Andria Challenge: Transfers for Serie B

As promised, I am showing you today the players I have signed to help us avoid relegation from the Serie B this season. I wasn't able to spend too much - actually I wasn't able to spend anything, since Andria is completely broke, but I did manage to snap up a few player - great ones, given the circumstances.

Players IN
I am most excited by this Uruguayan central midfielder Manuel Sanchez, who will probably take the place of my best player three seasons ago, the great Yann Schneider. But since his skills are lower, he might have to become a substitute. Hopefully he will do well, he has great passing skills and creativity and even though his mental skills are not good, he's one of the best players in the squad now.Second, I am impressed and have high hopes in Younes Gimenez, another regen, this time French, specially build as a central defender. His only problem is Marking (just 8), and I do employ a man marking system, but I hope that his other incredible skills will compensate for that. Anyway, he's the best defender in the squad!
I needed badly a right defender, since Antonio Carnevali can't rise up to the challenge anymore, so I signed Dutch winger Nigel Van Dijk, who will probably become a first team instead of the older (and skill-less) Algerian DR, Karim Azizou.
Finally, since I was disappointed by my wingers this season - especially the left wingers Sorin Ciobanu, Mario Rebecchi and Ousmane Sy - none of which played well, I had to sign new players there. For the left side I signed Vittorio Triarico with great teamwork and work rate, but still not looking like the player I need. However, I do hope he will do a better job than the others...
And finally, the last transfer in is Andrea Verdenelli, basically planned to take Sorin Ciobanu's place as the back-up right midfielder. He's again a good team player and crosser, but he's slow and has pretty poor mental attributes. He should do well as a backup, though.

Players Out
I plan to let go quite a few of my players, who are not ready for Serie B. The awful strikers Eugen Nita and Sami will be simply thrown away since they were absolutely rubbish, Mario Rebbecchi and probably Stanescu will also leave. Also, I would like to get a new goalkeeper, a better one than the Romanian one Gabriel Ignat, and if I do, then I will have to sell Sebastien Scherer, Luxembourg's national keeper. Lets hope for the best!

Andria Challenge: Season 4 Final Update

Wow! That's everything I can say about my fourth season with Andria in Football Manager 2009. I am impressed, amazed and blown away by the progress we have managed to obtain: dubbed for a mediocre season, my Andria Bat challenge went extraordinarily and we've managed to promote to the Serie B! Yes, that's right, we are now part of the real football - impressive, having in mind that four seasons ago, when the computer was randomly placing me at the helm of Andria, the team was dubbed for relegation from the Serie C1/C.

I must admit that I was completely impressed by how the players played. I never expected to obtain promotion and I was only hoping for them to gel and build up for the next season when I was planning to attack the promotion to the Serie B. However, thanks to Rozman and the company, we are up and ready for the real challenge: Serie B, a division in which I'll most certainly have trouble staying in.

As you can see, we've placed six and won incredible battles (incredibly easy also) in the playoffs. There was a point in the final when I thought about losing the game with intention, since there's no way my team is ready (or has the financial power) to go one division up, but then thought that if the players want it so much, maybe we'll be able to do something next year, too. Congrats to the lads, they were impressive!
As you can see from the standings below (and above), Andria's main strength was the defense. We never lost hard, and we battled bravely for every result. We're not yet a scoring, powerful team, but we do have strength back there and, even though the games are not always a joy to watch, we're still doing a great job getting the results. First we'll get the results, next we'll focus on making a real show for the fans.
From the players, I must signal out, once again, Bostjan Rozman, the young striker which might turn into a legend if he keeps playing like that (a legend for the club, and at least until we get to Serie A :P) - he scored 9 goals and was impressive always, creating goals and playing well. Also, I was surprised by the strength proven by Johnny Giansante, a striker Roma (my parent club) sent to me and who managed to score an impressive 8 goals, despite I didn't have any plans to play him. But due to bad performances from Sami (gambling on a striker without pace was not worth it) and Marco Di Matteo (who simply can't gel with the squad), he proved a great loan.
Also, Ivan Vellucci was considered the second best signing of the season, so I must say I am impressed with him as well. Hopefully we'll build on this incredible, unbelievable feat next season and manage to stay in the Serie B. I do hope we'll finally get over the financial crysis we have in the team and I will finally be able to purchase some players and not be forced to keep my eye on expiring contracts. But about transfers and plans for the future, in another post!

Best Football Manager 2009 Attack Tactics

Although I have to play a defensive tactic with my Andria Bat team in Football Manager 2009, I am a keen admirer of fun, exciting, attacking football. So I went a did some scouting about the best attacking tactics for Football Manager 2009, which will give you victories and many goals. It's pretty find to find the "best" or to declare which of these FM2009 attack tactics work (since player stats matter), but here are some of those that looked most impressive:

1. The first and most productive attacking tactic seems to be one from the TrueFootballManager website, one used by the author with his Hull challenge (we all have challenges, see?). This tactic is a very offensive 4-1-2-2-1 tactic which seems impressive. Check it out HERE.

2. The second attacking tactic which seemed quite nice and brought great results to Man City is a straightforward 4-3-3 tactic, especially good for those who don't like to play football on the flanks. Check it out with a bag of details over at the FM Diary blog.

3. And finally, the best attacking tactic for Football Manager 2009: the one YOU will create. That's the real challenge, that's the real manager in you. So head on to this website and read evrything one has to know about tactics, players, and creating the right attacking tactic. Good luck!

Rean on Everything Football Manager even more about tactics!

Side-challenge for Andria: Armando Carnevali Youngster

If you do remember, I have launched a little while ago a small so-called side-challenge for my Football Manager 2009 game, basically taking the youngster which is described as "the best to come" and offering it a contract, first team chances and so on, just too see how well he develops.

My first and only player until now was Armando Carnevali, a rather poor central defender (but good for the Serie C1/C I was in back then). Although he doesn't have the necessary skills, I also trained him to play as a right back, just to get even more playing chances. He does play well, but unfortunately, he won't be a name to add to my wonderkids list. Check him for yourself. With coaches twice as better and with two more years in his back, he still didn't improve much at all!

Andria Challenge: Season 4 Middleseason Update

Hello everybody and welcome to a new update on my Ultimate Football Manager 2009 Challenge: Andria Challenge. I'm already in my fourth season during the fantastic spell at Italian club Andria Bat and I must admit I'm really pleased with what I accomplished thus far, even though I did not win any awards: however, I am constantly improving the squad and I am satisfied with the tactic I found, even though it's not a spectacular one at all and we don't score too many goals.

However, we do pretty well on the football field since my players have shown great attitude and an incredible desire to beat the odds once more and maybe gain promotion. To the Italian Serie B in four seasons, with a team dubbed for relegation from the fourth division - that's something I'm really not expecting to happen but with a bit luck it might come true! Incredible!
However, it's still a long way to go as we're only in mid-season right now, but things are looking impressive. As you can see, Andria is at number 4 in the charts, which means we're promotion candidates! However, the battle is very tight and if my team gets complacent or something bad happens, I might be quickly down the table. Which might not be necessary a bad thing, since the Andria squad is not 100% ready for the much better and intense Serie B.

Although I don't have any specific players to not now at mid season - we're doing well as a team and there are no particular highlits - I must admit that I am absolutely unhappy with the lack of lack I had with one of the best signings during the pre-season, young and promising Spanish midfielder Jacinto Navarro: as you can see from the screenshot below, he only managed to play three games (all as a substitute) because he was plagued by injuries. Actually, every time he recovered from an injury, he got a new one - which is driving me mad. Unfortunately this means that he's very prone to injuries and I can't do anything with such a player which can't play. I will be very sad to see him go, since I had high hopes invested in him... but that's football.
Now I don't want to go over excited with Andria's placement in the Serie C1/B, but I do wonder - if my Football Manager 2009 challenge takes me to a point where I will be promoted together with the team in the Serie B - would that be a good thing? I have lots of players which would be sub-standard for the Serie B competition. Time will tell for sure and I will certainly keep you updated!