"Paint It Black" - Rio de la Plata #FM20 — CoffeehouseFM

Previously on Rio de la Plata, Ángel Bastardo fought fatigue and won a trophy.

Intro

Nacional Vs. Peñarol is (outside of the UK) the oldest club derby in world football history, it’s an emotionally charged fixture…the way Ángel Bastardo likes it. The Montevideo police had drawn out the entry zones into the Campeón del Siglo stadium, keen to ensure the contact between both sets of fans was kept to a minimum. But these plans were futile whilst Bastardo and the Peñarol caporegime were around.

Three hours before kick-off, Bastardo had led the charge on horseback; around 150 Barra Amsterdam soldiers flanked by 27 Venezuelan Free Folk, including young Hugo Ojeda, caught the Nacional troops with a surprise attack from the fields deep into the Canelones department. Crossing Route 102 and into the stadium complex, the home fans had cheered Don Bastardo even before a ball had been kicked. It was said that going up against Peñarol often felt like starting the match 0-3 down…for Nacional fans on 27 November 2019, it was true.

Battered and bruised they would make their way into the stadium with only a few minutes to spare before kick-off. Those fans entered the Campeón del Siglo and into cauldron of black and yellow, to see a manager who was on the verge of winning his first Uruguayan Primera División title. Bastardo’s message to his players in the pre-match team talk: “Paint It Black”…

Season 2019

Domestic

Last time out on the blog I documented my near perfect start with Peñarol in the Opening Stage of the Primera División: 14 wins and 1 solitary loss (away at Nacional). I was therefore fairly confident going into the mid-season Intermedio, which FM treats as a cup competition. We could rotate the squad and hopefully get another cup final. So, I took a largely developmental squad into the seven games in order to introduce a few Peñarol youth products to the 1st team. We’ll talk more about them further on this blog post, but they are: Ezequiel Busquets (18), Agustín Canobbio (20), Matías de los Santos (20) & Ezequiel Mechoso (19).

But as I quickly learnt, one bad result can screw you’re whole mid-season campaign. We had an awful game against River Plate Montevideo (losing 2-1 at home), who went on to top the group and then beat Nacional on penalties to win the 2019 Intermedio.

Despite the Board wanting to win the Intermedio, my main target this season was to be crowned the 2019 domestic league champion. We had already secured a Champions Play-Off spot, after winning the Opening Stage…but by winning the Closing Stage I could become the outright champion and avoid the drama of a Play-Off. We were strong, perhaps not as strong as the freakishly good Opening Stage…but enough to top the league once again. The title being decided at home Vs Nacional on 27 November 2019, a 2-1 win with Captain Fantastic Cristian Rodríguez scoring the winner (more on this later):

Our 4141 / 433 system fluid-counter attack system produced a record points haul of 94 points, when tallying up the Opening, Intermedio & Closing stages:

Continental

The real challenge of this save is on the continental scene and so it proved in my knockout matches against Internacional of Porto Alegre, Brazil. I won’t come out and say we were the better team here, because ultimately I felt Internacional were better than us over the 180 minutes. But the ties were remarkably close and give us hope that we can compete against the best from Brazil going forwards.

Internacional’s run went all the way to the final, where they were beaten by real-life Copa Libertadores Champions Flamengo in an all-Brazilian encounter.

So, overall a brilliant season. A Primera División and Super Cup domestic double to cast away the Bastardo doubters. Here are some of my top performers from Year 2019 (all comps):

Goals: Agustín Canobbio (18 goals), Cristian Rodríguez (14 goals) & Luis Acevedo (11 goals)
Assists: Giovanni González (12 assists), Cristian Rodríguez (11 assists) & Gabriel Rojas (7 assists)
Average Rating: Gabriel Rojas (7.37), Giovanni González (7.22) & Agustín Canobbio (7.14)

Las Joyas de Peñarol

I really like charting the progression of a group of youngsters in Football Manager, I did something similar in FM18 with Estudiantes (read more here). In those posts, I had a mixture of youth that had either come from the Academy itself or Newgens acquired externally by poaching talents from around South America. As mentioned in my opening FM20 post, I intend to work towards the club vision of developing youth from within the Peñarol setup. Alongside that, an alternative club vision has me signing established stars for the 1st Team. For these reasons, my sole focus in terms of youth development is working with whatever the Academy produces. The scouting & transfer budgets will be used to buy 1st team ready players but the coaching & training side of Peñarol will be there to help bring through “Las joyas de Peñarol”.

Now that the brief intro is over, I’ll introduce you to the aforementioned foursome of players that were here from Day 1 of my save. All of whom have contributed significantly to Peñarol’s domestic double in 2019…

Agustín Canobbio - born 1998

Before taking on this save, I already knew that Canobbio should be one of the standout youngsters to keep an eye on. Little did I know that he’d undoubtedly be my most prolific forward with 18 goals (all comps). He won both the Player & Young Player of the Primera División awards for 2019, so it was a huge priority buy out his contract from his Agent (a common event in South America) in December 2019.

His exposure to First Team football has seen him jump from 2.5 star to 3.5 star current ability. He has a little wiggle room left before maxing out as a 4 star player, which is why it’s imperative we don’t move him on just yet:

Canobbio has been playing and training as a Winger on Attack, and I’ve been conscious not to overload him on then training ground, because he was pretty critical to our success in the 1st team.

He has also been placed in a tutoring group, and despite no great increase in Determination or personality, I hope to see further gains made here in 2020. Although I am worried that his status as a key player in our side will see him less influenced by older players.

Bastardo's reflection:

+ Huge offensive output in the First Team.
+ Removed Agent ownership and tied to a two year contract with no release clause.
- Needs a complementary player trait trained. Tutoring with Cristian Rodríguez has been largely ineffectual in year 1.

Matías de los Santos - born 1998

Next up is Matías de los Santos. Who has gone from being a fringe player to an integral part of our midfield three engine room…to the point where he is now one of the first names on the team-sheet. You’ll see from the below that we’ve been training him in the central midfield position (and in a Central Midfielder-Attack role), and he’s probably now more suited in this more advanced position than at DM. He’s grown well in both Anticipation and Off The Ball (both +2 point increases) and I’m probably going to switch his training to a CM-Support role to favour Concentration over Long Shots over 2020.

I tried to get him some traits from Walter Gargano via a mentoring group, but sadly they haven’t yet arrived…only the negative two point drop in Determination to now match Gargano’s score of 15. However, his star rating has grown from 2.5 stars to 4 stars, which now suggests that he has reached his potential. I therefore had no worries with our Director of Football adding in a minimum fee release clause of €2.2m which would be good money for us; should a club bid for him during his two year contract.

Bastardo's reflection:

+ Has almost reached his ceiling in terms of potential ability.
+ Now a preferred Central Midfielder and plays this role well in the team.
- Drop in Determination from mentoring.

Ezequiel Mechoso - born 2000
Continuing the theme of young central midfielders, we have Ezequiel Mechoso who was sitting in our under 19s on Day 1 of this save. During the second half of the 2019 season I introduced him to the First Team, he made 5 league starts in the Closing Stage and featured in 5 of the 7 Intermedio cup games. His growth is perhaps not as spectacular compared to Agustín & Matías, but he has earned a one year contract extension in Team Bastardo.

I’ve added an individual focus on Attacking movement to help accelerate Mechoso’s attacking growth in Anticipation, Decisions and Off The Ball. These are important attributes for my Central Midfielder Attack role in my side, and could be deadly when combined with Mechoso’s high scores in Passing & Vision. Doing this is effectively a 4th session of the day in training terms, so I’ll monitor whether I keep this going forward depending on how much gametime Mechoso is getting in 2020.

Bastardo's reflection:

+ Early signs show a technical player with some strong mental attributes.
+ Still a huge room for development, Mechoso now needs games.
- Mechoso has been added to Cristian Rodríguez’s mentoring group. I expect a drop in Determination, but I would like a Player Trait or two!

Ezequiel Busquets - born 2000

Similar in the way Ezequiel Mechoso joined the Peñarol First Team, Ezequiel Busquets was part of the developmental Intermedio squad. He’s had to be patient, seeing that 1st choice right back Giovanni González is one of our top performers.

Unfortunately Busquets out of all the four players integrated over 2019 had the hardest time to adapt. Maybe it’s the low Determination or some of the hidden attributes behind the scenes, he’s had a real issue with taking on additional training. However, we have seen a slight increase in Determination due to him being part of Walter Gargano’s mentoring group.

But in a curious tale that relates back to the opening paragraph of this blog post, Ezequiel Busquets’ played a pivot role in the title decider against Nacional on 27 November 2019. Not only did he score his second own goal of the season to bring the teams level at 1-1, he perhaps justified why you should really see youth development through in FM:

His direct running all game was a thorn in the side of Nacional, and it finally paid off with a good cross for Cristian Rodríguez to head home. Young players will make mistakes, it’s part of football, but you have to be there for them when it happens. To quote a truly great man:

“Young players need freedom of expression to develop as creative players. They should be encouraged to try skills without fear of failure” - Arsène Wenger

Bastardo's reflection:

+ Assisted the title winning goal.
+ Bastardo’s 1st choice in the Uruguayan U20 setup.
- Needs to be more determined.

Next time…

I wanted this youth development post to be concise with just the four guys over a very short window (just one year), to provide a snapshot at the decision making I go into when managing and integrating younger players. One year is no longer enough time to turn youngsters into superstars in Football Manager, progress takes time and proper management. So, I am happy with what we’ve done over 2019, but there is massive room for improvements. The good news is that there’s at least another couple of 18 year olds entering the 1st team for 2020 (Agustín Álvarez & Facundo Pellistri), plus I am fast approaching my first Youth Intake in Football Manager 2020. The excitement rises for what has, so far, been an awesome save as I look to continue the good work here at Peñarol.

Note - I have intentionally shied away from updating you on 2020 transfer dealings, updates on the happenings of the Uruguayan u20 National Team setup, Project Vincent or the Caporegime. These will all be covered in various blogs in the future.

As always, thanks for reading/sharing/caring.

FM Grasshopper