Down the Danube | #2 - Squad Numbering is an Art Form
Welcome back to the bustling city of Constanta where the Sharks are gearing up for their first full season with Frank Athlete at the helm. This season took me almost two months to complete, largely down to several work trips preventing me from getting some decent game time in.
Nonetheless, I'm delighted to bring you an update from the Black Sea and will also share my musings on the role of squad numbering - a topic that will have some of you drooling at the mouth and the rest of you now asleep in a heap, but hear me out anyway!
Shall we get on with it?
Save Update
I can't say I'm not pleased about it, I'm delighted, but there's so much more to come from this team. I really hope they can live up to my expectations, and push on to the next level within the next year or two.
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 22nd November 2020
You may recall me saying in my previous update that Frank's arrival at the club had been met with a lot of negativity from the playing staff. I believe that this, coupled with an unfamiliar tactical approach, is what led to our poor performances on the pitch and so as the players headed off on their holidays, we set about assessing what changes and improvements needed to be made before the start of the new season.
As you'll likely expect from a club of Constanta's stature, we were allocated no transfer budget and the same wage budget for the season ahead. This meant that despite my desire to build the squad with our own players, we'd instead be reliant on loan signings for at least another year. However, we had three pieces of positive news before our work had even begun.
The first was that new Brazilian signing, Luan Viana, who had joined a few months back would now be eligible to play, having missed the end of last season due to not being registered in time. He's already settled into the club well and is chomping at the bit to make a contribution to the first team.
The second bit of good news was our only two 'Influential' players in the squad would both be leaving this Summer. Neither had any interest in renewing their contracts and while their technical ability would be a big loss, it also meant that Frank wouldn't need to contend with the players revolt that had started to brew in the dressing room.
The third, and potentially the best news of all, was our youth intake, which featured quite a few hot prospects that could feature in 4 or 5 years time. Perhaps the most exciting prospect of all is Dennis Alexandroae, who at the tender age of just 15, already possesses the technical ability to play in our first team. While ideally he'd be nurtured slowly in the U19s set-up, we may have no choice but to add him as a reserve for the first team to help make up the numbers. This also has the added benefit of helping our registration commitments for Liga II where we must have a minimum of two U19s in the playing XI. To that end, Ionel Lazar also gets the nod to back up our forward line as the fourth choice striker for the season, boosting our U19 numbers in the process.
In terms of strengthening the squad from outside of the U19s squad, Frank looked to shore up our defence with the additions of Adrian Majzik at DR and Cosmin Achim at DC, both joining on a free, while Ionut Gavrilla at DL and Robert Ghita at back-up DR both join on loan for the season. In the middle of the park, experienced MC, Marian Anghelina, joins on a free, while Razvan Matis was loaned in to offer competition to Negrea at ML.
With the squad in place, we were quickly into the season proper and it wasn't long before Frank was justified in his transfer business as the team soared to second place after 10 games, despite two of those results being losses. Despite losing our opening game, we would pick seven wins and a draw from our first 10 league games, including wins against Metaloglobus, Ripensia and FC Arges, all of whom were vying for promotion this season.
In the Cupa Romanei, we didn't fare so well. We scraped through our opening 4th round tie against Metaloglobus after extra time, before being beaten comfortably by first division outfit UTA Arad. Frank didn't seemed too bothered by it though, shrugging his shoulders in the press conference that followed, it was evident that the league would take priority this year.
Fast forward through to the end of November and the board were so pleased with how things were going that they promptly offered Frank a contract extension that would see him at the helm until 2022. Frank remarked that while it was "nice to to receive plaudits from your peers, it's the results on the pitch that really matter". Such a cheerful chappy. *eye roll emoji*
As the Winter break loomed, we reached the halfway stage and our form had started to wobble. In spite of some disappointing defeats in October though, we picked up 10 points from a possible 15 in November which was enough to see us finish the year still in promotion contention, and even possibly title challengers as well.
As we returned at the end of February, we seemed to pick up where we left off with two wins from our first three fixtures, before things really started to unravel. We were avoiding defeat, but could only secure draws - 6 of them coming in our next 8 games. Meanwhile, our competition were far more clinical and began to eclipse us in the table.
We entered May as outsiders for promotion, but still within touching distance of the teams around us. Then, from relative mid-table obscurity, came FC Voluntari, stampeding to victory after victory and eventually ending the season 10 points clear of us in 3rd place, while we wallowed in 5th and rued our missed chances (which is apparently what you have to do when this sort of thing happens).
Despite our obvious disappointment at having absolutely collapsed towards the end of the season, Frank seemed in good spirits as he waved the boys off on their Summer holidays. "Let's push for a top half finish next season lads" he said. The boys unenthusiastic grunts of agreement were about as inspiring as Frank's ambition, but who am I to judge?
In the post-season review of how things went, it was at least pleasing to see a couple of records tumble as our goalie, Vlad Mutiu, set the new clean sheet record for Constanta, while our big target man Cezar Trandafirescu broke the clubs goal scoring record as well. Both bode well for the future.
Our big challenge for next year will be coping with the U19 rule in the league, where's we'll need to bring in some high-quality players that meet the criteria, and who won't upset the team dynamic that we're building here. I suspect loans will be the solution but bringing in some permanent additions will be top of the gaffer's list as well.
We'll find out next time how he got on.
Squad Numbering is an Art Form
Arguably one of the most underrated, yet best bits of FM is the squad numbering screen. Now, before you stop reading and delete my blog from your feed, just hear me out - there's method in my madness. For me, squad numbering serves so many crucial purposes.
I won't lie, I enjoy the neatness of organising your team by number, but there are extra layers to utilising squad numbering which perhaps not all football managers appreciate. Here's our squad numbers for the 2020/21 season again, let me talk you through it.
First of all, I couldn't believe that 7 of the first 11 shirts were unassigned from last season. In fact, out of our 23 man squad, almost half of the first 23 shirts weren't assigned to anyone! This serves two problems, the first that it's untidy, which I get that most people won't give two hoots about, but the second issue is there's no pride in attaining one of the lower number shirts. I like to believe that it's the desire of most players to adorn a squad number that has some history tied to it. Think of the significance of 7 at Manchester United, or Argentina's 10. Our budding 15 year old superstar prospect, Dennis Alexandroae, is hardly going to be pushing himself to claim the number 7 shirt if no-one has worn it for four seasons anyway.
At the start of each season I will reassess my best team and will make changes to who gets the first 11 shirts. In addition to inspiring my ambitious squad to earn their shirt, this also serves a second, far more practical purpose. By assigning a specific number to each player, I can glean a lot of additional information about the player, just from knowing his number.
For example, if the shirt is between 1 and 11, i know that I and my scouts believe this player to be our best option for our starting formation. I can also work out which side of the pitch he plays, and in some cases whether he's got an attacking or defensive mentality.
This code comes in handy, particularly when you've taken over at a club where you're not familiar with the playing staff, or even when you find their names difficult to read or pronounce, which in turn makes it challenging to recall who plays where. Below is an overview of how I assign squad numbers to each player (let me know on Twitter or in my Slack channel if you do something different):
Guide to assigning squad numbers
goalkeeper
right sided full back or wingback
left sided full back or wingback
right sided central defender
left sided central defender, always with a Cover duty
central defender in a back three OR defensive midfielder OR right-sided central midfielder with a Defend or Support duty
right sided wide player, either a Winger or Inside Forward and usually assigned an Attack duty
left sided central midfielder, often the play maker and usually assigned a Support or Attack duty
central or right sided striker, usually quick and with good finishing
left sided striker, usually tall, strong and assigned a Target Man role OR central attacking midfielder, OR right sided central midfielder when playing with a DMC
left sided wide player, either a Winger or Inside Forward and usually assigned a Support duty
reserve goalkeeper
back up to 2
back up to 3
back up to 4
back up to 5
defensive minded central midfielder (regardless of formation)
back up to 7
back up to 8
back up to 9
reserve striker or attack minded midfielder, depending on formation
back up to 11
third choice goalkeeper OR utility man OR simply a player that offers something different to the rest of the squad
U21 defensive minded defender/midfielder who might break into the first team
U21 attack minded midfielder/forward who might break into the first team
And so there you have it! Feel free to share your preferences when it comes to squad numbering. I'm genuinely interested in what other people do for this part of the game. Consider yourself educated in the art of squad numbering and give yourself a lingering pat on the back for reading down this far. We're nearly done now, just hang in there.
Content Corner
In this section I've highlighted some of the content I've been consuming of late. There are some excellent content creators out there, some old and some new, and the vast majority of which are all on Slack so I strongly advise you to join that community and check them out here.
Best Save Update Blog: It's hard to miss @DGear86's blog posts this year, mainly because he seems to be pumping out updates and analysis posts for his Bolton Wanderers save every other day. It's a lot of content to get through but frankly, it's expertly done and his whole attitude and approach towards Bolton is refreshing and like nothing else in the community that I've found.
Best Advice Blog/Article: It's a while a go now, but earlier this year @BlackseaFM released this brilliant article entitled A Scouting Hack Inspired by Brian Clough. It challenges the standard approach of searching for players in the game, and introduces an alternative means of unearthing that rough diamond that could transform your team into glory beaters.
Best Audio/Video: Following the tantalizing success of last year's Piacenza save, YouTube aficionado JimG has returned for FM20 with his Atletico De Madrid series. As is standard with Jim's content, production is at a very high standard and his ability to suck you into the story with music and his little teasers mean subscribing to the channel is essential. If that wasn't enough, his stadium visits are legendary and not to be missed!
And that's it for another update from me. Thanks so much for reading down this far, I hope you enjoyed it. As always your feedback is always welcome either here in the comments, on Twitter or on my Slack channel. If you're not already on Slack then you're missing out. It's free to join, there's no pressure to post anything, and you'll find there are some excellent people who you can chat to if you want.
I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.