Last time out Chepiga was the toast of Pripyat securing the club’s second promotion in four seasons since project re-build started. Pripyat now found themselves in Ukraine’s second tier (Persha Liha). Tipped to go straight back down, could Chepiga defy the odds once more and keep Pripyat up? Read on to find out... If you missed the Season 4 update click the link below.

The RE-builders of Pripyat Season 4 - Third time lucky?

Season Preview

The Persha Liha is made up of 16 teams, playing each other twice. The bottom two sides are relegated to the Druha Liha while 13th and 14th enter the relegation playoff. Predicted to  finish dead last, Chepiga needed re-enforcements and he needed them fast. Unfortunately, there was only three weeks between the successful Druha Liha campaign finishing, and his maiden Persha Liha campaign starting. What followed was a rather haphazard recruitment drive that ultimately saw seven new faces join Pripyat. Three signings stood out from their peers, and they have been dubbed the three ‘As’, Alexandr Fomichev (Free agent), Alexandr Fedorov (free agent), and centre-back Andriy Fedorchuk (on loan from Olimpik Donetsk). All under 21, all with 5* potential (relative to this squad).

The signing of two more strikers left Chepiga with a slight issue fitting them all in, especially when you consider the emergence of Mykhaylo Bondar in last season’s promotion charge. Pripyat now had four strikers all expecting game time. This would ultimately cloud Chepiga’s normally clear tactical thinking and send Pripyat into a downward spiral later this season, but more on that later.

July

The season started in mid-July and it started well, on the face of it at least, with Chepiga employing his high pressing 4-4-1-1 that won him promotion last season. But performances did not really match up with results. A late debut goal from Fomichev, who scored five goals in three games in July, snatched an undeserved draw against Girnyk-Sport, a managerial nightmare of a 4-3 win against Kolos Kolvalivka, in which three Pripyat goals came from set-pieces, followed. A routine win 2-0 win against Rukh Lviv was the only time Pripyat looked in any way comfortable. With ten matches scheduled for August the high intensity press was already having a detrimental effect on the squad. During most games, over half the players condition would drop below 60% during the match, injuries and suspensions were already also on the cards.

August

The first two games in August seemed to compound Chepiga’s hunch that he needed to change something tactically. The 4-4-1-1 was not as effective as the previous season, and with the games coming every 3-4 days, as opposed to every 7-10 days last season, he needed to act fast. Fedorov had already been complaining about the lack of game time, an inevitable problem when you set up with only one striker, but promise four of them first team football! The remedy seemed simple, play more strikers. A 4-4-2 was implemented and a resounding 3-1 win followed against Balkany, with Fedorov bagging a hat-trick, to justify his inclusion in the two-striker system.

The same team was sent out to face Chernomorets, Pripyat lost a tight game 1-0 but what followed can only be described as a complete disaster.

Six defeats in a row, but not just six defeats, six defeats during which all semblance of a plan, a structure, an identity, was lost as we scrambled around searching for a magic bullet. I would like to be able to write about the tactical decisions that were made around this time, but to be honest I cannot. It felt like an endless firefight with games coming so fast that we never settled on a formation, or managed to get our best eleven out. Just look at the list of formations employed in this period, tragic.

Chepiga’s basic premise was an attempt to field as many of his good strikers as he could, but at the same time making Pripyat more defensively sound. This misguided mudslinging achieved neither, and the fire took hold. There was still one positive to take, Fomichev now topped the scoring charts with another three goals. The socials didn't make for comfortable reading around this time, not that Chepiga cared any.

September/October

Into the third month of the season and the fixtures started to be a little more spaced out allowing Chepiga some headspace to figure out what to do. The solution was to return to an old FM19 4-1-4-1 tactic he had used at Anzhi to bore his way to three successive Russian titles. It was not pretty, and it would alienate his young strikers, but it had to be done, or Pripyat would be heading back to the Druha Liha.

Pripyat went unbeaten across the two months, stabilising their position in the Persha Liha. Goals were still hard to come by, but defensively the side was far more solid, with only three conceded in the two months. Another four goals for Fomichev kept him top of the goal charts.

November

November was a neutral month, three games, a win, a loss, and a defeat. Three scored and three conceded. We then had the mother of all winter breaks. A four-month hiatus followed.

March/April

Another disaster, five games, three defeats and two draws, zero wins, and only one goal scored, left Pripyat in the relegation play off places. It was only then I realised this was the same run of games as before. I decided to check the season preview again and noted that these sides were all predicted to finish top half and included the predicted top two. Perhaps these are games we are not in a postion to win at the moment, irrespective of the tactics employed.

May/June

Just four games left and another defeat against Ingulets Petrove left Pripyat with three games to achieve three points to stay up. Thankfully a win in our next match against rivals, Agrobusiness, secured Persha Liha status with two games remaining. Fitting that Fomichev would score the goal to secure Persha Liha survival for Pripyat. Top division sides, Karpaty and Olexandriya were now watching him and with a minimum fee release clause of £55,000 it was unlikely he will start Season Six in Pripyat. He finishes joint top scorer in the Persha Liha with 15 goals.

So, a 9th place finish in our first season in the Persha Liha is a great result however the season was not plane sailing and lessons needed to be learned ahead of next season. The end of season awards were unsurprisingly dominated by Alexandr Fomichev.

Lessons learned

It was a tough season and I did not enjoy parts of it. Not because we were losing but more the fact that it felt directionless. This was, without doubt, caused by my chopping and changing of tactics. So, what to do when your save hits the rocks? Well lesser players may just jump ship, go manage a better team.

Others maybe just announce that “they aren’t feeling it” and start a new save. Whenever things get tough, I remember something my International team manager said to me once after a painful loss, “Tough times don’t last, tough people do.” Fairly sure this was not his quote, but the sentiment was not lost on me. So instead of blaming everyone else and quitting I had a look at what I could learn from the experience, and what could I change to avoid a repeat, and it is the same here in FM.

Lesson One: Don't sweat the losses.

I recently read a good post from FM Athlete detailing his latest season in his journeyman series. Athlete plans the season and identifies the games he should and should not win. This helps him to "not sweat the losses". This is something I need to do better. As a species, we seek out things that make us happy and release endorphins, often to the detriment of our long-term survival. I often think the green flashing of a goal is like sugar to my caveman brain. I seek out this visual confirmation of my good work and when that does not happen, I am left feeling that I have done something wrong. Even if we are playing a top-rated side, failure will release a negative feeling that I want to avoid. So, my caveman brain decides I should change my behaviour, try a new approach, or in this case, change my tactic. This is probably something a lot of FM players experience, and it can be difficult to stop. I have found it more difficult in recent years as my playing time is limited so I do not want to ‘waste’ it losing. Going forward I will be taking advice from FM Athlete and setting a target for each game, so I do not lose sight of the bigger picture again.

Lesson Two: Have a plan and stick to it.

Following on from number one I need to have a clear direction and stick to it. This makes recruitment and future planning so much easier. I can now start to be a bit more selective in the transfer market so will be hoping to marry up my style of play to certain types of player that actually fit the system rather than grabbing bodies at random just because they have one or two good attributes. I hope to write something on this soon.

Lesson Three: Read the rules!

Earlier on in the post you will have noticed I was lamenting the number of games in the early part of the season, and how my players were struggling to play with any intensity for more than 45 minutes. It was not until after the winter break than I noticed the AI making a 4th and a 5th substitution in a match. Perturbed by this I checked the league rules only to find I could have been making five changes per match all along! DOH!

Firefighting

An inexplicable fog had enveloped the valley when Chepiga was awoken by the fumblings of one of his guards. He had been in an usually deep slumber, and these days it took him a few minutes to waken properly. His eyes hurt as he rubbed the sleep away and opened them to see four men, dressed in black, around his bed.

"There is a fire Sir, it is big." The youngest guard murmured.
"Is it the reactor? Has there been a breach anywhere?" Chepiga's concern palpable.
"No Sir, in the forest."

Chepiga jumped from his cold steel bed, he knew instinctively they would not have woken him unless it was serious. He looked west and his fears were realised, a huge wildfire was raging, the flames dancing unfettered amongst the tree-tops. A light westerly breeze blowing the evil dance inexorably towards Chernobyl.

Four hours later, standing exhausted, less than a mile from the ruins of reactor Four, Chepiga looked to the sky, smoke and fire engulfed him, the cries of his comrades faded into the black, and the forest seemed to fall as quiet as the morning mist. He raised his personal dosimeter and the readings made his blood run cold. It was clear radiation was now in the very air he was struggling to breath.

“Every man dies but not every man truly lives” – the line from his favourite film, Braveheart, echoed through his mind. There was to be no escape, he sat crossed legged and faced his foe with indifference like the Russian soldier he was.

Just as all hope was lost, a familiar sound thundered through the forest. It was unmistakably the roar of an Antonov An-225 jet, repurposed to fight forest fires. In one swoop it dumped 40,000 litres of water all around Chepiga, he was saved.

Back at the control point he calculated the remaining fires could reach Chernobyl in 3-4 hours. As a second evacuation of Pripyat seemed likely, Mother Russia sent another gift. Clouds had been seeded to encourage rainfall by a Russian transport plane. The heavens opened, and as quickly as the fires started they were extinguished.

During the current Covid-19 crisis you may have missed the news that forest fires were raging remarkably close to the Chernobyl Power Plant. Radiation levels increased significantly in the areas closest to the stricken plant, and lesser doses have spread across central Europe as a result. At one-point 500 fire-fighters, two Helicopters, and two planes, were involved in fighting the fires which were only supressed when large rainfall occurred on 17 April. The Video below from the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, shows predicted radionuclides levels spread across Europe since the fires started at the beginning of April.

It is a little unsettling to think that some 34 years since the disaster we are still not free from it is affects.

In closing I hope everyone is well, perhaps we can see some light at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here in NI we have been able to go outside and visit family outdoors which has been welcome. I spent last weekend visiting some lesser known places away from the crowds. I hear McDonalds is also re-opening soon so there is that too.

Over and Out

FMEadster!