Smurph Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 Give us a screeny of your formation and player roles lad? I always play with wingers so I find it weird when you say you don't If anyone else wants screenshots or an explanation of anything feel free to ask. That's our team for this season - with a few people missed out who wouldn't get any game time anyway. A 4-1-3-2 formation. Balanced and disciplined, and narrow with very quick short balls through the middle. This has been drilled into them for years. The full backs are simply that - full backs - and Pereyra is a central defender. Reinaldo is a limited defender. Ritter acts as a defensive midfielder most of the times, but if we're playing a good team he'll be used as an anchor man. Hauck is a box to box midfielder and Salles and Toplek are both advanced play-makers. Maringá is a poacher and Le Moal is a complete forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SodjesSixteenIncher Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted May 31, 2012 Author Share Posted May 31, 2012 September 2021 We wanted to start off the season well but with a few new faces and few pre-season fixtures, it may take a little time to gel. That's my excuse anyway... The three draws were, hmm, all right I suppose. Three points is better than no points and we really weren't looking up to it at all. The goal that Salles scored against Milan was a 30-yard goal. We just can't seem to create any chances. The game against Parma was absolutely woeful and I don't want to dwell on that. An improved performance against Empoli gave us something to build on and we hammered Udinese in the final fixture of the month. All the goals came in the second half. I don't know if that means anything. Like I said, the gelling together part may have something to do with our poor performances. We're without Maringá for a few more months, Jean-Paul Leonard got an injury in the Fiorentina match and is out for four months, Le Moal was injured in the Udinese game and we're also without Dolci for a week or two too. Maybe in two months time when we can use our first-team squad things will look more appealing. It's not all doom and gloom just yet, though. We're still very early on in the season and if we can see some consistency with these wins we can be back up in no time hopefully. We just need to keep this up though. We faced the two hardest teams in our group first. The game against Atletico was horrible. We were 3-0 down within 20 minutes. I tweaked a few things and we looked a far better team and managed to get two goals back, one from a Ritter penalty and one from a Valencia header. You could argue that we were lucky to come back, but we really, really should have got that equaliser. Fratti scored in the 87th minute but it was ruled out because he fouled the goalkeeper. I went mental at the officials at the end and the FA were silent. That really could do us out of a place in the knock-out rounds. Liverpool was a slightly different story. We went 1-0 up after Hain scored from a corner, but they equalised through Jonjo Shelvey from a corner too. Their winner was credited as a Pereyra own goal and he really should have done better with it. It seems that luck isn't going our way and that could be another reason for our sudden downturn in form. I hope it doesn't continue. We're currently bottom of our group. I can't bare to give a picture of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadStar Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Oh, don't worry. When that wee Spanish p***k Lionel Messi becomes a manager, he is in for it. lolwut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted May 31, 2012 Author Share Posted May 31, 2012 lolwut Haha, it was deliberate. Don't worry. October 2021 We needed a big improvement and to continue our good form. I'd say we've done that - but I still don't understand the loss to Sassuolo. The wins against Atalanta and Triestina were fairly comfortable and the win against Napoli was a little scrappy - Salles with another wonder-strike - but I'll take it. The loss, though. I don't know. We just didn't offer anything. Our goal was another peach but the two goals we conceded were sloppy. No run away teams yet so if we can just continue to win games we'll be back up in no time surely. The league isn't the priority as you know, though. It's the other little competition we're in. And at home we managed to beat Dinamo Bucharest 4-1 at home. Fratti getting two, Toplek scoring a free kick and Pereyra getting a goal too. We need to beat Bucharest away from home and take it from there. I don't think we have much hope of a result in Spain but I'm looking to win against Liverpool. I hope that will be enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I'm kinda glad you're going out of the CL, means at least one more season after this. And you'll win the EL easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Troll Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I'm slightly jealous of you I'm in 2023, my highest fee spent £1.9 million, my highest outgoings about £2.5 million and my highest ever earner is £7,000 a week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted May 31, 2012 Author Share Posted May 31, 2012 November 2021 I don't understand. That was a tough run of fixtures, admittedly, but how can we go from scoring FOUR against Inter Milan but then fail to find the net in the next two games? It's something we really need to sort out quickly if we want to mount a serious title challenge again. It still doesn't look too bad but we're ten points off the pace now. We're still not conceding an awful lot but our goals have dried up. We've had to reply on Le Moal and youngster Fratti as Hain hasn't been doing too well. HOWEVER. The upcoming game against Livorno introduces the king. Yes. That's right. Maringá is back. Leonard should be back soon too. Salles is out for a few weeks, but I suspect, for the first time this season, our preferred eleven will play together in the first game of the new year. Another strong win against Dinamo and a hard fought draw against Madrid. We were 2-0 down to Atletico and yet again clawed back and were unlucky not to have won. That would make our job easier. We need to beat Liverpool then if Pro Vercelli are going to progress in this seasons Champions League. No other result will do. Another result would take us into the Europa League, which would probably be better, but I'm going to try for a win. We narrowly lost 2-1 away from home, so with the backing of the bianchi faithful, we may just be able to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted May 31, 2012 Author Share Posted May 31, 2012 December 2021 Almost a clean sweep again but we just couldn't break the deadlock against Juventus. Our defence has been excellent, though. In the league, that's seven games without conceding a goal. We've scored a few in those games and could have scored more, but I'll take the wins at the moment. We're still struggling I guess, but looking at the league table, we're where we were expected to be towards the end. Perhaps we just overachieved more last season than I had initially thought... We seem to be the best of the rest just now so hopefully we can push on and get into that top three. Finishing fourth wouldn't be too bad - that still secures us Champions League football, but we'd have to go via the play-offs. HOWEVER. The upcoming game against Livorno introduces the king. Yes. That's right. Maringá is back. Leonard should be back soon too. Salles is out for a few weeks, but I suspect, for the first time this season, our preferred eleven will play together in the first game of the new year. Maringá, in all honesty, has been rotten since his return. In fact, Flavio Roma has rated him a whole star less than he was prior to his injury. I think I'm going to rest him for a while but I need him to come big for me again. However, Le Moal is now out for four months, effectively ruling him out for the majority of the season. Salles is back! But Dolci is out for a month. Pereyra and Leonard are back! But Reinaldo is out for two months. The league was important, but it was the game sandwiched in between the Juventus and Pescara games which was the decider for our season essentially. ...and we royally fucked it up. Nothing I did could get us to attack more and we conceded again in the second half. If, however, we managed to take our chances, we would have won this. Again the mis-firing strikers have left us in the lurch. We can't be too disappointed, really, but we could have done better. Finishing third does promise us a spot in the Europa League, though - a competition I have yet to participate in. I'm not expecting a win but I reckon we can really go for it if we can pick up form and suchlike. Who do we face? It's a return to Barcelona. Let's hope we can progress this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xbl Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Maybe you need to freshen up your forward line more than you expected? I always found (although admittedly its been a couple fms since i played regularly) that I would try and buy a big name attacking midfielder / striker a season and sell one of the existing ones, because it seemed to stop the team getting stale... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xbl Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 When i say big name, I mean relative to whatever team i was in charge of ,of course! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattydfc Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 This thread gets a thumbs up from me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkBlue62 Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Fantastic Smurph, bloody fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 I've been away camping the past few days in real life so I was unable to make any progress in this for a few days. I needed a rest from it seeing that I've rattled through the past few seasons and I'm getting a little restless with our inconsistency. I'm back now, though. I don't know how much game-time I'll get because I want to watch the Euro's but there will be some progress when there's not a game on. January 2022 As always, I'll start off with what happened in the January transfer window. Lots of goings on as you can see. Not too bad. Decent result against Pisa and a very good win over Fiorentina. Followed by a good draw against Parma. Another three points against Roma were gained and a decent 0-0 against Milan (in which we should have won) sealed up the month. What I have only just noticed is that, in the league, we are 15 games unbeaten. Our last loss coming against Sassuolo. I never really thought about that at all, so we're doing very well. It's just the draws that are holding us down. And that's certainly because of our mis-firing strikers. We have, by a decent amount of goals, the best defence in the league, and we've lost the least amount of games, but we've drawn far too often. I could have perhaps bought a new striker, but I'm holding onto the hope that Hain will come big for us and that Maringá will start to show the form which labelled him as a wonderkid a few months ago. Disappointing, really. I put out a weaker side against Siena and our winner was scoring in the 6th minute. Losing against Cagliari was annoying but it was good to see Maringá get what was a consolation goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 February 2022 We turned that 15 match unbeaten run in the league into a 19 game unbeaten run. Solid wins against Empoli and Atalanta put us in good stead and Hain and Maringá playing upfront made a very good partnership. Maringá continued his good run of scoring form against Udinese and with the help of Hauck we won 2-0. The game against Sassuolo was incredibly frustrating as we created plenty of chances, but a late goal by the most unlikely of scorers, Leonard (only his 3rd career goal), secured the three points. As good as this has been, there's always bad news around the corner... Oh just f**k off. Seriously. That's him out for the season. As we power through the games, the teams around us seem to be dropping points, and we keep gaining them. We were ten points behind not long ago, seven points behind more recently, but have narrowed it down to just the 3 now. It was the Europa League we were concentrating on too. That was disappointing. I thought we did well enough to win it and we dominated but they scored a 30-yard free-kick and drew the game. At least we had an away goal but I hope we didn't have to rely on that. I was confident of the second leg and progression. Oh for f**k's sake. How is that not a win?! Yet again, the same guy, scores a screamer for them and they take the tie to a draw and get an away goal themselves. Neither team could break the deadlock in extra time either, so it went to penalties... We didn't deserve to lose at all and I made sure the team knew that I was absolutely raging. That's us knocked out of European competition for another season without anything to show for it... My patience is fading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 March 2022 We get 2/9 points from teams scrapping in the relegation dogfight but we win easily against Europe-chasing Lazio?! We had a goal disallowed in the Napoli game which should have stood. The Livorno goal was a penalty and it was not a penalty. Triestina, I just don't understand how we never scored. We don't score in three games but then we easily slot four into Lazio?! Three of our goals in that game were from set-pieces, but we took those chances. We never did in the previous games... It seems we're trying to get third, then. We need to play Inter and Palermo this month but I don't hold out much hope. 3rd gets us in the Champions League again. This is what we want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeeperDee Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 seems your team has lower reputation complacency issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattydfc Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 This has inspired me to start a Pro Vercelli save. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 9, 2012 Author Share Posted June 9, 2012 seems your team has lower reputation complacency issues. Yup. This never happened when Maringá was on form, though. Maybe with a full pre-season behind him (and his own training regime to try and prevent him from injuries) he'll be back to his best. We'll need to wait and see I suppose... Season 2021/2022 I rattled through the end of the season as I grew more and more frustrated and the Champions League place drifted further and further away. I don't know what happened. We just exploded. The "winter curse" seemed to have shifted to the end of the season and we really, really struggled. As you can see, a complete implosion. Palermo, Cagliari and Palermo all finished above us, but I still thought we could have gave them a better game. Juventus are a team we've beaten a lot recently but we couldn't this time. Managed to win our last three games to save us from complete embarrassment but it wasn't enough in the end I'm afraid. Fifth is where the media predicted us to finish, and for the first time in my Pro Vercelli career, we have not bettered those expectations. It's really quite disappointing, but ignoring the colossal implosion towards the end, the problem was that we drew far too many games. We couldn't get the winning goal in them and that, ultimately, is what done us in the end. We still managed to finish with the second best defence (second only to the winners, Inter) which is something to be proud of I guess, but our goals scored was poor and I'm going to take a lot of time in pre-season working on tactics, training and how to get the best out of my players. There will probably be a few exits as I'm sick of some of these guys and there will be players coming in. Name, Current Rating, Potential Rating, Position, Age, Appearances, Goals, Assists, Average Rating. Buonagura kept 22 clean sheets in 44 appearances which is a great return and Casali kept 4 in 5. Goalkeepers were, on the whole, excellent again this season - but it may be time to find one better than Buonagura... Defence did their bit. Trotta did better than Kaká at the right back slot which gives me a "selection headache" for next season and we'll have Balaj returning too. Leonard did superbly at left back when he came back from injury and was one of the best players this season. Reinaldo and Pereyra did very well again and Valencia and Raiola did fairly well when they needed to step in. Dolci and Rizzi did all right when they played, but Rizzi's contract is up and I think I might try and find a new suitor for Dolci. They've been great servants at the club but they haven't progressed like the club has and they're not good enough any more. Ritter was solid in the defensive midfielder position but I need to get him to join the attack more. Hauck was all right this season but I expect him to get better. Salles did reasonably well but I'm looking for more from him next season. I want him to replicate how Toplek did - our best player - and get the goals and assists he did. If I can get those two working together we could have the best midfield in the league. Toplek was incredible and you can't argue with his goals and assists. Erdozia did all right I guess but I might try and find him a new club. Palmieri was always played out of position and was always left on the bench. I might see if I can get him in the squad next season. Up front, Maringá can't be judged on this season. He played a very small part of the season, and whilst 17 appearances isn't the most insignificant amount, he never managed to get running, and when he did, he was injured again. Aguero came on for the last few games and did all right getting one goal. He was performing brilliantly for the under's so I thought I'd give him a chance. Hain did all right from his first season but I expect him to do better next. 12 goals and 9 assists is decent though. Le Moal was injured for a lot of the season but came back towards the end. Decent return from him and he's really underrated by Flavio Roma is seems. Benetti and Esposito hardly got any game time. Fratti was the star, though. I only played him because Maringá was injured but he stepped up and finished our top goalscorer in all competitions. I don't know how he'll do next season, but I might as well play him if he's going to continue to improve and did that well. Good news came at the end, though. A 29,250 capacity stadium will be excellent and we should get a lot more money from that. I sort of wanted an expansion, despite the costs, but this is excellent news and what we need to generate more revenue. I just hope we manage to fill it. All in all, a fairly disappointing season. There were a few positives but we didn't do very well in any of the competitions we were in and finished the season with no silverware. I know what I need to do next season and I'll plough through pre-season tweaking everything to, hopefully, perfection, but we'll need to see what happens. In the back of my mind there is a question, though. Have I taken Pro Vercelli as far as possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 Pre-season 2022/2023 Another season it is, then. After last years disappointment I decided I no longer cared about any of my players. I'll sell who I need to and I'll buy what I have to in order to progress and do what I need to do. No-one was going to stand in my way. Rizzi, Micheli, Kunert, Cesarini and Burcea. All have been at the club for years, but only Rizzi has actually played a reasonable amount the past few seasons. They all depart on a free transfer and I don't care. Burcea was once a transfer target for Man Utd and Barcelona but he really didn't fulfil his potential. Again, a bunch of youths go out on loan to gain some experience as their chances here at Pro Vercelli will be limited. All were free, though, so I have the option to call them back if I need some more depth if the going gets tough. I hope I don't have to resort to that, though. The best part, though, was undoubtedly the amount of players I could sell. Turchetta, Rasmussen, Puglia and Ustun weren't going to play for me so I had no problem getting them to leave. Erdozia, Vitali and Balaj were harder to let go because they've all made a fair amount of appearances for the club (Balaj being at the club for eight years costing just the €120K) but because of the other players at our disposal I thought I might as well let them leave. Mendes has a lot of potential but I have better centre backs now so I thought I'd just let him go for a price like that, making a cool €6M profit in five years. The toughest to depart with was undoubtedly Vittorio Ferrero, though. 278 league appearances and 28 league goals for Pro Vercelli in the 11 years he spent at the club. He's listed in the favoured personnel on the information page and no wonder. I hope he does well at Sampdoria and I'd love to be reunited with him (and De Paolo and Disabato) in the future. They started it all. They started this Pro Vercelli journey. To make €37.6M from that, though, is exceptional. We added that to the €70M we got for aiming to finish in the European places. Easy! We spent less than we got from the players we sold! €72M left in the transfer kitty. You should have heard of Yann M'Vila. He's one of the hottest prospects in France at the moment, but in my game, he's now Pro Vercelli's star defensive midfielder. With Rizzi going, he comes in and it means that Ritter can move into the central midfielder spot and excel beside Salles and Toplek. He brings in some experience to the club and he's still got it, but I can see his stats reducing quickly. Giovanni Mazzon is a player who I've had my eyes on for years, and fortunately Triestina finally got relegated, and after six years of trying I finally get my man. He's a better goalkeeper than Buonagura and Casali and hopefully we should concede even less goals with him in charge. He conceded 64 goals last season but he's always impressed me and Triestina have always been fighting relegation. Another striker. Cunha, ideally, should be playing beside Maringá in an all Brazilian attack. He seems a more technical player and will play where Le Moal or Hain should be playing on the left of the attack. He looks excellent though, but he never managed to play with us pre-season so it might take a while to see how he gets on. And that is our squad for this season. It looks small but barring any fatal injuries we should be able to compete with that squad, and we always have the option of recalling any loan players. The players potential keeps on changing so some of them go from 3.5 stars to 4 stars and back again. I know which ones are good, though, and not Flavio Roma. Go Maringá! Go! What a man. A very good pre-season. Atletico were the only real challenge and we saw them off fairly easily. We drew 2-2 with them last pre-season, 2-2 away in the Champions League and lost 3-2 at home in the same competition, so that's an improvement of sorts. The other games were easy and a reserve team did reasonably well against Sociedad before the Europa League qualifiers... I would have perhaps liked to have won more comfortably but 7-0 on aggregate can't be sniffed at. We weren't challenged at all, and I don't think they had a single shot in the home leg for us. Easy. Who did we welcome in the group stage? Not the toughest group but we'll still have to do a professional job against the teams in it if we don't want to get knocked out at the first hurdle. I'd really, really like to win the competition this year, so we'll see how it goes. Here we go again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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