Gone Travelling

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As the season drew to a close we held our annual awards and had a look back over the season.

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There isn't much argument over the team of the year as in many of the cases I didn't have anyone good enough to take their place when their form dipped. Several of this team won't be here next season if I can find adequate replacements.

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As you can see from the graph after a decent start it was all downhill, and another year were we were knocked out in the 3rd round of the cup. I will sit down with the scouting team and go back to the drawing board to see of we can find a formation and players to move the club forward in the new season.
 
Enjoying this one mate....keep up the good work. Although things declined over the course of the season, you still managed to exceed expectations and avoid the relegation battle so good work
 
BallyC7 said:
Enjoying this one mate....keep up the good work. Although things declined over the course of the season, you still managed to exceed expectations and avoid the relegation battle so good work
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. Will see what I can do!
 
So with the season over I sat down to review what we had done well and what needed to be improved. My first port of call was our formation. We had played a 442 for the majority of the season and switched to a 4123 for a few games. Having reviewed all the data I decided that 442 was the way to go. Some of our best players were strikers and it seemed a little silly to play a system were only 1 of the 4 would get regular game time. I did however notice that we vacated the midfield a lot. With our wingers attacking along with 1 of our centre midfielders who had been give an attack duty. Throw in the BWM who was chasing all over the show and I felt this left us exposed, especially to the counter, so that would have to change.

I then had a chat with the scouting team as to how we could improve the playing staff. We looked at our 3 foreign players and looked if they could be improved upon. We looked at a number of players and put the feelers out to see if they would be interested in joining us. Having done this the players fell into two camps, those who wanted to join us but weren't good enough and those who were good enough but didn't want to join us. With this information it was decided to stick with our current 3 foreign players of Robson Bambu at centre half who had been a solid performer last season though I'd be looking for him to step up a bit this season, Joel Gonzalez in midfeid who this year would be asked to play a bit deeper and more reserved in an attempt to make us more solid in the middle of the park and Lee Gun Yeop on the left side of midfield.

We decided then that to improve our home grown players we would target the squad players of Super League teams and see if we could tempt them to join us with the promise of regular first team football. The scouts and data analysis were sent out to bring me the best players they could find. As usual the President would bring in promising youngsters (not that he had found any decent ones yet)
 
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Season 3

The transfer window I had hoped would see us bringing in Chinese players that would boost our squad didn't really pan out like that. We spent the first half of the window trying to sign Super League players and whilst the teams were happy to sell the players to us the players themselves either didn't want to come or wanted massive wages to do so. We had to re-evaluate our transfer plans and quickly moved to try and bring in some of the better players in our division. That also didn't go well as I soon discovered that most of them didn't want to come and some were on massive wages. There is a centre back on £45k per week whilst I can only pay a maximum of £4.5k per week! This meant we were in panic mode, especially as a few of our better players had left due to release fees being met, and I think its safe to say we lost the transfer window! Anyway onto the actual transfers:

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So the top 3 players I had sold whilst the bottom 3 I wanted to keep but as they had release fees there wasn't much I could do. The biggest loss is Bambu who we are finding almost impossible to replace. Hart has left a big hole in the squad as we now only have 1 right midfielder, whilst we did manage to replace Jiabao I'm not sure he is of the same quality.

Onto the ins, and as usual the President has signed 3 players, though as I found out you can only sign 8 players over 17 in a year he won't be signing any more as his deals for 2 of the players who are rubbish have left me unable to make the signings that we needed.

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Our new keeper. I'm not going to lie I hadn't fully scouted him but could see enough to convince me that he would be a decent back up, however when he arrived it turned out he was better than I thought and will actually be our 1st choice for the season.

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With last seasons left back having retired this was a priority position to fill. Decent tackling, passing and marking with his other stats that our on a par with others in the division I'm happy with this buy. Will play most games and is probably an upgrade on last seasons.

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With us losing a centre back and another wanting to leave we needed more options back there. Bowen is OK and will be a capable back up and someone I'm sure can put in a performance when called upon

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Marlon is another centre back and our 3rd foreign player. Not the best but he has decent heading (he can't jump though), tackling, marking and positioning. His pace isn't the worst for this division either meaning he will do a job and will be one of our first choice defenders.
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The only player the President has ever brought in that I think may make the first team. Really good determination ok physicals for 19 and good passing, technique and first touch. Will initially be a back up but if he can improve may force himself into the first team.

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So we lost a striker and this is the replacement. He is OK all around but has no stand out stats, he will probably be a starter as I've decided to ditch the TM and go with an AF instead alongside the poacher. I'm hopeful that he can get us a few goals in this division.

On the hole I'm not happy with our transfer business. Being unable to find players of the required quality to bring in and wasting a few transfers on the Presidents picks has left us with money to spend but unable to bring anyone in. This has meant we have a few positions with no cover and possibly the weakest squad since I took over, I'm not optimistic going into the new season, and for the first time since joining I've been looking at available jobs.
 
Could we be seeing a change of clubs and possibly countries in the near future....
 
Preseason only had two games this season, maybe I will have to take control of this myself in future, 1 game against K- League side Incheon and one against Shenzhen University. I'm not sure how we stack up against K-League sides but expect a easy win against the students. Only having a couple of games allowed me to attend interviews for the 2 jobs which I was favourite for. Both with Super League clubs, well kind of. First was Meizhou who were being relegated and would actually be in our league for the new season. I considered not going to the interview because of this bit thought they would have a better team having been able to attract better players for the season they had in the top flight and would probably offer me a better chance at promotion than Renren. The second team that offered me a interview and whos fans considered me the first choice for the job was Fuli. They were going to be in the top flight and had a number of very good players but despite this they were also amongst the favourites for the drop.

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Pre-season went well and we played very well too. We played the 1st team against Incheon and we spanked them. Everyone played well and we scored a few goals and looked solid at the back. Against Shenzhen we rotated a bit and again looked good and came away with another victory.

The job interviews on the other hand didn't go quite as well and I was overlooked for both jobs in favour of I have to admit managers with much better stats than me, so it looks like another season with Renren.
 
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The league would start with 4 games in March. We would visit newly promoted side Helanshan and 3 teams that had performed pretty well last year and finished 4th 5th and 6th. I was hopeful going into the games as we had managed to start well in each of the previous seasons I had been manager. I'd settle for 6 points though I would really like more.

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3 good wins though surprisingly the only game we were statistically the better team was the one we lost. I don't know if that shows the tactic in which we play on the counter is working well or if it is that we are lucky, either way 9 points from 12 makes me very happy and the team towards the top of the table.
 
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April would be a difficult month. We had 6 league games and a cup game to play and 5 of those were away from home. I hoped that we would be able to carry our confidence into this month and that it was in fact the tactic that was good and not luck. Of course playing on the counter being away from home may not be too bad.

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Two defeats this month were against good sides predicted to be towards the top of the table so I wasn't too downbeat, especially given the 3 wins and a draw we manage to pick up in the league and for the first time ever a cup win! I did think after losing the final match of the month, oh no here we go again as in previous seasons the cup match had been the start of our indifferent form which would see us slide down the table, and I was keen to ensure that I lifted the lads nd made sure that this did not happen again.
 
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May was set to be another busy month, another 6 league games and the next round of the cup. This month we would have 5 home games and only 2 away. I would be looking to push home advantage and pick up 12 points from the 6 games. The cup match was against Super League side Yanbian. I had high hopes as they had only been promoted last season and whilst they were mid table in the Super League I still thought we could win.

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A bit of an up and down month. 3 league wins is less than I had hoped I was particularly disappointed that the defeats had come against a couple of the struggling sides. That said we are still in touch with those at the top of the table and so still in the promotion hunt. Team that with progression in the cup and I'm happy enough as we headed towards the half way point of the league. One match in June would take us to that halfway point. I wanted to win as that would put us within 1 win of the top 2 if results went our way.

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A draw would do especially as we had to come from behind. That would leave the table looking like this at the half way point.

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At the half way point we were 6th and 6 points off the top. I was keen to push on this season and try and get one of the 2 promotion spots. If we could keep performing like we had in the first half of the season I think we'd be in the mix!
 
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June would have a further 3 games 2 more in the league and the 4th round cup tie. I wanted 3 wins from these to push harder in the league and a win in the cup would see us through to the Q-Finals and then you start to think about trophies!

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Two good wins would in the league wouldn't see us move up the league any but would see us move with 4 points of the top of the table and maybe with a bit of luck promotion could be on the cards, and with a cup game still to come who knows what we could achieve this season.

However it was at this point that a massive curve-ball was thrown. For a couple of weeks now I had been linked with the job at Shandong. The bookies had me as favourite for the job and the fans considered me as the leading contender. They had invited me for an interview and I had attended. I had found out that they were a Super League team who had been expected to be mid-table but were really struggling and were just outside the dropzone on goal difference and 1 goal at that! They had a few decent players and a lot of young Chinese players who could be good in the future, but were completely shot of confidence had had only won twice all season. Did I really want to risk another relegation and sacking? Could I turn their season around? Would I be better sticking with Renren and hope for promotion and the boost to my reputation that would give me. If I turned the job down could I be stuck at Renren forever? So many questions were going around my head as I read the job offer, decisions decisions!
 
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So after much deliberation I had decided to take the plunge and move to Shandong. It hadn't been an easy decision as Renren had taken a chance on me after I'd been sacked in Chile and I believed that we were in with a good chance of promotion, but the players at Shandong were a massive step up and doubling my wages wasn't bad either! I had left Renren in a better place than when I found them, newly promoted and one of the favourites for relegation, to solid mid-table team who, as you can see from the table below, were having a good season and pushing for promotion.

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One of the main reasons I had taken the job was that this was a team expected to do much better than they were, but were just having a tough time of it. If it had been a team who were favourites to go down at the start of the season I may well have stayed at Renren. So on my first day I checked out the team and the players were certainly better than their league position suggested, and with a transfer window about to open and with £14m in the transfer budget and £280k in wages it was fair to say I'd be dipping my toe in the market.

Having reviewed the squad I had identified that we were weakest down our right side and could do with a right midfielder and right back. There was also only one striker in the 1st team squad, as when Graziano Pelle's contract had expired at the end of last season he had not been replaced, so this meant that my usual 442 wasn't going to happen especially since the 1 striker we had wasn't very good. I also discovered that the team had only registered 3 of the possible 5 foreign players they were allowed meaning I had 2 slots available. One of these would go to the Brazilian midfielder I had found in the reserves who was earning £95k per week the other would probably go on a striker as my scouting team weren't coming up with many Chinese options.

I had decided that given our squad we'd play 4231. Given that we hadn't been playing well (see results below) it would be counter attacking football with defensive training to try and ensure that we didn't concede too many and then hopefully sneak a goal or two at the other end.

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As you can see not exactly what you would call a team on form!
 
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Season 1

We would only have to play 1 game before the window would open and I wasted no time in bringing in a few players. I have never been a fan of making lots of transfers mid-season therefore I stuck to just addressing the weak areas in the team and only brought in 3 players and spending just over £3m I hardly splashed the cash.

Transfers & Key Players

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Our 5th Foreign player and our main striker. Alan found himself transfer listed by River and we snapped him up for the very reasonable fee of £1.4m. A big upgrade on our other striker and at 22 still improving. I just hoped he could hit the ground running as we needed to start scoring goals if we are going to stay up, though I was confident he would score goals at this level.

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Our new right back and a bit of a prospect. Already a good player at this level and with very good physicals decent mentals and technicals both of which would improve with age and game time. A fee of £1.2m is more about how good he could be than how good he currently is but again an improvement on what we had and could well nail down that spot for a number of years.

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Our final signing of the window and the right sided midfielder I was after. Binbin is ok with good pace dribbling and crossing he will certainly do a job for us. A little bit underwhelming and could well find himself replaced in the summer but again better than we had and I'm hopeful will play a part in getting us up the table.

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Gil will be our starting Centre back and is head and shoulders above any of our other defenders. Earning a lot of money and probably doesn't have too many more seasons left in him but I was hoping he could be our rock at the back as well as tutoring a few of our young up and coming defenders.

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This was the guy I found languishing in the reserves despite being our best midfielder! He was registered as soon as the window opened and will help stabilse our midfield as well as offering a bit going forward. He was earning £90kish a week but with only 6 months left on that deal I renewed his contract and even managed to save a few quid as well.

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Our other midfield option, though may have to rotate with Jucilel due to the foreign players rule. A little more defensive in his approach he will be the steel in the midfield and will definitely be deployed for the tougher games.

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Our final key player Duda will play on the left of midfield and will hopefully along with Alan provide the attacking spark and goals we need to push up the table. Will be played as an inside forward mostly so I will be looking to him for goals as well as assits.
 
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There would be 2 games in June and both before I would have the chance to get any new faces on board. I was straight in at the deep end with a match the day after I joined. I was going to have to rely on my assistant to help with selection for this as I hadn't seen enough of the squad to pick a team. 3 days after playing relegation rivals Hangzhou we would have the cup 4th round. I fancied a cup run, and with the players we have I think we could make an impact in the cup.

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A draw to start my reign wasn't a bad result but having surrendered the lead I was a little disappointed that we couldn't hold out for the win, but with other results going our way we stayed outside the drop zone and now had a 2 goal advantage. We were better than the score suggests in the cup, a late consolation for Yiteng taking some of the gloss off the performance, but we were in the hat for the next round and that is all that matters.

Based on what I had seen in the two games I'd been in charge I was certain there was at least two teams worse than us in the league and was sure we could avoid the drop and maybe even push up the table a bit.

July would see us play 4 games, two against mid-table teams and two against teams fighting for the title. I would be hoping to pick up 5 or 6 points which should lift us up the table a bit, assuming other results went in our favour.
 
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Two wins and a draw in the league including wins over two teams in the top 3 really gives me confidence for the remainder of the season, that was despite drawing the first game of the month which had actually seen us drop into the relegation zone. We also managed to get a win away in the cup 3-2 was a tight game but 3 away goals will stand us in good stead for the 2nd leg.
 
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August was set to be a busy month with 5 league games and 1 maybe 2 cup games. One massive game in the league would see us take on Fuli who were right behind us in the league. I'd like to progress in the cup and into the semis and ideally pick up 9 points in the league.

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Three draws to start the month were disappointing, though at least we went through in the cup. The league draws against teams in and around us in the league were massive opportunities missed to put a big of distance between ourselves and the relegation places. The win against Yifang was a good performance as they were a team in form and towards the top of the table. Then after 10 games in charge I tasted defeat for the first time as Shandong manager. We didn't turn up and what was worse is that Hangzhou are in that relegation fight with us, the only bright side being it wasn't in the league and we had a 2nd leg to put it right. Yanbain had been promoted this season and sat comfortably in mid-table so a win over them was very pleasing, however the defeat to another mid-table team was anything but. It had been a very even game and could have gone either way but given that we had been playing well since I took over I was still disappointed as the little gap we had managed to open was starting to dwindle and thats something we couldn't allow to continue.
 
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There were 2 months left of the season and that meant 6 league games and a minimum of 1 cup game, hopefully more. We sat 9 points above the relegation zone and I was confident we would not be going down, though looking at the league 7th was as high as we could go and that would rely on a complete collapse from a couple of teams. Anyway September would see us take on Hangzhou in the cup 2nd leg with a 2 goal deficit to make up, I was sure we could win just wasn't sure we could manage a 3 goal margin. Our league games would all be against teams who like ourselves looked unlikley to be relegated but weren't going to trouble the top of the table. I'd be looking for 2 league wins minimum and at least a win in the cup but I had a feeling we had left ourselves with too much to do to progress.

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A win in the cup but it wasn't enough and my hope of landing a trophy in my first season with the club disappeared. We dominated the game and scored early in the 21st minute. We then threw everything at them but couldn't get the second. When they equalised just before the hour mark I think we all knew the dream was over. We managed a second on 68 minutes but despite this we would go out. The league was 2 wins from 3 which was OK I suppose. It did allow us to extend the gap over the drop zone to 9 points and meant that baring a complete disastrous last month we would be safe.

October would see us kick off the month with 2 home games against title chasing Guangzhou who are currently top of the table and then already relegated Yongchang we would round off our season away to Quanjian who are one of those teams just above us but also just beyond reach. Guangzhou will be a difficult game so I'll settle for 2 wins this month.

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3 wins and 9 points, can't ask for better than that. Our defeat of Guangzhou also costs them the title, so at least we had some say over were the title went, maybe next season it will be in different circumstances. Those 3 wins see us rise up the table a place as we finish 9th 15 points clear of the drop in the end. It also means that we have managed to pick up 31 points under my management in just over half a season as compared to the 10 under the previous regime, so I'm pleased overall. I had of course been keeping an eye on how Renren had been doing since I left and unfortunately they only managed 3 wins and finished 12th so maybe leaving was a good idea.

Anyway the final table looks like this:

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So my first season, well half season in charge of Shandong was over and before everyone went on holidays there were a few awards etc to give out. Since I took over we had been in great form and I was hoping to be able to carry that into next season, there were definitely a few highlights and a fee low points prior to me taking over.

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The first half of the season was one to forget but we certainly upped our performance in the second half, if we can recreted that form for the entirety of next season we'll be in with a shot of the title.

Our 3 wins in October also meant a little memento for me.

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We also had the team awards night and the winners were:

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I couldn't really argue with the awards and team of the year I would maybe have had Picazzo up front who did score the same number of goals as Tianya but as he only played half a season I think maybe deserved the start.

The league also gave out its annual gongs and we even managed to feature:

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Winning the fair play award isn't something that pleases me, especially given where the team was when I took over. I'd expect if we were struggling that we would have been a bit nastier and maybe picked up a few more cards as we fought, but an award is an award.

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Despite only being with the team for half the season I still managed to win manager of the year, what can I say I'm just that good!
 
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