FM23 [3 to 16]: Home From Rome

One, two, skip a few has never been so apt. It’s been a while since I’ve updated with my progress at Freiburg but I’ve been plodding along in the background creating a comeback story that Disney+ would snaffle up the rights to within mere seconds of the pitch.

My second season ended so strangely. The loss of Kevin Schade hit hard but we pressed on securing a DFB Pokal final and an appearance in the UEFA Europa Conference League final. Having finished the Bundesliga season a disappointing 7th (meaning no league based qualification for Europe for the next season), the deflation continued with an embarrassing 6-0 loss to Wolfsburg in the DFB Pokal and a disappointing 1-0 loss to Southampton in Europe.

No Europe for Season Three but reaching two finals would surely be an incredible springboard for success. Or not..

A £60m transfer outlay on Gabriel Vidovic (£30m), Lovro Zvonarek (£11.5m), Bright Arrey-Mbi (£700k), Sergio Busquets (£240k), Odin Thiago Holm (loan fee £900k), Dan-Axel Zagadou (£11m) and Juan Sorriano (£5.75m) promised a lot but delivered too little. After 20 games which accounted for just 5 wins, 4 draws and 11 losses leaving Freiburg in 13th - I was sacked on 31st January 2025. A curious time to sack a manager, I feel.

Where did it go wrong?

The players for a start. I’d signed Matteo Ruggeri in a previous season and added Vidovic and Zvonarek - all players who had done well for me on FM22. It’s not a solid scouting strategy to be relied on. While they were all very capable players - they just weren’t what I needed.

The tactics. I just couldn’t find what I wanted. I aimlessly switched and swapped between 4-3-3DM WIDE, 4-2-3-1 DM AM WIDE and 4-2-3-1 WIDE. I didn’t know how I wanted to play or how I aimed to control a game. I was desperately hoping for something to click and it didn’t.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME

I bided my time. Started a new save playing with my local club and enjoyed taking them up a few levels of the amateur footballing pyramid. The call to redeem myself was too loud though and I loaded back up from being sacked by Freiburg. I waited it out until the summer when the perfect job came calling - Capitoline. That is AS Roma to those of a real name fixing persuasion.

Without going into a season by season run down, I went back to basics. What I, and most other FM players, love best - I bought low and sold high. I scouted and spent wisely on young players with high potential. Developing them while they pushed the club to higher levels.

I was almost sacked again and given the ultimatum of reaching a seemingly unachievable points tally in my next five games which spanned the end of one season and beginning of another - surviving by scrapping the exact number of points needed in the final of the five games.

And then… JUST LIKE THAT (shoutout to the Carrie Bradshaws of the world), it clicked. I found it. The way I wanted to play. The tactic that suited exactly the way I want FM (and football in general) to be! A positive 4-4-1-1, heavily dependent on creating chances for a capable striker. Football would be played at a fast paced frenzy, defending was seemingly optional but it mattered little as long as I outscored the opposition - channelling my inner Kevin Keegan.

The biggest problem I encountered was that my striker would be great for a season or two - scoring 20-30 goals a campaign - before hitting a wall. And so, started a routine of replacing the striker every other season with someone who would hit even higher hits culminating in a Dutch regen by the name of Ronald Stam who scored 32, 49 then 51 league goals in three successive seasons.

Two Italian Cups, An Italian Super Cup and a Serie A win in 13 seasons may not be considered an incredible success by most but that’s exactly how I saw it. Three German Manager of the Year awards in my last four seasons confirmed my right to be happy.

I was enjoying the save so much that I added in a second manager who took over Stade Lavallois - a junior affiliate of my Capitoline side. Utilising the limited loans available, I brought in some youth players I knew would be capable and played them in my same 4-4-1-1 tactic to great effect. Managing to win the league (French National) in the first season and narrowly missing out on a playoff promotion play from Ligue 2 in my second season.

DIFFICULT DECISIONS

What to do next was the big decision… go again with Roma and Laval, hoping to win a second Serie A title and taste European success with Roma while returning the French side to the top tier for the first time since the late 1980s?

Then the perfect opportunity presented itself. SC Freiburg had been relegated to Bundesliga 2 for the second time in three seasons (having won promotion by finishing 2nd in between). The manager had been relieved of his duties. I had a conversation with Tony (FMGrasshopper). What if I could take everything I had learned at Roma and make a glorious return to Freiburg and earn redemption? It had to be attempted. 2038 - the return to Freiburg.

The squad I inherited had potential but was also fraught with issues. They were an aging squad and, owing to their relegation, plenty wanted to leave.

The best player, Yuji Yoshida, had his release clause activated and moved on to Wolves for £12m. The club had already signed a 31 Spanish striker by the name of Miguel Angel from Dusseldorf for £2.6m - at 6’5” and relatively athletic he was the perfect choice to lead the line of my 4-4-1-1. He required a capable supporting cast and so I returned to Roma to reap what I could from the youth I had bought and brought through the academy. Wide players Fabio Cerezo and Giordano Turra, wing back Marco Rossi, central midfielders Francesco Pala and Cedric Mpondo were brought in on loan. A promising playmaker Gerald Laurence was my next loan acquisition from Lyon. Young goalkeeper Robert Niechial was my first permanent signing (£1.1m from Wisla Krakow) followed by William Haro, a 25 year old Mexican striker (£875k from At. Madrid).

With my summer transfer business done, it was time to begin the season. Not quite the start I’d hoped for as we picked up just 2 points from our opening 5 fixtures separated by a 5-1 win over lower league opposition in the DFB Pokal. It was a disaster and we were rooted to the bottom of the league having been billed as title contenders at the season’s start.

As we entered September, it happened again. Things just clicked. The months of September and October were unbeaten for Freiburg including a DFB Pokal Second Round win over fellow Bundesliga 2 side Greuther Furth. November yielded our last loss of the calendar year despite Miguel Angel’s brace. Two wins in December took us to the winter break, finishing off in style with a five-goal victory over Heidenhem.

January always gives a chance to strengthen the squad but first we had to put up with a Gennaro Gattuso strop. The Italian hardman was my successor at Roma but was constantly in my inbox about the lack of game time for Giordano Turra and Cedric Mpondo along with the fact I wasn’t playing Francesco Pala in the role he insisted I should. Gattuso made the decision to recall all through - Turra and Mpondo I wasn’t overly concerned about but Pala had become an important player for me with 4 goals and 7 assists in his 16 games. I set to work instantly and agreed a fee of £12m for Pala to become a permanent Freiburg signing. After selling a few fringe and 2nd team players we added £3m to our available transfer funds and used that toward the signing of another young prospect in Kosovan midfielder Idriz Munishi (£3.5m from Wolfsberger AC). The last signing of the window was to bring in Vladimir Lukov on loan (£900k loan fee from PSG) - I couldn’t resist a move for the labelled Wonderkid when he appeared on my radar.

We opened January with a win the DFB Pokal against another fellow Bundesliga 2 side Mainz - William Haro’s 93rd minute winner the difference. Disappointingly we let a 3-0 lead slip against Braunschweig in the next game before Mainz exacted their revenge on us with a 2-0 win. Three wins from the next four games set us up for our DFB Pokal Quarter Final against top-tier Borussia Monchengladbach but we were unable to successfully overturn their two early goals. In our next league game we gave up a one goal lead to draw with Kaiserslautern after going down to 10 men.

Seven points from nine in the month of March had been thinking for the first time about a possible title challenge - completely unthinkable after our start to the league season. A mostly successful April propelled us to the top of league, just two games from glory - the draw against Hannover secured a top two finish and automatic promotion back to the Bundesliga.

Idriz Munishi’s hattrick against Cottbus meant that a win from our final game was all that was required. Goalless at half time, I was starting to get a bit concerned before Francesco Pala’s opener had one hand on the title for us. Within 7 minutes Heidenheim had us pinned back to level pegging - Heidenheim needing a win to stand any chance of avoiding automatic relegation. Almost instantly after Heidenheim’s equaliser, the update came through that Ingolstadt (another relegation battler) had equalised against Paderborn! Ever-cautious, I still wouldn’t feel safe until we had secured the result we needed and lo and behold up popped William Haro with a winning goal on the 85th minute!

Freiburg were Bundesliga 2 champions!

Vindication to some degree. I have now returned Freiburg to the top flight and started the process of creating a young, attacking team with lots of potential.

FM24 is almost knocking on the door, I may or may not get another season played with Freiburg but even if I don’t… I feel like I have tied things up nicely after such a promising start to this save.

FM23 [2-3]: Always The Bridesmaid

As I entered the January Transfer Window in the second season, I honestly would not have anticipated what would happen in the second half of this season. The title of this blog should give some hint as to what the outcome of the season was. Happy but disappointed would probably sum it up.

A DEEPER SCHADE OF BLUE

The above Steps song comes to mind when I think about how the January transfer window began for us. I had already anticipated Kevin Schade’s departure when I started to see the list of interested teams grow. It was Atlético Madrid that triggered his £20.5m release clause and left me feeling so blue. He left for Diego Simeone’s Atléti having scored 19 goals in 22 games this season (15 in 16 apps in the Bundesliga).

Knowing this would be an inevitability rather than a possibility, I had already earmarked an ideal replacement. Gabriel Vidović came in on loan from Bayern Munich just two days after Schade’s departure. It was a loan until the end of the season but with a £30m option to buy attached. Vidović was a shining star for my Mallorca side of FM22 and I was keen to see if he would be just as capable this year.

Vidović was joined on loan by a fellow Bayern II and Mallorca FM22 player in Lovro Zvonarek. Zvonarek did not spend just as much time with me in FM22 so I was hoping to see more of him this time around. He would merely be an option to begin with, competing with Röhl and Nico for a midfield slot, but Bayern’s surprisingly low option to buy of just £11.5m meant that I was looking further ahead than just this season.

I felt my business was done but the new Freiburg president was keen for me to spend more of my original transfer budget. With that in mind, I pounced for another future star who I had been keeping tabs on for the last six months. You will be shocked to know that they were not with me in FM22… but they did come from our Bavarian friends. Arijon Ibrahimovic has plenty to offer already at just 18 years old but he will begin his Freiburg career with out II team in the 3.Liga. £6m feels like an absolute steal for the young Ibra (no relation to the obvious, as far as I can tell).

We’ll begin with the DFB Pokal. There was no repeat of our Third Round dip last season as Union Berlin were swept aside with ease. Bochum was as easy as it should have been before we fought hard to overcome Hoffenheim and send ourselves through to the DFB Pokal final! I think me reaching a final so quickly in FM is quite unheard of…

And what? You thought the fairytales were going to stop there?!

AEK twice took the lead in our first leg before Vidović’s hattrick in the second leg provided easy pass through to the Quarter Final. I was actually delighted to even still be in the tie after the first leg away to Sevilla, Vidović’s solitary goal in the second leg sending us through to the Semi Final.

It was at this point I got complacent. I thought Ferencváros would be an absolute gift. We did well to come away at 1-1 in the first leg. Things went much more as I expected in the second leg as we steam rolled our way to a second final of the season!

Do fairytales come in threes? No but they say that bad luck does.

January in the league got off to an awful start with just one point from a possible nine. Vidović had not yet found his feet as you’ve seen above and I was starting to wonder if he’d be up to the task. February started not much better before a Vidović double against Leipzig finally set him off.

In March, I got to read the very much not-sought-after “stars count cost of refund” inbox item after a complete collapse against Bayern. It was a return to the consistency of inconsistency that we’re used to as draw after win after loss occurred.

To finish the season with just 5 wins from the final 17 games feels like an absolute disaster. Thus the slip began.

The Olympiastadion (Berlin) was the setting for our first final of the save - the 2024 DFB Pokal Final. What followed was absolute torture.

For the vast majority of the first half Freiburg were actually the better side. Creating plenty of chances but just not getting the vital touch at the end. Lukas Nmecha’s opener came on the cusp of half time but I did not at all feel like the game was slipping from us. How wrong I was.

Wolfsburg were dominant from the off in the second half and when Patrick Wimmer put them 3-0 up I simply made the decision to start resting my first choice key players. With five changes made, the rhythm was well and truly gone from us and Wolfsburg struck a further three times in the final 10 minutes to hand us our second 6-0 defeat of the season - to which the stars did indeed count the cost of the refund again.

There was no time to sulk as just four days later we made the trip from Berlin to Vienna where the Ernst-Happel-Stadion was the setting for Freiburg’s first ever European final - the UEFA Europa Conference League. Southampton would be the opposition - The Saints, having avoided relegation from England’s top flight by 2 points, hoping to put some shine on an otherwise lacklustre season.

Wout Weghorst was the top goalscorer in the competition to date and he would be my undoing in the final also. His 19th minute goal coming thanks to an error at the back by full back Killian Sildillia. Wout Weghorst and his 6’6” frame are every bit of the sort of player I love to sign - a pure physical behemoth.

I’d love to say we fought back with all we had but in all honesty we offered very little over the 90 minutes, the only real positive from this game being that we didn’t lose 6-0.

Three bites at the cherry to secure European football for the next season and three times we came up short - always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

STILL TALKING ABOUT SCHADE

Despite leaving in January, Kevin Schade was our top league goalscorer with 15 goals in his 16 league appearances. Gabriel Vidović ended the season as our top goalscorer overall with 21 goals in his 25 appearances (8 Bundesliga, 4 DFB Pokal, 9 Europe) - 2 more than the man he replaced.

Merlin Röhl was the most creative player in the side as he continues to develop within the midfield two. He registered 12 assists along with his 12 goals in all competitions. That’s two more assists than the next highest of Woo-yeong Jeong.

Mark Flekken continued to be our first choice between the sticks (sorry, I know, I hate that saying too). He made 49 appearances, conceding 57 goals but keeping 18 clean sheets. He even managed to grab himself an assist this season! Felix Gebhardt made 6 appearances as back up, conceding 6 goals and keeping 2 clean sheets.

HAVE WE PEAKED ALREADY?

I certainly hope not! There will be no European football next season which means I can concentrate on the league and cup, the reverse of that is that we won’t have as much lead to swing when it comes to attracting new players.

An indicative transfer budget of £47m and around £150k/week wiggle room in the wage budgets means that we have plenty of bank to use if we box smart. The loans of Vidović (£30m), Zvonarek (£11.5m) and Nico (£22.5m) are due to end and decisions need to be made on their option to buy clauses If I work things right we can stretch to signing two of them but certainly not all three.

Season Three incoming - dare I say it could be the best one yet..?

FM23 [2-2]: The Case of Vincenzo Grifo v Unconscious Bias

Today I want to explore something that I have never really thought too deeply about before. When making squad selections or even reviewing whether or not to keep a player, we make assessments as to that player’s value to the team. I have never really considered my thinking beyond the surface level of “is player x better than player y” - and that’s because that is essentially what everything boils down to. What I want to do is to think a bit more forensically about the steps that lead me to the end decision: what makes this player a more attractive option? Are they really a better player (technically speaking) right now or is there something more subconscious at play in my decision making?

WHAT IS ‘UNCONSCIOUS BIAS’?

Being a public sector worker, I have naturally completed my own ‘unconscious bias’ training and am very familiar with what is a very hot topic in spheres of performance and people management. The University of Edinburgh’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion resources define unconscious bias as:

“The tendency of us as humans to act in ways that are prompted by a range of assumptions and biases that we are not aware of. This can include decisions or actions that we are not consciously aware of, as well as hidden influences on decisions and actions that we believe are rational and based on objective un-biased evidence and experience.”
— https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/students/unconscious-bias

This is mad, right? Why am I talking about the ethics of equality, diversity & inclusion when I’m playing with the glorified spreadsheet? Well, this is simply because when I stopped to compare Vincenzo Grifo (the subject of this post) with his replacement, I wasn’t totally convinced that I had made the right decision but I couldn’t understand why.

Unconscious bias is often used in conjunction with the term ‘stereotyping’ - however it is important to note the key difference is that unconscious bias explicitly references using assumptions that we are not aware that we are using. I should be clear here and explain that I am not talking about biases towards any real life characteristics of Vincenzo Grifo - if I am totally honest, I had not even heard of him prior to starting this save. I am talking about biases borne out of the way that I play the game and things I see within the game itself.

VINCENZO GRIFO V DATRO FOFANA

It will help to begin by looking at the two players in question. On the left is Vincenzo Grifo and on the right is his replacement, Datro Fofana. I have highlighted the attributes relevant to the role that they are expected to play - Winger (Attack).

Immediately, you can see why I am beginning to question myself. While Fofana certainly has the physical advantage in terms of pace and acceleration, there are a number of trade-offs in the mental aspects of the game where an argument could be made for either player. However, Grifo would appear to be the much superior player technically in addition to being able to offer the advantage of being well rounded in set pieces.

HEADLINE STATS

Beyond the attributes, the next place to look is naturally at those headline stats. As Fofana hasn’t taken much part in any of the cup competitions, I will look solely at the performance in league games.

Grifo has played a few additional games, though largely as a substitute. By virtue of having played less games it is Fofana who has the better Goals/Assists per 90 mins record so far - although with one goal and one assist each it is hardly anything to write home about.

Fofana’s pass completion % is higher but Grifo records a higher number of Key Passes per 90 minutes. It should be noted that Grifo is a set piece taker (corner and freekick) which would likely account for this increase.

Grifo does get more of his shots on target however given they both have the same number of goals, this feels slightly irrelevant.

Both have 87% tackle completion but it is Fofana who leads the way on pure number of tackles won per 90 minutes.

The differences in distance run and average rating are negligible.

ADDITIONAL STATS

Of course, football (and by direct relation FM itself) is no longer simply about counting goals and assists. There is an absolute wealth of data to look at and draw conclusions from.

For the purposes of this exercise, I have chosen to look at the possession related statistics, as they appear to be most relevant to the role selected. Below you will see Vincenzo Grifo’s stats to the left and Datro Fofana’s to the right. Sadly, this area does not allow for filtering by competition so these statistics are based on all competitions.

Fofana leads the way on Chances Created per 90 minutes, Pass completion %, Dribbles per 90 minutes and Progressive Passes per 90 minutes.

Grifo records a higher number of Expected Assists per 90, Cross Completion %, Open Play Key Passes per 90 and Assists per 90.

A proper 50/50 split on who is better here. A few of these stats could be argued as heavily dependent on the team mates around you. The keys to look at for me are Open Play Key Passes (Grifo). Dribbles and Progressive Passes (Fofana).

SO WHERE’S THE BIAS?

We’ve looked at attributes - Grifo is better technically but Fofana has the edge physically. We’ve looked at match based statistics - it was more or less even across those.

In terms of other basic information, both players are exactly the same height (5’11”) with only a few lb of a difference in weight. Both are predominantly right footed with Grifo rated as weak on the left while Fofana is reasonable with his left. I tend to favour players who are both footed - is this the first area of bias?

Both players are capable of playing on either wing or, if required, up front. Grifo has three player traits (Places Shots, Curls Ball, Tries Long Range Free Kicks) while Fofana has two (Moves Into Channels, Like To Beat Opponent Repeatedly). None of this traits are something I go out of my way to look for.

Vincenzo Grifo is in the latter stages of his career at age 30 while Fofana is just 21. I tend to favour younger players as I can plan more long term with them. Is this bias number 2?

Perhaps the biggest bias of all is that Grifo was at the club when I started the save while Fofana is a signing of mine (£3.2m from Molde). It’s only natural to favour your own signings, isn’t it?

WAS I RIGHT TO FAVOUR FOFANA?

My own answer to this is obviously going to be yes. I think the fact that Fofana still has so much time to develop but they are neck and neck in terms of their matchday contributions is proof of this. I always have more of a focus on the long term development. I could sign 5-6 experienced players and do well for a season or two (theoretically, in reality I’m not that good at FM) but I would rather bring in players with potential and build a team that could do even better in a few years time.

FM23 [2-1]: Opening the Transfer Floodgates

Austerity is a bit of a UK buzzword these days and there were certainly elements of it in my first season’s transfer dealings. By these levels, the summer of 2023 was a relative land of milk and honey for SC Freiburg where transfers are concerned. A massive 7 (SEVEN, for some reason seven is the number we start exclaiming by writing the numbers in brackets) players arrived at the doors of Europa-Park Stadion.

That’s right, it’s mass screenshot time!

The first confirmed signing was confirming the option to purchase Matteo Ruggeri from Atalanta for the agreed price of £2.7m. Ruggeri is Christian Günter’s obvious successor when the time eventually comes. He made a total of 37 appearances last season on loan - although only 9 of them from a starting berth. It felt obvious that I would enact the agreed future fee clause.

Following Ruggeri into the fold in a double opening day of the window swoop were Matteo Gabbia (Milan, £2.4m) and - seemingly FM23’s answer to Anel Ahmedhodzic since everyone seems to be signing him on the cheap - Isshaku Abdul Fatawu (Sporting CP, £1.5m). Gabbia is another of my signings from a previous save and Fatawu’s potential for that price simply couldn’t be ignored.

Barcelona’s young midfield talent Nico was a loan that I simply couldn’t believe we were able to make happen. He’s costing £1.6m for the loan and £11k per week in wages. An optional future fee of £22.5m has been agreed although the biggest stumbling block on that will potentially be whether or not he feels we are at his level for a permanent move.

Roberto Gagliardini was a free signing following his release from Inter Milan. I have to be honest in showing my ignorance here but I had no idea who he was and couldn’t believe he’d amassed so many Inter appearances… Regardless, he fits in very nicely to the Half Back DM slot, showing excellent ratings in some of my favoured Mental attributes (Determination, Teamwork and Work Rate).

I closed out the summer window with two deadline day signings. 21 year old Felix Gebhardt (Basel, £1m) was brought in to be a backup to Mark Flekken with the bonus that signing a German national pleased the fans. Alexandre Azevedo (VfB Stuttgart) was loaned due to Matteo Ruggeri picking up an early season injury - don’t expect to hear too much about him though as Stuttgart recalled him in November due to his lack of game time.

From the first team, there were three players released at the end of last season when their contracts expired: Lukas Kübler, Benjamin Uphoff and Nicolas Höfler. Kübler suffered a cruciate ligament injury last year and his 7 months out never really gave him the chance to break into my squad. Uphoff wasn’t content at renewing his contract to be a back up goalkeeper. Höfler never really impressed me last season and when he asked for triple his current wages on renewal, I was more than happy to ship him out.

On top of this, there were three first team departures during the window. Young midfielder Yannik Keitel left for Watford (£1.2m), Lucas Höler went to moneybags Hoffenheim (£4M) but without doubt the biggest name to go was Maximillian Eggestein. West Ham’s offer (£17m) was too good for me to turn down and Maxi was keen to go. I think I’ve replaced him well with Nico for this season at least.

As ever, we start with the briefest of pre-season updates. Five games played including a tour to USA. Three wins, a loss and a draw. Nine goals scored, three conceded, three clean sheets.

We were in Europa Conference League action this season and put Gil Vicente aside in the fourth qualifying round for the group stage. A 3-1 win in the first leg should have meant the tie was done and dusted, even moreso when we took a 2-0 lead into half time of the second leg. Gil Vicente came roaring back with goals in the 80th, 82nd and 89th minutes to set up a nervy finish with us narrowly leading the tie on aggregate (5-4) before Daniel-Kofi Kyereh’s 90+4 minute goal sealed progression.

Paired with Sion, Shkëndija and SK Rapid Vienna in the group stage, we made light work of the table as expected. Eight different goalscorers showed we are no slouches at creating chances (ignoring the strength of the opposition) as we eased to five straight wins before a heavily rotated side lost to Sion in what was a dead rubber for us. Topping the group, we await the news of who we face in the Round of 16.

We’ve made it through to the third round of the DFB-Pokal after a simple away win over lower league opposition Bayern Hof and an impressive 2-0 victory against Bayer Leverkusen. We’ll play Union Berlin in the next round in February - it was Union’s city rivals Hertha Berlin that knocked us out at the same stage last season.

It was a rocky start to the league season with the opening day win against Leverkusen followed by a draw with Union Berlin then a heavy defeat to Borussia Dortmund. An excellent recovery against Hoffenheim preceded a bounce back to solid earth away to Leipzig. We closed out the month of September with back to back wins against Gladbach and Frankfurt respectively. Kevin Schade was already showing signs of that form that made him my undisputable first choice striker in the later part of last season.

October and November was a return to poor form, the Wolfsburg result was respectable and we’d have taken a point against Bayern if it hadn’t been for throwing away an early two-goal lead. What followed was three successive blanks drawn in very, very poor performances.

A return to positives coincided well with Kevin Schade’s return to the scoresheet. His seven goals in the next four games helping to secure a vital 12 points for Freiburg. 2023 ended with a hard battling win over Hamburg with the winning goal from a sweetly struck Fatawu volley from 20 yards.

At the halfway point of the season, Freiburg occupy 5th place in the Bundesliga - level on points with Dortmund but dropping a spot due to scoring three goals fewer than Der BVB.

Since the start of this save, I’ve had two training ground upgrades completed (taking us to a maximum rated State of the art set up) and one to the youth facilities (now graded as Excellent). The board are now denying any further youth facility upgrades so the next step for me will be to pursue upgrades to the Junior Coaching (currently: Excellent) and Youth Recruitment (currently: Good).

At the end of November the Freiburg presidential elections were completed. Armin Rahb was the winner and came in with no big changes to how we operate aside from one change to board objectives - Spend the original transfer budget. We spent just over £9m in the summer and the original budget was £20.3m so it’s far from an unrealistic target to reach. The current budget is actually closed to the £32m mark currently, although I’d rather alter things and potentially put more of that into the wage budget.

With the above in mind, there will be plenty to think about in January. Things are starting to click with the side I have, so I don’t want to tinker too much. The problem is that my hand may be forced at some point with transfer interest in several first team players, including Matthias Ginter, Phillip Lienhart (both West Ham), Woo-yeong Jeong (RB Leipzig) and Kevin Schade who has 19 goals in 22 appearances so far this season (11 clubs including Real Madrid and Juventus).

I have one or two targets in mind, although I’m not sure I will be able to convince them to make the permanent move just yet so we may look towards a loan or two - you can almost certainly bet they’ll have been involved in a fmadventure save previously too :)

FM23 [1-2]: Tactical Hokey Cokey

I waved goodbye to 2022 with an element of hope about the near future. Lucas Höler signed off the year with a hattrick against Union Berlin and I rewarded him by allowing him to sign off on a two-year contract extension with a reasonable pay bump. It was only his sixth league appearance of the season, and they were his only goals thus far - I knew it was a wild decision. Naturally, it backfired. A broken lower leg in training on 26th December ruled the striker out for a period estimated up to 5 months - the vast majority of the remainder of the season.

THE GLORIOUS BASTERD

The January transfer window was another relatively quiet one. Two first team departures - young right wing back Hugo Siquet went out to Fortuna Düsseldorf on loan (he only made 8 appearances… great) and veteran French wideman Jonathan Schmid left for Schalke 04 in a deal worth £100k (and about £10k a week saved in wages).

With Höler’s injury in mind, I made my first permanent signing of the save - an Ivorian Wonderkid. It was Molde of Norway who were bidding “Au revoir, Fofana” as we exchanged a sum of £3m for the pacy winger-come-striker Datro Fofana.

If I was looking for any immediate comfort in the first month after the Winter Break, I wouldn’t have thought I’d find it in fixtures against Bayern, Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt - three sides who were battling it out for the top spot in the league at this point. Surprisingly, we came away with six points from the possible nine here with a further three added from our game against Augsburg. January did come to a sorrowful end as Hertha ended our DFB Pokal run in just the third round of the competition.

February and March were difficult months that yielded just one win and one draw from our seven Bundesliga fixtures. Add to this, our exit from the Europa League in the Round of 16 - although we can still have some pride in our efforts. A 3-0 first leg defeat away to Sporting left me with little hope in this tie but Kevin Schade’s second half brace in the second leg provided some excitement, even if it was fleeting. A third couldn’t be found and we left the European competition with a 3-2 aggregate defeat.

It was around the end of March/beginning of April that I reverted back to a 4-3-3 DM-Wide formation with a few minor role alterations from previously. A move that brought an unbeaten month of April before the season fizzled out in May with our final position having already been determined as we entered the final few games.

A 7th place finish secures European football for next season, albeit we’re now down into the Europa Conference League Playoff rather than Europa League Group Stage.

It’s an outcome that exceeds the board expectation of avoiding relegation. An expectation that may seem slightly absurd given Freiburg’s real-life finish of 6th last season, however, the squad really isn’t that great. This is something that is probably best reflected in the fact Freiburg have the second lowest wage bill in the league - half that of the 9th highest wage bill in the league and an incredible 7% of that afforded by Bayern.

BACK TO 4-3-3 (DM-WIDE)

I just couldn’t really get the 4-4-2 to stick for me. Part of it was my own mental block, because it’s not how I wanted to set up. I went back to the 4-3-3 DM-Wide but tweaked the roles.

I started with my three better players: Jeong, Eggestein and Ginter. I looked at their most suited roles and placed them in, the rest of the tactic more-or-less remaining the same except for the striker who changed from DLF(S) to AF.

PLAYER FOCUS

Mark Flekken was my number 1 for the vast majority of the season. He kept 10 clean sheets in 40 appearances, conceding 34 goals in the remaining games. Benjamin Uphoff made 5 appearances with just 1 clean sheet and conceded 9 goals. Gregor Kobel of Dortmund kept the most clean sheets in the Bundesliga, he played 41 games in all competitions conceding 36 goals and keeping 16 clean sheets.

Kevin Schade was my top goalscorer with 14 goals in 20 appearances (16 starts/4 sub apps)- he ended the season as my Advanced Forward. Lukas Nmecha and Timo Werner tied the Bundesliga scoring charts with 21 goals each. Nmecha scored 22 in 35 appearances across all competitions (33 starts / 2 sub apps) while Werner bagged 30 goals in 47 appearances (46 starts / 1 sub app).

Christian Günter was by far my most creative player with 13 assists in 41 appearances (36 starts / 5 sub). Joshua Kimmich was the highest assister in the league, in all competitions he assisted 14 goals in his 46 appearances.

The focus for the season ahead will definitely be on refining this squad a lot more. The squad needs to be condensed in size which should free up enough room in the wage bill to make significant improvements to the first team. With league prize money earned totalling £52m, I’m hoping there will be some boosting of the transfer kitty.

Moderate aims for next season? Qualifying for Europe (in some form) again, a better showing in the DFB Pokal and reaching the knockout rounds of the Europa Conference League. I’ll be happy with that.

FM23 [1-1]: First Steps at Freiburg

Over the last number of FM editions, I have aligned myself with a specific club from some of the major European nations (in no small part down to the fact that I keep going back to the same clubs when things go wrong). In Spain it is RCD Mallorca, in France it is SC Bastia, in Netherlands it is FC Groningen.

Strangely, until now I haven’t found myself strongly inclined to managing any Bundesliga club. I’ve been to Germany a number of times for holidays, educational trips and football matches, although during that time I’ve never gained any strong feelings for any particular club there. In making my decision for FM23 I looked through the squads of the current Bundesliga sides - SC Freiburg stood out simply for the presence of two players I have managed in recent FMs (Woo-yeong Jeong and Ritsu Doan).

When starting any save game, I always like to start by picking out the four players I feel could be key in my first season. This is based on nothing other than a quick glance at their attributes and player traits.

The first player will always be the goalkeeper. Mark Flekken is a solid goalkeeper, not massively impressive but he’ll do the job for now. He’s comfortable with the ball at his feet, aerially competent and he still has a fair bit of time left on his contract. I always find goalkeeper the hardest player to replace so the simple answer is that if I don’t have to then I won’t.

Matthias Ginter is the highest paid player in the squad, a full £22.5k per week more than the next highest paid player. Freiburg born and a product of the youth academy, he’s back after spells with Dortmund and Gladbach. Reasonably strong attributes will mean I hope/expect him to stick around for a few years but that personality should make for a really good mentor to the younger players.

Maxi Eggestein may not be the most technical player but his work rate and teamwork are a massive win in my books. It’ll be interesting to see how that ‘plays one twos’ works out in the middle of the pitch.

Woo-yeong Jeong can play on either flank, strong with both feet and is relatively quick off the mark. At 22 years old, there’s still plenty of time for improvement under the right training conditions.

SUMMER 2022 TRANSFER WINDOW

I don’t like to do too much business in the first transfer window but I also don’t like to disable the first window. Sometimes this works against me, as it has done in this instance, but that is football.

Straight from the off, Roland Sallai was attracting interesting from England. After turning down the first bid, I had Sallai complaining which was quickly followed by his teammates encouraging me to let the player leave. I asked him to give me time, which was met with resistance. And so Sallai couldn’t wait. £13m upfront fee from Leeds United meant that I could let him leave and not look back in anger on the decision.

Carles Aleña and Borja Mayoral are part of an elite fmadventure club of players that I routinely look to sign every year. Matteo Ruggeri of Atalanta has just joined that club. A one-year loan agreed with a £350k upfront fee and the option to make it permanent for just £2.7m. An option that I will almost certainly be taking up.

Pre-season summed up: we drew in the intra-squad friendly before winning four games against lower league German clubs and a final victory at home to Anderlecht. 13 goals were scored and just 1 conceded.

The season began with a Freiberg-Freiburg (cue Spidermen meme) DFB Pokal game hosted by the Stuttgart based club. One defeat in the opening twelve games had us sitting up in the Champions League qualification spots but we really weren’t convincing enough in any of those games despite some of the big scalps (Dortmund, Leverkusen, Rangers).

My fears were found to have some substance to them as we then went on to only record two wins in the next nine games - with none of them coming in the Bundesliga! A change of tactic (to be discussed) managed to shake things up and we blew Union Berlin out of the water in a comprehensive win before elite club football breaks for a certain Qatar 2022 tournament.

Rookie mistake… I forgot to take a picture of the table as it was at this point. I was 7th though…

MY STRUGGLE WITH TACTICS

We weren’t playing terribly but then again; we weren’t quite playing well enough for me to suggest that I was happy with how things were going.

This season I planned to use largely the same tactic that I ended FM22 with - focusing on using a Raumdeuter from the AML position. I feel like I’ve perhaps jumped too soon to this one, when I don’t have all the right players yet to make it work. I will go back to it at some point.

In the few games immediately before the World Cup break, I began to look at a few other tactical set ups and styles using the presets. There was a fluid counterattack 5-3-2 and a gegenpress 4-2-4. Neither really clicked for me (and I don’t really enjoy the TI heavy presets anyway). A quick review of the squad and I settled on my final solution for now - a simple 4-4-2.

Solid at the back, runners from the middle and a TF/AF combination up top. The dividends were paid immediately as Höler grabbed a hattrick from AF, Peterson got one as the TF and Ritsu Dôan grabbed a brace as the IW from the right side of midfield in the 6-0 win over Union. Beautiful.

The Qatar 2022 World Cup happened and was won by Netherlands. Our players involved were Matthias Ginter (Germany), Woo-yeong Jeong (South Korea) and Mark Flekken (Netherlands).

On the other side of the Winter/World Cup break I will have a look at the positions in my squad that I feel could be immediately improved upon. I have £11m in transfer funds and £25k/week in wages to spend. There may be a few that leave just to try and reduce down our currently bloated first team squad - we currently have 25 first team players when I would ideally be working with no more than 20.

For the immediate future I think I will stick with the 4-4-2 but switching back to the Raumdeuter 4-3-3 in future will definitely be on my mind and in my consideration of any transfer business.