Part 108: Interlude: The Youngbloods.

Interlude: The Youngbloods
January 6, 2021

I was asked if I can spotlight some of the players that I feel are most impressive so far this season. I'm also going to give a team overview, so you can get a sense of where we're thin and an idea of what I'll want to upgrade in the future. The Board has also graciously granted me another £5m to use as I see fit this season, and after looking over our stats here you'll be able to tell what I'm hunting for.



We're most obviously thin on the left side of the field, if Mujkic went down Mejasic would be pressed into the left midfield role and youth player Piero Argenti would be our best option at left wing. Right back would also be a problem if Cirjak missed significant time, Douggie Two Saints has done little to show he deserves to be a rotation option in his limited playing time.

Goalkeeper would be an issue if Kovacevic gets hurt, but he's rated as being healthy as an ox so I'm less concerned about Novotny being pressed into service than Cirjak and Mujkic's backups. Lastly, losing Bastable would be a real kick in the teeth, he's one of our three best players and neither Di Martino nor Aarts have shown the ability to be a reliable goal scoring threat.



Besides being such a young team, you'll notice that we're both short and slight. This mostly comes from many of our midfielders being around 5'7”, and not having any exceptionally tall centerbacks to even out the average.



We're also not a team that plays well together, or that works all that hard. We also aren't aggressive, meaning that having us play a pressing game is going to keep us from racking up too many yellows but perhaps not be as effective. Those are all traits that I should give more attention to in the future, but I've paid much more attention to getting players with high technical and physical traits than building up a cohesive team. As such we have a very good first touch and passing ability to compensate for our club being a bunch of lazy me-first types.



Keeper is an area of relative strength, and all of these stats are dragged down by Novotny being a Championship level backup at this early stage of his career. The only weakness Kovacevic has is his aerial ability, which along with our short defenders are why we concede a lot of goals from corners and headers. He should get better in the air, he's certainly tall enough to do the job, and I'm actively looking for a giant centerback to replace Boumsong if we can't get him back on loan next year.



Our defense needs to hit the weight benches, doesn't mark that well, doesn't do a great job positioning themselves, and can't dunk a basketball on a toddler's hoop. The one thing they are is fast as hell. They have the speed to catch up to almost any striker who gets past them, and their high tackling and good decisions allows them to recover when caught out. It allows us to play higher up the pitch without as much fear of being caught by a counter-attack. They are also very good at heading the ball. That means when they actually do win a ball in the air they'll do something good with it, such as scoring from a corner or clearing the ball from our own penalty area.



Compared to our defense, which features a number of serious weaknesses, our midfield is one of the best in the league. We're good at Long Shots, allowing players like Nieddu and Shirra to be scoring threats and allowing us to rain in goals from beyond 18 yards. The players also possess the technical skills to keep the ball, the passing skills and field vision to spray it anywhere we want on the pitch, and the good sense not to make many mistakes while doing so. We are crap at teamwork, though, which almost certainly holds us back from being even better.



Finally, our strongest aspect. There's a reason why we're tied for third in goals this season, and it's because our offensive players can put the ball in the back of the net. We're not fast for a Premier League club, but we're either best or second best in most of the other categories. Guys like Bastable and Aarts also make life miserable on opposing defenses by being tall and good at cracking the ball with their skulls. Ideally we get quicker, but when we're in the 4-2-3-1 our striker is meant to be the big lad that the others hoof the ball to, so our tactics mesh well with our ability. Now, onto some of the best players on our squad.

Richard Petts
Midfielder


Dick Petts, as his parents unfortunately called him when he was just a boy in an unknown English hamlet, is too often the odd man out in our midfield. He's been very good when he's played, and he's the best corner taker on the team, but Nieddu and Djurovic both get more calls to play as beyond just central midfield and attacking midfield they can both play on the right side. That leaves Petts fighting for playing time when he's probably one of the better players on the team. It also means that we finally have a position where I'm comfortable with our depth, an injury won't result in a much inferior player forced into regular action.

Dimitri Nieddu
Midfielder


We signed him on a free from AC Milan last summer, and it was my best move of the close season. He made an immediate impact, and has been deadly from the right wing. I have him playing as an inside forward, he doesn't have the crossing ability to be the supporting player that Mujkic has become on the other side of the pitch, but his speed and technique means he breaks down opposing fullbacks on the regular. He can finish or pass once he's left the first defender in shambles, the only thing that concerns me is the fact that he's a yellow-bellied coward and tends to shy away from his opponents after they give him a couple rough challenges.

Vid Kovacevic
Goalkeeper


Getting Kovacevic from Liverpool last season was a coup. They let us take him off their hands at a cost of just over a million pounds because of how upset he was at the club's poor league position, and he's going to end up one of the better goalkeepers in the game. I really wish he'd get better aerially, he's tall enough that he should be better than he is and it exacerbates our overall weakness in the air, but otherwise he's trustworthy between the sticks in a way none of our previous keepers have been.

Dejan Djurovic
Midfielder


Djurovic was a record signing for us when we reached the Championship, he was on the outs at Turkish giants Galatasary and I sprung the £900,000 needed to bring him to Wales. He's rewarded us with solid, consistent play on the right wing and in central midfield. He'll never be a world class player himself, but he is the type of player that the big clubs need when they're making deep cup runs and playing in continental competitions while at the same time challenging for the league title. He'll win us a few games on his own, and is better than the majority of players on the non-megabastards.

Mateo Mujkic
Left Winger


Meteor has scored 12 goals for us this season and is getting fully 40% of his shots on target. He's doing so even with just a 9 finishing and 10 long shots. I've had him playing with instructions to take fewer shots, but he's so good at getting into dangerous positions that he's still able to lead the team in goals this year. He's already one of the best players on the left wing in the world, and he has the ability to get somewhat better. Finding him has been the biggest stroke of luck I've ever had in Football Manager, and that's doubly so as it led me to also discover the next player on our list.

Rocky Bastable
Striker


Paying a measly four million pounds for one of the 5-10 best strikers in the world goes a long way towards creating a powerhouse. That Bastable wasn't shortlisted for the Ballon d'Or and didn't win the AFC Player of the Year award is due only to the effect reputation has on the voters. He stormed the Premier League with 21 goals last season and despite a slow start to this season has been even better than he was last season. He's a big old target man who's only physical weakness is his poor acceleration Mentally, his work rate could use improvement and he could stand to be more aggressive and brave, he loses out on some jump balls because he's not fighting hard enough for them against his marker.

Scott Shirra
Midfielder


Shirra has seen the following attribute changes since he signed with us as a 16 year old:

Corners +4
Crossing +3
Dribbling +3
Finishing +3
First Touch +3
Free Kicks +2
Heading +4
Long Shots +4
Long Throws +2
Marking +5
Passing +4
Penalty Taking +4
Tackling +2
Technique +3
Aggression 0
Anticipation +5
Bravery +1
Composure +6
Concentration +5
Creativity +3
Decisions +5
Determination +3
Flair +1
Leadership +4
Off the Ball +4
Positioning +5
Teamwork +4
Work Rate +3
Acceleration +4
Agility +5
Balance +3
Jumping +1
Natural Fitness +1
Pace +4
Stamina +7
Strength +8

And he's not done growing as a player yet! Chris Todd has seen similar improvements in his attributes since joining us, but he's not nearly the player Shirra has turned into. Shirra could become the best attacking midfielder in all of football in his prime, signing him for £105,000 at the age of 16 is a perfect example of how a Lower League team can develop players who become club legends as the team itself builds a proud legacy.

You might have noticed that I mostly spotlighted our attacking players. That's because our best defender, Boumsong, isn't ours and is already valued at over 20m pounds meaning he'll never be ours. The rest are either too young or too low ceiling to be included at this point. Cirjak and Morvan might one day be world class players, but they aren't there yet. Todd and Mair are good, solid players who will have long careers but will never be one of the very best at their position. It's the area where we're weakest, and something that I will be attempting to improve both through our youth system and transfer purchases.