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[FM 15] You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog (FC Hound Dogs/Gibraltar)

Borman

Well-Known Member
Well, its been a long time since I did anything of this nature, but since this is a challenge I've wanted to try for a while, I think this is something I finally feel like doing again. I downloaded the Gibraltar leagues from steam and scrounged around the second league for a bit trying to decide on a team to play as, and I settled on FC Hound Dogs mainly because they have a decent green third kit, especially for the area, and their unique name.

Once I arrived at the club, I realized the chairman was a 22 year old player/chairman named Sean Harrison. It'll be interesting to see if any potential frustration from one job may carry over to the other.

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Since the club is so small, there were not much more than 8 or 9 players there at my arrival. I went to work signing up some guys on amateur deals, and rather than go through them all, I'll just post my tactic and tell you all that these guys are new except Robles Puertas, Moonilall (who is replacing a new player who is injured), Draper and Mauro.

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We play very direct and narrow, as there really were no wingers that would be of use for this team available. That said, here is a look the start of the schedule for the team.

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Yes, yes I did play the first game before getting ready to post. I was excited to play. More from the Gibraltar national team in another post...
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
Gibraltar's national team is, obviously, not good compared to most. To not help matters at all, this is our group for the upcoming European Championship Qualifiers.

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We're going to get killed. If I can sneak a point, that'd be great. Not expecting it though. I set up two tactics, as I don't have enough squad depth at any position really to stick to just one. The first one unintentionally resembles the Hound Dogs tactic, while the other is a modified 4-4-2 to take advantage of a top notch Attacking Mid that we have.

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Gibraltar's national team won't really be the focus of this for a while, until the Hound Dogs get above the rest of the league and the national side starts getting stronger.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
So... its January 1...

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We're in first place on points, but College Europa has a game in hand that they could use to move up again. 2nd place gets a playoff game with the second to last place team in the first division to win a promotion spot, so 2nd isn't the worst place to be, even though 1st would obviously be preferred.

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Stats-wise, John Barcelo is our leading scorer, although recently before his injury he had been struggling getting shots on target. Leeroy Ruiz is proving to be a surprise off the bench, with 5 goals scored. Ian Thistlethwaite has assisted on 8 goals and has been doing great work in the midfield, while Julian Sacarello has been the best of the backline, playing a bit of center back and a bit of left back. Parea Gutierrez and Salazar are new additions at each fullback, and really seem to be solidifying those positions. Once we get through those injuries you see we should be very good.

EDIT: I was going to make another post on the national team, but there isn't much to report. We scored against Georgia. Lost every game. We stink.

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Borman

Well-Known Member
Long road ahead of you, should be fun though

Indeed, it will take a while, but its the kind of thing I've always liked doing.

Also, we drew Lincoln (GIB) in the 2nd round of the Rock Cup. The winner of the Rock Cup gets a Europa League spot, so making a big run in this would be huge. Lincoln is the top team in Gibraltar for those who don't know, having won the league and Cup for at least the past 7 years. And this is the halftime score.

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Stay tuned.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
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So Ian Thistlethwaite decided to take 2 yellow cards in 5 minutes to really hamstring our side and honestly, we are lucky it only wound up 3-1. It was nice to see us hang with some big time squads though.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
So the season is over in the Gibraltarian Second Division. How did it turn out?

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Ladies and Gentlemen(well, I don't think there are any ladies here. But just in case), we are going up to the First Division. We went on a 9 game unbeaten streak near the end of the season, only ending on the last day of the season when we had the league well wrapped up and I was playing backups. We lead the league in goals scored and goals allowed. You can see that Ian Thistlethwaite was a top player in the league, and he won the Player of the Year award for the Second Division.

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January signing Adan Guerero led the team in goals with 8, with supersub LeeRoy Ruiz scoring 7 and others helping out as well. Injuries kept a lot of guys from scoring much, as Manu was injured twice, as was John Barcelo. Thistlethwaite led the team in assists with 14, though his occasional yellow card tendency hurt us in a game or two.

Getting promoted the First Division has the added benefit of Chairman Sean Harrison deciding to turn the squad semi-pro. Having the ability to sign people to part time contracts is nice, but I'm probably going to keep the contracts to luring good players into the squad until we start winning the First Division and get Champions League money rolling in. We don't make much money on gate receipts and I can't imagine the league giving out much for prize money, so we need to keep our eyes on the finances yet. That said, we have some good players incoming this summer, and at the time of this post we only have given out one part time contract.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
As far as our national team is concerned, we still suck.

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We've lost all our games in the Euros, and friendlies to Faroe Islands and Malta. I've been experimenting with 4 at the back lately, with very little success. This is the last formation that was trialed.

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Upon further thought, I might drop the anchor man into the back and go 5 at the back again, as I don't really have a good enough defensive mid to really make it work. Still a work in progress.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
Transfer time!

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Bosio is the first guy who came in on a part time contract. He was available on a free and with Wayne Gilby reaching age 42 and retiring at the end of this season we needed a higher level center mid and Bosio is plenty good enough to join Thistlethwaite in the center of the pitch. He had a decent preseason as well, and while he won't be as good as his midfield partner he is young enough to improve a little and be great in the future.

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Jarrett Aguilera comes in on an amateur contract, as we signed him on a pre-contract from Olympique before we turned semi-pro. Aguilera is an improvement over the variety of players we used up top last year, but if he has the same injury issues we had last year with our strikers we still have everyone from last year.

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Linares comes in on a non-contract to be a defensive mid for us. He's young and can improve if we get him some playing time, he might be the first backup off the bench for us at DM and get a couple starts when Conor Harrison goes on international duty. Should be solid help for us.

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Quick was my final signing, also on a non-contract. He adds more depth at DM, with our new formation requiring a little more depth there. He's good enough to come on if required, and might play some of the cup games, but he's 4th choice. Won't cost us money not to play him though, so I'm not concerned.

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This is the new formation, I trailed it a bit at the end of last season with a bit of success, and it has been great in the preseason for me as well. We still have the 5-1-2-2 for when I need to go very defensive in games like Lincoln. I'm excited to offer a bit more going forward as opposed to playing long ball and getting ugly goals.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
Things are looking a little bit up for the national team...

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Obviously, we were dominated on the pitch, but the scoreboard shows that we hung in there. 75 minutes of a scoreless draw against Scotland is more than I could realistically ask from this team, and gave us a big boost going into the home game against Georgia 3 days later.

Unfortunately, between the games our right fullback and best player Scott Wiseman, who plays in England for Preston, came down with a virus and was unable to play. Without him, our defense wasn't as solid and we lost 3-0 to Georgia. Moving the defensive mid back into the defensive line seemed to help us solidify our defense, with that, this is what our formation looks like.

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There are also a couple Spaniards who have been playing in Gibraltar for years who have declared themselves eligible for the national team who can help the squad. I'll be looking into adding them into the squad and maybe we can get our first result sooner rather than later.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
I was going to do a mid-season post, but with the First Division only having a 14 game schedule (an 8 team league where every team plays twice) By the time I got the photos together and ready I had already played on to only 4 games left in the season and I decided to just lump the entire season into one post.

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As you can see, it wasn't the most successful campaign in the league, although I kept the Board's expectations low so I'm still in very good job security. I don't know why I am still in the Second Division Cup, but I won 16.5k for winning it, which paid my salary in one fell swoop, so I won't be complaining.

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You can see a lack of goal scoring threat hurt us last year. Paul Podesta is a guy I accidentally brought in in January, thinking I was signing him on a pre-contract for next season. He was leading the league in goals with 8 after 8 games when he came in and.... well, you can see his pay off. Stats aren't all deceiving though.

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I highlighted the Lincoln game for a this reason. Firstly, we got a result against the league champions for the first time since we took over. Secondly, Paul Podesta, who had scored once since signing, put two on the board, and James Bosio, who spent a couple games on the bench due to the fanbase (all 150 of them) not taking very well to his poor performances early in the season adding another. Both will be coming back next season, so hopefully this gives both of them some confidence going into the new year.

------

As for the national side, we have been off for a while. We lost a friendly against Lithuania 3-0 but the worst news came at the end of the league season.

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Our best attacking player, Liam Walker, retired at the end of the league season at 28. He spent all season as a free agent, refusing offers from teams like me due to us not being a good enough team for him. Unfortunately, no teams he deemed worthy of him would give him a shot, so the National team will suffer. This may end up being one of the toughest parts of this dynasty, having your best players retire because they are too good for you.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
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I got an email in my inbox telling me the league gained a spot in European competitions due to success in the competition last season. Not understanding how, I decided to check the results from Lincoln...

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Holy crap. Firstly, we are lucky that Bangor City won the Welsh league, as TNS have been dominant for years. I know. I did a save with Bala in Wales before this. Never toppled them. They're tough. Secondly, getting through on away goals after losing 2-0 at home? That definitely isn't the textbook way to win a two legged match. Very happy about this, because now I'm assuming 2nd place in the league gets Europa League, which brings in the big money. That said, we need to win the league soon or I'm afraid Lincoln will start running away with the league.
 

NML

Well-Known Member
Lincoln becoming a powerhouse wouldn't be the worst thing. 1 - they will continue to improve the country's coefficient. 2 - they will produce better players for the national team. 3 - it will provide you a long term domestic challenge. Once you get to the point that you are winning games with this national team, ur club is going to be stacked playing amateur sides. Lincoln will at least give you longevity domestically.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
This is very true. The more competitive that the top 2 or hopefully even 3 teams can be in the league will keep the league interesting and will also hopefully help us in the European competitions. The more competitive the rest of the league hopefully means their sides are improving as well so they can hang in when they get their chances. The bad part for the league has been who has gotten the Europa League spot this year. Lynx won the Rock Cup to earn the spot, but they finished last in the league and have been demoted to the second division. They'll have the money to keep their squad together and come back up for next season, but it's going to hinder their progress, which is disappointing.

Just decided to check and see how Lynx did in Europe since I mentioned it. They drew Aberdeen of Scotland in the first qualifying round. They got destroyed 6-0 at home and 12-0 in Scotland. That's one of the biggest defeats I've seen in FM this year. Ouch.

Lincoln drew HB of the Faroe Islands in the Champions League. I'd have hoped they could be victorious over them, but they once again lost 2-0 at home in the first leg before a 1-1 draw lead to them going out. I really would have liked to have seen them move on, especially since the draw was fairly nice to them in my opinion.
 

NML

Well-Known Member
Yeah me as well, I just 15 recently too. Joining the OOTP league takes a good bit of my free time doe.

What are your finances like? Try to pump money into the youth - if you get up whatever impacts the CA of your youth intake (I think youth recruitment), you'll get 16 year olds ready to contribute. If ur training facilities are good enough, they'll be starting for the national team by 20 and you can sell them to bigger clubs.

Oh, also reminds me - have some other leagues loaded. That's why ur player didn't sign, he thought the domestic league was below him and there were no other options. Good bet is to load Spain down to the third tier or so. Close by and you want stepping stones for players. You could also do the first two tiers (because I feel like the third tier is 1000 clubs or something ridiculous), and then another country in between. Portugal second division maybe?
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
Financially, we are doing ok, but not great. We have 30k in the bank, but with adding two players as well as not being in the 2nd Division Cup anymore winning an easy 16.5k, we might not make as much this year as we did last unless we find our way into Europe money. I kinda spammed the preseason friendlies to try to get as much money in as I could to help that. I'm signing young too, so we should keep getting better as we grow up. I'm pretty sure youth recruitment is the one that effects the CA of the youth as well. I've got a couple youngsters that are performing well in preseason and did ok in some games last year, but their stats don't really show they are good. As long as they keep performing I'll keep them around though.

And good shout on adding leagues. I had a few loaded, but the only lower ones I had were Vanarama North/South. The goalie for my national team wound up landing a job in the Van. South, but I didn't think to add lower in Spain. I just put Spain down to the 3rd division (had the top 2) and Portugal to the 3rd as well (only had the top league there). Hopefully that'll help that problem.

I have two more preseason friendlies to get through, then I'll do a post for the new year. Is there anything you guys want to see that I haven't covered yet?
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
After going through 11 friendlies, we're finally ready for the regular season.

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We're keeping the expectations low again as far as the board are concerned. I'm expecting us to do very well, considering we only lost one game in the preseason. We aren't in the Second Division Cup anymore, which makes sense but I will miss the easy 16.5k. Senior League Cup winner doesn't receive any money, so I'm very happy I don't have any expectations in it so I can play backups and not worry about trying to keep the board happy.

I brought in 2 players this summer...

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Jaydan Byrne is a 17 year old I brought in from Lions. He's a solid center attacking mid, with the ability to play in the middle as well. He has a lot of potential and I'll be looking to get him on the field as much as I can.

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At 24, Kyle Moreno doesn't have quite the upside that Byrne has, but he is already at a level that he is a good starter at center back. His size is going to be a big help to him as well, at 6'4 he is one of the tallest players in the league. He can fill in on the outside as well, but I hope to never have to put him out there.

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This is the new tactic I plan on using at least for most home games this season. This will help take advantage of Byrne's talent, as well as give us the ability to retain possession and control the game. I'll still be using the 4-2-2-2 on the road and any other time I feel like I need to, and I still have the 5 at the back tactic hanging out if I feel like it.

And, just to give a look to what I have in my reserves as far as young players, here is one of my better prospects.

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This is Carl Stewart. Right now, he's my backup goalkeeper for the main squad and gets all the reserve games as well. I got him as much playing time as I could in preseason while still getting Zammitt ready for the season, and he also earned a call up to the Gibraltarian Under 19s squad at the age of 16. He'll probably play all the Senior League cup games, as well as a Rock Cup game or two possibly. Our staff already rates him as a decent Second League goalkeeper, and I'd like to loan him out to a Second League side to get him some first team soccer in the near future. (I think the fact that he's on a youth contract might be why I can't loan list him. Any thoughts?)
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
Thanks GoBlue. I wasn't sure. I might put Stewart onto a Part time deal so I can send him to a Second Division team to get first team soccer. He was called up to the U21 squad this past international... occasion? It might have been a qualifier. He did pretty well for them too, so he's looking good.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
This will probably move slower now that NHL is out and taking up some playing time, but I'll keep things updated when I can.


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We have reached January of 17, and this is what things look like. We've gotten off to a pretty good start, sitting 2nd with Lincoln being a surprise 3rd place. St. Josephs had a really fast start, but I think they are going to come back to us. It'll be interesting to see if they fall all the way to us, and if Lincoln can come flying back up the table. I just noticed we have allowed the fewest goals in the league, which is great. Our goal difference is definitely helped out by a 5-0 game against Angels. At this point, I'd be so happy with 2nd place.

We wound up 3rd out of 4 teams in the Senior League Cup as well, only 1 point from a top 2 finish and a semi final position. I played a few youth guys in with my younger guys that play on the main squad, and the results were good. Lots of experience for young players, and even if we won it we weren't going to get money for it so I'm ok with going out. Would have been nice to get them one more game, but its not the end of the world.

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David Olmedo Cruz has been our penalty taker so far this season, although I just realized that Jaydan Byrne was slightly better at penalties so he'll be first in line. Manu is a 20 year old Spaniard who is really coming along nicely. I won't be renewing Paul Podesta's contract at the end of the season, as he really isn't performing and is losing playing time quickly. I've been eyeing up a 16 year old striker to replace him who has been getting starts this season for Man 62, hopefully that'll pull through this offseason.

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The national side was pretty boring all year. No competitions in 2016, and our friendlies didn't go too well for us. On the plus side, we're starting to get a good, young base of players coming through, some of which are already up on the senior team. Once we get some of those guys ready and moving up the system I think we'll be alright.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
Alright, I'm ready to do an update again, but I think I simmed too far forward doing International stuff to be able to get stats. What I guess I'm saying is there won't be stats for the players on my team. That said, there is some international happenings that are awesome and worth it.
 

Borman

Well-Known Member
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Ok, so I was correct about Lincoln making a run up the table, but I was wrong about St. Joseph's, as they kept on rolling and won the league with 2 games to play. Fransisco Acedo was clinical up top for them, and they held the midfield well with a 4-5-1 formation. I think we are so close to turning the corner as well. I want a new striker, but the young guy I'm looking to sign is still costing the team too much for me to bring in because of fees and such due to him being on a youth deal yet. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep Paul Podesta yet, as he really hasn't been very good. I even drew up a new formation to try out since we are getting some good attacking mids coming through the youth ranks.

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I don't know how well it'll work as its completely untested, but it should be interesting. Maybe if Manu can hold his own up top we will have less to worry about, as I haven't brought in anyone yet this offseason. The guys on my radar are youth players for other teams that would cost too much money to bring in.

Internationally, well, we are only playing friendlies, but look at this!

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Results! The game against New Zealand I went with a very changed up version on the squad I had been using, putting a lot more young guys in and they played great, so I stayed with it for the last two friendlies and it has obviously paid off. The first win was such a nerve-wracker going down to the last couple minutes, it felt so damn good. Getting another result with a couple different young players in the lineup makes me feel even better about our future.

This is the tactic I've settled into:

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The midfielder changes between a deep lying playmaker and a ball winner, depending on who we have available. Seems to be effective with either.
 
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