An Old Guy and Four Kids – Our Defense
RSL in the WSL Part 22
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RSL in the WSL Part 22
After that exhilarating win yesterday, it’s time to get back to our slow squad introduction.
Today we’re going over our central defenders. It’s not going to be a pretty sight, unfortunately. This group is chiefly responsible for all the defensive headaches we’ve had over the first part of the season.
We’ve got two central defender positions at the back:
Both positions are “ball playing defender” positions, which means that these players are chiefly responsible for clearing the ball away.
The player on the left plays a bit deeper and tries to break up attacks as much as possible:
Meanwhile, the defender on the right plays slightly further up, working to disrupt attacks before they begin:
Nedum Onuoha
Leading the pack is Nedum Onuoha – our team leader and best player, depending on who you believe.
Onuoha’s rating decline is precisely why I prefer to go with youth over experience. He’s not getting any better anytime soon. In fact, he is planning on retiring soon.
That’s right – on December 1st he won’t be around these parts anymore. I’ll see if we can keep him on as a coach. He started the season determined to retire, which we’ve had to plan around.
He’s had a long and eventful career, mostly in and around the Premier League. RSL picked him up in one of those “we’re totally not like the NASL” MLS deals – you know, the kind where aging players that were once good go to the United States to rest.
Here’s where the problems really start.
I’m happy that he is a good role model for our younger players. I’d love it if his Model Professional personality would rub off on them quickly. However, I’m really worried about his dislike of big matches, which is the sort of personality trait that we really want to avoid. We want players who come out to play every single game, not players who will run off and hide once a challenge approaches.
His attributes will continue to drop until we reach early December. I’ll play him, but only as long as he actually produces.
His contract isn’t ridiculous, but it still is eating up a lot of our wage bill. That’s what happens when you do a complete rebuild with youth.
It certainly is nice to see aging defenders get a goal now and then. Still, I’m really concerned about some of his poor ratings in recent games. He might be a leader in personality terms, but I’m not convinced that he is good enough to play at this level.
And if you think that was bad, just wait.
Hugo Morales
Up comes Hugo Morales, another one of my wishful signings that we really need to start making a difference. I know how ugly it looks – and I know how bad his form has been recently.
Morales came to us on a free transfer from Montpellier, who I assume grew tired of waiting for him to blossom into a reasonably competent player. He’s got the personality that we like, and he still seems to have the potential, though he really needs to step it up now that he’s 19 years old.
I know that his athleticism will increase due to our excellent training method. As far as his competitive streak and lack of composure are concerned, well, I’m not sure exactly what we can do about that.
We do have Morales and a few other players in a mentoring group with Onuoha. In theory, mentoring is supposed to help change some of these mental and personality issues. In reality, though, I’m not certain what impact it will actually have. I’m mostly concerned that Onuoha simply won’t be here long enough for anything to change.
Like many of our other young players, Morales is on so little money that it’s almost pointless showing you this screen. The nice thing is that we’ve got him on this sweetheart deal for 5 years. Of course, that really only helps us if he can actually play well.
Yeah, these stats aren’t exactly great. He’s had a few good games here and there, but has stunk most of the time. We need better than Morales, I’m afraid.
Filip Lundqvist
As you may have noticed, our squad is heavily Scandinavian. Though I am of Scandinavian heritage, this really wasn’t by design. The truth is that it’s not hard to find really good Scandinavian players at low prices, even if you are using add-ons to theoretically make super deals harder to find.
Lundqvist is going to be a great player one day. I think he’s a good player today – at least he should be adequate. He’s making great strides in training, though, and ought to blossom into an outstanding player before long. His form has also been steadily improving. We just might be able to survive the upcoming loss of Onuoha after all.
£500,000 from IFK Göteborg for a 16-year-old might seem excessive. If this pans out, though, we might have a player worth several times that price in just a few years.
I don’t care at all about his lack of versatility. I need him to play in the back, and don’t really care if he can’t play in any other position.
Ahh, yes, another glorious youth contract.
Again, these stats aren’t really all that impressive now, but he should get better as we go along. If you ask me, this is pretty good for a 16 year old.
Richard
Don’t you love the Brazilians with only one name?
Richard is one of those players who looks pretty good on paper, but who just hasn’t been developing the way I thought he would. It’s still early, of course, but I really need to see more improvement in those technical and mental areas if he’s really going to have a long future here.
When I put this squad together, I made a note on my text document next to Richard’s name: “Looks like he has underperformed so far.” He was available on a free transfer, just like Morales – and I presume it was because of his lack of development. I’m more than happy to give him a chance, but he’s really going to have to make the most of it before the wave of youth behind him knocks him down.
Again, I don’t care if he only plays one position or if his playing level isn’t quite up to snuff yet. I do care, though, about his lack of strength and fitness, and about whether he’s actually making improvements on the technical side or not.
Here’s the highlight.
Look – I know that it’s always a risk to bring any player in, even if it’s on a free. However, when you’re paying him peanuts per week, you can afford to take a risk on one or two or three players. After a while this strategy feels like playing with house money – or like trying to invest in the stock market using index funds alone.
For all of my worrying about his ratings, Richard’s stats actually haven’t been that bad. He’s played well, has given us a lot of minutes, and is at least adequate.
Kyle Semple
Rounding out our first team central defenders is Kyle Semple, who you saw give away a penalty just a few games ago.
Semple is young with a lot of strong potential and a great personality. I think we’ve got a great player on our hands here. I only worry about giving him too much pressure at such a young age.
Semple wasn’t exactly free, but £650,000 also isn’t the highest transfer fee in the world. He’s played well for us so far, though mostly in a substitute role. We should see more of him in coming matches.
I worry about the lack of speed and first touch, though he’ll develop that with time. I’m really happy with his leadership qualities, though, and the consistency is precisely what we are looking for.
Again, it’s costing us practically nothing for a first team defender with a lot of future potential. Can you tell that I love young players?
And this is where you can see that consistency shine through. He’s going to give us an honest game every time we put him out there – precisely what we’re looking for.
Other Central Defenders
We’ve got an interesting mix of players in our reserve and youth teams here, including this 15-year-old Iranian giant who looks really interesting:
At 199 centimeters, I’m wondering if the Utah Jazz would be interested in him. He’s still got a long way to go, but he has played well so far, and I like what I see – assuming that he recovers from that broken ankle, that is.
There’s a good story in here somewhere, too – something about the giant Iranian young star who was discovered by a scout with an eye for talent and who somehow managed to secure a United States work visa. We’ll have to do some more research into his back story if he does make it to the first team in the end.
We’ve got two more good looking central defenders coming in when we hit the January transfer window – more on them later.
Blog Roundup
View From the Touchline reports the end of a very successful season with Witton Albion.
Football Manager Story gives us an interesting (though sparse) report on Ukrainian wonderkid Mykhaylo Mudryk.
Channel Watcher
FM DNA pushes to keep Weymouth at the top of the Vanarama National League in the latest episode of his Non-League and Beyond save. Gotta love the lower league saves!
Shaun Does FM works to help Linfield beat Benfica, of all teams, in an Europa League clash in his journeyman save.
FM GNG continues his University College Dublin Association FC save with two league games.
The Northman comes up with another variation on an old favorite Football Manager content creator theme – giving the computer manager a ridiculous amount of money with a small club (Fussballclub Zürich in this case) to see what happens. The results are interesting.
Oisty FM turns down a possible move to Stoke to remain with Tranmere – and shows two interesting League One matches.
Jay Edworthy leads Forest Green to an FA Cup Third Round match, as well as a League Two showdown with Leyton Orient.
The Cult of FM has started an interesting new save – Burton Albion as a youth academy only “England DNA” save.
Loki Doki (everybody’s favorite) gives us a great rant about the board of directors.
Omega Luke gave the Scottish Premiership a ridiculous TV deal; hilarity ensues.
WorkTheSpace brings us more fun and a new season with Guernsey.
And, of course, Lollujo favors us (and his 150,000 subscribers) with more legendary drama at Preston North End.
As always, if you have an FM blog or YouTube channel, please let me know. I’m more than happy to include links to your content in future blog posts.