A Balancing Act
Part 2 | Ingolstadt 04 | FM23 Hardcore Mode
The Tactic
Well, we have a tactic. The nights of pouring over roster sheets and looking at YouTube tutorials, coaching books, and various blogs are now over. I’m not going to win any points for originality here, but at least we’ve got something.
Perhaps I can start seeing my family again.
The theory behind the tactic itself is pretty simple. I thought we’d be best with a vertical tiki-taka system — something in which we could exercise our apparent superiority by holding the ball for long periods of time, opening the game up with strong through passes, and wear holes in the defense before scoring.
After watching hours of video from Ingolstadt’s ignominious exit last season, I decided to hold the defensive line back a tad. I also decided to go with fullbacks on the sides instead of wingbacks, mostly in hopes that they would find themselves in a better position to come back for defensive duty.
It’s a simple tactic — four at the back, three in midfield (anchored by a halfback), two attacking wingers, and a striker on top. The 4-3-3 might seem trite in the Football Manager world, but, honestly, we need something that will give us results as soon as possible. The last thing I want to do is start us off with a losing streak.
The idea is to score goals, obviously. We want a striker who is willing to score a lot of goals. We’re also looking for goals from the wings where possible.
Now we just need the players to make this concept a reality.
Transfer Drama
I didn’t come here to rock the boat. I didn’t have much choice, unfortunately. The boat started to rock me.
I hadn’t even taken my coat off when Dominik Franke came to speak with me. I was surprised that he already knew who the new manager was.
Our discussion was less than ideal. He told me flatly that he was tired of playing for a hopeless, losing team, that he wanted to move on to something bigger and better, and that he was considering his options at the end of his contract.
I was stunned. This had the potential to throw my plans completely in disarray.
The problem, you see, is that Franke just so happens to be our only left back. He’s relatively young, the coaches seem to like him, and I thought we could make good use of him during his time here.
I did what I could to implore him to stay. He wasn’t having any of it, though, and left in a huff.
And so I did the only thing I could do. I put him on the transfer list.
Selling Franke was no easy task. We received a number of lowball offers from other teams in our immediate region. Franke was upset when I turned them down. I spoke with him and his agent, and we eventually decided that €900,000 was an appropriate price. I’m not entirely sure how we settled on that figure; honestly, I threw out the highest price I could think of and simply looked for their reaction.
After a few days Hamburg caught wind that Franke was up for sale, and made us a €750,000 offer. I couldn’t turn that one up — not as a manager with no transfer budget whatsoever — and so I moved forward on it.
But then came Jeonbuk to save the day. They made a €900,000 offer, and within a week Franke was on his way.
And now we had a transfer budget.
Plugging Holes
I’ll be honest with you. I simply didn’t see what the media saw in this side.
Our best player was an overpaid center back who is injured. Visar Musliu came in with a strong reputation, but there’s not much we can do with an injured player who happens to be popular with the media. As I came in, we were paying him upwards of €21,000 per week to sit in the medical unit and recover. That €21,000 represented 1/6 of our entire wage budget, and made it almost impossible to shape this team the right way.
I don’t know who originally put this team together. It felt like a child managed the roster, taking their favorite star names and shoving them together to see what would happen. We had an abundance of attacking right wingers, for example, and yet almost no attacking left wingers. And I was horrified when I realized that we have almost nobody to play in those midfield roles that are so important to our tactic. With Franke gone, we had no left backs, and we had a shortage at right back as well.
Our goalkeepers were also not great, which was obvious in last year’s clips. Robert Jendrusch, who I consider chiefly responsible for the lack of quality in goal, is long gone. I suppose the initial plan was to play 21-year-old Markus Ponath, a young player clearly more suited for our second squad, and one who likely was never going to have what it would take to survive in the 2. Bundesliga.
Our other choice at goal was Marius Funk, an 26-year-old who had bounced around lower level German sides without ever impressing. He came in on a free transfer, but also came in injured, and won’t recover for a while. I couldn’t believe it. Why were we spending money on aging, talentless journeymen like this? What happened to signing players under 22 for the first team?
With all these holes and problems, and starting out with no money, I did the only thing I could do. I went over to our Director of Football, Malte Metzelder, and asked him to prepare a list of free agents that might want to come here.
And so the trials started.
The good players wanted too much money, and we let the poor ones go as quickly as they arrived. We did come up with a new goaltender, though. Lino Björn Kasten is his full name, though we just call him Lino. He’s 21, has experience playing on loan in the first division in Austria, and is clearly better than anything we had in goal before.
And, most important of all, the scouts think he has what it takes to compete in the Bundesliga.
Pundits
My first press conference was far from ideal.
I thought nobody would attend a press conference for a team as obscure as Ingolstadt 04. To my surprise, 9 reporters showed up, each of them skeptical and difficult to read.
I think I answered their questions well. The pressure of the moment almost got to me, though, when they asked me whether I felt qualified for the job. I replied meekly that I thought I could grow into it — a response that led to silent stares of incredulity.
I phoned Peter right after the meeting and asked for permission to take my first coaching course.
My first meeting with the squad was no better. I hemmed and hawed, stuck my hands in my pants pockets, and stared more at the floor than at their faces. They make this seem easier in the video game. It’s hard to face all the players at once, especially since so many of them are taller than you.
Nobody was interested in my promise of better defenders or goalkeepers. Captain Thomas Schröck promised his support, but I don’t think anybody took him all that seriously.
The pundit at home was vocal, too. I did myself a favor by working late on transfers instead of listening to Charlotte’s concerns. I told myself that I’d deal with the marriage later — after the first match, at least.
Start of the Season
The season started early for us. July 23rd seemed like a particularly early starting date, especially since the transfer window would remain open until September 3rd.
Our first game saw us hosting Bayreuth. Everybody expected us to win. Personally, I was just praying that we wouldn’t see any more injuries, and that we could get at least a point in the early going.
We were able to bring in one more piece before the first match. Sascha Härtel came in on a free transfer to handle the left back position. He was 23 years old, a bit short for his position, but came in with a somewhat good reputation. He was also a warm body, which is what we needed more than anything else.
And so it started. My managerial career started far before I was ready for it, with a squad held together with duct tape and chewing gum.
