Season 6: Young Guns

Hey everyone and welcome back to another instalment of my FM2012 story with Middlesbrough. Last season was hugely successful for the club and this post will be a review of this season.

The aim this season is to retain the prem title and, for the first time, win the champions league. Along the way, it would also be nice to win some other competitions :)

The post is called Young Guns due to the incredibly low average age of the Boro squad and the number of youngsters that make up my squad. I took the gamble and got rid of my older players; hoping that the youngsters could step up. The last post covered the transfers and the overview of the club so we'll get straight into it.

It's nice to see that interest in Boro is increasing and the ticket revenues are rising as a result. Hopefully we can replay those who are supporting the club.

Preseason:

Having so many player U21 does have it's disadvantages as quite a lot of my players were away on international duty for the majority of the preseason. At times i barely had 13 players to put out. We had some tough games organised and i thought they went quite well. The loss to OL was bad but we had players playing in ridiculous positions to try and scrape together a half decent starting XI. Overall, looking forward to the coming season.

Community Shield:

Not the strongest XI that we had as players were still away on international duty but i think the talent was there; it did help that Rafael got sent off in the 14th minute. Looking at the stats it was quite an even game but we managed to come away with the win :)

Match Highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVB9csGiGqY&context=C3daf65eADOEgsToPDskJaz3Wcj9zIyRTtSdimj6Je

League Cup:

Once again, i think this is the 5th year in a row, we won the League Cup and apart from the final, it was pretty easy going. We thrashed Chelsea with Fierro putting in a great performance. The final against City was quite a close affair that isn't reflected by the score but a win's a win :)

FA Cup:

Again, we had a relatively simple run to the title. All the big teams were drawn against themselves in the earlier rounds which paved the way for Boro to stroll to victory :) The final was a relatively easy game and it was nice to keep adding the silverware to the cabinet :)

Highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvZwf1G1Bis&context=C3e55750ADOEgsToPDskK8Fo-jA5i1umC_YpYrCAbB

Champions League:

The group stages went exceptionally well. We brushed aside our opposition in a fairly simple group and were rewarded with a relatively tough and challenging draw in OL. We played well in both legs and finished up with a 3-0 aggregate victory. Our quarter final draw was easier and we were helped by Mario Gomez seeing red at the end of the first leg so was unavailable for the second match. The semi final against Barcelona was an entertaining affair that i would have liked to have won but in the end, they probably deserved it. We are edging closer to that first champions league victory :)


Premiership:

After winning the league last year, the bookies still didn't have us rated too highly. We are rated 4th but you'd think we'd be higher.

Not much more to say than we absolutely dominated the prem. We only dropped 12 points throughout the entire campaign and remained unbeaten. It was a terrific effort from my young team and the completely justified my faith in them.

As you'd imagine after a set of results like that, we won the prem by a staggering 22 points. Looking forward to next season :)

Prem Awards:

After our success in the prem, we picked up a few awards. We didn't dominate but won a few bits and bobs here and there.

Miscellaneous:


After a great season for the club in which Boro won the Premiership, League Cup and FA Cup and reached the Semi-finals of the Champions League, the club's image and stature naturally improved.

I didn't do too badly as a manager as well. Becoming the most successful Irish manager ever was quite a nice feeling and it's always nice to have former Boro legends praising your work.

The squad performed really well throughout the season. Outside the usual awards, Fierro and Mazibuko picked up some awards that are well and truly deserved.

After a great season, Niang was deservedly named as the Fans' player of the year.

The squad performed really well over the course of the year. The screens below show a more in depth analysis of each players performance and contribution. I'm most pleased about the contribution of my new signings; most notably Mazibuko and Julio.

Our finances aren't overly healthy but with £35m in the bank we're not doing too badly.

That's all for this update. I hope it provided you with a decent enough insight into the season and it keeps you interested enough to eagerly anticipate the next post. As always, all your comments are welcome.

Thanks,

Atok

Season 6: The Club

Hi guys and welcome back to the north east of England and my FM 2012 story with Middlesbrough. Last season was extremely successful for the club with the prep title finally being ours and our sights are firmly set on "doing the double" and retaining the trophy.

I've had a few questions about my staff, tactics and training so this post is an overview of some aspects of the club. Hope this will answer some of your questions.

After last season, i decided it was time for a backroom staff overhaul and a clear out in my squad. The recognition of the club has finally increased to a point at which i can get a really good staff team. I had a huge staff overhaul (not that i had huge amounts of staff at the club before..). I'm really happy with what i managed to get at the end.

The Middlesbrough Staff:

As you can see, the backroom staff at Boro is now very extensive but they all have a part to play and, so far, have done a very good job. If you want to carry on your game far into the future then your staff are some of the most important parts to maintaining a strong team.

Training:

Good training is also integral to any team. Firstly, it is important to have quality over quantity and once you have room to manoeuvre you can start bringing in a larger team. What you need to be looking for in staff are attributes tailored to the individual coaching role you want your coach to be teaching. More info can be found: http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab91/Atokous/StaffAtributes.png

The schedules are also very important. You should never use the default ones that are set by SI. The best set of schedules to use, in my opinion, can be found here: http://thedugout.net/community/showthread.php?t=77686

Middlesbrough Training:

Tactics:

Having a good team is nothing without good tactics. I have three tactics set up (i downloaded + tweaked all of them).

My main tactic:

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?9ucecnjoh83isho

I really like this tactic as it has extremes of both attack and defence. The two CB's play deep which makes it extremely hard for other teams to counter attack. Going forward, the wingers stretch their defence leaving gaps which the midfielders and strikers can exploit.

Some examples of the passing that goes on as well:

The other tactics:

This is, simply put, a more defensive version of the first.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?b7bz2olre5bt273

This tactic is completely different and provides you with an opportunity to change things around if the winders are having no impact or if the midfield are constantly losing out.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?73c3tu7n1i1p05p

Enough about the intricacies of the club for now. Focusing now on the coming season :)

Transfers:

Continuing with my overhaul of the staff, quite a few players left the club as well. Most were youngsters but there were also some big names leaving Boro such as Soukouna, Podstowski, Bennet and LLori. I took a gamble and decided to focus more on the up and coming players and i was sure they would be up to the task. The selling also brought a nice £35m into the club to balance some of the spending.

I spent quite a lot this transfer to bring in some better players than the ones i sold. All are young players with a great future.

Ironically, the best player i bought was the cheapest. Kaizer Mazibuko was signed on a pre-contract and is an incredible player and talent. Will rotate with Niang and Sanogo up front.

Fatai (not going to attempt to spell his first name) cost a lot but was worth every penny. He will become one of the best wingers in the game i think.

I've been searching for ages to find a keeper with the ability to rival Branescu for the number one spot and i've finally found a really promising young keeper.

Another position i've been wanting to fill with a quality player is the left back role. I had to splash out for Robinson but, again, he's worth every penny :)

Two young full backs were also brought in. I have high hopes that they will be the next generation on the flanks of my defence. They both cost a bit but i'm sure they are a good investment. Kisuya was only bought in January.

I finally got a half decent player to come through my youth system. Boland isn't going to be the next Rooney but he's got some potential. I'll probably just build him up and then sell him when he's worth a bit (he was signed towards the end of the season).

Squad:

I'm happy with my squad for the coming season. There needs to be a bit more strength in depth potentially in a few areas. However, the future is looking good.

I hope this post helps with any questions you had about training, staff and formations. The next post will revert back to the normal format and will give an overview of the season. As always, your comments are welcomed.

Thanks,

Atok