Before moving on to the April results let me present some good news for the future: I was asked to evaluate this year’s youth candidates and I must say I was quite impressed. There seems to be a lot of potential in our academy graduates, I even watched the test game against our current under 19s and I was quite pleased.
One youngster really stands out from the crowd and not only due to his incredible height: 16-year old centre back Timur Peniu. With that height and jumping this boy could well play basketball but I hope he’ll become a rock-solid defender in a few years.
OK, now let’s get back to the league… The month of April started with a tricky away game at 15th placed Branesti but we made the most out of our opponents’ poor form and took a solid 2-0 lead before a late fightback from the home side. Then we beat another relegation candidate at home, 14th placed Delta Tulcea, courtesy of a fine team goal in the first half. (click here to watch the goal)
The easy games were behind us at that point, we had some very tough ones coming up. First we had to meet 4th placed CS Otopeni away, they were just 8 points behind us before that game. There was a lot at stake there and the two teams seemed to crack under the pressure as the first half was totally boring with no shots on target from the hosts and only two from us. Things changed shortly after the break, the home side finally managed to break the deadlock and I decided to make a change and switch from the counter tactic to the attacking version. That move nearly paid off on 68 minutes when we went very close, you’ll see that in the highlights, but it backfired minutes later as we got caught on a counter attack and conceded a second goal. (click here to watch the highlights) Our winning streak was over after six consecutive successes and the promotion race was still wide open.
We could have used an easy fixture at that point but it wasn’t the case: we were going to take on city rivals Farul Constanta. I was hoping for a good reaction from my boys but the opening 15 minutes proved me wrong, the visitors were dominating the game and our goalkeeper saved us on a couple of occasions. The 20th minute marked a change of fortunes, our first decent attack of the game resulted in a goal as a good cross from our left back was headed home by striker Valentin Simion. The goal changed the game completely, we started to play much better and made it 2-0 before half time after a fine goal from striker Marius Albu. Things were looking great at that point but we suffered a setback on the stroke of half time when midfielder Nenad Grumic picked up a stupid red card. I switched to the counter tactic at the break with a 4-3-2 formation and that kept things fairly quiet for a while although our keeper had to pull off an amazing save on 52 minutes (that’s included in the match highlights video). Farul finally struck 10 minutes from time and the final minutes were quite thrilling with both parties missing a clear cut chance apiece. (click here to watch the highlights)
That wrapped up the month of April and I’m happy to report that we’re still top of the table with 5 games to go.
We are the favourites at this point but our schedule is not easy at all: first we take on 4th placed CSMS Iasi and then strong 5th placed Dinamo 2. These two games will probably make it or break it for us, I admit that I’d be very happy to record two draws there.
New signing Chakib Benzoukane leads the player charts at this point, he is a valuable asset and I’m quite happy to have signed him last summer. On the downside I must note that my strikers don’t have great records in terms of goals scored but I hope they will bag a few in the closing stage of the season.
That almost wraps it up but I have just one more screen shot for you: my glorious under 19s squad won their group against big top flight clubs like Steaua and Rapid Bucharest!
That’s about it for now, thanks a lot for coming by to read this post, especially since it might be a bit too long and boring. If you have some strength left after reading it please use it to stick a comment into the box! ;)
Laxeyman
1 ноября, 2011 at 18:49
Great form Johnny, despite the terrible run of form in the friendlies, weird how you were so bad in the friendlies but so good in the league ;) Looks like you’re in with a great chance of winning the league, good luck!
Johnny Karp
1 ноября, 2011 at 18:54
Yeah, it is quite weird since we had poor friendly results in the summer too. Thanks for the good luck wish, we might need some good fortune in those first two games.
plobdork
1 ноября, 2011 at 18:49
wow when i first read that you were doing this team i had my doubts but you really have made this interesting i love it looking forward to next update. :)
(love your youths btw!)
Johnny Karp
1 ноября, 2011 at 18:53
Thanks buddy, I must admit that I had some doubts too ;)
ri916
1 ноября, 2011 at 19:26
im very excited about that youngster too! it seems his most useful feature will be scoring corners. unfortunately im not sure he will be good enough when you start dominating the first division! a very good start and good luck :)
Johnny Karp
1 ноября, 2011 at 20:32
Yeah, he should score on one corner out of two if the crossing is good :) He is still very young though and has a long way to go until breaking into the first team, hopefully he’ll stay clear of injuries and work hard.
Sears
1 ноября, 2011 at 19:30
Wow, your youngsters just keep getting better and better ….. :) Am sure you’ll in the title, so good luck :)
Johnny Karp
1 ноября, 2011 at 20:33
Thanks pal, I’m quite happy with the youth at the club.
Darren Smith
1 ноября, 2011 at 19:43
The futures bright, the futures Viitorul! Great to see your youth intake and U19’s so successful…that’s what this save is about to me and I can’t wait to see you develop some of these players. In my opinion what makes a great FM player isn’t signing the best players, creating great tactics or even knowing all the coaches and how to manipulate training. What really makes an fm gamer great is knowing how to react in the face of adversity and despite your panic buy you turned a tough period around and regained top spot. Most gamers would crumble at that stage after rushing through and been impatient, that is when most people call it quits far tool early. In my opinion that is why you can manage almost anyone, because you can solve almost any puzzle (in RL and in game.) Well done mate.
Johnny Karp
1 ноября, 2011 at 20:35
I totally agree with you Darren but I must admit that I can’t remember panicking like that in any previous career in any version of the game. I was quite desperate to be honest but I still knew that the team has enough quality to win, we just needed some confidence and we got that back with a bit of luck. About the future, it does look quite exciting and I really hope to turn some of these youngsters into stars.
paine
1 ноября, 2011 at 22:16
Interesting story, you’re working hard to overcome lots of troubles but this makes success sweeter when it comes.
You’re very close, hold on!
….and pay attention to the strikers you buy. :)
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 06:39
You are right mate, success is a lot more enjoyable when coming after a difficult season. I will pay attention, I promise :)
TheZiggy
1 ноября, 2011 at 23:21
Great story, and you’ve proved beyond doubt the friendlies don’t mean a huge amount, and that panicking is a bad thing. Just goes to show, even a very experienced player can do something silly.
Hopefully you can hold on and win the league, and it’s great to see a nice crop of youngsters coming into the system.
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 06:41
Thanks Ziggy, I hope that these youngsters will make me proud one day.
Lye
2 ноября, 2011 at 02:03
Hi Johnny,
I did make these type of mistakes before but i can’t remember which FM version. Sometimes you will just miss that message.
Tough fixtures ahead but based on your league form you should be doing fine. You still have five points lead so i can’t see you losing that top spot. The friendly form should be an illusion. I think your players meant to play a joke with you else can’t explain why there is a big contrast in the form.
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 06:43
Hey Lye, if those friendly results were just a joke from the players then I must find a way to make them stop because it wasn’t funny at all :)
Calin
2 ноября, 2011 at 07:41
Nice job, Johnny, you’ve managed to perform wonders in Constanta and staying there at the top with a really secure lead is something! You have good, fast youngsters in the squad and I am sure they will help the team in Liga I, and things are looking really nice for the future.
I was surprised to see Piturca joining and he was a great capture — too bad he can’t play and even worse is the fact that he eats up wage budget especially now in FM 2012 when finances are so troublesome…
Either way, good season and looking forward to seeing that post about Viitorul Cta being crowned champions!
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 09:10
Thanks buddy, I’m happy that I managed to survive the «friendlies scare». Piturca would have been a great capture if he was able to play, that was a big mistake from my part and one I hope I won’t repeat anytime soon.
tom
2 ноября, 2011 at 07:55
Whoa those friendlies were poor…but you turned it around…
Made a similar panic buy but with Mutu back in the days he was suspended (can’t believe i made such a glaring error)…so i’ve shared your pain…but it hasnt affected your performance…
Just echoing what Darren said about sticking with it…People (myself included) quit too quickly when things go wrong, but this story is a testament to playing the long game…i would have got majorly frustrated at the friendlies…and thrown a metaphorical cup of tea at the screen…
I’m interested to hear how you turned it round reagrding team talks…did u take advantage of the team meeting feature?
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 09:12
Thanks for the comment Tom. I did a team meeting after the first five or six friendlies because morale was pretty bad and that meeting improved the situation but not by much. Then, when the results became better, there was no need for another team meeting. As for the team talks, I generally follow the assistant’s advice.
Mariano
2 ноября, 2011 at 07:58
Hi Johhny,
Well done!
Some questions:
1.Do you think that FM 2012 is a bit more difficult than the previous versions of the game?
2.Which set up are you using rearding players(small-medium-all Romanian players?)
One thing that I do when playing friendlies is to arrane them one by one so I can choose a smaller reputation team in case I lost the last ame so I can keep morale high.
Yes, as you told me I found out friendlies and «tours» are not so profitable anymore in FM 2012, but it´s ood as it makes the game more realistic:)
Cheers and waiting to read your next post!
ps:
I haven´t started a proper save yet, just playing a Barcelona ame to et my feet wet, but not sure which will be my choice this year:)
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 09:14
Hey Mariano, let me give you some answers:
1. It’s too early to tell but at this point I don’t think that FM 2012 is more difficult than the previous versions.
2. I started with a large database, the Romanian players are included because I picked those leagues.
Managing Barcelona is quite nice, I did that for a while to test my tactic and I loved it! :)
Kevin
2 ноября, 2011 at 09:46
Hi Johnny
First off your posts are never too long or boring and this one like all the others was riveting as usual. After those friendly results and the panic buy which I’ve done before myself but not with quite the same outcome, I was captured by where this update ws going….I knew you would fight to the bitter end and you had ne worried about getting the sack but as usual you founf a way and turend things around magnificently to lead the title race. Your Under 19’s look totally awesome which gives you a bright future if they can live up to their potential. Does your team have good training facilities? Anyway off to the subway…
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 12:14
Thanks for the comment Kevin, you know I’m not a quitter :) The club does have good training facilities plus a youth academy, that was Hagi’s plan as I explained in the opening post. I would need a few better coaches though but I’ll get them eventually.
Martin Pickard
2 ноября, 2011 at 09:54
Great update Johnny…I might admit, I cringed when I saw the firendly results…but you pulled the team together and made it count in the league. Brilliant to see you sitting top with 5 to go…Come On Viitorul!!!
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 12:15
Thanks Martin, I’m very happy to see you turning into a hardcore Viitorul fan :)
Mikulas Nemeth
2 ноября, 2011 at 12:39
Hey Johny nice one…I guess it’s better to lose all the friendlies and then have a form like that than the other way around. :)
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 16:11
Indeed, the other way around would have been far worse :)
Mariano
2 ноября, 2011 at 14:54
Johnny, which training schedule are you using?
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 16:08
The one that comes with the game, nothing special. But I’m looking for something better.
Stromson
2 ноября, 2011 at 15:46
Well everyone else has pretty much covered it, so I’ll just give you a hearty well done!
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 16:09
Thanks pal!
vaibhavc
2 ноября, 2011 at 15:46
What a run of friendlies! The youth cannot be trusted sometimes. But they sure did perform in the league, their form got your first place with 5 games to go. You are doing fantastic, good luck!
Johnny Karp
2 ноября, 2011 at 16:10
Thanks Vaibhav, the friendlies were quite scary but as long as they turned up for the league games they can be forgiven.
Erick Wolf
2 ноября, 2011 at 22:49
Very interesting read, I’m glad the mid-season drought didn’t affect you much, but I’m more impressed by your academy’s win against Rapid and Steua!
Johnny Karp
3 ноября, 2011 at 12:39
Thanks Erick, the youngsters are quite impressive indeed and I have high hopes for them.
chris @ chester
3 ноября, 2011 at 19:40
You didnt strike me as the type to go out and panic buy Johnny, I on the other hand have a £9mill left back that I cant use for the 2nd half of the season because he has already played for 2 clubs.
Glad to see you got the confidence back up for the important games though, Well done mate.
Do you know what the personal reasons are for your striker not playing? and i thought you were only buying youth, he is 28 isnt he?
Johnny Karp
3 ноября, 2011 at 19:54
Well, I guess every man has a breaking point :) I don’t know why he isn’t playing, it just says he’s unavailable. The rule that I have set for myself is to buy only youth but I’m allowed to buy two experienced players (over 21 years old) each season.
chris @ chester
3 ноября, 2011 at 20:43
That is a good rule to have, I like having a few under 21s that dont need to be registered for back up because they dont mind not playing every week…
Good luck with the story, looks like promotion is in the bag for you so I’ll be looking forward to how you do in the top flight in the near future
Johnny Karp
4 ноября, 2011 at 07:49
Thanks mate.
Mariano
3 ноября, 2011 at 21:51
I have a similar situation with one of my San Lorenzo players, suddenly he became unavailable to play for several months without anything happened………