VfB Stuttgart - The Fifth Largest Club In Germany?!

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VfB Stuttgart - The Fifth Largest Club In Germany?!

Verein fur Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893, more commonly known as VfB Stuttgart - that's where my new FM19 save takes me, based on your votes from my most recent poll!

Now where do I get the title from, claiming that VfB Stuttgart are the 5th biggest club in Germany...quite a bold claim considering their relegation from the Bundesliga last season in real life! Well, they are a membership based club with 64,000 members making them the biggest sports club in Baden-Wurttemberg and the 5th largest in the whole of Germany! According to Wikipedia, four clubs that are more famous internationally are Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, FC Schalke and Hamburger SV.

If we have a look at the trophies won in Germany, then it actually has Stuttgart sitting in 8th place in the all time leaderboard (as of the start of last season where we begin our journey)...

1. Bayern Munich - 28 league titles, 18 domestic cups, 6 super cups, 5 Champions Leagues, 1 Cup Winner's Cup, 1 Europa League, 1 European Super Cup, 3 Club World Cups
2. Borussia Dortmund - 8 league titles, 4 domestic cups, 6 super cups, 1 Champions League, 1 Cup Winner's Cup, 1 Club World Cup
3. FC Schalke - 7 league titles, 5 domestic cups, 1 super cup, 1 Europa League
4. SV Werder Bremen - 4 league titles, 6 domestic cups, 3 super cups, 1 Cup Winner's Cup
5. Hamburger SV - 6 league titles, 3 domestic cups, 1 Champions League, 1 Cup Winner's Cup
6. FC Nurnberg - 9 league titles, 4 domestic cups
7. Borussia Monchengladbach - 5 league titles, 3 domestic cups, 2 Europa Leagues
8. VfB Stuttgart - 5 league titles, 3 domestic cups, 1 super cup

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Now considering VfB Stuttgart's stature in the German football world, they've been considerable underachievers for a while now, finishing in the bottom half of the table 4 years in a row from the 2012/13 season and eventually being relegated to the second tier for the first time in their history! They went on to bounce back immediately and returned to the Bundesliga in 2017/18 with a respectable 7th placed finish! However, in real life they finished 16th last season and were relegated again following the playoffs against Union Berlin! I will be trying to avoid the same fate!!

Instead, what I'll be looking to achieve is establishing Stuttgart again amongst the elite sides in Germany and hopefully dethroning the big boys in Bayern and Dortmund! Although there are plenty of other quality sides for me to overcome along the way before we worry about those two, with RB Leipzig, Schalke, Gladbach, Werder Bremen, Wolfsburg and Leverkusen all trying to accomplish the same feat as us! There's no doubt about it...this is one competitive league!

I'll also be looking to lead Stuttgart into European competition again and if I could deliver the club's first European trophy at some point in my career, that would be awesome!

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My new home is pretty impressive to say the least. Welcome to the Mercedes-Benz Arena, with a capacity of 60,441 it is the 5th biggest in the division!


 
Monday 18th June 2018

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Ron-Robert Zieler

Monday 18th June 2018
'First Day On The Job'

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No pressure but the club is celebrating it's 125th year this season, so the expectation is we make it one to remember!

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Squad

Current Squad Pros;

- I have a good base of 13 German players in the squad
- We have a lot of players between the ages of 21 and 29, so should have a lot in their prime at the moment
- Mario Gomez is the oldest player in the squad and he is only 32
- The squad is pretty big and I have players to cover most positions on the pitch
- We have plenty of height in the team with a lot of 6ft+ players, so we might be able to maximise on set pieces
- There are a number of players in the squad who have the potential to become very good players with at least 4 star rating according to my assistant manager

Current Squad Cons;

- We only have 2 players valued at over £10 million, Benjamin Pavard and Daniel Didavi
- Benjamin Pavard is one of our best players but we will be losing him to Bayern Munich at the end of the season, with a £31.5 million transfer already agreed
- We are short up front with Mario Gomez the only 'out and out' striker in the squad, although there are a couple of other players who can cover the position
- Most of our attacking players are only rated as 3 stars on the assistant manager's current ability rating

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22 year old centre back, Benjamin Pavard, is one of the brightest talents at the club and will be integral to any success we have this season! It's such a shame I'll be losing him at the end of the season to Bayern Munich at the end of the year, especially for only £31.5 million as I think he could become worth double that in the future!

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It's always nice to have a top class keeper between the sticks and we definitely have one here in Ron-Robert Zieler. He's only 29 years old so still has his best years ahead of him as well and could be my number 1 in goal for at least the next 3-4 years!

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Our midfield dynamo is 28 year old Daniel Didavi! He is in his return season at the club after spending two years at Wolfsburg, and after welcoming him home, I'm keen to see what he can do for us!

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Looking into the U19s squad, there are a couple of players who look like they could make it, but Roberto Massimo is definitely the hottest prospect on our books. He's already got some really good attributes despite his young age of only 17 and he could become a star for the first team one day! He's out on loan with Arminia Bielefeld in the 3rd tier this season and I'll be keeping a close eye on his progress!

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With the team I have available to me, this is likely to be my initial setup and first choice starting lineup! The two central midfielders job is to sit deeper whilst the wing backs support the attacks, but the tactic is focused predominantly on winning the ball quickly and then getting it to the 4 attacking players as quick as possible via direct passing to score majority of our goals!

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As far as improving the squad goes, it's highly unlikely you'll see any business from me in this transfer window as I have no transfer budget and am £10k over the wage budget as well! The club's financial state is healthy though with nearly £10 million in the bank!
 
Saturday 25th August 2018

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Pablo Maffeo

Saturday 25th August 2018
'Pre Season & The 1st Round Of The Cup'

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Incoming Loan; With Mario Gomez as my only recognised striker in the squad, I needed to bring in some competition for him! But with no funds available to me, I only really had the option of a loan deal and the best striker available on that market was Liverpool's Divock Origi! We'll cover 40% of his wages for the duration of the loan (£26k p/w).

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Incoming Loan; Once we got about half way through the pre season friendlies, it had become clear that I was lacking numbers in central midfield too. Again I turned to the loan market and picked up Scott McTominay from Manchester United for the season ahead. We'll contribute 80% of his wages (£28k) for the duration of his stay with us!

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One of my first tasks was to surround myself with a new backroom team! I wanted to bring in coaches and an assistant manager that all speak both German and English (due to my own language barrier with the players at the moment)! Jan Wouters, Bernhard Peters, Steffen Freund, Wolfgang Rolff and Dennis Bergkamp have all joined my staff!

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I have selected Christian Gentner as my first captain for the club this season! Holger Badstuber will be number 2!

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To help boost our profile in Australia, we have set up an affiliation with Sydney FC!

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The board's expectations for the upcoming season are reasonable enough!

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The bookies predict us for a mid table finish which I think is probably realistic based on our squad and finances compared to some of the other clubs in the division! If we can sneak into the top half in my first season I'll be happy, but even if I finish in our predicted position of 11th I will have done a lot better than Stuttgart did in real life!

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It's no surprise to see that the media dream 11 is made up of no less than 9 Bayern players. Only Axel Witsel and Marco Reus from Dortmund make it in alongside them!

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Pre-Season went well after a relatively slow start! The only loss on record was against Real Madrid, which is understandable, and we actually gave them a really good game! Two big wins on record against VfL Kirchheim from the lower leagues in Germany, but the highlight has to be that 7-1 victory over Celta Vigo!

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One thing I did throughout pre season, was changed our tactic (which is something I normally don't do). I wasn't happy with our performance in the opening two friendlies and we didn't seem to be playing very attractive football and struggled to create decent chances, despite playing lower league opposition that we should have beaten comfortably! After some more tinkering, this is the new setup for the start of the season! It seems to be solid at the back with the 3 CBs, provides loads of width with the wing backs and creates more chances with the creativity in midfield, with two strikers to pile pressure on the opposition defence! I have also managed to play friendlies using cautious, positive and attacking mentalities depending on our level of opposition and there seems to be a good transition between the different styles of play and all seem to work with this tactic! During my match reports, I will be noting which mentalities I used for each match so you can see how I'm utilizing my tactics throughout the season!

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We start the competitive season with the 1st round of the cup against Kaiserslautern, before a few matches in the league that we should definitely be looking at picking up points from!

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1st Round
Formation; 5-3-2 Wing Backs
Mentality; Positive
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard (Kabak 90), Badstuber, Kempf, Maffeo, Insua, Ascacibar, Gentner (McTominey 67), Didavi, Gomez (Donis 67), Origi


Not the most convincing scoreline for my first game in charge, but in all honesty it doesn't tell the whole story! We played some great football throughout and created 28 chances, to their 7! They just scored a couple of bangers from outside the box, that's all! We got the job done in extra time with an absolute banger of our own though as Scott McTominay scored a worldie on his debut to see us through to the 2nd round!

[video=youtube;WvDdqYa-Okc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvDdqYa-Okc[/video]

This is something new I am introducing for this story - I will be uploading links to YouTube where I will have uploads of different things from some games! There won't be one for every game, and there may not even be a video link on every post, but if there is something I think is worth showing then I will post a link to the video. This is definitely worth a look - here's McTominay's winning goal against Kaiserslautern! Absolute banger!!!

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We go away to lower league opposition again in the next round!
 
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Wednesday 10th October 2018

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Ozan Kabak

Wednesday 10th October 2018
'A Very Decent Start, Despite Opening Day Defeat'

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Unsurprisingly, Bayern were involved in some of the biggest transfers this window and spent a **** load more than anyone else did!

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Just over half the stadium's capacity was sold in season tickets this season!

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Wow! Bayern spend more than double what anyone else does on wages!! We currently sit about mid table on this front, spending nearly £3 million per week less than Bayern!!

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Matchday 1
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive (changed to Cautious on 13 minutes, changed to Attacking on 80 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard, Badstuber, Kempf, Maffeo, Insua, Ascacibar (Sent Off 72), Gentner (McTominay 74), Didavi (Castro 60), Gomez (Donis 60), Origi

Not the start I wanted in the league, but we played some decent stuff here and with the team still gelling and coming to grips with my style/formation, they can be forgiven for the defeat here! It didn't help that we were down to 10 men when pushing hard for an equalizer late on either!

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Matchday 2
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard, Badstuber, Kempf, Maffeo, Insua, McTominay, Gentner, Didavi*, Gomez (Donis 66), Origi

A much better result in our first home game of the season! It was quite an even contest in all honesty and the difference between the sides was the quality of the chances created, with ours being a lot more clear cut than theirs!

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Matchday 3
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive
Lineup; Zieler, Kabak, Badstuber, Kempf, Maffeo (Beck 72), Insua*, Ascacibar, McTominay, Didavi (Castro 64), Donis, Origi (Gomez 78)

A really nice performance here in the end! After taking an early lead, we had a shakey 20 minutes where Augsburg pressed hard in an attempt to find an equalizer. However, we settled well after that and controlled the remainder of the game, adding a couple more goals in the 2nd half to make it a comfortable victory over one of the sides expected to battle relegation this season!

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Matchday 4
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive (changed to Cautious on 23 minutes, changed to Defensive on 34 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Kabak, Badstuber*, Kempf, Beck, Insua, Ascacibar, McTominay, Didavi, Donis (Gomez 68), Origi

VAR helped us to a perfect start here as it awarded a penalty for an incident that I didn't even see if I'm honest...Didavi stepped up and slotted home to give us the lead inside the opening few minutes! Wolfsburg ramped up the pressure from there and we changed to a more cautious approach midway through the first half in order to deal with it. Only 3 minutes, later the counter attack had worked perfectly as Divock Origi put us two up! Our opponents continued to throw men forward and the key for me was for us to see it out to half time without conceeding so we changed our mentality to defensive! We were under the kosh, but managed to steal a 3rd goal as centre back Holger Badstuber curled home from the edge of the area...although I did have to question what he was doing so far up the pitch with a defensive mentality employed by me!! Wolfsburg got an early goal in the second half, which was going to ask questions of our resolve...a question that we answered with conviction as we kept things tight at the back and held on to record a very good away win! We should have even added a 4th goal, but Mario Gomez missed his spot kick after VAR had awarded us a second penalty for hand ball.

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Matchday 5
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive (changed to Defensive on 80 minutes, changed to Positive on 88 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Kabak, Badstuber (Pavard 80), Kempf, Beck, Insua, Ascacibar, McTominay (Gentner 80), Didavi, Gomez, Origi*

A bit of a ding dong battle this one as three times we took the lead, and three times Hertha pegged us back! After going 3-2 up, I changed to a more defensive outlook to try to hold onto the 3 points, but Hertha piled men forward and managed to get the equalizer I'd tried to prevent and we have to settle for a single point on this occasion! A decent enough point nonetheless, against another side expected to finish above us this season!

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Matchday 6
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Cautious
Lineup; Zieler, Kabak, Badstuber, Kempf*, Beck, Sosa (Insua 62), Ascacibar, Gentner, Didavi, Gomez (Donis 62), Origi

Going away to one of the biggest clubs in the country required a more cautious approach, and our tactics worked to perfection as we kept things very solid at the back and saw out a very good 0-0 draw! Although only a bore draw, this was one of our best performances of the season so far!

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Matchday 7
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive (changed to Very Defensive on 89 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Kabak, Badstuber, Kempf, Beck, Sosa*, Ascacibar (Gentner 65), McTominay, Didavi, Donis, Origi (Gomez 65)

Hannover had only won 1 of their opening 6 fixtures, so although we were away from home, I decided for a more positive approach in an attempt to take control of the game. We controlled the possession with 61%, but the chances were fairly even as both sides had more than 10 shots on goal...but it was Tasos Donis's 40th minute strike which was the difference between the teams and earns us another 3 points!

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It's been a very good start to life in Germany for me and after 7 league games, we sit 4th in the table. We may have started the season with defeat against the side predicted to finish bottom of the league, but that wasn't a sign of things to come. Instead, we have gone on a 6 match unbeaten run since and have established ourselves as early contenders for at least a top half finish - obviously we won't get carried away as it's still early days! Dortmund are the biggest surprise so far, finding themselves all the way down in 14th with only a single victory to their name!


Player Watch

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It's been a good start to the season for our loanee, Divock Origi. He has 6 goals and an assist in 8 appearances already and seems to have taken to German football like a duck to water!
 
Sunday 2nd December 2018

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Holger Badstuber

Sunday 2nd December 2018
'Flying High In The League'

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Matchday 8

Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive (changed to Very Defensive on 89 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Kabak, Badstuber, Kempf, Beck (Maffeo 76), Insua, McTominay, Gentner, Didavi* (Castro 45), Gonzalez (Donis 64), Origi

A solid home win that was well deserved! It looked nervy at 1-0 up, but when Donis came off the bench to bag our 2nd, we always looked like winning the game!

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Top goalscorer, Divock Origi, has picked up an injury that will see him miss up to a month!

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Matchday 9
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive (changed to Attacking on 80 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard, Badstuber, Kempf, Beck, Insua (Sosa 67), McTominay, Gentner, Didavi (Castro 67), Gomez (Gonzalez 67), Donis

A very closely contested game, but Dortmund just about came out on top! In the 89th minute, we thought we'd equalized when Benjamin Pavard got up and headed into the back of the net, only for the goal to be disallowed for an apparent push on one of the Dortmund defenders! It looked harsh to me!

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Matchday 10
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Cautious
Lineup; Zieler, Kabak, Badstuber, Kempf, Beck, Insua, Ascacibar, McTominay (Gentner 82), Didavi*, Gomez (Gonzalez 82), Donis

A very good draw away at the giants of German football! At 1-0 up, we had a penalty appeal turned down and a goal disallowed...it could have been a very different game if these decisions had gone our way! But still, we'll take this point all day long!

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Matchday 11
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard, Badstuber, Kempf, Maffeo, Insua, Ascacibar, McTominay, Didavi (Castro 64), Gonzalez (Gomez 64), Donis*

With Divock Origi out of the team through injury, goals are proving hard to come by, but all the time we can keep clean sheets, we'll win games! That's exactly what happened here and Tasos Donis's 4th goal of the season nicks all 3 points for us!

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Matchday 12
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard, Badstuber, Kempf, Maffeo (Beck 62), Insua, Ascacibar (Gentner 62), McTominay, Castro, Gomez, Donis (Origi 62)

Mainz are having a great season so far and sat 3rd at kick off, above us! Based on that, we have to see this as a good point away from home!

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Matchday 13
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive (changed to Cautious on 31 minutes, changed to Attacking on 81 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard, Badstuber, Kempf, Maffeo, Sosa (Beck 79), Ascacibar, McTominay (Gentner 79), Castro, Donis (Gomez 79), Origi*

No complaints...we lost to the better side! In fact, I'd probably go as far as to say that Leverkusen are the best team we've played so far this season!

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Thirteen games into the season and we sit 4th and are continuing to exceed expectations! RB Leipzig have opened up a bit of a gap at the top to the surprise package Augsburg who sit 2nd!! That 3-0 win I recorded over them earlier in the season sure looks good now! Things are tight from 4th to 11th with only 6 points seperating the teams in those positions.

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2nd Round
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Attacking (changed to Positive on 10 minutes, changed to Cautious at half time)
Lineup; Grahl, Pavard, Baumgartl, Kempf, Maffeo (Beck 106), Sosa, Ascacibar (Sent Off 29), Gentner (Aogo 58), Castro, Gonzalez (Gomez 58), Donis

I rotated the squad and we definitely weren't at full strength for this one against our lower league opponents, and it disrupted our flow as we turn in a pretty poor performance! Ascacibar's sending off midway through the first half didn't help matters either! We held our own with 10 men, but really should have put this game to bed (even with 10 men) before it got to penalties and were punished in the shootout for not doing so!

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Only a few months into my reign and I'm offered a new 2 year contract already!

Player Watch

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We have one of the best defences in the league, conceding only 10 goals in 13 games and this is largely down to the superb form of Marc-Oliver Kempf! At the start of the season, he wasn't look upon as being one of the first names in the teamsheet but he has earned that right over the past few months!
 
A brilliant start for you mate, some nice loan signings as well! I'll be following for sure and good luck!
 
Saturday 2nd February 2019

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Benjamin Pavard

Saturday 2nd February 2019
'A Dip In Form Brings A Change Of Tactics'

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Matchday 14
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Cautious (changed to Positive at half time, changed to Attacking on 82 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard, Badstuber, Kempf, Beck, Insua, Ascacibar, Gentner (Aogo 66), Castro (Didavi 66), Gomez, Origi (Donis 66)

If anything, we might have just edged this game on the stats with 52% possession and 17 shots to their 12. But Gladbach were more clinical in front of goal than us and took their chances well, whilst we squandered quite a few good ones!

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Matchday 15
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Cautious (changed to Positive on 22 minutes, changed to Attacking at half time)
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard, Badstuber, Kempf, Beck, Sosa (Insua 45), Aogo (Ascacibar 45), Gentner, Didavi, Donis (Gomez 64), Origi

Leipzig came into this game as the runaway leaders of the division, with 11 wins from 14 games and only 1 loss! So it wasn't really a shock when we were 2-0 down inside the opening 22 minutes and our cautious approach to the game was simply not working as Leipzig were running riot! We went to a more positive approach, but it made no difference at all as they continued to dominate and had a 3rd goal before the break! Facing an uphill struggle in the 2nd half, it was **** or bust as we attempted to play a more free flowing attacking game, and Donis nearly had a goal back for us when he hit the post in the 52nd minute. We were piling on the pressure to get back in the game and 4 minutes later, Origi had a headed effort saved well by the RB keeper. We were definitely having the better of it in the 2nd half and Mario Gomez soon had a chance to pull one back within a minute of coming on, but he shot wide of the post when one on one with the keeper! On 71 minutes, Gomez crossed for Origi who looked odds on to score, only for his shot to be blocked at the last minute with a diving tackle from a Leipzig defender! Even right at the end of the game when Origi found himself clear and one on one with the keeper with the opportunity to score us a consolation goal, the keeper pulled off an outstanding save to keep him out...I mean this **** was one of the best saves I've ever seen on FM! One of those days and a brave effort from the lads in the 2nd half but unfortunately with no reward!

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Mario Gomez might be a bit of a Stuttgart legend, but he could be destroying his own legacy this season with his **** poor performance in front of goal! He's now gone 10 games without scoring!

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Matchday 16
Formation; 5-2-1-2 WB
Mentality; Positive
Lineup; Zieler, Pavard*, Badstuber, Kempf, Beck, Insua (Sosa 62), McTominay, Gentner, Didavi, Donis (Gonzalez 62), Origi

We came into this game on the back of a 3 match losing streak, so we really had to win! We did win, but it wasn't a convincing performance and I'm starting to wonder whether I need a change of tactic, so I might work on something new before the next game as against better opposition we'd have lost again today!

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Matchday 17
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking
Lineup; Zieler, Maffeo, Pavard, Kempf, Sosa, Ascacibar, Aogo, Gonzalez, Didavi, Donis (Thommy 59), Origi (Gomez 59)

I'm in complete disbelief that we have lost this game!! We completely dominated from start to finish and I'm walking off the pitch at full time completely baffled that we haven't won!!

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Just take a look at these stats from the match against Werder Bremen and you'll understand how I can't believe we didn't win the game!!

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How's your luck?! Just as I change up formations and Erik Thommy was about to get a look in at the starting 11 or at least subs bench, he picks up an injury that will keep him out for a couple of months!

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The transfer window started during the Winter break, so we have a an update here, before picking up with the Bundesliga games in January again!

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Incoming Loan; I was looking to bolster our attacking options with a wide inside forward player, but again with no funds available I had to look for a loan player. Manuel Lanzini was transfer listed by West Ham, so I offered a loan deal and they accepted, so he'll join us until the end of the season! We'll pay 30% of his wages (£21k) for the duration of his stay!

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Not much cash was spent during the January window!

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Matchday 18
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking
Lineup; Zieler, Maffeo (Beck 45), Pavard, Badstuber, Insua, Ascacibar (McTominay 45), Aogo, Gonzalez, Didavi, Donis (Esswein 45), Origi

My strikers again let me down here as we had 15 shots on goal and failed to put one in the back of the net. It allowed Freiburg to steal the win by scoring a single goal! Our run of form is worrying at the moment and we need to get ourselves out of this rut ASAP!

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We lose our main man between the sticks for a couple of weeks!

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Matchday 19
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking
Lineup; Grahl, Maffeo*, Pavard, Kempf, Insua, McTominay, Aogo, Gonzalez, Didavi, Donis (Akolo 58), Gomez (Origi 58)

Fortuna Dusseldorf are down in the relegation places so I knew this was a real opportunity to get a much needed win on the board and our first with the new formation! I told the lads as much before kick off and they duly delivered! Now let's hope we can kick on from here and string together some decent results to push ourselves back up the table!

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Matchday 20
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking
Lineup; Grahl, Maffeo, Pavard, Kempf, Sosa, McTominay (Ascacibar 59), Aogo, Gonzalez*, Didavi, Donis (Lanzini 59), Origi (Gomez 77)

There's no denying Augsburg are the overachievers of the season so far and they came into this game in 3rd place, so this was a great win for us to go to their ground and beat them, although we did our level best to throw it away, allowing them two late goals to make the final minutes a bit sweaty! Good to see Mario Gomez get in on the goals as he scored his first in 12 appearances!!

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After some shaky form, we have dropped down the league to 8th, but we are still on target to finish in the top half and still have a chance at making the top 6/7 and maybe nicking a European qualification spot, which would be a fantastic achievement in my first season here! One things for sure, Bayern won't be winning the title this season as they find themselves 18 points off the pace and it looks like the only team that can stop Leipzig romping it is Mainz, who are having an incredible season!

Player Watch

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Daniel Didavi has been my first choice for the central attacking midfield role for majority of the season so far. He maintains a decent average rating and has chipped in with 6 goals, but what isn't acceptable is the fact that he hasn't got a single assist all season, which is shocking for the position he plays and the creative talent he possesses!
 
The German league is a great save, anyone can win it!! Nice to see Mainz and Ausburg in the top 4, keeping it interesting for you. Keep it up, hopefully the board give you some money for summer.
 
The German league is a great save, anyone can win it!! Nice to see Mainz and Ausburg in the top 4, keeping it interesting for you. Keep it up, hopefully the board give you some money for summer.

I desperately need some! One thing that is encouraging is the prize money for the Bundesliga is pretty incredible (screenshot below). However, I don't think they have the massive TV deals that we have in England!

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Another great read after your Everton adventures, really appreciate all the time and effort you put into each post!

I've noticed you're a big fan of double and even triple substitutions, often after you've fallen behind.
In multiple matches, this doesn't seem to have the desired effect.
Perhaps a minor tweak in tactics / instructions would have more impact than a big overhaul?

Best of luck!
 
Another great read after your Everton adventures, really appreciate all the time and effort you put into each post!

I've noticed you're a big fan of double and even triple substitutions, often after you've fallen behind.
In multiple matches, this doesn't seem to have the desired effect.
Perhaps a minor tweak in tactics / instructions would have more impact than a big overhaul?

Best of luck!

I will take this on board mate and any advice is always appreciated! I pride myself on the fact I don't use any downloaded tactics and try to work everything out for myself so when other people can chip in with advice and their own experiences, I'm always willing to take it on board :)
 
Solid start mate, looking forward to seeing you topple Bayern Munich!
 
Monday 1st April 2019

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Scott McTominay

Monday 1st April 2019
'In The Hunt For European Qualification'

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Matchday 21
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking
Lineup; Grahl, Maffeo, Pavard, Kempf, Insua, McTominay, Aogo, Gonzalez, Didavi, Donis (Esswein 67), Origi* (Gomez 67)

Wolfsburg could well be the big casualty this year as they are embroiled deep in the relegation battle! And it's not hard to see why after this result...they were a shambles at the back and we took full advantage to smash 4 past them and cruise to an easy win! Divock Origi took both his goals very well, as he moved into double figures for the season!

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After his performance against Wolfsburg, Divock Origi becomes the first player under my management to win the Bundesliga Player of the Week award. Up until now, I never even knew this was an award!

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Matchday 22
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking (changed to Very Attacking on 84 minutes)
Lineup; Grahl, Maffeo, Pavard, Kempf, Insua (Beck 58), McTominay, Aogo, Gonzalez (Esswein 58), Didavi, Donis (Lanzini 68), Origi

No changes were made to the starting lineup from the team that thrashed Wolfsburg, in the hope the side could pick up where they left off! But that wasn't the case as we suffer a disappointing defeat at the hands of Hertha.

[video=youtube;8H-NF1tu4Gg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H-NF1tu4Gg[/video]

Sometimes, when you lose to a free kick, you have to just sit back and admire the strike. However, in this case I was disappointed that keeper Jens Grahl didn't do better!

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Emiliano Insua will miss a couple of weeks after coming off injured in the Hertha game.

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Matchday 23
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking
Lineup; Grahl, Maffeo, Pavard, Kempf (Badstuber 60), Sosa, Ascacibar, Aogo, Gonzalez (Esswein 39), Didavi, Lanzini, Origi (Gomez 60)

Schalke might have come into this game in a disappointing 11th place in the league, but they had won 4 of their last 5 and were looking to finish the season strongly after their disappointing start! And they continued their good form with a win over us here! At one point, we were 5-1 down in this game and it looked like we were going to suffer an embarassing defeat, but a spirited effort from my lads in the second half made the score a lot more respectable! It's just a shame our defending was so atrocious! Manuel Lanzini had a great game making his first start for the club, contributing a goal and 2 assists!

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Matchday 24
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking
Lineup; Zieler, Maffeo*, Pavard, Kempf (Badstuber 56), Sosa, McTominay, Aogo, Esswein, Didavi, Lanzini, Origi (Gomez 56)

After 2 straight defeats, it was important to get back to winning ways here against 16th placed Hannover, but we didn't! We did dominate the game, but failed to take our chances and Hannover punished us for that late on with an equalizing goal! This was a really bad result and is one of them games that highlighted how we need serious improvement in the attacking department!

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Matchday 25
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking (changed to Cautious on 60 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Beck, Pavard, Kempf, Insua, McTominay, Gentner, Thommy, Didavi*, Lanzini, Gomez (Origi 60)

It was a case of 9th vs 10th here and whoever won the game would finish the day in the top half of the table! We'd been on a poor run of form coming into the game, so the odds were in the favour of Hoffenheim, but we defied the odds to record a pretty resounding win! Erik Thommy made his first start of the season and played a blinder, scoring a goal and assisting Didavi's first!

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Matchday 26
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Cautious (changed to Attacking on 71 minutes)
Lineup; Zieler, Beck, Pavard, Kempf, Insua, McTominay, Ascacibar (Gentner 71), Thommy, Didavi, Lanzini, Gomez (Origi 71)

Dortmund were simply too strong for us today! Not much we could do...a decent effort but the German giants were just on another level! We kept ourselves in the game for as long as possible and they caught us on the break twice late on when we were pushing forward for an equalizer!

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Matchday 27
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Mentality; Attacking
Lineup; Zieler, Maffeo, Pavard, Kempf, Insua, McTominay, Gentner, Thommy, Didavi, Lanzini, Origi*

GET IN THERE! A massive win against not only the biggest team in Germany, but one of the biggest in the world! To come out and play the way we did after getting thumped by Dortmund shows real character from my lads and this has to go down as our result of the season, by a country mile!! I decided to take a risk and play an attacking style, rather than sit back and defend (which didn't work against Dortmund) and the risk paid off handsomely!

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We currently sit 8th in the league, but with only 4 points seperating Frankfurt in 4th down to us, we are still very much in the hunt to finish in a European qualification spot! Bayern, Schalke and Dortmund are definitely having disappointing seasons and it probably does us no favours that we are competing with them for the top 6/7 spots, as I'd have expected them to be out of reach and challenging for the title! Talking of title challengers, it will likely be only one of two teams that wins it now and it's Mainz who lead the way and have an opportunity to pull off an amazing feat!

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This year's youth intake isn't too bad, with three players looking like they might have the potential to one day feature in the Stuttgart first team!

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Without a doubt, the brightest prospect is 14 year old striker, Pascal Alwang! A brave, pacey forward, with decent off the ball movement and already an accomplished finisher! I'm excited about this lad, and I'm even looking at him as future captain material as he already has a leadership attribute of 14 even at his tender age!

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Wolfgang Kohn also looks to have a decent future in the game. The attacking midfielder has a keen eye for a pass already, a good work rate and a decent first touch! I'll be monitoring his progress in training closely!


Player Watch

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It's looking more and more likely I will offload Mario Gomez this Summer as he is our highest earner, cleaning up £78k per week, but is totally not justifying that at all! He only has 5 goals, from the 24 games he has featured in this season, and had I not brought in Divock Origi at the start of the season, I think we'd be in real trouble searching for goals if we'd have had to rely on Gomez!

 
Alwang looks like he could be seriously good!!
 
Love the story! You always seem to do a great job with these.

PS - Is it just me or does your press officer, Paul Etzel look topless in her photo?
 
Looking forward to this - loving the skin - which is it?
 
Hurry up and get a ****** update on! :D Looking forward to it!

I'll try to get my end of season post up tonight mate!

Looking forward to this - loving the skin - which is it?

Thanks mate. It's the andromeda skin from fmscout

Love the story! You always seem to do a great job with these.

PS - Is it just me or does your press officer, Paul Etzel look topless in her photo?

Thanks mate, glad you're enjoying the read.

Alwang looks like he could be seriously good!!

I'm really excited about him!
 
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