- 4,022
- Cincinnati, OH
WOW! I'm shocked you haven't got the EAids using him.
FIFA 15
- Thread starter ENTERSANDMAN13
- 306 comments
- 13,170 views
Phoenix
Premium
- 5,975
- Norway
Scratch that... Haha...
38 goals in 13 games...
I did in a couple matches, but he is still just insanely good!
- 2,188
- Northwest Passage
Man, I can't believe I'm beating and drawing the teams I am.
Over the past few days I have beat like 3 or 4 Gold/Rare BPL squads with Walcott and/or Sturridge and/or Sterling. I've also beaten a team that's had Ibarbo.
I beat a team with Pique and Pepe in the back.
And the squad I'm using is only a 78 OVR All-Italian squad featuring no Balotelli, El Sharaawy, Totti, or Motta.
But I do start to wonder if the teams I play against get EAids, or if I get help from the script. But then again, the worst players always have the best teams, which disappoints me.
Here's my team (4-1-2-1-2)
ST - Di Natale
ST - Immobile
CAM - Insigne
CM - Nocerino
CM - Parolo
CDM - Ledesma
LB - Criscito
CB - Astori
CB - Ranocchia
RB - De Sciglio
GK - Marchetti
Notables on the bench
LB - Santon
ST - Rossi
RM - Pepe
Over the past few days I have beat like 3 or 4 Gold/Rare BPL squads with Walcott and/or Sturridge and/or Sterling. I've also beaten a team that's had Ibarbo.
I beat a team with Pique and Pepe in the back.
And the squad I'm using is only a 78 OVR All-Italian squad featuring no Balotelli, El Sharaawy, Totti, or Motta.
But I do start to wonder if the teams I play against get EAids, or if I get help from the script. But then again, the worst players always have the best teams, which disappoints me.
Here's my team (4-1-2-1-2)
ST - Di Natale
ST - Immobile
CAM - Insigne
CM - Nocerino
CM - Parolo
CDM - Ledesma
LB - Criscito
CB - Astori
CB - Ranocchia
RB - De Sciglio
GK - Marchetti
Notables on the bench
LB - Santon
ST - Rossi
RM - Pepe
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- 11,122
- Bromley
- V16T91
- E0nLeader
So since Christmas there have been 3 new 5* skillers in as many weeks.
First was Ricardo Kishna, who is basically now Ajax's version of Depay. Obviously not quite as good, and for some reason his dribbling just got lowered from an insane 85 to a still very good 83. But he's still a fantastic player in his own right.
Then was Fernando Guerrero, who was 5* at some point in FIFA 12. His team now have two 5*s with Martinez.
Yesterday the new 5* skiller added was Yannick Bolasie, from Crystal Palace. He really, really deserves it. He's been great since joining Palace. And not only that, but he looks truly incredible. Almost 90 pace, 81 dribbling, 82 strength.
First was Ricardo Kishna, who is basically now Ajax's version of Depay. Obviously not quite as good, and for some reason his dribbling just got lowered from an insane 85 to a still very good 83. But he's still a fantastic player in his own right.
Then was Fernando Guerrero, who was 5* at some point in FIFA 12. His team now have two 5*s with Martinez.
Yesterday the new 5* skiller added was Yannick Bolasie, from Crystal Palace. He really, really deserves it. He's been great since joining Palace. And not only that, but he looks truly incredible. Almost 90 pace, 81 dribbling, 82 strength.
Phoenix
Premium
- 5,975
- Norway
Well guys... I am offically done...
I will swap out Benzema for Bale (then play CR7 at ST, Neymar at LF and Bale at RF, and swap IF Rakitic with Modric's position on CM) in a bit but otherwise i'm done.
Also, my highlight of TOTY packs...
Gamertag and club name edited out for obvious reasons.
I will swap out Benzema for Bale (then play CR7 at ST, Neymar at LF and Bale at RF, and swap IF Rakitic with Modric's position on CM) in a bit but otherwise i'm done.
Also, my highlight of TOTY packs...
Gamertag and club name edited out for obvious reasons.
- 4,022
- Cincinnati, OH
Anybody here playing a Created Player Career Mode? I've been enjoying that quite a lot recently playing only as yourself. Teammates are generally useless and I have to go on solo runs in order to make things happen but, it's still a lot of fun.
- 15,481
- UK
I'm struggling in this version to get team-mates to make forward runs and generally being attacking (playing Ultimate Team) I'm using a custom tactic, but it's still not great.
Anyone got any tips?
I've got a Ligue 1 team. Can just about afford Thiago Silva to bolster my defence, then looking at Ribery for LW, slow going though as I'm not doing well with trading this year.
Anyone got any tips?
I've got a Ligue 1 team. Can just about afford Thiago Silva to bolster my defence, then looking at Ribery for LW, slow going though as I'm not doing well with trading this year.
- 2,188
- Northwest Passage
My final goal for FUT this year is to get every Italian player and build the Italian National Team(which of course will be done with getting every card).
http://www.futhead.com/15/players/all/all/1/all/all/all/all/all/all/rating/table/
http://www.futhead.com/15/players/all/all/1/all/all/all/all/all/all/rating/table/
- 15,481
- UK
Phoenix
Premium
- 5,975
- Norway
I think it's your team that's the problem, not your formation or tactics.
Sirigu is terrible. Perrin and Bedimo is average at best, Luiz is way to aggressive and offensive. van der Wiel is decent enough.
Moutinho, Matuidi and the other midfielders heights will make them lose every airball, Matuidi is the only one with decent strenght, but he is all over the place.
Lucas and Lavezzi are decent wingers, but Cavani is terrible. First thing I would do is swap Cavani for Lacazette (or either of his IF cards).
But if possible, i'd look into the 4-3-2-1 formation (which lets you basically use 3 strikers), but overall I don't think that team is good enough to take you any further.
- 15,481
- UK
I think it's your team that's the problem, not your formation or tactics.
Sirigu is terrible. Perrin and Bedimo is average at best, Luiz is way to aggressive and offensive. van der Wiel is decent enough.
Moutinho, Matuidi and the other midfielders heights will make them lose every airball, Matuidi is the only one with decent strenght, but he is all over the place.
Lucas and Lavezzi are decent wingers, but Cavani is terrible. First thing I would do is swap Cavani for Lacazette (or either of his IF cards).
But if possible, i'd look into the 4-3-2-1 formation (which lets you basically use 3 strikers), but overall I don't think that team is good enough to take you any further.
I have Lacazette in the squad too, but I find Cavani is strong on finishing and very strong on headers.
I'm eyeing up better players, but when they're costing 100s of k in coins...I'll never get there.
- 2,188
- Northwest Passage
I think it's your team that's the problem, not your formation or tactics.
Sirigu is terrible. Perrin and Bedimo is average at best, Luiz is way to aggressive and offensive. van der Wiel is decent enough.
Moutinho, Matuidi and the other midfielders heights will make them lose every airball, Matuidi is the only one with decent strenght, but he is all over the place.
Lucas and Lavezzi are decent wingers, but Cavani is terrible. First thing I would do is swap Cavani for Lacazette (or either of his IF cards).
But if possible, i'd look into the 4-3-2-1 formation (which lets you basically use 3 strikers), but overall I don't think that team is good enough to take you any further.
Sirigu isn't bad for me, he's actually solid most of the time. But I hate playing against Joe Hart, he saves everything.
Is a 4-4-1-1 a good formation to run? I found out it seems to create quite a bit of open field.
Phoenix
Premium
- 5,975
- Norway
For me he was really bad. Handicapped or not, he would let anything from anywhere in...
Only keeper worse that Sirigu for me has been Lloris.
Best keeper i've tried is 90 Neuer (not a surprise of course consider his rating), but I find the 90 rated card to be better than his 96 card.
I can't speak on behalf of the 4-4-1-1, as I can't play with less than 2 strikers, hence why I use 3.
- 2,188
- Northwest Passage
My new team features a 4-4-1-1 Italian Pass-Oriented team.
ST - Di Natale
CF - Totti
LM - El Sharaawy
CM - Marchisio
CM - Pirlo
RM - Candreva
LB - Criscito
CB - Barzagli
CB - Chiellini
RB - De Sciglio
GK - Sirigu
I think I managed to build the best Italian team someone can build without any IFs. And it plays really good too. Di Natale and Totti make a few good runs. Candreva and El Sharaawy are very good wide. The defense is unbelievably good. So far I haven't lost with this team, but I have drawn.
- 11,122
- Bromley
- V16T91
- E0nLeader
Newport County career mode, anyone?
EDIT: It seems not. FIFA brought another update which got rid of him from the squad. So if he comes back he'll probably be fixed again.
30 January squad update: I have bad news. Memphis Depay is no longer 5* skills.
This is a dark, dark time. I will remember him forever.
In less important news, we have a 5* skill right back from nothing! His name is Kader, he's Tunisian and plays for Numancia. Yes, me neither.
They also downgraded Pogba back to 4* again. Great...Dempsey has likewise lost his, that was preempted with the O'Kelly oddity.
EDIT: It seems not. FIFA brought another update which got rid of him from the squad. So if he comes back he'll probably be fixed again.
30 January squad update: I have bad news. Memphis Depay is no longer 5* skills.
This is a dark, dark time. I will remember him forever.
In less important news, we have a 5* skill right back from nothing! His name is Kader, he's Tunisian and plays for Numancia. Yes, me neither.
They also downgraded Pogba back to 4* again. Great...Dempsey has likewise lost his, that was preempted with the O'Kelly oddity.
Last edited:
- 2,188
- Northwest Passage
FUT became very frustrating, very quick. I restarted my club after getting frustrated with FUT. I quickly rose through Div 9 and 10. But most of the teams I faced were 84-86 featuring Lewandowski or Neymar. I didn't understand that. Div 8, I started to face some harder opponents, but I still won the title of the division.
But I noticed in Div 8, my players pace dropped off. They went from making good runs and solid cuts and making amazing shots, to rare runs, pudgy cuts, and shots right at the keeper. And then it became just stupid. I have an 80 OVR team in Div 7 and I'm playing against 86 overall teams with 1,000,000 coin teams. I just don't understand it at all.
FIFA went from being fun one hour, to being stupid another hour.
But I noticed in Div 8, my players pace dropped off. They went from making good runs and solid cuts and making amazing shots, to rare runs, pudgy cuts, and shots right at the keeper. And then it became just stupid. I have an 80 OVR team in Div 7 and I'm playing against 86 overall teams with 1,000,000 coin teams. I just don't understand it at all.
FIFA went from being fun one hour, to being stupid another hour.
Phoenix
Premium
- 5,975
- Norway
Welcome to FIFA, where "EAids sports, it's in the game". ^^
- 2,188
- Northwest Passage
And I'm still using my 81 OVR French/BPL team with Lackazette and Lukaku at striker.
- 10,735
- Plymouth, UK
- motorforum
That's it, the game has jumped the shark now. My goalie is on loan from Newcastle to Brighton, who're near the bottom of the Championship and leaking goals like a sieve, but here I am, representing England against Portugal in a qualifier.
Leave stupid UT alone and redesign career cause thus is ridiculous.
Despite trying to score at every chance and conceding 4, I still got a 7.6 rating...
Leave stupid UT alone and redesign career cause thus is ridiculous.
Despite trying to score at every chance and conceding 4, I still got a 7.6 rating...
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- 3,334
- NJ
- koszak27
Well, the 2016 Euros have made me get back into FIFA and seeing as how I only have FIFA 15 on my PS4, I decided to try something new. I used the randomizing tool over at Futhead and decided to create a radom team to try and lead to greatness while I wait for FIFA 17. I stuck with only bronze cards to get the lowest overalls possible.
The attached spreadsheet screenshot shows all the random players, in order, which came up. After each draw from the Futhead site, I had to check and make sure the player was in FIFA 15. If they were, they were put into the spreadsheet and entered with their FIFA 15 stats.
Below this, we have the averages and counts for all the players. Because it drew mostly English players (due to it being the largest league in the game) and because Exeter City was one of only two teams to appear twice, I will be creating this team as Exeter City in English League 2. The goal will be to make it to the Premier League and play Champions League football.
To top it off, I took the players with cards in FIFA 16 and build a UT squad using these cards. I don't play UT but it was a nice way to start to sort out the team. Some of the players have much higher overal ratings in FIFA 16 now. The squad is here on Futhead as well.
By the end of the weekend I will hopefully have the squad assembled and ready to start playing. I'm going to disable the summer window to keep this team together for at least the first part of the season and then in January I can assess where we need some help. I'll stick to only hiring one youth scout so that I focus more on building up the young kids that were put on the team. It will be tough because usually I build my teams around the youth academy. I'll try update when I can and I will start tabs on the spreadsheet for stat tracking.
The attached spreadsheet screenshot shows all the random players, in order, which came up. After each draw from the Futhead site, I had to check and make sure the player was in FIFA 15. If they were, they were put into the spreadsheet and entered with their FIFA 15 stats.
Below this, we have the averages and counts for all the players. Because it drew mostly English players (due to it being the largest league in the game) and because Exeter City was one of only two teams to appear twice, I will be creating this team as Exeter City in English League 2. The goal will be to make it to the Premier League and play Champions League football.
To top it off, I took the players with cards in FIFA 16 and build a UT squad using these cards. I don't play UT but it was a nice way to start to sort out the team. Some of the players have much higher overal ratings in FIFA 16 now. The squad is here on Futhead as well.
By the end of the weekend I will hopefully have the squad assembled and ready to start playing. I'm going to disable the summer window to keep this team together for at least the first part of the season and then in January I can assess where we need some help. I'll stick to only hiring one youth scout so that I focus more on building up the young kids that were put on the team. It will be tough because usually I build my teams around the youth academy. I'll try update when I can and I will start tabs on the spreadsheet for stat tracking.
- 3,334
- NJ
- koszak27
I started a team dynasty over at OpSports with some more details and my starting squad. I'll probably update twice per in-game season with results, player growth and transfers.
Dynasty link here.
Starting squad (with FIFA '16 UT ratings) here.
Edit:
Well I played just the Cup games and simulated the season up to January 1st. It will take a couple days to fully update the spreadsheets and compile the stats but we are sitting 16th in the league table (I believe there are 24 teams total). We were ousted in the 2nd round of the J. Paint Trophy but have made it a few games into the FA Cup (which pays the most money out of the three eligible tournaments) and we are in the Quarterfinals of the Capital One Cup against Arsenal next.
This has been the most successful Starting XI so far:
Sikorski and Pym have been re-signed to new 3 year deals as crucial players and I already had to ask for increased transfer money just to keep sending out my 2 star Norwegian youth scout to the Asian countries.
I hope to have a full squad update in the next few days.
Dynasty link here.
Starting squad (with FIFA '16 UT ratings) here.
Edit:
Well I played just the Cup games and simulated the season up to January 1st. It will take a couple days to fully update the spreadsheets and compile the stats but we are sitting 16th in the league table (I believe there are 24 teams total). We were ousted in the 2nd round of the J. Paint Trophy but have made it a few games into the FA Cup (which pays the most money out of the three eligible tournaments) and we are in the Quarterfinals of the Capital One Cup against Arsenal next.
This has been the most successful Starting XI so far:
Sikorski and Pym have been re-signed to new 3 year deals as crucial players and I already had to ask for increased transfer money just to keep sending out my 2 star Norwegian youth scout to the Asian countries.
I hope to have a full squad update in the next few days.
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- 3,334
- NJ
- koszak27
2014-2015 Season Wrap-Up:
I managed to finish year 1 and get some updates into the spreadsheet. I think I'll stick to yearly updates rather than twice a year because it is taking me awhile.
One highlight was that Arsenal FA Cup game. 6 minutes in, Arsenal's CB took down my striker just outside the 18 for a red card. We didn't score (I hit the bar I think) but by the 15 minute mark, Arsenal were down to 9 men when another player was sent off. I had never experienced anything like it, but we kept possession the rest of the half to keep it 0-0 and by the 70th minute, the Arsenal players were so tired we had quickly gone up to 3-0. Alexis Sanchez converted a free kick 30 yards out in the 80-something minute and made Pym look like an idiot but we got the win.
Exeter City ended up having a great 2014-2015 season finishing 14th in the league. We lost the next FA Cup game to Peterborough, failing to reach the final groupings there and we lost to Fulham in the Capital One Cup Quarterfinals. Crappy phone picture of the final League 2 Standings:
The biggest issue so far has been my limited transfer budget. I needed to ask for additional money three times during the season just to keep my youth scout out and to re-sign a couple key players. My final squad update of the year is below which includes loaned in players:
2014-2015 Exeter City Team of the Season:
At the end of this season, we re-signed Tom Nichols (ST) to a new 3 year contract and Arron Davies (RB) left on a free transfer to Carlisle United. We had barely enough money in the budget left to sign one youth academy player (Ritchie Robles, 55 OVR LM) so we had to let the following players leave without new contracts:
Rasmus Ingeman, 56 OVR (RB)
Nicky Hunt, 52 OVR (RB)
Emrah Tuncel, 59 OVR (GK)
Kevin Thomson, 59 OVR (CM)
Santiago Castano, 57 OVR (GK)
I will be starting the 2015-2016 season in the next few days so I'll get a start of the season update posted soon. OpSports dynasty post is here.
I managed to finish year 1 and get some updates into the spreadsheet. I think I'll stick to yearly updates rather than twice a year because it is taking me awhile.
One highlight was that Arsenal FA Cup game. 6 minutes in, Arsenal's CB took down my striker just outside the 18 for a red card. We didn't score (I hit the bar I think) but by the 15 minute mark, Arsenal were down to 9 men when another player was sent off. I had never experienced anything like it, but we kept possession the rest of the half to keep it 0-0 and by the 70th minute, the Arsenal players were so tired we had quickly gone up to 3-0. Alexis Sanchez converted a free kick 30 yards out in the 80-something minute and made Pym look like an idiot but we got the win.
Exeter City ended up having a great 2014-2015 season finishing 14th in the league. We lost the next FA Cup game to Peterborough, failing to reach the final groupings there and we lost to Fulham in the Capital One Cup Quarterfinals. Crappy phone picture of the final League 2 Standings:
The biggest issue so far has been my limited transfer budget. I needed to ask for additional money three times during the season just to keep my youth scout out and to re-sign a couple key players. My final squad update of the year is below which includes loaned in players:
2014-2015 Exeter City Team of the Season:
At the end of this season, we re-signed Tom Nichols (ST) to a new 3 year contract and Arron Davies (RB) left on a free transfer to Carlisle United. We had barely enough money in the budget left to sign one youth academy player (Ritchie Robles, 55 OVR LM) so we had to let the following players leave without new contracts:
Rasmus Ingeman, 56 OVR (RB)
Nicky Hunt, 52 OVR (RB)
Emrah Tuncel, 59 OVR (GK)
Kevin Thomson, 59 OVR (CM)
Santiago Castano, 57 OVR (GK)
I will be starting the 2015-2016 season in the next few days so I'll get a start of the season update posted soon. OpSports dynasty post is here.
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- 3,334
- NJ
- koszak27
2015-2016 Season Start (OpSports Dynasty):
Exeter City started the 2015-2016 Season with high expectations from the board of owners. After we finished 14th last season, a mid table finish and reaching the round of 32 are expected from us this time.
The end of the last season saw 5 players leave the club with expired contracts:
Rasmus Ingeman, 56 OVR (RB)
Nicky Hunt, 52 OVR (RB)
Emrah Tuncel, 59 OVR (GK)
Kevin Thomson, 59 OVR (CM)
Santiago Castano, 57 OVR (GK)
With the limited funds, I had to use the transfer money to focus on youth talent rather than re-sign some of the older players that had been selected by the randomizer. Most of them were unhappy and dropping in overall anyway but if I had the money I would have at least re-signed Castano and probably Ingeman for some defensive depth.
After those players left and last season's loan players went back to their teams, Exeter was down to only 20 players on the squad with 4 players in the youth academy. All 4 players had hit the May bump so they were promoted to the team for some needed depth. By the end of the 1st transfer window, 5 youth players had been called up in this 2nd season:
Seul Chan Jung, KOR 62 OVR (RM)
Danny McGillivray, AUS 50 OVR (CF)
Samuel Hadler, ENG 55 OVR (CDM)
Liam Ognevoski, AUS 60 OVR (CDM)
Do Heon Kim, KOR 67 OVR (CM)
In addition, I decided we needed to sign our young loan player from the first year, Sebastien Romero from CD Cobreloa in Chile. In the 10 games that the CF played in last year, he had 5 goals and his 4 star skills looked like they made a difference to the players' form around him. He was a big part of the late season surge so we enquired about buying him after the loan expired. Surprisingly, CD Cobreloa came back wanting only $20,000 as a transfer fee(?). So we quickly signed him and put him into a starting striker role.
With Romero coming in and some depth on the bench, I decided one of the better ST players needed to be sold. This would help bolster the miniscule transfer budget of $325,000 and $1,500 in weekly wages that the board assigned us. McDonald was the first to receive an offer from Brentford. We asked for $530,000 and they agreed to take him off our hands. Not only did this give us some much needed cash but it also helped with one less forward wanting playing time in our 2 striker formation.
The last few moves were just to get some more back ups into the squad for cup games and in case of injuries. I found Fabien Danic, a 55 OVR French CB in the free agent list which helped the defensive depth. We also loaned in a 3rd goalie, Liam Roberts (54 OVR), from Walsall for the season.
We were now up to a much healthier 29 players in the team by the end of the 1st transfer window. I can already foresee Smalley being sold in January because he is unhappy with his playing time and will not make the starting squad without a couple injuries happening. We do have an empty youth squad at this point so our Norwegian youth scout needs to step it up. Selling McDonald has meant he can finally scout countries in Europe again after spending most of last year having to scout Asia and Australia because of our low funds.
2015-2016 Season Re-Cap (OpSports Dynasty):
Exeter City surpassed the board's expectations this season and managed a hard fought promotion up to League 1. After finishing the regular season in 6th place, we managed to grab the last promotion place via the League 2 play-off. We sat 1-0 down after the opening round's first leg to Peterborough but a big 3-1 win in the second leg sparked the Grecians to a 5-0 win over Tranmere Rovers in the final match.
Along the way, I managed to keep the team split between two solid squads which helped to spread out the playing time. This kept most of the players happy and spread out the player growth but ultimately, I lost out on two solid players. Smalley, a 60 OVR ST and McEleny, a 62 OVR CAM, were original players to the team which I wanted to keep. Both were great off the bench and really helped solidify the team but I just didn't have the wages to keep them. Both wanted crucial 1st team roles and I didn't have the cash to double or triple their wages in order to keep them for lesser roles.
A few more youth players were signed throughout the season, most importantly Seung Il You, a 63 OVR LM from Korea who was an exciting prospect. We ended the season with a roster of 33 players which didn't even include our biggest signing. Our only move in the January window was a free transfer for Henrik Ojamaa of Scottish team Motherwell. The 26 year old Estonian forward was showing great potential and rated at 72 with his contract set to expire. We got him on a free transfer for $10,000 in weekly wages and look forward to adding him into our starting side. Below are the 2015-2016 season stats for all the players of Exeter City (sorted by games played):
2015-2016 Exeter City Team of the Season:
The next update will be the start of the 2016-2017 Season as of the September 1st transfer deadline.
Exeter City started the 2015-2016 Season with high expectations from the board of owners. After we finished 14th last season, a mid table finish and reaching the round of 32 are expected from us this time.
The end of the last season saw 5 players leave the club with expired contracts:
Rasmus Ingeman, 56 OVR (RB)
Nicky Hunt, 52 OVR (RB)
Emrah Tuncel, 59 OVR (GK)
Kevin Thomson, 59 OVR (CM)
Santiago Castano, 57 OVR (GK)
With the limited funds, I had to use the transfer money to focus on youth talent rather than re-sign some of the older players that had been selected by the randomizer. Most of them were unhappy and dropping in overall anyway but if I had the money I would have at least re-signed Castano and probably Ingeman for some defensive depth.
After those players left and last season's loan players went back to their teams, Exeter was down to only 20 players on the squad with 4 players in the youth academy. All 4 players had hit the May bump so they were promoted to the team for some needed depth. By the end of the 1st transfer window, 5 youth players had been called up in this 2nd season:
Seul Chan Jung, KOR 62 OVR (RM)
Danny McGillivray, AUS 50 OVR (CF)
Samuel Hadler, ENG 55 OVR (CDM)
Liam Ognevoski, AUS 60 OVR (CDM)
Do Heon Kim, KOR 67 OVR (CM)
In addition, I decided we needed to sign our young loan player from the first year, Sebastien Romero from CD Cobreloa in Chile. In the 10 games that the CF played in last year, he had 5 goals and his 4 star skills looked like they made a difference to the players' form around him. He was a big part of the late season surge so we enquired about buying him after the loan expired. Surprisingly, CD Cobreloa came back wanting only $20,000 as a transfer fee(?). So we quickly signed him and put him into a starting striker role.
With Romero coming in and some depth on the bench, I decided one of the better ST players needed to be sold. This would help bolster the miniscule transfer budget of $325,000 and $1,500 in weekly wages that the board assigned us. McDonald was the first to receive an offer from Brentford. We asked for $530,000 and they agreed to take him off our hands. Not only did this give us some much needed cash but it also helped with one less forward wanting playing time in our 2 striker formation.
The last few moves were just to get some more back ups into the squad for cup games and in case of injuries. I found Fabien Danic, a 55 OVR French CB in the free agent list which helped the defensive depth. We also loaned in a 3rd goalie, Liam Roberts (54 OVR), from Walsall for the season.
We were now up to a much healthier 29 players in the team by the end of the 1st transfer window. I can already foresee Smalley being sold in January because he is unhappy with his playing time and will not make the starting squad without a couple injuries happening. We do have an empty youth squad at this point so our Norwegian youth scout needs to step it up. Selling McDonald has meant he can finally scout countries in Europe again after spending most of last year having to scout Asia and Australia because of our low funds.
2015-2016 Season Re-Cap (OpSports Dynasty):
Exeter City surpassed the board's expectations this season and managed a hard fought promotion up to League 1. After finishing the regular season in 6th place, we managed to grab the last promotion place via the League 2 play-off. We sat 1-0 down after the opening round's first leg to Peterborough but a big 3-1 win in the second leg sparked the Grecians to a 5-0 win over Tranmere Rovers in the final match.
Along the way, I managed to keep the team split between two solid squads which helped to spread out the playing time. This kept most of the players happy and spread out the player growth but ultimately, I lost out on two solid players. Smalley, a 60 OVR ST and McEleny, a 62 OVR CAM, were original players to the team which I wanted to keep. Both were great off the bench and really helped solidify the team but I just didn't have the wages to keep them. Both wanted crucial 1st team roles and I didn't have the cash to double or triple their wages in order to keep them for lesser roles.
A few more youth players were signed throughout the season, most importantly Seung Il You, a 63 OVR LM from Korea who was an exciting prospect. We ended the season with a roster of 33 players which didn't even include our biggest signing. Our only move in the January window was a free transfer for Henrik Ojamaa of Scottish team Motherwell. The 26 year old Estonian forward was showing great potential and rated at 72 with his contract set to expire. We got him on a free transfer for $10,000 in weekly wages and look forward to adding him into our starting side. Below are the 2015-2016 season stats for all the players of Exeter City (sorted by games played):
2015-2016 Exeter City Team of the Season:
The next update will be the start of the 2016-2017 Season as of the September 1st transfer deadline.
- 3,334
- NJ
- koszak27
September 1, 2016:
Upon joining the ranks of English League 1, we knew there would need to be changes moving forward. The team changed a lot from June 1st to September 1st in 2016 so let's begin. The board was very happy with our surprising promotion last season. So happy that they have given us the goal of gaining automatic promotion into the Championship. This will be a tall order and one that our randoms squad would not be able to accomplish without some help. The board also decided that if automatic promotion wasn't tough enough, they would also only allocate $425,000 in the transfer budget with another $2,100 in weekly wages.
A free transfer in Henrik Ojamaa was set to come in and provide further strength to an attack which already had Romero (22 goals) and Sikorski (21 goals) combine for 43 goals in the last season. Ojamaa can also naturally play LM but I decided to try him up front and switch to a 4-3-3 to start the year.
Ojamaa joins Exeter City on a free transfer.
The first player sold off the squad was the young Australian LM, Chris Naumoff (60 OVR). He had an outstanding season in 2015/2016 scoring 9 goals and notching 8 assists even with several weeks missed due to injury. He was in very high demand with offers coming in from several clubs but in the end, only one team met our lofty transfer fee of $650,000; Oldham Athletic.
Naumoff leaves Exeter City after a career high 9 goals and 8 assists in only 34 games last season.
With Ojamaa coming in as a striker and some young depth on the bench, we transfer listed 26 year old Aaron Schoenfeld to see if we could get some more money into the team. We ended up accepting a transfer fee of $625,000 from Crewe Alexandria for the 61 rated ST.
Aaron Schoenfeld heads to Crewe Alexandria and the hope of a starting role.
An opportunity came in for us to sell a youth player and it was one I couldn't pass up given the high expectations for this year and the low transfer budget we were allowed. Several teams came in with bids for our exciting LM prospect, Seung Il You (65 OVR), but AS Nancy blew everyone out of the water with a $5.5 million offer. Even with Naumoff gone, a starting role for the young youth graduate was up in the air with his lack of pace and only three midfield positions open. Ultimately, the large transfer fee was the biggest reason for this move and one that opened the door to further acquisitions.
With the significant increase to our budget from the Naumoff, Schoenfeld and especially You sales, Exeter City were in a position to solidify the midfield and invest in a quality goalkeeper.
The first move was for Italian goalie Eric Lora from Roma. After enquiring about his purchase and hearing he had just joined the team, we were happy enough to just loan in the 18 year-old as a try-out for the season. At 67 OVR, he was already an upgrade over Christy Pym (59 OVR) who had shown flashes of quality play but just wasn't growing his skills.
Once the goalkeeper position was upgraded, the revised midfield was the next focus. With scouts in America for most of the last season, we had some good targets to look at for potential moves. The top guy on our list was American RM Joshua Gatt who was playing at FK Molde. They accepted our initial offer but we were unfortunately out bid and weren't able to counter in time. Our next highest player was Zach Pfeffer (68 OVR), a 21 year old CM at the Philadelphia Union. We were able to lock him into a 4 year deal for a transfer fee of $2.2 million.
Zach Pfeffer moves to England to join Exeter City on a 4 year deal.
The last signing of the window was 18 year old CM John Beavon (65 OVR) from PAOK. The young midfielder showed great strength and playmaking ability after his 1st season and would come in to be the primary bench player for Exeter City. He was showing great potential and cost Exeter City $2.5 mil and 63 OVR CAM Sean Davis. It was more than we wanted to spend but signing the English midfielder would help down the road.
Sean Davis(above) heads to PAOK as part of a deal for John Beavon.
With the player exchanges complete and a few games under our belts, Exeter City sits 6th in the table as of September 1st 2016. Automatic promotion will not come easy but the player transfers have upgraded the squad into a team with a fighting chance.
The only other notes are a few youth academy players who have made the senior team. They are:
Tim Doyle, 60 OVR LW (AUS)
Scott Batt, 54 OVR LM (ENG)
Tim Stevens, 62 OVR CAM (AUS)
2016-2017 Exeter City Starting Squad:
We will be putting all of our efforts into gaining promotion this season so the cup games will not be prioritized. I plan to play one game each month, probably against the top teams in the league. The next update will be the June 1st 2017 end of the season re-cap.
OpSports Dynasty entry.
Upon joining the ranks of English League 1, we knew there would need to be changes moving forward. The team changed a lot from June 1st to September 1st in 2016 so let's begin. The board was very happy with our surprising promotion last season. So happy that they have given us the goal of gaining automatic promotion into the Championship. This will be a tall order and one that our randoms squad would not be able to accomplish without some help. The board also decided that if automatic promotion wasn't tough enough, they would also only allocate $425,000 in the transfer budget with another $2,100 in weekly wages.
A free transfer in Henrik Ojamaa was set to come in and provide further strength to an attack which already had Romero (22 goals) and Sikorski (21 goals) combine for 43 goals in the last season. Ojamaa can also naturally play LM but I decided to try him up front and switch to a 4-3-3 to start the year.
Ojamaa joins Exeter City on a free transfer.
The first player sold off the squad was the young Australian LM, Chris Naumoff (60 OVR). He had an outstanding season in 2015/2016 scoring 9 goals and notching 8 assists even with several weeks missed due to injury. He was in very high demand with offers coming in from several clubs but in the end, only one team met our lofty transfer fee of $650,000; Oldham Athletic.
Naumoff leaves Exeter City after a career high 9 goals and 8 assists in only 34 games last season.
With Ojamaa coming in as a striker and some young depth on the bench, we transfer listed 26 year old Aaron Schoenfeld to see if we could get some more money into the team. We ended up accepting a transfer fee of $625,000 from Crewe Alexandria for the 61 rated ST.
Aaron Schoenfeld heads to Crewe Alexandria and the hope of a starting role.
An opportunity came in for us to sell a youth player and it was one I couldn't pass up given the high expectations for this year and the low transfer budget we were allowed. Several teams came in with bids for our exciting LM prospect, Seung Il You (65 OVR), but AS Nancy blew everyone out of the water with a $5.5 million offer. Even with Naumoff gone, a starting role for the young youth graduate was up in the air with his lack of pace and only three midfield positions open. Ultimately, the large transfer fee was the biggest reason for this move and one that opened the door to further acquisitions.
With the significant increase to our budget from the Naumoff, Schoenfeld and especially You sales, Exeter City were in a position to solidify the midfield and invest in a quality goalkeeper.
The first move was for Italian goalie Eric Lora from Roma. After enquiring about his purchase and hearing he had just joined the team, we were happy enough to just loan in the 18 year-old as a try-out for the season. At 67 OVR, he was already an upgrade over Christy Pym (59 OVR) who had shown flashes of quality play but just wasn't growing his skills.
Once the goalkeeper position was upgraded, the revised midfield was the next focus. With scouts in America for most of the last season, we had some good targets to look at for potential moves. The top guy on our list was American RM Joshua Gatt who was playing at FK Molde. They accepted our initial offer but we were unfortunately out bid and weren't able to counter in time. Our next highest player was Zach Pfeffer (68 OVR), a 21 year old CM at the Philadelphia Union. We were able to lock him into a 4 year deal for a transfer fee of $2.2 million.
Zach Pfeffer moves to England to join Exeter City on a 4 year deal.
The last signing of the window was 18 year old CM John Beavon (65 OVR) from PAOK. The young midfielder showed great strength and playmaking ability after his 1st season and would come in to be the primary bench player for Exeter City. He was showing great potential and cost Exeter City $2.5 mil and 63 OVR CAM Sean Davis. It was more than we wanted to spend but signing the English midfielder would help down the road.
Sean Davis(above) heads to PAOK as part of a deal for John Beavon.
With the player exchanges complete and a few games under our belts, Exeter City sits 6th in the table as of September 1st 2016. Automatic promotion will not come easy but the player transfers have upgraded the squad into a team with a fighting chance.
The only other notes are a few youth academy players who have made the senior team. They are:
Tim Doyle, 60 OVR LW (AUS)
Scott Batt, 54 OVR LM (ENG)
Tim Stevens, 62 OVR CAM (AUS)
2016-2017 Exeter City Starting Squad:
We will be putting all of our efforts into gaining promotion this season so the cup games will not be prioritized. I plan to play one game each month, probably against the top teams in the league. The next update will be the June 1st 2017 end of the season re-cap.
OpSports Dynasty entry.
- 4,897
- UK
Loving the career mode series you are doing.September 1, 2016:
Upon joining the ranks of English League 1, we knew there would need to be changes moving forward. The team changed a lot from June 1st to September 1st in 2016 so let's begin. The board was very happy with our surprising promotion last season. So happy that they have given us the goal of gaining automatic promotion into the Championship. This will be a tall order and one that our randoms squad would not be able to accomplish without some help. The board also decided that if automatic promotion wasn't tough enough, they would also only allocate $425,000 in the transfer budget with another $2,100 in weekly wages.
A free transfer in Henrik Ojamaa was set to come in and provide further strength to an attack which already had Romero (22 goals) and Sikorski (21 goals) combine for 43 goals in the last season. Ojamaa can also naturally play LM but I decided to try him up front and switch to a 4-3-3 to start the year.
Ojamaa joins Exeter City on a free transfer.
The first player sold off the squad was the young Australian LM, Chris Naumoff (60 OVR). He had an outstanding season in 2015/2016 scoring 9 goals and notching 8 assists even with several weeks missed due to injury. He was in very high demand with offers coming in from several clubs but in the end, only one team met our lofty transfer fee of $650,000; Oldham Athletic.
Naumoff leaves Exeter City after a career high 9 goals and 8 assists in only 34 games last season.
With Ojamaa coming in as a striker and some young depth on the bench, we transfer listed 26 year old Aaron Schoenfeld to see if we could get some more money into the team. We ended up accepting a transfer fee of $625,000 from Crewe Alexandria for the 61 rated ST.
Aaron Schoenfeld heads to Crewe Alexandria and the hope of a starting role.
An opportunity came in for us to sell a youth player and it was one I couldn't pass up given the high expectations for this year and the low transfer budget we were allowed. Several teams came in with bids for our exciting LM prospect, Seung Il You (65 OVR), but AS Nancy blew everyone out of the water with a $5.5 million offer. Even with Naumoff gone, a starting role for the young youth graduate was up in the air with his lack of pace and only three midfield positions open. Ultimately, the large transfer fee was the biggest reason for this move and one that opened the door to further acquisitions.
With the significant increase to our budget from the Naumoff, Schoenfeld and especially You sales, Exeter City were in a position to solidify the midfield and invest in a quality goalkeeper.
The first move was for Italian goalie Eric Lora from Roma. After enquiring about his purchase and hearing he had just joined the team, we were happy enough to just loan in the 18 year-old as a try-out for the season. At 67 OVR, he was already an upgrade over Christy Pym (59 OVR) who had shown flashes of quality play but just wasn't growing his skills.
Once the goalkeeper position was upgraded, the revised midfield was the next focus. With scouts in America for most of the last season, we had some good targets to look at for potential moves. The top guy on our list was American RM Joshua Gatt who was playing at FK Molde. They accepted our initial offer but we were unfortunately out bid and weren't able to counter in time. Our next highest player was Zach Pfeffer (68 OVR), a 21 year old CM at the Philadelphia Union. We were able to lock him into a 4 year deal for a transfer fee of $2.2 million.
Zach Pfeffer moves to England to join Exeter City on a 4 year deal.
The last signing of the window was 18 year old CM John Beavon (65 OVR) from PAOK. The young midfielder showed great strength and playmaking ability after his 1st season and would come in to be the primary bench player for Exeter City. He was showing great potential and cost Exeter City $2.5 mil and 63 OVR CAM Sean Davis. It was more than we wanted to spend but signing the English midfielder would help down the road.
Sean Davis(above) heads to PAOK as part of a deal for John Beavon.
With the player exchanges complete and a few games under our belts, Exeter City sits 6th in the table as of September 1st 2016. Automatic promotion will not come easy but the player transfers have upgraded the squad into a team with a fighting chance.
The only other notes are a few youth academy players who have made the senior team. They are:
Tim Doyle, 60 OVR LW (AUS)
Scott Batt, 54 OVR LM (ENG)
Tim Stevens, 62 OVR CAM (AUS)
2016-2017 Exeter City Starting Squad:
We will be putting all of our efforts into gaining promotion this season so the cup games will not be prioritized. I plan to play one game each month, probably against the top teams in the league. The next update will be the June 1st 2017 end of the season re-cap.
OpSports Dynasty entry.
Hopefully you can do this for FIFA 17.
- 3,334
- NJ
- koszak27
Sorry for the delay but I have not had much time to play lately and I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to secure promotion and not get fired. I mulled over the squad before each simulation and made a lot more changes to the team than in the previous seasons. It took about 5 total hours to get through but it was worth it. You can find the OpSports entry here.
- Exeter City, England
After a busy summer window, Exeter City looked on paper to be in a position to fight for the League 1 title. The additions of Pfeffer and Beavon aimed to strengthen the midfield while the trio of Sikorski, Romero and Ojamaa looked indefensible. The team seemed destined for a single year in League 1; a temporary stop on their way up the league ladder. Unfortunately, the games didn't play out that way and by December, Exeter City was in 9th place having at one point been as low as 12th. With half the season gone and the team eliminated from all cup games, the only goal left for the team was to get to the top of the table.
The January transfer window would prove to be the difference maker in the 2016-2017 season. The team had not played well defensively and even had a negative goal differential by January 1st despite having such good attacking players. The obvious fix in a situation like this is to find some defensive players to transfer in and help the back line. This would not, however, be the case for Exeter City. With such a large task ahead of them, The Grecians needed much more than a player or two to accomplish their lofty goals.
The first transfer in January 2017 was a shocker with Henrik Ojamaa being transfered to the Premier League. Ojamaa had been having a great year with 13 goals and 10 assists through December. He and Sebastien Romero had been the scoring force for Exeter while Daniel Sikorski seemed to be hitting a wall. There didn't seem to be enough scoring to go around for the three strikers and the 4-3-3 formation, while playing to the team's offensive strength, was leaving the midfield and defense vulnerable.
Soon after the transfer window opened, offers for Ojamaa came flying in due to his chase for the golden boot and his excellent form. His evaluation of $4 Mil was tempting but to let the star of the team leave, it would have to be for big money. After Exeter City's office rejected many offers, the big boys of the Premier League finally stepped in with Southampton offering the magic number of $8 Mil for the Estonian forward. In the end, Ojamaa would see his $10,000 weekly wage become $60,000 for the Saints and the 25 year old would get a shot to prove himself on the big stage. For Exeter City, they had turned a free transfer into $8 Mil in just 6 months; a necessary achievement to overcome the stingy board's small transfer budget and stratospheric goals.
Henrik Ojamaa will bring his talents to South(beach)ampton and the Premier League.
With Ojamaa gone and a sudden surplus of money, Exeter City got to work on planning for the last half of the season. In 9th place, the feat was not impossible but highly unlikely. The first two moves were loans for some depth players; Alejandro Pino Caride (53 OVR, RB) from Rotherham and Adrian Wojcik (49 OVR, CM) from Wisla Krakow. 22 year old Duane Holmes (62 OVR, CAM) would be the first addition in January. The young American midfielder from Huddersfield joined the team for a fee of $400,000 and would serve as a back-up player for the team. The big signing for Exeter City would again come from the MLS. This time in the form of Diego Fagundez for a fee of $3 Mil. The 22 year old Uruguayan left midfielder from the New England Revolution would slot into the starting role for Exeter City and provide some skill on the wing.
New England Revolution's Diego Fagundez will join Exeter City for $3 Million.
The final move in the winter window was the sale of disgruntled goalie Hendrik Bonmann. An offer of $250,000 came in from Vaduz and the team agreed to let him go.
With the window closed and sitting in 10th place on February 1st, the team made the final change it would need to bring everything together. Ojamaa's exit had not only increased the team's budget but also freed up the manager to drop the 3 forward formation. In an effort to increase the team's defensive efforts, Exeter City adopted a variation of the 4-5-1 formation to create the 4-2-3-1. Do Heon Kim, one of the first youth players signed to the team, had been great as a CB after being moved down from a CDM role. He never had the pace for the midfield but had become a force on the back line. With the addition of two CDM players in the back half of the field, the focus had shifted from offense to defense. Daniel Sikorski would be the player moving to the CAM role in the new formation to try and take advantage of his long shot skills and superb passing. This was the starting formation used to tackle the 2nd half of the season:
Sebastien Romero turned out to be an excellent option as the lone striker. His form stayed high and the goals kept coming for the young star. Diego Fagundez became an immediate contributor with 5 goals and 4 assists in his 15 games.
As the weeks went by, Exeter City started to gain ground on the league standings. By March, the team had climbed into the 6th spot on the way to an 8 game unbeaten streak. By April 1st, the team was in 2nd place overall and within reach of their promotion spot after losing only 1 game dating back to February 1st. Entering May with 5 games left, Exeter City had a strong hold on 2nd place. They were ahead of Petersborough by 5 points with a game against the Posh coming up. The Grecians not only won the match 2-0 but stayed unbeaten in May to finish the season in 2nd place, 2 points behind first place. Exeter City had done the (almost) impossible and managed to gain automatic promotion to the Championship after losing only 1 game in the last three months of the season.
Manager's Notes:
Well, it took a long time to simulate through this season but it was worth it. I only played one game each month and going into January it was not looking good. The first three games that I played (in August, September and October) we lost and the team was not clicking using the 4-3-3 formation. I couldn't see past using the three big strikers to try and score goals and we were getting beat frequently on the counter. Even when I went back to the 4-4-2 and put Ojamaa on the left wing, we still weren't as sturdy in the middle as we had been.
I really didn't plan to let Ojamaa go but once a few big teams offered double his evaluation, it became a smart deal. The funds could be used in many different ways and at that point we were back to youth scouting Australia and New Zealand because of our low funds. After selling Ojamaa, I initially went to a 5-3-2 formation to really emphasize the back line defense but I ultimately changed permanently to a 4-2-3-1 and it worked like a charm. We were blowing out the bad teams and drawing the top teams like we needed to be. With no cup games and the 2nd half schedule being fairly stretched out, I only had to sim 1 game with back-ups and that is the game we lost.
Romero won the golden boot with 27 goals and Fagundez is a very good LM in the new formation. He had a really nice cross late in one game which Beavon headed in for a 1-0 win. I was ecstatic that we gained promotion but most of it was relief that we weren't fired. The team made a tremendous push and even with a few injuries to starters like Dezi and Ledson, they reached promotion.
The remaining money from the Ojamaa sale would eventually go into extending some starting player contracts (like Ryan Ledson and Sebastien Romero) as well as hiring a new global scout, a new youth scout and signing three youth players at the end of the year.
The main focus in the next summer window will be to sign a Championship caliber goalie. Eric Lora went back to Roma so he is an option but I hired another scout so that I could really look for a good deal. I have already found some 6'6" Russians that would fit the bill. It will come down to what the board assigns to the transfer budget and how cheap we can get them.
This is the final player stats table for 2016-2017 sorted by Average Form:
The next update will be on September 1st 2017 with Exeter City in the FL Championship.
- Exeter City, England
After a busy summer window, Exeter City looked on paper to be in a position to fight for the League 1 title. The additions of Pfeffer and Beavon aimed to strengthen the midfield while the trio of Sikorski, Romero and Ojamaa looked indefensible. The team seemed destined for a single year in League 1; a temporary stop on their way up the league ladder. Unfortunately, the games didn't play out that way and by December, Exeter City was in 9th place having at one point been as low as 12th. With half the season gone and the team eliminated from all cup games, the only goal left for the team was to get to the top of the table.
The January transfer window would prove to be the difference maker in the 2016-2017 season. The team had not played well defensively and even had a negative goal differential by January 1st despite having such good attacking players. The obvious fix in a situation like this is to find some defensive players to transfer in and help the back line. This would not, however, be the case for Exeter City. With such a large task ahead of them, The Grecians needed much more than a player or two to accomplish their lofty goals.
The first transfer in January 2017 was a shocker with Henrik Ojamaa being transfered to the Premier League. Ojamaa had been having a great year with 13 goals and 10 assists through December. He and Sebastien Romero had been the scoring force for Exeter while Daniel Sikorski seemed to be hitting a wall. There didn't seem to be enough scoring to go around for the three strikers and the 4-3-3 formation, while playing to the team's offensive strength, was leaving the midfield and defense vulnerable.
Soon after the transfer window opened, offers for Ojamaa came flying in due to his chase for the golden boot and his excellent form. His evaluation of $4 Mil was tempting but to let the star of the team leave, it would have to be for big money. After Exeter City's office rejected many offers, the big boys of the Premier League finally stepped in with Southampton offering the magic number of $8 Mil for the Estonian forward. In the end, Ojamaa would see his $10,000 weekly wage become $60,000 for the Saints and the 25 year old would get a shot to prove himself on the big stage. For Exeter City, they had turned a free transfer into $8 Mil in just 6 months; a necessary achievement to overcome the stingy board's small transfer budget and stratospheric goals.
Henrik Ojamaa will bring his talents to South(beach)ampton and the Premier League.
With Ojamaa gone and a sudden surplus of money, Exeter City got to work on planning for the last half of the season. In 9th place, the feat was not impossible but highly unlikely. The first two moves were loans for some depth players; Alejandro Pino Caride (53 OVR, RB) from Rotherham and Adrian Wojcik (49 OVR, CM) from Wisla Krakow. 22 year old Duane Holmes (62 OVR, CAM) would be the first addition in January. The young American midfielder from Huddersfield joined the team for a fee of $400,000 and would serve as a back-up player for the team. The big signing for Exeter City would again come from the MLS. This time in the form of Diego Fagundez for a fee of $3 Mil. The 22 year old Uruguayan left midfielder from the New England Revolution would slot into the starting role for Exeter City and provide some skill on the wing.
New England Revolution's Diego Fagundez will join Exeter City for $3 Million.
The final move in the winter window was the sale of disgruntled goalie Hendrik Bonmann. An offer of $250,000 came in from Vaduz and the team agreed to let him go.
With the window closed and sitting in 10th place on February 1st, the team made the final change it would need to bring everything together. Ojamaa's exit had not only increased the team's budget but also freed up the manager to drop the 3 forward formation. In an effort to increase the team's defensive efforts, Exeter City adopted a variation of the 4-5-1 formation to create the 4-2-3-1. Do Heon Kim, one of the first youth players signed to the team, had been great as a CB after being moved down from a CDM role. He never had the pace for the midfield but had become a force on the back line. With the addition of two CDM players in the back half of the field, the focus had shifted from offense to defense. Daniel Sikorski would be the player moving to the CAM role in the new formation to try and take advantage of his long shot skills and superb passing. This was the starting formation used to tackle the 2nd half of the season:
Sebastien Romero turned out to be an excellent option as the lone striker. His form stayed high and the goals kept coming for the young star. Diego Fagundez became an immediate contributor with 5 goals and 4 assists in his 15 games.
As the weeks went by, Exeter City started to gain ground on the league standings. By March, the team had climbed into the 6th spot on the way to an 8 game unbeaten streak. By April 1st, the team was in 2nd place overall and within reach of their promotion spot after losing only 1 game dating back to February 1st. Entering May with 5 games left, Exeter City had a strong hold on 2nd place. They were ahead of Petersborough by 5 points with a game against the Posh coming up. The Grecians not only won the match 2-0 but stayed unbeaten in May to finish the season in 2nd place, 2 points behind first place. Exeter City had done the (almost) impossible and managed to gain automatic promotion to the Championship after losing only 1 game in the last three months of the season.
Manager's Notes:
Well, it took a long time to simulate through this season but it was worth it. I only played one game each month and going into January it was not looking good. The first three games that I played (in August, September and October) we lost and the team was not clicking using the 4-3-3 formation. I couldn't see past using the three big strikers to try and score goals and we were getting beat frequently on the counter. Even when I went back to the 4-4-2 and put Ojamaa on the left wing, we still weren't as sturdy in the middle as we had been.
I really didn't plan to let Ojamaa go but once a few big teams offered double his evaluation, it became a smart deal. The funds could be used in many different ways and at that point we were back to youth scouting Australia and New Zealand because of our low funds. After selling Ojamaa, I initially went to a 5-3-2 formation to really emphasize the back line defense but I ultimately changed permanently to a 4-2-3-1 and it worked like a charm. We were blowing out the bad teams and drawing the top teams like we needed to be. With no cup games and the 2nd half schedule being fairly stretched out, I only had to sim 1 game with back-ups and that is the game we lost.
Romero won the golden boot with 27 goals and Fagundez is a very good LM in the new formation. He had a really nice cross late in one game which Beavon headed in for a 1-0 win. I was ecstatic that we gained promotion but most of it was relief that we weren't fired. The team made a tremendous push and even with a few injuries to starters like Dezi and Ledson, they reached promotion.
The remaining money from the Ojamaa sale would eventually go into extending some starting player contracts (like Ryan Ledson and Sebastien Romero) as well as hiring a new global scout, a new youth scout and signing three youth players at the end of the year.
The main focus in the next summer window will be to sign a Championship caliber goalie. Eric Lora went back to Roma so he is an option but I hired another scout so that I could really look for a good deal. I have already found some 6'6" Russians that would fit the bill. It will come down to what the board assigns to the transfer budget and how cheap we can get them.
This is the final player stats table for 2016-2017 sorted by Average Form:
The next update will be on September 1st 2017 with Exeter City in the FL Championship.
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