Intro

In part two of my debut season with Hamburger SV, we found ourselves in 2nd place in 2.Bundesliga. Whilst the season was going well I felt the team were only operating at around 85% so made some tactical tweaks.

When I left off I was just about to navigate the perilous waters of Transfer Deadline Day before setting sail for the second half of our first season in a bid for automatic promotion. Bids were coming in for Jatta, Vagnoman and Leibold. Could I keep the team together for a promotion push?

Transfer news

We’d signed Ron Schallenberg from Paderborn earlier in the window, or rather, Director of Football Michael Mutzel had signed him on my behalf. But other than that I wanted the rest of the window to go quietly..

Of course, it wasn’t long before Bayer Leverkusen we’re making offers for both Josha Vagnoman and Bakery Jatta. As none of their bids matched my valuation they were swiftly rejected. But the bids kept on coming. Interest in Vagnoman eventually died down, but more and more teams were sniffing around Jatta and his departure seemed a certainty. Bids came in for Leibold but only of around £2 million so he was going nowhere.

Therefore, I dipped into the scouting reports to see what was out there as a potential replacement. That’s were I came across Freiberg’s Nils Petersen, who was transfer listed for just £210k.

With just hours remaining I set Mutzel on a mission to get me Petersen at all costs. And here you can see why:

Look at those attributes for finishing, heading, anticipation, composure and off the ball! He’ll be the perfect striker to unlock those stubborn, low blocks we’re coming up against on a weekly basis.

We also made a free agent signing. Picked up 20 year old Argentinian Facundo Taborda, who my scouts think the midfielders could be a Bundesliga level player. He was signed and then swiftly sent out on loan.

I was now more willing to let Jatta leave, but typically, no other bids came in for him.

I’d managed to keep the team together and added what could be a very potent attacking option. A successful window for Hamburger SV.

ONTO THE SEASON

January & February 2022

Despite Vagnoman and David – our best two defenders (statistically) – missing a few matches through injury, we won each game. Not only that but we also did the double over St Pauli (I live tweeted the game here). Of course, one rivalry game isn’t enough. We ended the month with a 2-0 victory of our other rivals, Werden Bremen.

New-boy Petersen netted twice in three games, whilst youngster Alidou made the most of his game time, due to an injury to Jatta, and scored twice. He’s definitely one to watch.

Despite an impressive two months we still found ourselves in second place in the league behind Schalke.

March and April 2022

March kicked off with a very tough game against 3rd placed FC Nurnberg. They’d won five games in a row and took the lead after 20 minutes. As they were dominating the game in midfield, I switched to a 4-3-1-2 to give us more bite. It seemed to be a lost cause until Jatta, fresh back from injury, came on as a substitute in the 93rd minute. He immediately caused a sloppy pass from a central defender which Petersen intercepted. After a they both played a nice one-two, Petersen calmly slotted it past the on-rushing keeper to rescue a point.

That game was definitely a warning. To me it was anyway. The players seemed to be blissfully aware of any such warnings and and wee luckily scraped a late 2-2 draw against Dusseldorf before a brutal 1-2 defeat to Karlsruher.

We were now 4 points behind Schake who seemed unstoppable. Ex-Hamburger SV Simon Terodde was scoring goals for fun.

However, after we put up a 4-0 demolition of Jahn Regensburg, Schalke only managed a draw. With three games left it was still all to play for.

Here’s the remaining fixtures:

HSV – Ingolstadt, Hannover, Hansa Rostock (average position – 12th)

Schalke – Sandhausen, St Pauli, Nurnberg (average position – 11th)

I saw a potential lifeline. Schalke’s last game of the season was away against the very impressive Nurnberg. We just need to hold our nerve.

We didn’t hold our nerve. Ingolstadt, 14th placed and in a relegation battle, beat us 0-1 and Jatta missed an open goal in the final moments, again. Luckily for us, Sandhausen beat Schalke 2-0.

May 2022

Our final home game of the season got off to a bad start when we went behind after 8 minutes. Thankfully, goals from Glatzel and Petersen gave us a 2-1 win. In an unlikely turn of events, Schalke could only scrape a draw with St Pauli. Have our bitter rivals kept our title hopes alive?

Final day drama

After 33 games, nothing could separate Hamburger SV and Schalke. It would go to the final game of the season. If Schalke won, we needed to win by more goals to give us the superior goal difference.

We’d play 16th placed Hansa Rostock away, whilst Schalke were visiting 4th placed Nurnberg.

A nervy start was made worse when we heard news of Terodde’s 28th goal of the season which had given Schalke the lead. To make matters worse, Nurnberg then had a player sent off after 41 minutes. Our hopes of grabbing the title were slipping away.

We saw a glimmer of hope when Petersen scored his 9th goal in 12 games, heading in a Vagnoman cross just before half time. We were back level on points with the same goal difference.

The second half saw many good chances squandered, but 10-man Nurnberg were keeping Schalke at bay and were still only 1-0 down.

Our moment of glory came when Jatta was played through by Kinsombi. He’s missed many 1v1’s this season – some in glorious fashion – but not this time. 74 minutes gone. 2-0.

Nurnberg were holding on. If they could keep Schalke to just one goal the title would be ours.

THEY DID IT! AND WE DID IT!!

On the final game of the season Hamburger SV have taken the title!! FC Nurnberg, you beauties.

And for all his faults, here’s the goal by Bakery Jatta which won us the league.

Of course, the old adage is that offence wins games, defence wins championships. So out of respect for our brilliant defenders, here’s team captain Sebastian Schonlau potentially saving us the title with this amazing tackle in the final moments (just as I’d hid behind a pillow):

You can see from the final table versus the xG table, we thoroughly deserved our title win. The same can’t be said for Schalke and Werder Bremen as they both appear to have had Lady Luck on their sides.

THE TACTICS

Was it our tactical tweaks that won us the title? It’s hard to say without looking at the stats. We were in 2nd place for the entirety of the second half of the season and only got into 1st on the final day.

From looking at our attacking stats you can see how we faired from January to May. We increased our expected goals ranking which would point to Kittel’s switch to an advanced playmaking role. However, when it came to defending we seemed concede more after the introduction of the new tactics.

Metrics like tackles and possession won and the number of interceptions are very subjective. There’s two potential reasons they got worse. Either we got worse at winning the ball back, despite the introduction of a ball winning midfielder, or we kept the ball more efficiently and didn’t need to tackle as much.

The new signings

The additions of Schallenberg and Petersen made a huge impact on the team. Petersen was the perfect poacher, scoring 9 goals off an xG of 5.93 in just 12 games. Schallenberg was worth every penny of the £1.4 million transfer fee. Whilst he didn’t score any goals and notched up only 2 assists, the team gained 2.43 points per game with him in the side. He’s a perfect all-round midfielder. One minute he’s dribbling past 2 or 3 opposition players, the next he’s flying into crunching challenges.

I’m pretty sure that a very well spent combined £1.61 million and won us the title.

PLAYER STATS

I won’t go head-first into the stats of each player so I’ve pulled together a couple of high level graphics to show how players are contributing to the team.

Goal contributions

You can see immediately the impact that Kittel has on the team, and how important it was to find the right role for him. Five goals and fifteen assists is a great return. He’s already banging on my door for a new contract and he’ll get one. Secondly, look at Petersen: 10 goal contributions in 13 games is an outstanding return on £210k. He’ll be a very important player next season and if he can give me 10 goals in the Bundesliga I’ll be very happy.

Although they don’t appear on the above image, both Jatta and Alidou have 9 goals and 1 assist each. Having four decent striking options in the squad certainly makes preparation for the Bundesliga easier and allows me to focus elsewhere.

Defensive actions per 90 (tackles won, headers won, interceptions)

I like looking at how the team are performing defensively. Afterall, it’s a very important – and often overlooked – part of the game.

Jatta improved his pressing effectiveness and his pressure on central defenders turned into several good chances for us and you can see what an impact Schallenberg made.

It’s a good job that Kittel put up 20 goal contributions when you see his defensive actions. These could probably be explained by his poor positioning (6) and work rate (9).

Young Jonas David had an amazing season. I’m expecting to be fending off the larger sides when the transfer window opens.

Attacking actions per 90 (shots, key passes, assists, dribbles)

In a tale of opposites, you can see the difference between Kittel’s attacking actions, where he’s second behind only Vagnoman on the right wing. Quite an achievement given how crowded the AMC strata is in modern football, especially against defensive teams.

SEASON AWARDS

PREPARING HAMBURGER SV FOR THE BUNDESLIGA

How does a newly promoted manager, on a budget, prepare for life in the Bundesliga?

Well, firstly we need to ensure that the players in the starting line up are good enough to play there. Looking at each player’s coaches report should give us a clear picture of who might not make the step up.

From this I can see there’s ten players deemed to be of a decent or good Bundesliga level and a further six who should be able to develop to that level, which is promising.

The first port of call to make the necessary improvements would naturally be the transfer market. But, guess what…

Yes, that’s right. Our transfer budget, with which the board are demanding I avoid relegation, is a very measly £136k. Wow.

I’m desperately hoping that some of the £14 million prize money for winning the division will soon be pumped into the transfer funds but I’m not entirely hopeful. It’s clear I’ll need to raise funds myself.

From the list above there’s a few players I can get rid of. Below, I’ve added a table of the players not deemed good enough, and I’ve added Jatta on there too as I’m quietly doubting his Bundesliga ability.

You can see from that list we could raise anywhere between £9 millions and £17.7 million if our Director of Football does a good job of selling them (Gyamerah and Wintzheimer are both excluded as they’re on expiring contracts). However, as it currently stands I’ll only retain 20% of any outgoing transfers.

The next logical option to look at is our B-Team and U19 team to see if there’s anyone able to take the step up. Whilst there’s no one already at the club who could step in, there’s some interesting options out on loan who’ll be returning soon.

Aaron Opoku (23) has spent the season on loan at Vfl Osnabruck, where he notched up 8 goal contributions in 36 games and a 6.91 average rating. He can play in the centre of midfield and as an attacking mid so he could be a handy backup. Xavier Aemechi (21) got 4 goals and 2 assists at Bolton, however, he plays on the wing and we don’t really use wingers. But, he could make a handy attacking wingback.

Robin Meissner (22) spent the season at Hansa Rostock and can play as an attacking midfielder or striker and looks quite handy and lastly, Facundo Taborda (21) made a good account of himself in 3.Liga.

A change of tactics?

My initial hopes are to stick with the 5-2-1-2 which has bought us success this season. However, if I can’t sign a new midfield partner for Schallenberg I fear we’ll lose the battle in the middle of the park most weeks.

I have a couple of plans but think I’ll be sticking with the three centre backs, so we’ll see how the pre-season works out transfer-wise.

Role values with Hamburger SV

I introduced role values earlier in FM22 in my Girona save, and it’s one I’ll be forced into here, given that money is so tight.

The basic concept is that you know your system/tactic in such a way that you’re aware which position needs to be filled with a “key player” and which one can have the entry requirements lowered to the extent that a budget player, or even a B-Teamer, can step in and still carry out basic instructions which keep the team ticking over.

Another aspect is that you can set up your tactic with a few “roles” as possible. This way you’re reducing the amount of specialised skills, meaning more players can fit into your system and therefore make recruitment easier (and cheaper).

If I can carry out the above sufficiently, it should mean that if I’m unable to sell or replace any of those players deemed not good enough for Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga, they could still play a role in the team. I’ll cover this more in the next update…

In the meantime I’ve got a pre-season to get through. Come on Hamburger SV!!