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SMALL BALLERS GON LOOK DeadMan Does FM18: Kaiserslautern

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
I've decided to hop on the FM18 bandwagon, since it's still on sale. I normally do higher level teams, but I wanted something a little different from that this time. Unfortunately @Travis7401 took my ideal team in Koln, but I've decided to go a level lower and do something similar: Kaiserslautern: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1._FC_Kaiserslautern

Long story short, they have a pretty interesting history, including being in the Bundesliga from 1963 to 1996, won the Bundesliga after being promoted from the 2. Bundesliga in 1997-98, and had a pretty good run in the 1950s with Fritz Walter, who captained West Germany to its first ever World Cup title.

They were in the 2. Bundesliga this past season, but got relegated to the 3. Bundesliga. The team should provide a good challenge, along with a rescue job, and a really good history to build on.

I've also actually been to this stadium! Saw USA-Italy tie 1-1. It was an awesome game. I'll see if I can dig up some photos I took from that game later and post them.

Meanwhile, I'm just diving into the game and the team. Screenshots as I get more into the game.
 
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DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
FM 18 online league?

I think it’s pretty difficult to run, and you’d all have to online at the same time to do it. I think. I know we played around with it in the past, and it was a pain.

Personally, I don’t have the time to do an online league. This will be more than enough for me. It will probably take me 2 weeks to get through half a season.
 

Bdub

Well-Known Member
I think it’s pretty difficult to run, and you’d all have to online at the same time to do it. I think. I know we played around with it in the past, and it was a pain.

Personally, I don’t have the time to do an online league. This will be more than enough for me. It will probably take me 2 weeks to get through half a season.
It looks easier than Baseball, but like you said everyone has to be online.
 

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
Well, I've gone through the squad and some of my staff. This is going to be interesting. The squad makes zero sense to me. I can see why they got relegated. There's 6 good centerbacks, but I have no idea which ones will be best. They all look about the same. The starting goalie is a loanee, and the backup isn't very good. There are like 4 playmaking midfielders/attacking mids. There's one right winger, and the left winger is more of an inside forward. But then there's two target men for strikers, which makes no sense if you don't have wingers. Then there's a false nine, which doesn't make sense with the other playmakers (and it's Halil Altintop, which is a blast from the past). There's one advanced forward who's also pretty good, but he's a loanee too. There's one defensive midfielder. It's really odd.

The positives are that I have good players. I think we can make a run at promotion with this squad, with a few tweaks. I need probably a right winger and defensive midfielder to be more complete, but it's not bad.

I was hoping to play a 4-3-3, sit deep and counter attack. But with this squad, I have to be more proactive than that. It's built to control the game and create chances through possession. I'm going to start with a 4-2-3-1 looking to dominate games and attack. Meh. With my squad, I also have two pretty good attacking fullbacks, so I'll also roll out a 3-4-2-1 that looks to counter quickly on occasion. Or I'll scrap everything and do a 4-4-2 or something more simple. Annoying squad that's going to take the right tactics to be good.

I had a $300k transfer budget, and I'm $400k per year in the hole for salaries. That didn't change materially with higher expectations, so the board is expecting a top half finish and a second round cup run. I will have to sell some players to be able to bring in transfers.

I moved all of the transfer budget to scouting, though. I am pretty lost on who to recruit right now, so I want to focus on building my knowledge and identify good transfers for the next transfer window. I'll probably try for some loanees from bigger clubs to fill gaps for this year. After this year, I will need a new goalie, striker, and probably more.

Anyways, onto some players to highlight:

Halfar.png

I think Halfar is my best playmaker. If he can get the ball, good things should happen.

Spalvis.png

This is my loanee striker. should be pretty good in the 2. Bundesliga. Could use some more pace in an ideal world, but oh well.

Two young players that I think I can start from the beginning:

abu hanna.png

Fechner.png

There's a couple of other interesting prospects in the youth/U23 team, but they're really raw.

Rolling through the friendlies now, I'll update with any signings that I make.
 
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DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
I was looking up some stuff on Wikipedia today about FCK. I had no idea they finished DFL in the 2. Bundesliga last year in real life. Woof.

It's hard to tell for sure because I don't have any experience with the 2. Bundesliga on FM at all, but I think finishing in the top half should be pretty easy. The hard thing is that it seems most teams are pretty even in the 2. Bundesliga, so I feel like things could snowball quickly if we have a poor run. OTOH, it means I could get the team on a roll and get them promoted.
 

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
Transfer Update:

Transfers.png

Got two backups/squad depth first:

Guatelli.png

A goalie, just so I had a third goalie when necessary. He's on a one year contract, so no big deal when he leaves.

Akyol.png

Backup left back, on loan from Hertha. Looks like a pretty solid prospect. We'll see if I can get him permanently.

Then two players I expect to play more prominent roles:

Kom.png

Kom looks like a pretty solid defensive midfielder. He'll give me the option to play more of a 4-3-3 than I can right now. I don't think he'll start over my 19 year old defensive midfielder, but he'll definitely be useful.

Kiesewetter.png

Kiesewetter is someone I wasn't 100% sure if he was worth the transfer. He's an improvement on my current right winger, and I love his 16 pace. He's the only person I spent actual money on, and I would prefer to spend money on younger players vs. older player. In the end, I couldn't really find a winger that was a better fit than him, so I brought him on board.

Even though I played FM17, I'm still learning a decent amount. First, I didn't realize until like 2 weeks left in the transfer window that you could pay for a more expansive player search. I was limited to only Germany, which I thought was a function of my scouting knowledge. And then I can play a Kaiserslautern II match with first team players within 2 days of a real game. I set up a bunch of friendlies just so I could keep my squad match fit, but I didn't know that rule. So my next game I have basically my entire bench ineligible. :laughing: Oops.

Results are mixed so far. I've had a win, a loss, and two draws in the league. I won my first round cup match. I've played a pretty tough schedule - both promoted teams IRL already. Dusseldorf boat raced me. I should have beat Nurnburg, but oh well. I'm trying to let my tactics settle in a bit before tweaking them a ton, but that's tough for me.
 

fried rice

Who wants to sex Mutombo?
I played Kaiserslautern for about 5 seasons in FM2014. I think Alexander Ring was the only player I recognized in FIFA 17.

Looks like Florian Dick is still around also. And now they have a Florian...Pick. Better sign another Florian, quick.
 

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
Finally dug up some pictures of the Fritz-Walter Stadion that I took at the USA-Italy game in 2006:

1927691_549795403463_5593_n.jpg
1927691_549795388493_4256_n.jpg
1927691_549795423423_7399_n.jpg

These were taken on a digital camera that was probably bought in 2000, so that's why they're so awful.
 
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