Notes:
Allright, me and my mate vkoppel has decided to start a sort of “joint story” but in a different format of the typical joint stories on this site. We have started a netgame where we manage to equals from the same division, Caen and Le Havre respectively. We’ve had a lot of succes in the past with these 1v1 netgames and we thought that it was time to give a story a bash. The reason we have chosen French football, particularly Ligue 2 is because we probably had the most fun ever on an FM-game playing a Ligue 2 netgame on ’07. As mentioned we are going to do a story on this game , and the format will look something like this; pre-season, mid-season and end-season updates.
The game will run on patch 10.3 and we have loaded the following nations and leagues on a large database: France - Down to Nationale and South Africa - Premier League.
Club Overview:
Stade Malherbe Caen better known as Caen is a French football club based in Caen, Normandy. The traditional club has taken its name after Francois de Malherbe, a French poet who was native to Caen. 1985 was the year when Caen adopted professional status and started to prove themselves in the French football hierarchy. In 1993, the club moved to the modern stadium by the name of stade Michel d’Ornano, but was unfortunately relegated two years later despite they’re ambitions in the French topflight. The late 2000’s saw Caen achieve some succes allowing them to play several seasons in the topflight and reaching the Coupe de la Ligue final in 2005. In the 2008-2009 season the sophisticated and tradition-rich club was relegated to Ligue 2 after a 1-0 loss to the Bordeaux at home.
The club also has a strong tradition for developing potential worldbeaters. Ever since the famous Stade Malherbe Caen academy opened in 1989, the club has produced many players who would go on to play topflight football all over the world. The most notable players to graduate from the Caen academy has been; William Gallas, Jerome Rothen, Ronald Zubar, Mathieu Bodmer and Yoan Gouffran.
Pre-season update:
After my appointment as manager of Stade Malherbe Caen I started to review the players I had for my disposal and comparing my strengths and weaknesses with my rivals for promotion, particularly Strasbourg and Nantes. It was obvious to me that we need to strengthen our squad quite a lot if we were going to push for promotion. Even though we had some potential stars and quite gifted players for our disposal; such as Sambou Yatabaré, Jeremy Sorbon and Pablo Anthony Derion it was obvious that we needed to strengthen our squad all-over. I decided to bring in some speed for the attack in Taison who joined us on a season loan from Internacional and Kabamba Musasa, a former hero from my Ligue2 file on ‘07. I believe that the brazilian wonderkid Taison has the potential to rip up the league with his speed and flair.
I also decided to bring in the experienced playmaker Hamed Kavianpour from Steel Azin to provide some heavily needed creativity to our midfield. I believe this experienced midfielder will be the offensive fulcrum of the team and I hope he will be able to pull our team to new highs. I also brought in the South Africain left back Peter Masilela from Maccabi Haifa, a player who is showing potential not only in fm but also in real life being an important part of the Bafana Bafana. In addition to this I signed Isaac Vorsah on a season loan from Hoffenheim to provide some raw strength to our defence.
Other notable signings were;
Collins John, Rui Almeida Monteiro, Michael Bradley, Imad Al-Hoseni, Peter Masilela, Kabamba Musasa and Jamaique Vandamme
Here’s a screenshots of my in’s and out’s. I’m quite satisfied with the players I’ve managed to bring to the club and the profit I’ve gained on selling some of the mediocre players for quite profitable fees.
View attachment 60993
Pre-season went smoothly without any horrific injuries or something of that kind. Our 7 friendly’s went fine with us recording 4 wins and 3 draws including a 7-1 smashing of the unknowns entity Vitkovice. Even though we displayed some fine play it didn’t take long a realise where and how we needed to strengthen the team, and as you can see above we succeeded in bringing in a lot of talented players which we will surely benefit from.
Financially the club seems secure, and if I can maintain this the financial backing will help me achieve what I’m hoping to do. With a balance of £15.000.000, a rising profit each month and a relatively large stadium. This will most likely strengthen my chances of making Caen one of the biggest clubs in France.
View attachment 60989
Tactics-wise I’ve tried to mount our strengths into a formation and tactic that will suit us the best. We seem to possess great speed in the attacking part of the pitch and therefore I’ve decided to play more direct. Because of the players who stands for our disposal and the clubs relatively large reputation in a league with a lot of minnows I have no intention of packing down and letting the opposition take control of the the games and therefore I’ve decided to control the games more even though playing a more direct form a football. An Arsenal’esque kind of style could I be tempted to say. In addition to this I like to use Aggressive tackles and high pressure to press and intimidate the opponent when they’re on the ball. The team’s fulcrum or playmaker if you like will be the MC with an Advanced Playmaker Role set to Attack, and the player who will fill this role will either be Deroin or Kavianpour, depending on the last-mentioneds settling, form and most importantly performances. I’ve decided to play a simple and typical 4-4-2 with a flat midfield in order to make our players feel at most comfortable on the pitch. Our philosophy is rigid, in order to secure some decent results while our relatively large amount of newcomers are gelling into the team.
Here’s a screenie of my squad, formation and tactics used in the first 5 games of the season.
View attachment 60991 View attachment 60994
So far I’ve played 7 competitive matches, including to Coupe de la Ligue victory’s our ESTAC and Tours FC. The form has looked promising in the league with us recording 3 wins, 1 draw and a shaky 2-3 loss versus highflying Dijon. Our best results so far was a convincing 2-0 win against Ajaccio on the opening day of the season, Taison secured us the lead after 32minutes after a real poachers effort before Michael Bradley slotted home the final goal to secure Caen an 2-0 victory on the opening day.
Here is the league table and fixtures.
View attachment 60992 View attachment 60990
vkoppel’s preseason update should reach the forum today or tomorrow
Comments, criticism etc. are very welcome and muchly appreciated
Allright, me and my mate vkoppel has decided to start a sort of “joint story” but in a different format of the typical joint stories on this site. We have started a netgame where we manage to equals from the same division, Caen and Le Havre respectively. We’ve had a lot of succes in the past with these 1v1 netgames and we thought that it was time to give a story a bash. The reason we have chosen French football, particularly Ligue 2 is because we probably had the most fun ever on an FM-game playing a Ligue 2 netgame on ’07. As mentioned we are going to do a story on this game , and the format will look something like this; pre-season, mid-season and end-season updates.
The game will run on patch 10.3 and we have loaded the following nations and leagues on a large database: France - Down to Nationale and South Africa - Premier League.
Magiboy....................................................vkoppel
Currently Managing: Caen............................Currently Managing: Le Havre
Currently Managing: Caen............................Currently Managing: Le Havre
Stade Malherbe Caen
Club Overview:
Stade Malherbe Caen better known as Caen is a French football club based in Caen, Normandy. The traditional club has taken its name after Francois de Malherbe, a French poet who was native to Caen. 1985 was the year when Caen adopted professional status and started to prove themselves in the French football hierarchy. In 1993, the club moved to the modern stadium by the name of stade Michel d’Ornano, but was unfortunately relegated two years later despite they’re ambitions in the French topflight. The late 2000’s saw Caen achieve some succes allowing them to play several seasons in the topflight and reaching the Coupe de la Ligue final in 2005. In the 2008-2009 season the sophisticated and tradition-rich club was relegated to Ligue 2 after a 1-0 loss to the Bordeaux at home.
The club also has a strong tradition for developing potential worldbeaters. Ever since the famous Stade Malherbe Caen academy opened in 1989, the club has produced many players who would go on to play topflight football all over the world. The most notable players to graduate from the Caen academy has been; William Gallas, Jerome Rothen, Ronald Zubar, Mathieu Bodmer and Yoan Gouffran.
Pre-season update:
After my appointment as manager of Stade Malherbe Caen I started to review the players I had for my disposal and comparing my strengths and weaknesses with my rivals for promotion, particularly Strasbourg and Nantes. It was obvious to me that we need to strengthen our squad quite a lot if we were going to push for promotion. Even though we had some potential stars and quite gifted players for our disposal; such as Sambou Yatabaré, Jeremy Sorbon and Pablo Anthony Derion it was obvious that we needed to strengthen our squad all-over. I decided to bring in some speed for the attack in Taison who joined us on a season loan from Internacional and Kabamba Musasa, a former hero from my Ligue2 file on ‘07. I believe that the brazilian wonderkid Taison has the potential to rip up the league with his speed and flair.
I also decided to bring in the experienced playmaker Hamed Kavianpour from Steel Azin to provide some heavily needed creativity to our midfield. I believe this experienced midfielder will be the offensive fulcrum of the team and I hope he will be able to pull our team to new highs. I also brought in the South Africain left back Peter Masilela from Maccabi Haifa, a player who is showing potential not only in fm but also in real life being an important part of the Bafana Bafana. In addition to this I signed Isaac Vorsah on a season loan from Hoffenheim to provide some raw strength to our defence.
These are the four signings i expect to be leading starts of our team:
Taison – Internacional - £0k (Season Loan)
The young brazilian wonderkid was brought in to literary rape the league with his raw pace. His also very creative minded with good passing ability therefore he fits the trequartista or the poacher role. I was very pleased to catch this young man on a season loan, and I think hi fits the team perfectly.
View attachment 60986
Hamed Kavianpour – Steel Azin - £110k
The experienced Iranian playmaker was signed to provide some creativity to our disciplined midfield. Kavianpour is also set-pieces specialist, and I hope he can chip in with some goals from freekicks and assist from corners. Together with Deroin, Kavianpour is going to be the playmaker on the team, and hopefully he will fit this role.
View attachment 60987
Tinashe Nengomasha – Kaiser Chiefs - £1.2m
The Zimbabwean workhorse is suppose to be my holding midfielder allowing Kavianpour or Deroin to focuse on the attacking part of our game. He possesses great mental, technical and physical attributes and statswise he’s very impressive. I expect him to maintain a high passing and tackling rate through the entire season.
View attachment 60988
Isaac Vorsah – Hoffenheim - £0k (Season Loan)
It was obvious that I needed to strengthen my defence, and Isaac was the perfect man for this job. He is very strong, and possesses great tackling ability which will allow him to boss our defence securing that we concede as less goals as possible.
View attachment 60985
Taison – Internacional - £0k (Season Loan)
The young brazilian wonderkid was brought in to literary rape the league with his raw pace. His also very creative minded with good passing ability therefore he fits the trequartista or the poacher role. I was very pleased to catch this young man on a season loan, and I think hi fits the team perfectly.
View attachment 60986
Hamed Kavianpour – Steel Azin - £110k
The experienced Iranian playmaker was signed to provide some creativity to our disciplined midfield. Kavianpour is also set-pieces specialist, and I hope he can chip in with some goals from freekicks and assist from corners. Together with Deroin, Kavianpour is going to be the playmaker on the team, and hopefully he will fit this role.
View attachment 60987
Tinashe Nengomasha – Kaiser Chiefs - £1.2m
The Zimbabwean workhorse is suppose to be my holding midfielder allowing Kavianpour or Deroin to focuse on the attacking part of our game. He possesses great mental, technical and physical attributes and statswise he’s very impressive. I expect him to maintain a high passing and tackling rate through the entire season.
View attachment 60988
Isaac Vorsah – Hoffenheim - £0k (Season Loan)
It was obvious that I needed to strengthen my defence, and Isaac was the perfect man for this job. He is very strong, and possesses great tackling ability which will allow him to boss our defence securing that we concede as less goals as possible.
View attachment 60985
Other notable signings were;
Collins John, Rui Almeida Monteiro, Michael Bradley, Imad Al-Hoseni, Peter Masilela, Kabamba Musasa and Jamaique Vandamme
Here’s a screenshots of my in’s and out’s. I’m quite satisfied with the players I’ve managed to bring to the club and the profit I’ve gained on selling some of the mediocre players for quite profitable fees.
View attachment 60993
Pre-season went smoothly without any horrific injuries or something of that kind. Our 7 friendly’s went fine with us recording 4 wins and 3 draws including a 7-1 smashing of the unknowns entity Vitkovice. Even though we displayed some fine play it didn’t take long a realise where and how we needed to strengthen the team, and as you can see above we succeeded in bringing in a lot of talented players which we will surely benefit from.
Financially the club seems secure, and if I can maintain this the financial backing will help me achieve what I’m hoping to do. With a balance of £15.000.000, a rising profit each month and a relatively large stadium. This will most likely strengthen my chances of making Caen one of the biggest clubs in France.
View attachment 60989
Tactics-wise I’ve tried to mount our strengths into a formation and tactic that will suit us the best. We seem to possess great speed in the attacking part of the pitch and therefore I’ve decided to play more direct. Because of the players who stands for our disposal and the clubs relatively large reputation in a league with a lot of minnows I have no intention of packing down and letting the opposition take control of the the games and therefore I’ve decided to control the games more even though playing a more direct form a football. An Arsenal’esque kind of style could I be tempted to say. In addition to this I like to use Aggressive tackles and high pressure to press and intimidate the opponent when they’re on the ball. The team’s fulcrum or playmaker if you like will be the MC with an Advanced Playmaker Role set to Attack, and the player who will fill this role will either be Deroin or Kavianpour, depending on the last-mentioneds settling, form and most importantly performances. I’ve decided to play a simple and typical 4-4-2 with a flat midfield in order to make our players feel at most comfortable on the pitch. Our philosophy is rigid, in order to secure some decent results while our relatively large amount of newcomers are gelling into the team.
Here’s a screenie of my squad, formation and tactics used in the first 5 games of the season.
View attachment 60991 View attachment 60994
So far I’ve played 7 competitive matches, including to Coupe de la Ligue victory’s our ESTAC and Tours FC. The form has looked promising in the league with us recording 3 wins, 1 draw and a shaky 2-3 loss versus highflying Dijon. Our best results so far was a convincing 2-0 win against Ajaccio on the opening day of the season, Taison secured us the lead after 32minutes after a real poachers effort before Michael Bradley slotted home the final goal to secure Caen an 2-0 victory on the opening day.
Here is the league table and fixtures.
View attachment 60992 View attachment 60990
vkoppel’s preseason update should reach the forum today or tomorrow
Comments, criticism etc. are very welcome and muchly appreciated
