacing with "Massimo Oddo" after takeover cause the new board of directors want to bring their own man to the club !
 

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We were inconsistent ... Our form has dropped ! 4W 3D 3L in the league ! We're now down to 4th place.
I expected more from the players, especially when our best players suffered from injuries ! But it's not end of the world.


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Takeover collapsed, but the owner is listening to offers. Anyway I requested for some funds in transfer window and the club agreed. So I added two players to our squad :

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As I told before, we needed a right back and I think he is a quick solution for the rest of the season.

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He is not good in terms of pace, but I chose him because of his work rate and determination.


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I'm a little frustrated at this moment. We didn't play bad in last 13 matches (overall).
After Aaron Drinan injury, we're having serious problems in attacking phase. Against Swindon which we lost 0-1 in home, We dominated the match and had 20 shots but only 6 on targets ! 61% of possession, 11 corners and 87% of tackles won, but we couldn't get the result. So that really ****** me off and I started tinkering tactics and players which made the situation worse. But I'm a little hopeful as injured players are about to coming back and I'm aiming for automatic promotion at the end of season.
 
Sorry for long break ! I've been busy during past months, but finally We've won Automatic Promotion ! More details to come soon !

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Well ! After our drop of form, I became heavily motivated to turn things around ! And Here's the results ! Conceded 1 goal in our last 5 games, lost 2 matches out of 14 !

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I'm delighted to find Aaron and removed him from transfer list. He repaid my faith with his perfect performances throughout the season as our Pressing Forward.

I will update this thread soon ... Stay tuned for more !
 
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Standing ...
We've won promotion to Sky Bet Championship 5 points ahead of Blackpool.

And:

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I love finding players who just need trust and attention in order to shine ! If I was looking at my assistant report, I should bench him because we had better options in the squad ! But this is what I really like to do, Helping players to exceed their potential !

This is the end of first season ... Let's see what we can do in next season !
 
2021-22 SEASON

So, here we are in championship ! I thought in order to compete in a higher level, I must change the formation and looking to strengthen the squad ! But the club just gave me 1.9M euros ! So I had to search deeply through UK because I'm more familiar with Calcio as an Italian football fan. Also I decided to sell and release some unused players as I thought they were not good enough to remain in the team. But unfortunately we lost two key players due to their unhappiness and their desire to move to bigger clubs !

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"Luke Woolfenden" was one of the best players in the club. He joined Bournemouth for a total of 6M .. So I think that wasn't a bad decision as we needed money for some transfers.

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"Idris El Mizouni" was out on loan in first season. I was planning to using him as our attacking midfielder but an offer from Hannover (which I rejected) made him unhappy and left me no choice but to sell him in last days of transfer window. He was actually playing an important role in our new formation.

Here are our transfer history:

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Now Let's have look at our new players:

Charles Boli.jpg

Signed from RC Lens


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Signed from Peterborough


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Signed as a free transfer


Nathan Baker.jpg

Signed as a free transfer


Matej Kovar.jpg

Loaned from Man Utd


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Signed from Liverpool




I'm pleased with our transfers in general. Now let's look at our squad for new season and battle against relegation:

Squad 1.png

Squad 2.png


And I found a surprise in our under-18 team ! I just played him once and he became one of our starters !!

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That's the pre-season ! More news to come about new season soon !
 

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Here we are in the middle of winter transfer window. Despite pre-season prediction to fight against relegation, we're performing above expectations in general. We had a tough pre-season as we tried a new formation (4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide). Also I wasn't confident about our starting 11.

Results 1.jpg


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I think the results are well in general. Although we're struggling away from home in recent matches, I didn't expect us to be in top half at this stage of the season.

Also we've had a change in club ownership which takes too long to be completed. As you see, Paul Casson was planning to hire a new head coach and he was the leading candidate at the beginning of takeover process (I experimented this in an older version of FM)

Takeover.jpg


At the end, Danish "Preben Ganzhorn" bought the club and as his first action offered me a new 4 years contract as my contract was expiring at the end of season.

Takeover complete.jpg


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The new owner has invested money for winter transfer window and also we're buying our stadium "Portman Road" as I requested. so I think he's having a long term plan for this club. I'm usually looking for new opportunities at bigger clubs in my saves, so I don't know what will happen in next seasons at this stage. Right now I'm going forward step by step and looking to finish this season in a reasonable position.

Buy ground.jpg


At this moment, we're losing our best player Flynn Downes as he's unsettled and wants to move to a bigger club. We received a transfer offer from Fulham, Newcastle is also interested in him, so I will try to sell him and invest the money to build a stronger team for next season. Although we're not strong financially yet, but I think it's a matter of time if we can stay in championship and making good business in transfer windows ahead of us.

By the way, I already singed Dominic Ball as a temporary replacement for Downes.


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For me, this is our highlights of the season till now:

match stats 2.jpg


We played quite well against Leicester as we approached the game with positive mentality and played without any pressure in FA Cup.

match stats.jpg


This was the most frustrating game for me ! Reading had only 1 shot !
 
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Although we were considered a relegation candidate, here we are:

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More updates to come soon ...
 
After defeating Swansea (2-1 aggregate) we faced Aston Villa in Play-offs final ...

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We didn't put a good performance against Aston Villa as they were much better team throughout the season ... Although promotion was never on the card for us, the frustration is leading me to the point that I should decide to continue with Ipswich Town or become a journeyman and search for another job, as there are numerous clubs interested in me including Sampdoria, Atalanta and Wolves.


Anyway, I already signed a few talented youngsters and also got rid of a group of players I believed they were not at a good standard and can't produce any kind of performance for the team. So I will decide until next couple of days ! Stay tuned.

Also it will be a good idea to let me know what do you guys think I have to do?
 
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SEASON 2022-23
After last season's play-offs frustration and a great opportunity for me to became wolves manager, I decided to continue with Ipswich Town and trying to do my best for this club. Although we can't afford to sign quality players, but I have faith in my squad as I made some signings and released some players that were not on my plan. I tried to stick to our last season's players and adjust our tactics to compete against top half teams. This season is going to be tough as Norwich and Blackburn relegated from PL, so we have to work harder to get the results I want.


Kovar.jpg

Signed him after his loan spell with us in last season

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Free signing from Blackburn to provide more depth in DM

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He's a decent young player but I don't know how much he can improve

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Loan players from our senior affiliate club Man City. They were promising in pre-season and I can't wait to see their development.


As I mentioned, I made some adjustment in our tactical approach and it seems like the team has responded well:

results.jpg



It's going to be a long and tough season. There are too many contenders for promotion and we have to do our best to maybe catch the leaders as we expected to finish 17th.


Table.jpg
 

Quick update:

results 1.jpg


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After a drop of form, winter break for World Cup 2022 was the best opportunity turn things around. Best moment for me was our 3-2 win against Burnley after allowing 2 goals in first half !

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I'm intending to rest our first team players for FA cup in order to catch the league leaders. Beside that, I can hand some of our young players a chance to show themselves as 19 years old Chibozo was our best player against Burnley.

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And here is the final episode of chapter one:

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After a hard fight for promotion, we ended up in play-offs again. But this time we managed to do miracles and make promotion real ! After thinking about my plans in this save, I've decided to continue as a journey man and looking for new challenges available. So I resigned at the end of my third season with Ipswich Town after 164 games in charge, with 93 wins, 34 draws, 37 losses and 257 GF and 163 GA, winning two promotions and leading the team to PL and named Head Coach of the Year in my final season. Here is some final stats:

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Late winning goal from Mumbongo in play-offs final match

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I developed young players through my time in Ipswich, but I doubt they are good enough to battle against relegation in PL.

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I've already started a new challenge and so excited to share it with you ! I will continue sharing my journey in Chapter Two so stay tuned ...
 
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