CalvFM
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Welcome! My name is CalvFM and this is the mid-season update of Season 3 Glory Hunter where we are currently the manager of German side RB Leipzig. To get up-to-date with how the journey has gone so far, go check the blogs out here.
Season Preview
The media are expecting us to finish in 3rd place this season behind Dortmund and Bayern, with our odds to win the title slashed from last years’ 20-1 to 8-1 this season, which shows considerable improvement year on year with this RB Leipzig team. Bayern and Dortmund have been incredible forces in the Bundesliga the last couple seasons and it is going to take some huge work again this season to try and topple them.
Transfers Out
Quite a few players leaving us during this summer transfer window. Thankfully no key players, but some good players who were key to our squad depth in the likes of Forsberg, Adams and Vagnoman. Bringing in a total of £35m it definitely added a nice chunk to our transfer budget to be able to bring in reinforcements for our squad depth to replace those leaving us, but also bring in some very strong improvements to our starting 11.
Transfers In
With a large amount of transfer budget to play with, we managed to bring it two huge new signings to bolster our starting 11!
First up we have Houssem Aouar. A hugely talented central midfielder who adds an incredible amount of quality to the team. His passing ability and his capabilities to be able to drive forward are going to add a brilliant dimension to our play. Bringing him in for £69m from Chelsea he was an expensive signing, but one which I feel is going to pay huge dividends for us.
Our next major signing was Andre Onana, who to be honest took a bit of convincing to join us. Originally he had rejected even speaking to us about a contract, but then had a change of heart and we went back in for him, picking him up on loan originally from Ajax for a fee of £1m but joining permanently at the end of the season for £35m, which I think is a bit of a steal! He is arguably one of the best keepers on the game, so to have him in our squad is a huge boost to our title chances.
We also needed to do some squad depth replacing with the players who left us in the window. So we picked up young central midfielder Nico from Barcelona for £7.5m. Still only being 21-years-old he looks to be a top quality player who we can bring into the team if any injuries occur and has lots of potential to grow into.
With Saliba leaving us from his loan period last season, we needed to look at bringing in a new emergency centre back this window, welcome Reece Oxford. We have got him in from SCP07 for £2.4m and with him being happy to be classed as an emergency backup it seems like good money spent, and as an emergency goes he looks pretty decent.
Our final signing was Alexander Schwolow from Hertha Berlin for £1.1m potentially rising to £1.4m. We got him in as our 3rd choice goalkeeper due to Kelleher saying that he wanted to move on, but that didn’t happen in the end, so at present we have four keepers on our books, but we will look to move one on in the January window.
Starting Lineup
In come new signings Onana and Aouar to our starting lineup, which really improve our team and hopefully our chances of winning the Bundesliga. This is the season where we need to pick up at least one trophy having not won any silverware as of yet!
Bundesliga Mid-Season Update
Goals don’t seem to be an issue for us this season in the main, with some big scoring wins; a 9-2 victory over Hannover and a 7-1 win over Arminia Bielefeld – you wait until you see a DFB-Pokal score!!!
During the first half of the season we have also had a huge win over Bayern away from home beating them 3-2, potentially a massive result in terms of the title race. We did have a big loss to Dortmund though, one of our other title challengers, losing to them 2-1 at home. So a bit of a mixed first half of the season, some big wins, but also too many draws for my liking, which could come back to haunt us.
So where does that leave us in the table…
Currently in 2nd place 7 points behind Dortmund who top the league at the midway point. It is the draws that seem to be killing us a bit, which seems a bit mad considering how we are demolishing teams and creating so many chances in matches, but then we have some silly draws dotted around.
Only one point above Bayern in 3rd and Bayer Leverkusen in 4th, who are definitely a title challenger at this stage. So looking back at our results, a 1-0 victory of Bayer 04 was a big result for us. Hopefully during the second half of the season we can close that gap to Dortmund, but it is going to be difficult!
DFB-Pokal Update
Yep, you read that right… 18-2!! I told you we had a mad win in the DFB-Pokal. Adeyemi with 6 in the match, we absoloutely blew Bremer SV away in the first round the poor souls! Then a slightly touch and go win over Schalke 04 has set us up with a third round tie against SCP07 who we have also demolished the other season, so baring any major upset we should be going into the fourth round comfortably.
Champions League Update
I didn’t know how to feel when I saw our group draw, on one hand I thought it looked like a nice group and we should get through comfortably in second place behind Juventus, but then on the other hand Shakhtar in particular could be a tricky team to come up against.
My nervousness around Shakhtar was proven right when we went to their place and lost 4-2 on matchday three. However, two huge victories after those two defeats to Juve and Shakhtar then calmed my nerves. A big 5-3 win against group favourites Juventus – we were 3-0 down in that game inside the first 20 minutes! Then another massive scoreline of 8-0 against Olympiacos, Chukwueze with a hat-trick in that match.
Our final three games in the group helped us secure 2nd spot in the group, one point behind Juventus, so after a nervy first half we managed to pull away from Shakhtar quite comfortably. It may be as far as we go though this year…
We have been drawn against Spanish and European giants Real Madrid in the first knockout round, probably one of the worst draws we could have possibly got, it is going to take some sort of miracle for us to get past them and progress in the competition! Looks like it will just be the domestic cups we will be going for this season.
Squad Stats
As the results have shown, we have been firing in goals this season and they have been coming from all of our attacking players, and in particular Alvarez who has 24 goals in 24 appereances! One player who has really stood out for me this season so far is Chukwueze who has been contributing on all fronts, with 12 goals and 13 assists so far he is has been a huge asset for us. Aouar has also come good for us after signing him in the summer with a nice contribution of 10 assists so far.
If we can keep up the goalscoring and cut out some of the frustrating draws in the second half of the season I think we have a great chance of catching Dortmund and bringing home our first trophy in Glory Hunter!
Thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed the blog! If you have enjoyed do go follow me on Twitter at @Calv_FM and you can find all my blogs on my site here.
Season Preview
The media are expecting us to finish in 3rd place this season behind Dortmund and Bayern, with our odds to win the title slashed from last years’ 20-1 to 8-1 this season, which shows considerable improvement year on year with this RB Leipzig team. Bayern and Dortmund have been incredible forces in the Bundesliga the last couple seasons and it is going to take some huge work again this season to try and topple them.
Transfers Out
Quite a few players leaving us during this summer transfer window. Thankfully no key players, but some good players who were key to our squad depth in the likes of Forsberg, Adams and Vagnoman. Bringing in a total of £35m it definitely added a nice chunk to our transfer budget to be able to bring in reinforcements for our squad depth to replace those leaving us, but also bring in some very strong improvements to our starting 11.
Transfers In
With a large amount of transfer budget to play with, we managed to bring it two huge new signings to bolster our starting 11!
First up we have Houssem Aouar. A hugely talented central midfielder who adds an incredible amount of quality to the team. His passing ability and his capabilities to be able to drive forward are going to add a brilliant dimension to our play. Bringing him in for £69m from Chelsea he was an expensive signing, but one which I feel is going to pay huge dividends for us.
Our next major signing was Andre Onana, who to be honest took a bit of convincing to join us. Originally he had rejected even speaking to us about a contract, but then had a change of heart and we went back in for him, picking him up on loan originally from Ajax for a fee of £1m but joining permanently at the end of the season for £35m, which I think is a bit of a steal! He is arguably one of the best keepers on the game, so to have him in our squad is a huge boost to our title chances.
We also needed to do some squad depth replacing with the players who left us in the window. So we picked up young central midfielder Nico from Barcelona for £7.5m. Still only being 21-years-old he looks to be a top quality player who we can bring into the team if any injuries occur and has lots of potential to grow into.
With Saliba leaving us from his loan period last season, we needed to look at bringing in a new emergency centre back this window, welcome Reece Oxford. We have got him in from SCP07 for £2.4m and with him being happy to be classed as an emergency backup it seems like good money spent, and as an emergency goes he looks pretty decent.
Our final signing was Alexander Schwolow from Hertha Berlin for £1.1m potentially rising to £1.4m. We got him in as our 3rd choice goalkeeper due to Kelleher saying that he wanted to move on, but that didn’t happen in the end, so at present we have four keepers on our books, but we will look to move one on in the January window.
Starting Lineup
In come new signings Onana and Aouar to our starting lineup, which really improve our team and hopefully our chances of winning the Bundesliga. This is the season where we need to pick up at least one trophy having not won any silverware as of yet!
Bundesliga Mid-Season Update
Goals don’t seem to be an issue for us this season in the main, with some big scoring wins; a 9-2 victory over Hannover and a 7-1 win over Arminia Bielefeld – you wait until you see a DFB-Pokal score!!!
During the first half of the season we have also had a huge win over Bayern away from home beating them 3-2, potentially a massive result in terms of the title race. We did have a big loss to Dortmund though, one of our other title challengers, losing to them 2-1 at home. So a bit of a mixed first half of the season, some big wins, but also too many draws for my liking, which could come back to haunt us.
So where does that leave us in the table…
Currently in 2nd place 7 points behind Dortmund who top the league at the midway point. It is the draws that seem to be killing us a bit, which seems a bit mad considering how we are demolishing teams and creating so many chances in matches, but then we have some silly draws dotted around.
Only one point above Bayern in 3rd and Bayer Leverkusen in 4th, who are definitely a title challenger at this stage. So looking back at our results, a 1-0 victory of Bayer 04 was a big result for us. Hopefully during the second half of the season we can close that gap to Dortmund, but it is going to be difficult!
DFB-Pokal Update
Yep, you read that right… 18-2!! I told you we had a mad win in the DFB-Pokal. Adeyemi with 6 in the match, we absoloutely blew Bremer SV away in the first round the poor souls! Then a slightly touch and go win over Schalke 04 has set us up with a third round tie against SCP07 who we have also demolished the other season, so baring any major upset we should be going into the fourth round comfortably.
Champions League Update
I didn’t know how to feel when I saw our group draw, on one hand I thought it looked like a nice group and we should get through comfortably in second place behind Juventus, but then on the other hand Shakhtar in particular could be a tricky team to come up against.
My nervousness around Shakhtar was proven right when we went to their place and lost 4-2 on matchday three. However, two huge victories after those two defeats to Juve and Shakhtar then calmed my nerves. A big 5-3 win against group favourites Juventus – we were 3-0 down in that game inside the first 20 minutes! Then another massive scoreline of 8-0 against Olympiacos, Chukwueze with a hat-trick in that match.
Our final three games in the group helped us secure 2nd spot in the group, one point behind Juventus, so after a nervy first half we managed to pull away from Shakhtar quite comfortably. It may be as far as we go though this year…
We have been drawn against Spanish and European giants Real Madrid in the first knockout round, probably one of the worst draws we could have possibly got, it is going to take some sort of miracle for us to get past them and progress in the competition! Looks like it will just be the domestic cups we will be going for this season.
Squad Stats
As the results have shown, we have been firing in goals this season and they have been coming from all of our attacking players, and in particular Alvarez who has 24 goals in 24 appereances! One player who has really stood out for me this season so far is Chukwueze who has been contributing on all fronts, with 12 goals and 13 assists so far he is has been a huge asset for us. Aouar has also come good for us after signing him in the summer with a nice contribution of 10 assists so far.
If we can keep up the goalscoring and cut out some of the frustrating draws in the second half of the season I think we have a great chance of catching Dortmund and bringing home our first trophy in Glory Hunter!
Thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed the blog! If you have enjoyed do go follow me on Twitter at @Calv_FM and you can find all my blogs on my site here.