Hey all,
In the previous article, I spoke a little bit about my approach to the club at a higher strategic level. In this article, we will be zooming in more to evaluate the players individually, and a rough overview of the background staff.
But first, a quick observation.
The squad needs work. In fact, 36% of the squad has a contract expiring at the end of this season (including two very expensive loaned-in players). Our star player, Sébastien Salles-Lamonge, is also on an expiring contract at the end of the season. And after doing a little reconnaissance work, his agent is asking for him to have a salary 3.5 times more than what he’s earning now. We’ll talk about this later.
Here’s a shallow overview of the current first team
One routine I will almost always do at the start of a save is to walk through the comparison tool of the squad planner to get a summary of how we stack up against the rest of the league. Unfortunately for us there isn’t much to be proud of, although there are a few surprises here.
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Goalkeeping
Goalkeepers are going to struggle with aerial challenges and vertical control.
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Defense
Our defenders can assist the keeper in aerial combat, but we will be absolutely dominated by fast attacks, or attacks that pull us out of position. We rank the worst in the league for marking capabilities.
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Midfield
The midfielders not only have terrible stamina and passing, but they are also the worst in terms of technicals compared to the league. We’re only just slightly below average in teamwork and decision making skills. I plan on actually working around this for the season with the tactic I am chosing to use.
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Strikers
Just like midfield, we are also very poor up front. Our strikers will struggle in any attack, as well as terrible finishing capabilities or being able to battle in the air. Again, we have to play a tactic that caters to the squads strengths if there are any, but protect the weaknesses as much as possible.
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I am not discouraged, all I see here is just challenges that I have to overcome. Now I looked at technicals, mentals, and physicals collectively to see how we look.
Yikes — what do we have to look forward to? How can this squad be leveraged? These aren’t questions I necessarily have answers to but as a manager, I would expect to eventually have an answer for.
As I am looking through my players and jotting notes down onto my paper, a common theme is surfacing. The players who are natural in their respective positions, miss decent attributes commonly associated to players of that position. None of our defenders can mark a man, none of our midfielders can pass or dribble a ball, and none of our strikers are lethal in the penalty box. So an even bigger question presents itself, how are we going to win?
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Player Review
There are 25 players on the first team, none have star-player status, a few with important player, but most are either regular starter or squad player. I think for the sake of keeping you interested I’ll just show off the players that will be on the pitch most frequently, and if I need to introduce another player for some reason, I may dedicate a short blurb for explaining them.
Starting with the Goalkeepers.
Mr. Johny Placide, will be the starting keeper. He’s on the last year of a multi-year contract and will be retiring at the end of the season. I am expecting his experience and leadership to help keep the defense together, while ensuring they cover him as he does have high eccentricity. He will be an OK keeper until we can find a replacement for him next year.
One thing I notice about Johny’s attribute repertoire is that he has a decent kicking capability, this is bolstered with high composure but low technique. We may be able to use his kicking more than his throwing to create opporunities in the midfield.
The other two keepers, Zacharie Boucher (backup) and Julien Fabri (cup keeper) don’t have a lot to talk about from a attributes perspective. They are both woefully under qualified for Ligue 2 and I don’t expect them to see many games.
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Defenders
I will start with one of the best players on the team who is also in defense, Abdoulaye Ndiaye. Abdoulaye is on loan from Olympique Lyonnais for the season.
He’s dominate in the air, but can’t be asked to do much else. Despite him having 12 marking, his 9 focus will cause him to switch off and that is his biggest defensive liability. Additionally, due to his ability to simply not be able to dribble, I really only see him playing small simple passes. However due to his vertical reach, we will have him not only challenge for those battles in our box but I will also have him go forward on the set pieces to try and challenge the opponents in their box for the aerial battles.
Another key player in the central defense is Joris Sainati, a 33 year old veteran who unlike Abdoulaye, can mark players.
However his ball control and passing is very poor, but he makes up for it with his defensive output. Additionally, with high bravery and determination, I will give him free reign over going in on tackles if he wishes to. With Abdoulaye, I will have Joris go forward on the set pieces to leverage aerial capabilities.
We do have depth in the rotation for central defense, starting with Issiar Dramé. Issiar won’t start many games for us unless we’re resting Joris or Abdoulaye.
There’s only two areas that stick out, his aerial presence and high determination. On a 17 jumping reach, Issiar will be dominating almost all of the aerial battles he gets into, but that’ll be about it. Surprisingly he can pass decently well for a defender at this level too, so that gives us a little bit of flexibility in how restrictive we must be with simple passing in the back. However, overall, he is a defensive liability in just about every component. Also he is not a confident player by any means, and prefers to not play in big matches. Something for a defender we have to be absolutely careful of.
Let’s look at a player who can fit into two roles, one as a Ball Winning Midfielder (BWM) or as a Central Defender… Dominique Guidi. He’s a 26 year old SC Bastia Academy player who has played at several clubs on the island.
Aside from his lack of dribbling, I think there’s a lot to like about him. He fits a gegenpressing style with his high endurance ratings, vertically speaking Dom will be able to challenge for floating passes. I’m also going to give him free reign on tackling as he will likely be our starting BWM.
Moving along, Anthony Roncaglia is a 21 year old academy player who will have a bright future at the club. Anthony is most suited for a defensive midfield role, but can fill in for the central defense if needed.
An interesting array of attributes. He’s one of the fastest players on the team, but he can’t dribble. Low technique will limit his midfield output as he is below average in passing. I will have to think more on how I could use him in the tactics. My staff says he fits as a segundo, which I absolutely disagree with. Anthony’s inability to stay on the ball and dribble is an obvious liability that we’ll need to be aware of. He can mark somewhat well, but with low focus I am afraid that his tackling will just cause trouble. He may be someone we use to mark fast number 9s.
The next player I wanted to look at is Kylian Kaïboue, one of our best players. He also has a strong left foot and is very comfortable playing in a back left / left defender role but can also fit into a central defensive position if needed.
Attributes wise, he looks just slightly above average. The reason why I say he is one of our best is that he offers good positional depth for a rotation, he trains extremely well, and with high determination, I can see him winning a lot of 1v1’s as well as being able to influence the pitch no matter where he is due to high aggression with a good work rate. At only 23 years old, I will be looking to keep him around. Unfortunately, the Jupiler Pro League side, KV Oostende is confirmed to be interested with him. Unless he wants to leave the club willingly, I won’t see him go for anything less than a million. This may turn into a transfer saga.
Our left defender position has really strong quality from a rotation perspective. Let’s look at Dylan Tavares — a rounded attacking left back who has the speed and offensive capability to be a real asset when going forward.
Dylan is a Swiss national with international experience. With a strong left foot, the ability to dribble and cross, he may be able to easily overlap an inside forward or inside winger then cross in after beating his defender with pace.
Switching sides, the back right defense has just as much quality as the left. Here is Kévin Van Den Kerkhof, a 26 year old French player who has climbed the ranks in the domestic leagues and is now a player who can establish themselves in a starting 11 for our side.
I feel that his wage is higher than what he’s worth, but there are some definite positives from him. For example, he has a bit of pace and endurance that should give him freedom to move vertically on the pitch from end to end, and with a strong right foot and a decent cross, we can pick up some positive passing output from him as well. We may see him frequently start in our lineups.
Another capable player for the back right would be 33 year old, international player, Lloyd Palun.
We have him on a very cheap wage for the season, which expires next June. Despite being 33 he still has lots to give, including a decent amount of endurance and the ability to challenge for aerial battles. He’s right footed only with mediocre ball control, but, he can play a simple ball but still have some defensive output.
I know we covered a defensive mid fielder earlier who could also play in a solid defense, but let’s move into looking at our primary mid players and see what kind of quality we have available to us.
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Midfield
The star of the show, Sébastien Salles-Lamonge, who is on a last year of his contract. The 26 year old is a solid mid fielder who can move the ball around, provide offensive output, yet has decent enough stamina to cover a lot of mileage during a game.
I actually expect him to average a 6.9–7.0 rating this season. Our tactic is going to require a box to box player and I feel that he will be our best fit for that. As I mentioned above, his contract is up at the end of the season, I am expecting him to ask for a contract before that. A player such as Sebastian who is highly influential in the squad will likely create a mess in the locker room if I can’t get him settled. We’ll have to see how this unfolds.
A possible partnership could form here in the midfield with the intelligent 22 year old loanee from RC Lens, Tom Ducrocq. It would be a real threat to have Tom in the lineup, and while his dribbling is poor, he makes up for it with sharp mentals, high endurance, with speed to throw off opponents in the final third. I could see Tom having some defensive output as well..
I’m not expecting to cash in on the optional future fee for $1.5M unless he can really stand out with solid ratings match after match this season.
Another midfielder who is one of our main pillars of leadership would be 29 year old Christophe Vincent. “Christo” is a regular starter, but is looked up to in the locker room. He trains hard, and being a home grown player, I hope to some day turn him into a youth coach.
I like Christo, while he is only average in ball control, a high leadership and teamwork with good passing means that he will be a pivot point in our mid field for dictating play and initiating attacks. While he’s not our best mid player, I am definitely going to be looking to start him as much as I can.
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Now that we’ve looked at our midfield, the final section of the squad to talk about in detail is our offense, both wingers and strikers.
I present, Migouel Alfarela, a 24 year old winger who can have a commanding presence down the right. He’s a consistent performer, enjoys big matches, has pace and the ability dribble.
While one of the more expensive players at the club, I feel that his speed and a bit flair will allow him to beat opponents and keep the opponents defense guessing. I’ll be looking to him for creating chances from outside the box.
On the otherside of the pitch on the a left wing, we have 31 year old Kevin Schur. He is only average with everything, but, prefers playing as an inside forward. This will actually link up nicely with his maurading fullback, Kylian Kaïboue. I expect a partnership to form between them as they will be able to have a powerful presence down the left side of the pitch.
Kevin will struggle with position of the ball, given he’s low on strength and determination, as he is right foot only. Too late in his career to improve the weaker foot.
We have few options for the number 9, with our most qualified player being 26 year old Kapit Djoco. He has decent physicals, high aggression and determination. This may allow him to fight for the low crosses in the box and hold off defenders until reinforcements can arrive.
For now, I will play him as a pressing forward but have him stay on his feet since his tackling is quite low. I don’t forsee many goals coming from him this season, but hoping that he will at least but a nuissance up front to disrupt plays and keep the opponents defense on alert.
Another option I have in the number 9 slot would be our other team captain, Benjamin Santelli. The 30 year old is a local youth player who has spent time playing at various levels of France’s football system. Something that stands out about him is that he’s a constant performer and enjoys big matches, his experience up front could be useful in helping to break down stubborn opponents.
I feel that he’s overall just slightly better than Kapit, but perhaps a little more offensive output. I am expecting Ben and Kapit to battle it out this season for who gets a starting role in our number 9 slot.
These are the major players of the squad, we have other players in secondary backup roles that may surface at various points throughout the season, but I feel like this has been enough analysis up front for our squad.
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Manager and First Team Coach / Medical Staff
I chose to actually recreate a player who is a bit of a popular figure in modern SC Bastia. Florian Thauvin, is a somewhat recent of SC Bastia player who actually earned the Ligue 1 Young Player of the year in 2012–13. He went onto playing at Ligue 1 side Mariseille for a reported 3.5M Euro deal, with Florian spending time at Newcastle United, Tigres, and presently he is at Udinese. Now that he’s wrapping up the end of his career (or is a year or two off from that), I felt like he might be a good person to recreate as a manager.
In English journalism, Florian hasn’t disclosed if he’d like to pick up coaching after his playing career has finished, so my replication of him on FM23 is purely for creating a RPG background and something believable.
I’m starting the game with a Continental C license and as a player with national experience. However my skillsets are more geared towards youth development, as in line with my long-term vision for the club we eventually want to be producing quality youth candidates season after season.
Our backroom staff for the first team will need a lot of improvements, as they are mostly high wage for low quality. I am bolstering our medical department by maxing out possible hires for physio and sports science, even though sport scientists get diminishing returns after you have only one.
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Scouting Strategy
An area that I see a lot of FM players either drastically under-estimate or not care enough about is scouting. Knowing where to scout is a major component to being successful in your recruitment strategy and honestly is a pain point for a lot of professional clubs across the world. Awful recruitment decisions aren’t always made in the boardroom, but the quality of scouting results can negatively impact a decision to recruit a player one way or another.
For this season, I want to stay in France for our scouting efforts. I’m looking for the unseen gems in the lower leagues yet, in the hopes that I can secure players for next to nothing while still keeping the team speaking mostly the same language (French). Eventually, if we do make it to Ligue 1, I will expand our scouting policy to cover various parts of Africa where France has connections and natural scouting knowledge. Many players like going to South America for wonderkids, I am going to avoid this for now. I want to build up an organic scouting strategy that relies on securing domestic talent before we expand our network elsewhere.
This isn’t meta, and it’s definitely not going to find us wonderkids, but it is realistic.
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In the next article I’m going to pair the player analysis into my tactics selection and really get to understanding how I will leverage our strengths while protecting or mitigating weaknesses.
Thank you for reading!
