Day one of a new club is always an exciting prospect, but much like the first day at school, you usually don't know anyone and there's a lot to take in as you get into the role. It can be overwhelming but i always focus on the mountain of admin that needs doing before I can cycle to the next day. First up, I take closer a look at the club I’ve just inherited.
Club Overview
They were founded in 1956 and operate at semi-pro status with a ½ star local reputation. Finances are ok, some wiggle room in the wage budget but no transfer budget, and despite the Chairman telling me the club has a rich history, it’s clear to see we don’t, having never won any silverware and never having been promoted above Division 2. In fact the Nosaby IF have only spent two years in Division 2, the 2014 and 2015 seasons and were promoted last term once more.
On the positive side, the club were predicted to finish 4th in the league which suggests a fairly strong team, despite our current placing of 12th. The Swedish Division 2 East Gotaland is the 4th tier of Swedish football and has 14 teams in it with the bottom two facing instant relegation and the 12th placed team going through a playoff to survive. Nosaby IF haven’t gotten above 11th all season.
The Board have asked me to secure a top-half finish so I’m looking at 7th and above, a big ask with only 9 games left, just 14 points on the board and a massive 12 point gap to 7th placed Assyriska Turabdin IK. Among the remaining fixtures, I will play away to one of our local rivals, IFO Bromolla IF, which I’ll look forward to.
Next on today’s agenda is a SWOT analysis and I’ll begin with comparing the team to the rest of the division. I know the media already predicted us to finish 4th so I assume we have a fairly strong squad.
In the week between my interview and taking the job, Nosaby secured a much needed three points at home to fellow relegation strugglers Asarums IF. A closer look at the match report shows we used a 4-4-2 formation and judging by the stats, we dominated possession for the 90 minutes. I’ll likely use the first 11 for this game as a starting point within the squad so as to encourage somecontinuity and momentum.
But before addressing the squad needs, first I’ll look at the staff. I’m short in a few roles, namely a Coach, Head of Youth Development, Chief Scout, Scout, Head Physio and Physio. I immediately place adverts for all of those roles and will have to wait for some applicants before I can start to fill the vacancies*.
Current Staff
I’ll also use this time to assess where I might need to make changes later in the season as staff contracts start to expire. One thing is for sure though, I’m happy with my Assistant Manager and feel I can trust his judgement as we start looking at the squad and our tactics.
I like to play possession-based football and am a big fan of a 4-4-2 with pacy wingers, a big target man and a whippet of a poacher. My central midfield needs a defence minded disruptor as well as a forward thinking playmaker and in defence I like to see as much pace as possible across the back.With all that in mind I use the template tactic for Control Possession and adjust the formation to 4-4-2. I’ll likely amend some of the roles and duties as I delve into the individual capabilities of the players but for now I’ll leave them as is.
I start by populating the positions with the 11 that started the last game and then go position-by-position to compare the attributes for players available (I try and avoid the star ratings to begin with since I often find these misleading when working out your best 11). It’s a small squad so this doesn’t take too long. My DR wing back has no back up and we’re currently playing our best striker in central midfield, plus his partner in the middle has low ratings. I also have no back up wingers in the side which could be an issue given the amount of running they will be doing in the games. Beyond that I’m happy enough with the quality of players in the other positions and am pleased to see 2 or 3 decent prospects in around the first team.
Now I’ve identified the immediate requirements I would usually set some scout assignments up but since I’ve no recruitment staff that will have to wait for now*. In terms of a longer term plan, I will attempt to build a 23 man squad with 2 players for each position and 3 for the Goalkeeper. This will be made up of 12-15 key and first team players who will be supported by some backups and young prospects. I expect that to take me a couple of seasons to get it how I want it.
Next up is Training which I’ll leave with my Assistant for now since he knows the squad better than I do. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll look into this a bit more and start making adjustments as I see fit.
At this point I’m ready to click continue and start getting to know my squad a little better.
*NOTE: you will notice I don't use the Player and Staff search feature. This has to do with how I like to play the game. For many years i enjoyed the benefit of the searching for stars but in recent times, I've found it much more enjoyable (and probably more realistic) to rely on my staff to pick out players to look at. Try it if you haven't already!