From Riches to Rags - Anzhi Makhachkala

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FMPivot

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Hello one and all and welcome to a new career thread for Football Manager 2016, and my first on this forum. As you can probably tell from the thread title, I'll be taking over Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala, and you have it on good authority that Makhachkala will probably be copied and pasted on numerous occasions today. For the purposes of saving time, I'll be referring to Anzhi Makhachkala as just Anzhi from now on.


You may be thinking, why the **** are you going with Anzhi? Well, they're a challenge, and an interesting story. The club itself is only 24 years old after being formed just before the fall of the Soviet Union. Whilst their early history is modest at best, what's happened in recent years is what's really interesting. In 2011, they were bankrolled by billionaire Suleyman Kerimov and changes were in force almost overnight. Kerimov had huge plans for Anzhi, including spending hundreds of millions on a new stadium, world class players and a new 40,000 capacity stadium. The new stadium was key for Kerimov as they weren't allowed to play European matches at their current ground due to it failing to meet UEFA's Stadium Infrastructure Regulations. Seeing as Kerimov wanted to turn Anzhi into a world force, playing at their own ground in Europe was key.


Many of the signings Anzhi made were well documented when they took place; such as Roberto Carlos, Jucilei, Mbark Boussoufa, Balazs Dzsudzsak, Yuri Zhirkov and most notably: Samuel Eto'o - who signed for €28m with an annual salary of €20.5m, which was a world record at the time. With the arrival of Guus Hiddink also saw the legendary Chris Samba join from Blackburn.


Their new academy was opened in October 2012, but from there, things started going downhill. In the subsequent summer, Hiddink left to be replaced by Rene Meulensteen, but he was sacked less than three weeks later. Whilst their large reservoirs of cash temporarily papered over the cracks of crippling instability, that safety net also disappeared. Kerimov cut the clubs' budget by 2/3 and that saw the departure of key players like Eto'o, Willian, Samba, Lassana Diarra, Bousouffa and Shatov. Those are to name but a few, and thismass exodus coupled with an inability to bring in replacements led to Anzhi being relegated from the Premier League in 2014 after winning just three games all season, accruing a miserly twenty points. They were promoted back to the Premier League last season, and that's where I come in.


I'd like to introduce you all to Sergey Rudnikov. If you follow me on Twitter or read my blog, you'll know that I like create a manager with the same nationality of the team who I'm managing. So yeah, Rudnikov - I've modeled his managerial attributes on what I think mine would be. I like attacking football and developing younger players so having those two high is important. I want my players to fear me and follow what I do, so my level of discipline is quite high, along with my motivating and man management.

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That's all for the OP, my next update will be the club and squad overview, what I want to do at the club in terms of transfers and tactics, and then hopefully it'll all play out nicely over time, thanks for reading, I hope you'll follow this journey with me!

You can follow me on Twitter @FMPivot for more regular updates on this save.
 
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Club and Squad Overview, Aims and Tactics

I'm back with a current overview of the state of the club, squad and finances etc as promised. The club's actually in a nice position to succeed in the future, and it's a really decent platform to build from. In terms of the club's history, they've won the Second Division twice, in 1999 and 2009. These are the only major honours for the club so that leaves plenty of room for me to build a legacy here, and establish myself as a legend. I'm a narcissist, get over it.




Our facilities are nothing special, if anything, they're quite basic. Our stadium's pretty average along with our training facilities. The only real silver lining is that our youth facilities are classed as good. The junior coaching is pretty poor along with our youth recruitment. So my philosophy of being self-sufficient on academy talent whilst also being highly successful is going to take a long time to implement. That means I may have to be a little more active in the next few transfer windows if I do want us to at least stay in the league, and then build a side that is capable of winning the league, but I don't think that'll happen for another 5-8 years, so this is going to go on for a while.


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Luckily for me, the club's finances are in decent shape so getting improvements in facilities isn't completely out of the question. Yes we don't have the megabucks of four years ago, but with £9m in the bank, it could be a **** of a lot worse. I'm keen to see us remain in the black at all times, so I won't be doing anything that would harm us financially. I've got a transfer budget of £250k which is pretty abysmal for a Premier League team; so I might have to make use of the free transfer and loan markets to make the required additions that I feel can make us grow. If that's not possible, I might have to trust some of the kids. I don't want to, but if I have to, I'll do it. 80% of our transfer revenue is made available to me, but I don't really want to sell any of my squad just yet - they'll all get a chance to prove themselves as important. Next summer there will have to be some rebuilding as two of our key players are 31, and I'm a fan of a younger, fitter squad that will do the hard yards for 90 minutes.


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Following on from that point, we have three players that I think will really make the difference this season: Lukman Haruna, Andrey Yeschenko and Hugo Almeida. You've probably heard of Almeida before thanks to his previous spells with Werder Bremen, Porto and Besiktas. He's got goals in him and he's got plenty of international experience with Portugal. A 10 game stint with Kuban last season means he has a little bit of experience of the Russian League, so hopefully that'll be invaluable for us.


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Lukman Haruna is definitely the most exciting player at the club. The 24 year old midfielder will be pulling the strings in midfield as our best creative talent. The only problem is is that he's on loan from Dynamo Kyiv. There's no option to bring him in permanently at the end of his loan spell so it looks like he's going to be a one season hero for us. If he can help keep us up then he'll have done his job, but if he can't be brought back permanently, then he'll be forgotten in an instant. My players are more important.


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Finall, Andrey Yeschenko is our main right back and he'll be very important for me this year. I like my full backs to get high up the pitch and ease the burden on my wide men. He's a determined chap who's not too bad in both the defensive and attacking thirds. He'll work his **** off and that's something I like. Whilst he's a really good player and integral for me now, he probably won't be important in two years time so I'm looking for a replacement. But I'm taking this one season at a time so right now, I love him.

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Now, I'm not going to win games with three players. Tactically, my team's preferred formation is 4-2-3-1. This utilises my players' strengths and suits my favoured pressing game. We can also fit into a 4-3-3 (4-1-2-2-1) if the 4-2-3-1 comes unstuck - but hopefully we can make everything work. I'll be playing on attacking and looking to win the ball high up the pitch. I'm hoping the three behind Almeida can chip in with some goals, but as the two wide men are both wingers, I'll be looking for them to be getting assists more than goals. Ideally, an inside forward on one flank would be better but I have to make do with what I've got.



I could really do with making three signings in the opening transfer window as well. A new left back is a priority as at the moment we're dealing with a 19 year old who is definitely one for the future, but right now he's not quite as good as I need him to be. A new centre back wouldn't go amiss either as we're lacking capable cover in that department. Finally, a new right winger is also key. If I could get a left footed one that would be a bonus, but someone better than Anvar Gazimagomedov will do, purely because I could do without typing that every ****** update.


My aim for this season is purely to stay up. You may criticise me for being unambitious, but we've only just been promoted again so solidifying our Premier League status has to be a priority. The board agree, they want me to avoid automatic relegation which is good as I don't really want to be having to get a mid-table finish with the way our squad is. A cup run would be nice but it isn't essential. In terms of longer term ambitions, a league win by 2020 would be nice. If we can start to do all the groundwork now then we've got a chance - but that needs a co-operative board and everyone pulling in the same direction which can't be guaranteed. I'll be making moves to get some of our facilities improved, and hopefully Mr Kerimov won't mind putting his hands in his pockets to make this club a great.


I'll be doing these updates monthly, rounding up how we've done and where we are in the league. I'm not the best at this so bear with me, but I hope you all find this enjoyable. I'm expecting it to be a long term thing that could last a few months (real time) and over a decade in FM.
 
July/August Results

The fact that the July/August update is out already highlights just how much I'm enjoying this Anzhi save. I was expecting a challenge seeing as we're a newly promoted team and I've not managed in Russia since FM10. I don't really have a clue who's good and who isn't bar the obvious teams, so I don't really know what's a good result and what's not. Before I go through how we've done so far, I'll let you know about our transfer window. I highlighted the need for a new centre-back, left-back and right winger; I was able to strengthen two of those positions. Former Blackpool winger Elliot Grandin joined on a free transfer, whilst in a desperate move, Millwall defender Sid Nelson joined on loan. Nelson won't be a regular first team player but he's not terrible and could easily do a job as a substitute or covering a suspension. Elliot Grandin is actually pretty solid and is still 27 so we've got time with him, he's valued at £1.3m now as well so there's plenty of value if we need to sell.



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They were our only dealings both in and out as I don't like to unsettle my squad going into my first season. They were delighted that my expectations met theirs too so I'm glad we're all on the same page. In other good news, the board have accepted my request to have the training facilities improved. It'll take until October 2016 for them to be completed but at least something's happening. I was tentative to ask as they'd already thrown out my request for an increased wage budget, but the chairman was more enthusiastic about the improvement than I was which was excellent. A £1.5m outlay doesn't hurt us too much - let's hope our finances stay alright so the plans don't get shelved.

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I'm not usually one for playing pre-season matches but I have with Anzhi, purely to get a system working. The results were a mixed bag but I saw improvements in both fitness and their taking to the pretty aggressive 4-2-3-1. The biggest performance by far was the 3-2 win against Tottenham. 3-2 flattered them in all honesty. We defended and attacked brilliantly and got the win that we deserved. I don't really care about pre-season results as they're all about fitness levels and team cohesion etc. Everything went very positively and I'm happy with a productive few weeks.


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So, how's the league season gone so far? Well..


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It got off to the best possible start as we dismantled Ufa 6-1 at home. We were great from set-pieces, scoring three goals from corners. Ali Gadjibekov scored a hat-trick and Elliot Grandin got a goal on debut completing a comfortable win for us, we weren't great, but we were very good. We then lost 2-0 away to Krylja after conceding to two counter attacking goals. We were dogged and determined, created a couple of chances and losing by two was harsh. We then produced a really poor display as we lost 2-1 at home to Amkar. They were probably the better team but a draw wouldn't have been terrible. Work had to be done.


After losing to Amkar, I thought we'd suffer a bit of a hiding away at Spartak Moscow. That was far from reality - we were brilliant as we won 2-1 thanks to goals from Yannick Boli and Leonardo de Souza. They had temporarily been level, but we restricted them to little and the win was thoroughly deserved. We then put in a complete performance at home Ural as we comfortably won 3-0. Haruna, de Sousa and Yeschenko all scored within the opening 25 minutes to seal a deserved three points. Things were looking good. I expected it to come all crashing down away at Dinamo Moscow, but again we defied expectations with a 2-0 win. We restricted them to just 2 shots and 42% possession as we completely dominated, thanks to goals from Haruna and Boli.


Our final match was against Krasnodar on my birthday. I would've taken a draw going into the match as Krasnodar are a decent side, despite sitting 10th whilst we sat 3rd. We might've dominated the ball but we lost 1-0, playing really badly. I made some tactical errors during the game and they took advantage. It's disappointing to lose but I can't argue with some of our performances.


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After August, we're in 6th with 12 points from 7 games which is really good. We picked up some big wins which were overshadowed by that 1-0 defeat to Krasnodar. Going forward we'e been good and we've been solid at the back. We have this thing where we only win or lose games, I'd like to turn some of those defeats into draws, but beggars can't be choosers. So far, I'm happy.


September isn't too bad a month, with four games, three in the league. We can beat Terek and Mordovia whilst Rostov will be tricky. We have a cup game but the draw's not been made yet, but I'd like to win.


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Roll on September!
 
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I am looking to post an update asap but the forum won't let me due to me being a new member, so I can't post anything with images or something or other.

Hopefully I can have an update out soon! :)
 
September 2015 Results

This is the first update in a while because I've actually played the whole season, just so I can get more regular updates out during the next week or so. So up now is September - there were a couple of games that I felt were winnable, whilst a tie against Rostov away wouldn't be particularly easy. We also had a cup game away at Baltika who are in the division below. I'd have to win that game to meet the boards' targets for the competition.


Russian Premier League

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A 100% record in the league this month kept us firmly in the mix for European football next season. A 4-1 dismantling of a poor Terek side set us well on the way, Elliot Grandin scored two in as many minutes to make things really comfortable at half-time whilst he also missed a penalty earlier on in the half. We took our foot off the gas second half where they got one back, but I'm delighted with the result; even if the performance wasn't great. We then beat one of the worst teams Mordovia away 2-0. They somehow got to half-time at 0-0 before Yannick Boli and Ilja Maximov scored in the space of 4 minutes to seal the win. It was a great performance in a game that we completely bossed. Then came the tricky game against Rostov. They're not bad in real life so I was expecting a tough game, but again we were excellent as we sealed a 2-1 victory. They went in front after 3 minutes before Lorenzo Ebecilio netted 6 minutes later to equalise. Lukman Haruna secured three points 20 minutes from time with a pearler from the edge of the area.​

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So a good month that leaves us 2nd, 4 points behind Zenit. This is pretty remarkable seeing as we've only just been promoted. We've looked good on the field, more than matching everyone we've played, so I'm positive about the future.

Russian Cup

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We entered the Russian Cup in the 5th round with a match against Baltika. I rotated the squad a little bit but it was nothing major, but we really struggled to hit the net as they held us to a 0-0 draw after 90 minutes. Four minutes into extra-time and we were down to ten men, Darko Lazic sent off for a second bookable offence. Four minutes later and we were in the lead, Andrey Yeschenko latching onto Grandin's through ball and placing an effort in at the near post. A dominant performance in which we had 32 shots to their 6. Luckily we weren't made to pay for our profligacy.

A really solid month in all. We play Dinamo Moscow in the 6th round of the cup, a game I think we can win. If we can carry on our form, then I see no reason why we can't keep this league performance up. I doubt we'll finish second, but a top 4 spot would be really nice, but I'm focusing on staying up.​
 
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