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RSL in the WSL Part 26
It was surprisingly cold for an early October evening in the Salt Lake City suburbs. There was a chilly wind in the air as we got set to host LAFC.
LAFC has been just as disappointing in the early season as we’ve been, and are just below us in the standings. I really hope we can get a win today, though I’m concerned about Tonin’s injury. I’m also concerned that we’re starting Hugo Morales in the back, which simply hasn’t done us any good over the past few games.
We’re underdogs once again, though I don’t think it’s as bad as it seems. Once Tonin and Ørsahl are back, we should go back to winning again – right?
Tactics
No real tactical surprises here, though the personnel choices might be surprising to you.
Morales gets another start in back. If he plays poorly, though, I’m through with him. He’s never really had a good first team game for us, and his form in the last four or five games has been nothing short of awful.
We’re also starting 15-year-old Venezuelan Robert Carmona up front. He’s got something like 11 goals in 9 games for the Reserves, and looks like he might be good enough to help out while Tonin is out. Meanwhile, I’m hoping that Munoz realizes that he can actually score goals for a change.
The Match
Well, you can see for yourself how it went in the video above. It wasn’t exactly great.
Hugo Morales made it abundantly clear that I made a mistake in signing him by making two very poor mistakes to start the game off. He scored an own goal on a completely ridiculous play about 6 minutes in, and then missed a header that led to a second LAFC goal off a corner around 26 minutes in.
Carmona had two goals bounce off the iron early in the second half, and then connected on an amazing strike with about 15 minutes left. It gave me some hope, but that’s all she wrote.
I think I can safely say that you have now witnessed Hugo Morales’ last game for Real Salt Lake. It was a brief and uneventful career, and we can all now pretend that it never happened.
Analysis
Oh look – another entry in the “which player is the media referring to?” category. I had never heard of Corey Baird, and had to look closely to make sure that it wasn’t a player I accidentally sold.
I was right – I had absolutely nothing to do with this transfer, from what I can see. We apparently traded him for another player, though, in the great Football Manager tradition, I can’t figure out who we got for him.
I think it would have been nice of Carmona was the lead story, but I guess that’s why I’m not a digital journalist.
Once again we see that we’re getting the shots on goal that we want. We’re just not converting them. In fact, we seem to be better at scoring goals for the opposition than for ourselves.
We did play much better defensively without Morales, though. It really looks like he’s been a huge part of our defensive woes.
Aside from Morales and Munoz, we did relatively well. Pinter had a bad game, and is another one I should keep an eye on. Holm was quiet yet again, which also has me worried. I can excuse most of the rest, however. Dirkner might be better playing in the back than as a defensive midfielder, Shehu had another good game, and Carmona looks like he needs to be in our starting rotation. There are a lot of positives here.
Even the xG story isn’t really that bad. Without that awful own goal, we would have had a draw – and might have even won the match.
Carmona
Fortunately, the media did start paying attention to Carmona.
I think it was a brilliant signing on my part.
Team of the Week
This isn’t a bad deal. We lost twice this week, looked bad in both games, and still had 3 players among the Team of the Week substitutes.
Selling Morales
I see absolutely no reason to hold onto Morales any longer – certainly not after his form has looked like this:
I like the player, I like his personality, but I really can’t stand the fact that he doesn’t play well.
I fined him 2 weeks’ wages after that awful last match, and wound up having to talk with him. He seemed to take it well in the end:
But, of course, there was no turning back. Once I’ve made up my mind, I’ve made up my mind. There’s no turning back, no matter how nice you play with me.
Colo Colo is Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo, who are currently in Brasileiro Serie A. This is the real division of death in Super League 1; Sao Paulo have an absolutely amazing legendary team leading the division, and Morales will have to figure out a way to guard the young Diego Maradona when they play Argentinos Juniors.
Even though we’re selling him after only half a season, it’s actually good business for the club. Remember that we got him for free:
Standings
Well, we’re down in 19th place. we need to step it up if we want to avoid being sucked down into relegation territory.
Football Manager News
TheNotoriousPr0 is well known for his excellent transfer and data update packs. The latest version for FM23 is now ready.
Alternatively, Len has created his own extensive update for the FM23 database.
Defensive Midfielders
The tactic we use calls for a deep lying playmaker in the defensive midfielder position:
The player needs to be able to support the attack, which makes it a particularly defensive position. You’ve got to both anchor the defense and make positive offensive contributions.
We’ve got a group of players that are barely adequate at this position. It’s what we’ve got, though, and we’re going to do what we can with them.
Jonas Dirkner
18-year-old Jonas Dirkner simply looks like a wonderkid to me.
His attributes aren’t quite where they need to be yet, but he’s getting there. He’s a consistent player, he plays well on defense, he has a great personality, and he works hard. He also just so happens to have the tackling, marking, and positioning needed to make him a good central defender when we’re in a pinch.
His form isn’t great, though, and he really needs to make an improvement in his offensive game if he wants to keep this supporting role.
He’s a player to hold onto, as you can see here. I like every bit of this, and his few negative traits will improve as time goes on.
This was another relatively cheap signing for us. Yes, his form has been bad – but I like how he’s been developing. He hasn’t been throwing games away the way Hugo Morales has.
This is another one of my “pay nothing” contracts. If he doesn’t work out, it didn’t cost us much.
As you can see, his stats have been disappointing so far. I’ve got high hopes for the future, however.
Juan José Cardozo
Cardozo is a name that should be familiar to you, since we’ve played him time and time again. Sometimes he plays brilliantly; other times he looks like he belongs on the youth team.
Unfortunately, this isn’t quite as promising. I like the consistency and the training performances, but he needs to get his form up – and he needs to learn how to play as a team.
Time will tell, but we may have paid a bit too much to get him from Argentinos Juniors.
This is what I like to see, though – goals scored from this position. Cardozo can score when he puts his mind to it. We want to see more of that flair from this position.
Kenneth Okpala
Here’s a Ghanese player who hasn’t played for the first team yet. Okpala looks like he has a lot of potential, though we’ll see how his development works. If we do push Dirkner back to the DC position, he might be a good backup to Cardozo.
Okpala strikes me as a solid player with a lot of potential – another good young player on a team full of good youth.
£300,000 isn’t nothing, but I think it’s a good bargain for a player of his potential.
Other Defensive Midfielders
Well, umm, there isn’t much. I might have neglected this position a tad when I was putting this squad together.
You’ve seen Rivera before. He’s on my bad list, though, due to his inconsistency:
Don’t be fooled by his good recent form – that all comes from games with the youth squad. We’re going to move him on as soon as we can.
Blog Roundup
LutterworthFox has uploaded Part 2 of his Gibraltar Build a Nation save – a project I’ve been looking forward to.
Channel Watcher
FM Scout reports the hardest challenges in Football Manager 2023. I’ve got an almost impossible challenge in mind that isn’t on this list – but you’re going to have to wait for that one.
CaptainGoodspeed reports on new signings in his Fulham project.
More red cards await Oisty FM in his Ferguson Challenge save.
Finally, not long after this post goes live, you can watch Omega Luke’s dad do his first FM rebuild – a series that you’re sure to enjoy.
I hope you enjoyed today’s installment of Football Manager Projects! There’s a lot more to come.
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