Episode 5 - PSG - Januzaj - What a Start Son!

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01/0/2015

My first competitive match as manager for PSG is done and dusted. I could not have wished for a better start! Although we were lucky coming out on top of which should be an expected victory for PSG, I am still very much pleased with my first trophy in this FM16 save. In this Episode (5) I discuss behind the scenes action of how my training schedules are set up, as well as Ligue 1 fixtures. I also show glimpses of my possible new transfers and more on my star signing/debutant.

French Champions Trophy

World Soccer Magazine

Overall I am very pleased with the team, although I cannot take anything away from my debutant Adnan Januzaj. He played for the full 93 minutes and gave nothing but his best. He scored the equalising goal for us as a result of his work rate throughout the game and forced the OM defense into an error, which he capitalised from with a sweet strike into the top corner. After 90 minutes the game went straight into penalties with non other than Januzaj slotting away the final penalty to bring the Trophy home for PSG in 3 consecutive years!! I love it when new signings pay off!!

Januzaj celebration after Equaliser

The French Football Informer Report on Januzaj

After the nights celebration I need to start directing my focus into the season ahead. As the board has quite high expectations for the season I cannot afford to slip. The following Monday I met the players back on the training pitch turning my focus to our first Ligue 1 game vs LOSC

Fixtures for the next 18 Matches

With Ibrahimovic out for a couple more weeks I had decided to look at the scouting reports for help. Even though I did sign Charles N'Zogbia, which adds quality to the team, I need to add a backup Striker since my Youth Striker Hervin Ongenda just lacks the quality expected of him. With only 2 Million Euros left as Transfer Budget I cannot afford another quality striker and therefore opting the same route as I went for N'Zogbia - Loan. I made two bids one for Loic Remy and one for a rather unknown player Fraizer Campbell from the English Ranks. It depends on which one gets accepted, hopefully I can bring in Loic Remy before our second Ligue 1 fixture.

Loic Remy

Frazer Campbell

For the first Ligue 1 match vs LOSC I will be selecting the same team vs OL in the French Champions Trophy. The only change will be in the formation as I will include an out-and-out striker, Hervin Ongenda. This will be the youngsters' only opportunity to show me what he can do as a first team player. This move forces Charles N'Zogbia out of the starting XI to the bench. 

Charles N'Zogbia - Out

Hervin Ongenda - In 

Preparation for the next match has been going well. Except for the couple of injuries we currently have, we look well prepared. After a two week period where I decided the teams' training focus should be on Cohesion, I feel that during the OL game it showed that the training weeks paid off. I switched to more attacking training as we need to score goals in numbers from the start if we are to win the Ligue 1. Only the next game will tell if those training session combinations paid off. Hopefully the start of the season will motivate players and be fired up so I won't be focusing on my pep talks as much yet. Players I am looking to for to be on fire for the next match is David Luiz, Adnan Januzaj and Angel Di Maria. I believe if those three perform on the night we have a great chance of coming away with a 3 goal difference victory.

Training Schedule Past 3 Weeks

Starting XI vs LOSC

Please drop a comment below if I missed out any important updates. I will do a final transfer story at the end of the transfer window. There might be new recruitment's arriving on loan soon as I already mentioned one (the other might me a surprise). Also please make sure to answer my surveys at the beginning or the end of each of my new blogs. The surveys will always take less than a minute and it is there to involve the readers a bit more. (It would really make things interesting!!)

In Episode 6 I will be discussing new transfers and final squad registration, Champions League Group Stage Draw and also my first four results into Ligue 1. Please let me know if you like my blogs so far in the comments below and all the best till the next one.

Zlatan Quote (Joke)

Episode 4 - PSG - Transfer News and Friendly Results

01 August 2015

New month new sights! What a month of July it was for me! first being appointed as a PSG manager and secondly most of my plans coming together with regards to squad building. I say most because there was a few hiccups during the first month with regards to player signings. I had to make the decision between the signing of youth players for the first team or big house names. I was basically forced to sign some youth. I realised a centre back problem and decided to add two youth players to that position with one of them being loaned back to his current club. I also bought a backup for the CDM position. All these signings made me quite bankrupt with regards to my transfer budget. This caused a big concern because I don't really have a backup striker for Ibrahimovic since Cavani left. I was forced to make a loan move for a winger to add to the depth and hopefully I can add to the striker position as well.

Transfers so far:

Adan Januzaj; Paddy McNair; Jake Cooper; Brendan Galloway; Charles N'Zogbia (Loan)

The most exciting transfers for me is the transfer of Adan Januzaj which I discussed in Episode (3) and Brendan Galloway.

Brendan Galloway:
Age: 19
Former Club: Everton
Transfer Fee: 28 Million Euros

By far one of the players I had to push on and submit a very high fee for. I could easily got Alexander Dragovic for around 15 Million Euros but felt that Galloway has much more to offer. He can also play in the Left Full Back position.

My squad for the new season is also registered with squad numbers already submitted. The squad looks like follow:

I feel happy with the squad and after the training camp and friendly matches I feel we are well prepared for the French Champions Trofee vs OL. I don't believe we will be strong enough for the Champions League Knockout Stages this season but I have faith that we will reach the knockout stages. I do feel well prepared for the league after the recent friendlies and I feel we will reach top 3 for certain.

Friendly Results:

3 Draws and 4 Wins for me is good enough although the draws should all have been positive results I feel the Team is ready for the season. My training has consisted out of mostly fitness till thus far and the next two weeks will consist of team cohesion and then attacking focused training.

Key Players for this season:

Episode 3 - PSG - Surprise Tactics & First Signing!!

During my 2nd day in the office I went into a brain storm with some of the first Team coaches on a new formation that could cause opposition unexpected trouble when playing against PSG. We drew up quite a number of formations with tactics and added them to a shortlist. Afterwards we went out to the fields to set up some training and meet up with the players for the very first time. At the end of the training session I went back to the drawing board to assess all the ideas for the final time. I came up with the following intuitive tactic:

Formation: 1- 4- 2- 3- 0

This may look like an ordinary formation but it is certainly one I would love to test out in order to see against which type of teams this would be potent. I opted to play with no out and out striker and rather a middle with many threats. I would love to try out David Luiz in a Roaming Play Maker role. I do like playing players slightly out of the usual positions to see if they could add something fresh to my line up as well as being able to rest some key players. I will keep playing consistently with one formation while keeping the other two on ice for weakened opposition, an injury crisis or just to mix it up a bit against regular teams we might face.

With regards to transfers there are quite a number of players I would either love to bring to the club or need to bring to the club. According to my team report from my assistant manager, areas to strengthen are as follow: Centre Back , Left Midfielder and Centre Midfield. The other problem is that there are already a number of clubs coming in with big offers for some of my key players which might force me to sell and stay on my toes. Rumours already has it that Edison Cavani might be leaving to Chelsea which is already my first big decision I need to make in the PSG hot seat.

Three days into the manager seat and I have made a massive signing. Not really one of my favourite players but certainly a player who can make a massive impact for the club. I decided to sign him as a rotational player for the right wing or midfielder role and also as a first team regular should Cavani get snatched up by Chelsea for around 60 Million Euros. The signing is no other than !!???!!?!?!?!

Adan Januzaj from Manchester United!

Age: 20

Cost: Around 40 Million Euros

Position: Right Winger/Midfielder, Left Winger/Midfielder or Central Attacking Midfielder

Nationality: Belgium

Looking forwards to what he could do and become in the nearby future and surely hope he can find his feet at the club as soon as possible. In Episode (4) I will give report on my first friendly match as well as how things go on the teams' training camp. 

All the best for you guys and hope you are still enjoying the blog.

Episode 2 - Fixtures, Tactics and Player Roles

It's midnight. 1 July, 2015.

My first day at the office is basically done. Staying up late to sort out all the paper work and planning ahead for what is going to be a tough season. There is a job to be done: winning the UEFA Champions League as a long term goal and winning the French Champions Trophy as a near future goal. Planning now consist of training for the season based on the fixtures ahead as well as setting up my tactics and instructions, which will be my base and foundation for the whole season. First up is the list of friendlies. They where all set up before I arrived in office and therefore I have no real say, except that I want to see my First Team face off against my reserves to make sure there is nothing or no one that I missed as a potential first team player. Current friendlies involve teams from Ligue 2 and French National Division sides. Probably PSG doing their community duties as a top French Club.

Tactics-wise I have summed up my team as a team with very high flair and passing attributes with 70% of my squad with decent decision making attributes. Therefore I will be playing two types of formations prominently. First of all a classic 1- 4 - 3 -3 formation with wingers and a complete forward roles and a box to box midfielder to add to fluidity of my build ups and defenses.

My second choice formation is a little bit more strict and allows me to play three central defenders as well as playing my games at a lower intensity. This will be my formation against weak opposition and teams who allows me to field a weaker team and giving game time to my fringe central defenders.

The advance play-maker and box to box midfielder, as well as the complete forward and ball playing defender roles will be the key roles in my formations, where I will always look to field the strongest players as well as bringing in the strongest players in those roles.

In the next Episode (3) - I will discuss my third tactic which will be a surprise and rather unusual tactics to throw a couple of opposition off their paces. I will also go over some transfers as well as the First Team vs Reserves match.

I will be off to bed now and looking forward to day two in the office!

Episode 1: Paris Saint Germain F.C. - Day 1

Running my fingers over the smooth wood of the desk I am sitting in taking in all I can of my first day of my new club. Being appointed as the manager of Paris Saint Germain (PSG) certainly adds some pressure to the occasion but never the less I need to start getting my admin in order and start my planing for a season kicking off in less than 6 weeks. 

On my desk I open up some reports from my coaching staff and the clubs chairman. This entails the background history of the club as well as key players and scouting reports.  Jean-Louis Gasset will be kept as my assistant manager for the first season as well as most of the coaching staff will hold on to their coaching positions for at least the first season. 

Looking at the scouting reports of my current squad I believe that PSG have decent cover for most of the positions that would suit my formations. Only a couple of improvements will be required in the sense of signing two or three youth players that add immediate backup to the Left Wing, Right Centre Back as well as Centre Back Positions. After looking at the scout reports I have shortlisted a some players which I believe could do the job that suits my requirements. 

  

The pick of the players for me on that shortlist will be: Januzaj, Redmond, McNair, Galloway and Cooper. This is all depending of the incoming scouting reports that I requested from my Head Scout. I also did look at some of my youth players and to be honest most of them which is not away on loan quite disappointed me.But despite the disappointment I did found at least three Youth Players which will be promoted to the First Team.

Promoted Players:  Alec Georgen, Souleyman Doumbia, Jean-Kévin Augustin

These three youth prospects will be training with the first team but play most of their games for the reserve team. 

In Episode 2 I will share most of my tactics that I will use during the season as well as my training set up and coaching responsibilities and roles. And hopefilly I can get into the pre-season and season as quickly as possible as I cannot wait for my first match in the PSG hot seat!!!

Introduction to my 1st FM16 Blog: Paris Saint-Germain F.C.

07/05/2016                                                                                                                Marinus de Villiers

To many this is only a game or boring simulation but for me it is a simulation with many depth and learning curves. I basically use this to learn the ins and outs in a unforgiving football world so that I could stay up to date with the latest trends regarding tactics, players, clubs and managers.

Starting off my blog I will be playing as a highly qualified football coach in FM16 managing Paris Saint-Germain F.C. In episode 1 I will be sharing some of my experiences as a manager during the first days at the office and my day to day activity at such a prestige club. Ultimately I will be covering my Transfers, Tactics, Training, Fixtures and results as well as staff and player situations. Basically everything a real life manger would deal with.