The Return of Aitor Herrera - The Boss of Bilbao

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W4NKER said:
Awesome progress with Bilbao! Again!

What tactic do you use mate? I have a Bilbao save going myself but struggling tactic wise
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You will find it on page 4 mate - I change the player roles to fit the individual player though
 
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JANUARY

Lots of going on this month! Firstly Iker Muniain won both the World Golden Ball and World Player of the Year while Moises Bernal won the European Golden Boy award.

Results wise we started off with a bang as we put 4 past Real Madrid away in the cup and 6 past Atletico Madrid in the league. We knocked out Mallorca and Barcelona to reach the Copa del Rey final also - despite losing twice over the 4 games.

Finally my director of football agreed to sign Fernando Llorente at the end of the season on a free transfer but I cancelled the deal as I wasnt going to be paying £95,000 a week for a 33 year old reserve!

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Copa del Rey 5th Round 2nd Leg
Real Madrid (0) 2-4 Athletic Bilbao (0)
Muniain 3, De Marcos
(Agg: 2-4)

A great result! Muniain struck a hat-trick in the first ELEVEN minutes!!! Just before half-time though Madrid scored twice and Monreal got sent-off so for us to win the 2nd half as well was a great achievement.

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Athletic Bilbao 6-0 Atletico Madrid
Asenjo (og), San Jose, Suarez (og), Muniain, Artola 2(1pen)

AMAZEBALLS!!!!!!! To be fair they did gift us 3 goals but hey-ho.

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Copa del Rey QF 1st Leg
Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Mallorca
Muniain, Inigo Martinez

A last minute goal rescued us here - not good enough!

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Almeria 0-2 Athletic Bilbao
Bueno, De Marcos

Muniain got injured here but is only out for a couple of weeks thankfully.

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Copa del Rey QF 2nd Leg
Mallorca (1) 4-3 Athletic Bilbao (2)
Reverte, Dos Santos (og), Martinez
(Agg: 5-5, Athletic Bilbao win on away goals)

I took a risk and rested some players here and we just sneaked through to the semis!

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Athletic Bilbao 4-0 Real Zaragoza
Ortega, Vazquez (pen), Clerc (og), Artola

Ortega also had a 2nd half goal disallowed while Diop got sent-off for them late on.

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Copa del Rey SF 1st Leg
Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Barcelona
Inigo Martinez, Ortega

We have one foot in the final after a very good professional performance.

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Deportivo La Coruna 2-2 Athletic Bilbao
Bueno, Bergantinos (og)

Not good enough - we needed a last minute OG just to escape with a point!

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Copa del Rey SF 2nd Leg
Barcelona (0) 3-2 Athletic Bilbao (2)
Bueno 2
(Agg: 3-4)

We were 2 down early on and Barca had 1 disallowed but we got back to 2-2 before Barca got a pointless winner late on.

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
INIGO MARTINEZ
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There wasnt much transfer wise apart from Barcelona selling Hoilett to Wolfsburg for £10m​
 
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FEBRUARY

A very tough month but I suppose it was a successful one. At one point we fell 9pts behind Barcelona but we have clawed ourselves back towards them and we are still unbeaten in the league.

We also put 5 past Liverpool away in the Champions League so we should be through to the quarter-finals so all in all everything is going well.

Lets hope the youth intake is good next month...................

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Sevilla 1-1 Athletic Bilbao
Vazquez

We have a tough run of games coming up so I expect to drop a few points - not much more though!

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Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Valencia
Piris (og), Diego Alves (og)

Two OGs in the last 10min gave us a very fortunate 3pts. Muniain returned but didnt inspire.

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Real Madrid 0-0 Athletic Bilbao

3 draws out of 4 is concerning but we absolutely robbed Madrid here as we didnt even have a shot on target! 9pts behind Barca now but with 3 games in hand and we have to play Barca away.

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Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Espanyol
Muniain 2

We got a stoppage time winner here as once again our level of performance was not good enough - we cant afford any more slip ups now methinks.

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Real Sociedad 0-3 Athletic Bilbao
Vazquez 2(2pens), Muniain

Sociedad had sacked their manager the week before this game so we were getting them at a weak point. We werent great once again but we did what was required.

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Real Zaragoza 2-3 Athletic Bilbao
Muniain, Herrera, Bernal

We were 3up and looking comfortable and then let things slip a bit.

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Athletic Bilbao 3-1 Villarreal
Muniain 3

Thats better!! Vazquez got taken off injured early on though and is out for the next match unfortunately.

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UEFA Champions League 1st Round 1st Leg
Liverpool 3-5 Athletic Bilbao
Bernal, Ortega 2, Muniain 2

We were 1up after 1min, 2-1 down after 8min and 5-2 up at half-time!

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
IKER MUNIAIN
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View attachment 287196​
 
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MARCH

I always like March as you may know and this was another enjoyable one as we got ourselves back to the summit of the league table and progressed in Europe where we will play Valencia in the quarter finals. There was the added bonus of Iker Muniain beginning to find a bit of form similar to last seasons.

The youth intake was average with these 3 guys being the best of what I got.......
View attachment 287247View attachment 287246View attachment 287245

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Celta Vigo 0-1 Athletic Bilbao
Ortega

A goal 5min from time was enough here as once again we scrape past to get the win.

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Sporting Gijon 2-6 Athletic Bilbao
Muniain 4, Bonilla, Yoel (og)

I rested a few players here and it didnt seem to have a negative effect. Bonilla scored his first of what i hope to be many goals for us here. God knows how many OG's we have had this season now...........

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Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Osasuna
Muniain, Javi Martinez 2

2 goals for Javi Martinez!!!! Jeepers..........

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UEFA Champions League 1st Round 2nd Leg
Athletic Bilbao (5) 2-2 Liverpool (3)
Prieto, Muniain
(Agg: 7-5)

Easy enough at 2-0 up but we let it slip however we still progress through to the quarter finals.

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Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Getafe
Herrera, Muniain, Bueno

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Granada 1-1 Athletic Bilbao
Vazquez (pen)

A Reverte OG had us behind at half-time but we battled back and nicked a point.

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Mallorca 0-2 Athletic Bilbao
Herrera, Muniain

Muniain had an early goal disallowed here and San Jose missed a penalty but we still came out on top. Youngster Jesus Huarte made his debut here.

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
IKER MUNIAIN
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View attachment 287248

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SPAIN

Friendly

Spain 3-1 South Korea
Herrera, Fabregas, Bueno

The debutants here were my own Bueno and Ortega as well as Dani Carvajal of Real Madrid.​
 
Hmmm dont think any of those youngsters will cut it
 
Sam91 said:
Hmmm dont think any of those youngsters will cut it
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Jesus Huarte definately will methinks - got pace and good defensive stats plus I have a year of him pretty much as a 15y/o which is key as usually they turn 16 pretty sharpish.
 
coolmcool said:
Could you post your best eleven ever?
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I disagree with some of it but here it is as it stands at the moment..................

View attachment 287398


Personally I would have Ruffier - Iraola, San Jose, I.Martinez, Monreal - Benat, Javi Martinez - Griezmann, Herrera, Susaeta - Muniain

Bernal may break into it after this season though
 
KLIPPYBO said:
I disagree with some of it but here it is as it stands at the moment..................

View attachment 287398


Personally I would have Ruffier - Iraola, San Jose, I.Martinez, Monreal - Benat, Javi Martinez - Griezmann, Herrera, Susaeta - Muniain

Bernal may break into it after this season though
Click to expand...
Yea on my Man Utd save they had a few strange choices i couldnt understand it when Robin Van Perise would get into the best eleven 5 years after he left the club!
 
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APRIL

An interesting month with several big games played and we lost our unbeaten run in the league! However overall the month went well as we progressed in Europe and got a few good league results.

I should mention that despite my B teams shocking start (1 win in 1st 12) they are comfortably in mid-table!

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UEFA Champions League QF 1st Leg
Valencia 0-1 Athletic Bilbao
Vazquez

A very late goal gave us a slender advantage for the 2nd leg.

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Athletic Bilbao 3-2 Sporting Gijon
Castillo (og), San Jose, Bueno

Another late goal gets us another 3pts. Real Madrid drew with Barcelona so we creep further ahead.

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UEFA Champions League QF 2nd Leg
Athletic Bilbao (1) 4-0 Valencia (0)
Martinez, Muniain 2, Javi Martinez
(Agg: 5-0)

I rested a few players here and they did the job well. Methinks Aitor Jose Martinez will get the call up to join the big boys next season..............

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Levante 3-3 Athletic Bilbao
Bueno 2, Javi Martinez

This was disappointing as we were 2up but somehow threw it away to go 3-2 down before we rescued a point. Fortunately Barcelona also drew!

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Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Rayo Vallecano
Cesar (og), San Jose

Yet another own goal in our favour! Inigo Martinez got sent-off early on for us here.

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UEFA Champions League SF 1st Leg
Manchester United 1-1 Athletic Bilbao
Bueno

A fantastic result as we were a goal down and a man down when Bernal got sent-off but Bueno struck his 13th goal of this years competition late on to give us an advantage - Bueno scored 2 goals in EVERY group game and now has 26 for the season!

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Barcelona 2-1 Athletic Bilbao
Reverte

The battle between the 2 unbeaten sides ended up with Barca taking the spoils and deservedly so as we were shocking although we were without Muniain, Bernal and Inigo Martinez. Still a point clear though!

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
JAVI MARTINEZ
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View attachment 287662​
 
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MAY

A fantastic last month of the season as we wrapped up the title, cup and European Cup to finish the season having won every competition!

The month kicked off with us thrashing Man Utd and we kicked on from there. The sticky point in the league could have been against Atletico Madrid but we won 4-1 away from home to pretty much secure the title.

The cup was won easily enough and one fantastic half against Chelsea in the Champions League final meant that we completed the clean sweep!

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UEFA Champions League SF 2nd Leg
Athletic Bilbao (1) 5-1 Manchester United (1)
Ortega 2, Inigo Martinez 2, Griezmann
(Agg: 6-2)

Fantastic!!!! We absolutely blew Man Utd away here despite missing a few players. One of my best and most enjoyable results so far!

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Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Granada
Javi Martinez, De Marcos, Reverte

Vazquez had a goal disallowed also here. Away to Atletico next in the league........................

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Copa del Rey Final
Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Sevilla
Bueno 2, San Jose

A decent performance and another trophy!

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Atletico Madrid 1-4 Athletic Bilbao
Godin (og), Muniain 3

Our 14th own goal of the season set us up for the vital win here as Muniain nets another hat-trick. Surely we can beat Almeria to win the title........... Barcelona won 8-0 - EEEK!!!!

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Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Almeria
Muniain 2, Herrera

Champions!!!!! It was an easy game in the end - on a side note Muniain went into the game 1 goal behind Negredo and Laranjeira for the golden boot but Laranjeira scored a hat-trick to take the golden boot - he scored 5 in the game before so Muniain was robbed really!

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UEFA Champions League Final
Chelsea 0-3 Athletic Bilbao
Muniain 2, Ramires (og)

The least said about the 1st half the better but after shouting at the players at half-time we stormed the 2nd half with a great performance! Chelsea never had an answer for us in the 2nd half and we fully deserved the win.

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
IKER MUNIAIN
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END OF SEASON POST TO FOLLOW​
 
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I've started my own save in a thread of mine in this forum with Birmingham City in the Championship. I'm not a good FM player so I was wondering on what tips you can give to me to succeed and get to know the game so well? What are the main aspects of the game I need to be look at and what parts don't really matter and can be pretty much ignored? I've just read the first few post about your amazing regen last year and I one on FM12 he was french and he ended up playing something like 20 games for the french first team by the time he was like 20 :)
 
NoobyKoala said:
I've started my own save in a thread of mine in this forum with Birmingham City in the Championship. I'm not a good FM player so I was wondering on what tips you can give to me to succeed and get to know the game so well? What are the main aspects of the game I need to be look at and what parts don't really matter and can be pretty much ignored? I've just read the first few post about your amazing regen last year and I one on FM12 he was french and he ended up playing something like 20 games for the french first team by the time he was like 20 :)
Click to expand...

To be honest mate I cant help that much as I have only ben Bilbao on FM13 so havent been a team where you can buy anyone (apart from a very short dally with Chelsea). There are so many ways to play the game and the trick is to find the one that works best for you that doesnt take up a very long time.

Anywho I go by the following rules -

Get the best coaches I can and try and include club legends/icons
Keep an eye on various regen dates to hunt for players
Give youth a chance!

Sorry I cant be of more help
 
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