In the last update, we’d reached the World Cup break in an impressive 10th position. Despite this, I wasn’t happy with the disjointed performance of either of the two formations I’d used.

The 5-3-2 lacked penetration and capable runners from midfield. A switch to a 4-2-3-1 occurred which looked better, with more attacking variety, but still needed tweaks. The adjustments I made were:

• The AMC on his attacking duty wasn’t dropping deep to help out enough so I knocked it back to a support duty. Our two central midfielders aren’t good enough alone so need help occasionally.
• I instructed the right attacking midfielder to sit narrower. This was to create more room for our attacking wingback.
• I swapped the Anchor to a Defensive Midfielder or support. I hoped this would encourage him to step up and challenge the opposition earlier.

One loan in and one loan returns.

Previously, I was deliberating about if I should bring back Faride Alidou from his loan spell at Werder Bremen. He performed poorly in his few pre-loan Bundesliga games and his development had stalled. Would he have developed better staying at Bremen? We’ll never know. I bought him back with the intention of him providing cover for all four attacking positions. Hopefully, he’ll get plenty of minutes.

Sandro Cruz joined on loan for the rest of the season. The attacking left wingback comes in to provide cover for Federico Ricca who will miss two months through injury (and suffers from disciplinary issues on the pitch).

December 2022 and January 2023

Our first game after the break was against Arminia Bielefeld. We went into the game with four players on the injury list. Vuskovic (CB), Ambrosius (CB/RB) and Schellenberg (CM) had joined Ricca in the physio room. Luckily, they weren’t needed as we romped to a 5-0 victory with Jatta scoring a hattrick. An Amrinia red card after 34 minutes made our job much easier.

Jonas David injured himself in training and would miss a month, meaning we went into a game with Stuttgart with only two fit central defenders. Luck stayed on our side though, as Karazour was sent off for Stuttgart after 40 minutes. Despite the man advantage we were only able to scrape a 1-1 draw. A very poor performance but Alidou looked lively when he came on.

A full strength FC Koln beat our reserve team 5-1 in the cup and we picked up another league draw, this time against Mainz. I don’t care about the cup at this stage in our development.

Our poor run continued with a loss to FC Koln, again, with Sante Borre getting the winner. Let me tell you, Koln hammered us and could’ve easily scored 5 or 6. We were now down to 12th and things weren’t looking good.

Hertha Berlin beat us thanks to a Castrovilli goal, who found himself completely unmarked at the back post, and we finally ended a five game winless streak with a 2-1 win over Schalke. Alidou and Kittel both scored but Vagnoman picked up a 3 week injury. Nothing goes smoothly.

Transfer Deadline Day

Nestled within the hell that was January was a transfer window. It was a busy one!

Lukas Mai accepted the contract offer I’d submitted when the window opened, which was great news. He’s easily our best central defender and lots of other (and better) teams were after him.

I rejected three bids of £4 million for Bakery Jatta but relented when Glasgow Rangers bumped their offer up to £6 million. A bid of £1.3 million came in for Nils Petersen which I accepted as his physicals were rapidly declining and he’d been struggling the last few games.

A return of 19 goals in 28 games for a measly £235k is an amazing return. His goals are undoubtedly what got us promoted and highlights perfectly that you should NEVER discount older strikers.

That left Robert Glatzel as my starting striker until I could bring in a replacement, however, Bristol City swiftly offered £3.2 million. I accepted and submitted a loan offer for Noah Jean Holme from Rosenborg.

Whilst the team agreed to the deal the player didn’t, so it was on to my next target.

Whilst I was planning my next move and combing through my shortlists, Olimpia, from Paraguay, offered £7.25 million for Joe Aribo. Naturally I accepted as he’s not been impressive so I was glad to move him on for a large profit after we paid under £3m at the start of the season.

Two strikers and an attacking midfielder

The deadline day clock was ticking and time was quickly running out. I needed to sign a striker and attacking midfielder. Luckily, I’d scouted well and was able to agree last-ditch deals for players who should be a big improvement.

Martin Satriano joined on loan from Inter, with a £12 million signing option. He’s still young and amazingly vertatile and should lead the line well. Then, with minutes to spare I splashed out a surprisingly low for £11.75 million for Ivan Jamie from Portuguese side Famalicao. Upon joining us his value shot up to £18 million. Another 5 star performance from our Director of Football, Massimi Taibi.

The second striker I spoke of is a player I’d tried to sign at the start of the season. Dragan Stoisavljevic joins from Serbian team Vozdovac for £875k. He’s still got some developing to do but he offers a lot. At the tender age of 19, he’s powerful, a skilled passer and can play up front or out wide. I think he’ll give us a physical edge and I’ll try to get him as much playing time as possible.

A tactical progression. Of sorts.

After just two wins in seven games after the restart (with one of those being against the bottom team who only had 10 men) I took a couple of days away from FM22 and whilst I was about it, reconsider the tactics.

Let’s look at how the 4-2-3-1 performed in the six league games we employed it.

At first glance those results don’t seem too bad. Especially for a newly promoted team. However, taking away the two games against teams who played with 10 men for an hour we have this:

You can now see we have an issue. We aren’t scoring goals, other than against Schalke who are firmly adrift in the relegation zone. In the three games prior we hadn’t created over 1 xG. The defence held up quite well, with their expected goals against being double what we actually conceded.

With new, talented, players arriving I think I can revert back to the 5-3-2. Here’s my reasons:

• We’re approaching a much tougher part of the schedule and I really need that compact centre.
• I now have better, more dynamic options in midfield.
• Vagnoman was really struggling in the 4-2-3-1 and is much more dangerous in the wingback role with no one ahead of him.
• With Alidou, Kittel and Satriani up front we’ll be much more of a threat on the counter attack due to their pace. (Yes, I’m giving Kittel another chance up top, despite his poor run)
• I now have THREE central defenders fit again!

Here’s how we’ll start off. I’ve added the Overlap instructions to really make the wingbacks drive down the flanks. I’ve also changed to a “regroup” instruction to ensure we stay compact. Ivan Jamie will start as the attacking Mezzala where I’m hoping he’ll interplay nicely with both the False 9 (Kittel/Alidou) and the wingback, Vagnoman (if he can stay fit) and cause overloads.

February 2023

The second half of the season started off with a trip to Wolfsburg, who were in 9th, one place ahead of us. We were forced to play a slightly rotated team as we’re still struggling with injuries. We took the lead early when new boy Ivan Jamie whipped in a corner which Lukas Mai headed in. Waldenschmidt, who rejected us just weeks before, equalised on 14 minutes before Alidou put us ahead again less that 60 seconds later. It was an amazing, end to end game, but we tired and allowed them to score two late goals which gave the home team a 3-2 win.

We looked really good until their their ferocious press and our lack of fitness let them back in.

Tactical observations

Despite our loss, the Wolfsburg game allowed me to make a couple of observations (highlighted in the image below) and tweaks to the set up.

1 – You can see that Ivan Jamie, as a Mezzala has picked up his position in the half space. However, this meant he’d taken himself out of the build-up phase as we were trying to escape a press. As our most creative midfield option he should be moving into space to make himself an available. After this game I changed him to a CM-A.

2 – Vuskovic is a Wide Central Defender on a defend duty. I feel that here, he should be moving up to give Schallenberg a better passing angle and also cause a Wolfsburg player to commit. I changed this role from defend to support which should encourage him to be more involved in a transition.

3 – Schallenberg was unable to take advantage of a 3v2 advantage we had upfield (yellow box) because he was too easily pressed. Had Jamie and Vuskovic been in better positions, he would’ve had slightly longer and been able to make that pass.

You can see the (red) wall the Wolfsburg players created and really made it hard to play through.

Back to the fixtures

Newly loaned striker Satriano and defender Jonas David gave us a 2-1 win over Augsberg before we dominated Freiburg but found ourselves on the wrong end of a 2-1 results. Again, we looked strong and disciplined but our lack of match fitness was our undoing.

First placed Bayern were up next and demolished us (again), thanks to a late hattrick from Lewandowski. I was expecting another pounding from Leipzig, but we played really well and created some really good chances. Of course, the top teams take their and Andre Silva intercepted a sloppy pass out of our defence and tucked it away.

March 2023 (AKA – Kittel is on FIRE!)

We entered March licking our wounds after three defeats in a row. Ivan Jamie had a knock so Sonny Kittel slotted into the CM-A role and made an immediate impact against Greuther Furth by winning a penalty and then scoring our third goal in a 3-1 win.

Despite our poor run we were somehow up to 8th and playing well.

We next beat fifth placed Hertha Berlin 2-0, despite only having 34% possession. Kittel once again got on the score sheet and Stoisavljevic got his second for the club late on.

Disaster then struck.

Martin Satriano tore his ACL and was recalled by Inter. He only scored 2 goals and picked up 1 assist in his 7 games for the club but he was a vital cog. His intelligence and skills gave our transition play an extra dimension. He was always in the right place at the right time, always available for a pass and rarely gave the ball away.

We had to finish the season with only recognised 2 strikers. Twenty-one-year-old Alidou (10 games, 3 goals) and nineteen-year-old Stoisavljevic (7 games, 2 goals). Luckily we have Kittel who can play up front and has scored 5 goals in 21 games.

We were sitting pretty in a terrific 8th position and still playing really well. I even had hopes of grabbing the last European place from Monchengladbach. With six games left we were in no threat of relegation and whatever happened, we’d had a remarkable first season back in the top flight.

We didn’t let the Satriano news get us down and we hammered Bayer Leverkusen 4-2. A great result considering Vagnoman went off injured and Ricca got sent off in the second half. The man is clearly a psychopath.

April & May 2023 (AKA Kittel is still on fire!)

Here’s how the table looked with five games remaining. We can definitely catch Monchengladbach, especially with how we’re playing. First though, we’d have to welcome Dortmund.

When we played Dortmund earlier this season we were very unlucky to lose and the 2-4 score line flattered them. With both starting wingbacks suspended we struggled through the first half but made it into half time at 0-0. Hummels put Dortmund ahead with a header from a corner but a minute later, Meffert intercepted a pass, playing it to Kittel who played a lovely ball for Alidou to slot it into the bottom corner. We continued to battle away but it looked like we’d have to settle for a draw until Sonny Kittel won a freekick in the 87th minute which he smashed into the top corner.

Hamburger SV – 2
Borussia Dortmund – 1

What a result.

With that goal, and his earlier assist, Kittel had now scored 5 goals and got 3 assists in his last 4 games. To make it even better, in 3 of those games he was playing as the attacking central midfielder as Jamie regained fitness. Serious selection headaches are already occurring as I plan for next season.

We were now one point behind Monchengladbach and the last European place.

Unfortunately, it seems the players mentally checked out after the Dortmund win. We were lucky to scrape a point against Hoffenheim, put up a bore-draw with Wolfsburg and lost the crucial game against Monchengladbach. The season ended with another bore-draw against Frankfurt, with both teams clearly already on the beach.

A season summary

WHAT A SEASON!

Predicted to narrowly avoid relegation but finishing in 8th is a terrific display. We had a terrible run of injuries and toyed with different tactics but somehow pulled it off.

The future is definitively bright for Hamburger SV. We have a young team and will only go from strength to strength. Also, we now have a settled tactic which is playing exactly how I want it to.

Bayern and Dortmund were head and shoulders ahead of the rest. Leverkusen managed to turn around their terrible form early on and got themselves up to 12th.

Another indictor to how well we did was that Schalke, who we only beat on goal difference last season, are in the relegation playoffs

There are still some issues to hammer out, mainly out wide. Vagnoman struggled on the right flank and he managed only one assist in 22 starts. I’m hoping this was down to the injury issues he struggled with throughout, so will give him another chance next season.

On the other flank, Federico Ricca, didnt get any goal contributions in 22 starts. He also never got into a proper rhythm as he struggled with injuries and was sent off four times. I’m in two minds if I should keep him or get rid of the right option comes along

Lastly, I definitely need a top striker. As we all know, they aren’t always easy to come by so I’m going to dig into some analytics to find the right option.

Ok, I know I’ve already said “lastly”, but as an afterthought, I think I need an upgrade in goal… and another midfielder wouldn’t go amiss – but these aren’t as important.

Luckily, the board have back us and given a transfer kitty of over £14 million and nearly doubled the wage budget.

Season Awards

It comes as no surprise that Sonny Kittel did well at the awards night. The 30-year-old claimed 4 of the 6 available awards. Lukas Mai, who joins us permanently at the end of the season, was Young Player of the Season and Dragan Stoisavljevic was the Signing of the Season. This comes as a bit of a surprise, although he did score 3 goals in 8 games and get a huge 73% of his shots on target!

U19 Champions

The Under 19’s won their division which is another plus for the future of the team. I really hope one or two of them can make the step up into the first team squad next season.

There we have it – season 2 is in the books and we cast our eyes towards season 3 where I’m going to aim for a European place.

See you all there!