Thank you for joining me for another chapter of my Everton FM23 save, if you missed the previous chapter then please catch up here.
Last season our main issue had been goals, or should I say lack of goals! At the start of this season I decided to change formation so that I could push more players further up the pitch hoping this would help solve our problems. By the end of August it was already pretty clear that it wouldn’t and I’d opted to move on quickly and switched back to 4-3-3. It wasn’t a case of reverting to the previous tactic however as I’d change the roles so that our wide men were now goal scorers rather than goal providers….well that was the aim anyway. So after our poor start, how did we get on up until the turn of the year?
I’m pleased to say goals weren’t a problem, we had scored the 7th most goals out of all the teams, 7th is where I am aiming to finish so this is exactly where I wanted us to be stats wise. The problem was at the other end, we had conceded the 15th most goals and as a result sat in 12th place in the league, 7 points off European football which is ironically the same amount I finished off it last season. In the League Cup we only made it to the 4th round where we were defeated by Man Utd.
After a slow start, Colombo was finding his feet. Macias had been signed to give him competition but I was actually playing both, using the latter as an inside forward from the left. We still lacked goals from the rest of the side but at least we had 2 players contributing this year as opposed to just 1. The tactical switch at the end of August had improved us but we were far to reliant on certain players as others who had fit the previous tactic didn’t fit this so it meant that there would be more changes in January.
In the previous post I raised concerns that my new approach may stifle midfielder Amadou Onana and that’s exactly what it had done. Using a player who has a player trait of ‘runs with the ball through centre’ as your DM who is supposed to just sit in front of the back four is never going to end well and I think that played a large part in why we conceded so many goals. He’d been brilliant as a carrilero but I didn’t need one of them anymore. It was a huge call to make but I decided it was time to go our separate ways. The January window can be really difficult to do business and no offers came in to buy him so I loaned him to fellow Premier League side Watford so that he’d keep developing with game time and therefore maintain his value before looking to sell him in the summer. With excess money from the summer window sales, I didn’t need to sell to buy. Patrick Berg arrived from Bodø/Glimt for an initial £4m which could rise to £4.8m dependant on appearances. He is more disciplined and should therefore offer the defence better protection. His Model Citizen personality is something I really like which will hopefully rub off on the younger players.
Previously when I’ve squad built, the way I’ve done it is by having 2 players for each position who only play in that position, they very rarely are used in a different role. I now want us to be more fluid especially with the front 3 as I want the majority of my options to be able to play either side or through the middle. The wide men are inside forwards to its all about cutting inside and being able to finish. Out of my squad 3 of my attacking options didn’t suit this. Ryan Gauld played really well as a left winger but wasn’t an inside forward or centre forward, he moved to Norwich for £9.25m, more than double what I paid for him. Dwight McNeil was his back up option last season, I tried him as an inside forward but he’s definitely more of a winger. No decent bids came in so I loaned him to Brentford, I’ll look to sell him in the summer. The one that may surprise you the most is Julián Fernández, I really liked him as an inverted winger but the switch to an inside forward just didn’t suit him. Again no decent bids came in so he joined West Brom on loan, I really wanted to make it work with him but it wasn’t to be.
With these 3 leaving, it meant that 3 needed to come in. Donyell Malen was out of favour at Dortmund and was available for just £4.5m, he arrived and fits the mould of exactly what I want in a forward player. I expect him to be a big goal threat and help support Colombo and Macías by taking some of the burden off them. Next in was Brazilian Talles Magno, he has great technique and flair but is also capable of scoring goals. He signs for £8m from New York City FC, at 21 he’s only going to get better. Finally I decided to recall Filip Bundgaard from his loan at Randers. I’d signed him in the summer but loaned him straight back to them, he’d done really well and kicked on so I felt he was ready to be part of the first team. I’ll focus his training on also being able to play from the left.
No one came in for Pickford so it looks like he’ll leave for nothing in the summer…..Prick!
Anyway, how is the squad looking now? I’ve rejigged my squad planning view based on wanting players to cover more than one position. The one bit I’m currently concerned about is centre back, I want better than Ben Godfrey on the right hand side, Holgate has to stay as my back up option due to his homegrown by club status but I’m struggling to find a better player than Godfrey for under £10m, who fits what I look for in a centre back. I can find similar players but I don’t want to make a transfer just for the sake of it.
With the new signings in place there was an instant up turn in form. We had more players contributing goals and we weren’t conceding as many as we had done during the first half of the season. From January to March we played 12 league games, we won 9 of them, drew 1 and lost 2. It moved us up the table and put us in with a shout of European qualification. We now sat in 6th but teams had games in hand on us which would see us drop out of the European places if they won. Whilst a 5-0 away win at West Ham probably looks like the highlight, beating Man Utd at Goodison is the one that pleased me the most, we kept Calvert-Lewin quiet, got one over on him and also received £20m as it was his 20th appearance for United meaning that his transfer fee has now reached a final total of £80m.
In the FA Cup wins over Grimsby and Birmingham put us into the 5th round but we disappointingly lost away at Southampton.
Moving into April it was crunch time and we had to deliver. A 4-0 dismantling of Leicester City was a great start but we then suffered defeat to Bournemouth before a draw with Man City. The latter was obviously a decent result but 1 point from 6 wasn’t what we needed at this stage of the season.
Into May and a 2-0 win at home to Southampton put us back on track before a trip to the capital where we got a late goal but could only muster a point against Fulham. We now sat 7th, we couldn’t finish higher but we could be overtaken by Newcastle on the last day.
We faced Villa at home who were 9th, they couldn’t catch us but it would be a tough game. A Donyell Malen first half double got the job done, we’d finished 7th, a place higher than last season with 9 more points on the board. We were definitely moving in the right direction.
S0 7th placed means European football right? Well not exactly, it could do but also it might not! It all came down to the FA Cup final. Southampton were playing Spurs, if Southampton won they would steal our Europa Conference League spot so the blue half of Merseyside were all Tottenham fans for the day. Thankfully Spurs smashed them 5-1, we were about to move in the new stadium and we would be doing so with European football.
I was really pleased we were in the Europa Conference League as it was a competition I thought we could win, however news then came through that due to an increase in the coefficient, 8 English sides now qualified for Europe. All that last day drama for nothing! This meant we were then promoted to the Europa League and will join at the group stage. It means more money for us however it’ll be much harder to progress. With it being our first year in it, I’d be really happy with a quarter final appearance.
Since arriving in January, Donyell Malen had been a revelation, 9 goals in 11 starts with 7 sub appearances. He had an average rating of 7.41, the highest in the squad. Talles Magno had also impressed with 4 goals and 5 assists, the goal burden was well and truly off Macías and Colombo which was very timely as they’d both slowed down in the second half of the season. Throughout the season left wing back Aarón had been impressive whilst Álvaro Fidalgo had been much better since changing roles and looked a different player to last season. On a down note Filip Bundgaard had struggled, I won’t be giving up on him as he’s only young, I still think he can do well for us. He’s just had the odd appearance here and there, a consistent run of games should help him.
The youth intake preview had told us we’d be receiving a golden generation, for a second season in a row it didn’t live up to expectations. It was classed as a good intake but David Hunt is the only player of any real note and even he doesn’t look like he’ll reach first team standards but I’ll give him every opportunity I can for him to do so.
Just as we were finishing up for the season it was announced that our youth facilities were being downgraded with no option to request that they were improved. I was however able to request improvement to the youth recruitment and junior coaching which were approved but hopefully we can sort out the youth facilities soon.
Having been in charge for 2 years now it feels like the right time to assess where we are going as a club and if any changes are needed to our current transfer policy. I feel the transfer policy of under £10m players has done us well, the debt has started to reduce, the wage budget has decreased significantly and we’ve still managed to make major improvements on the pitch. The current tactic is how I want us to play moving forward and the current crop of players all fit it. Each window so far has been hectic with lots of ins and outs but I don’t want it to be like that moving forward. Players need to be given time to develop and any first team incomings need to be top quality to take us to the next level. Due to this I have opted to remove the £10m transfer policy, some aspects of our recruitment will stay the same but some will change. Going forward new signings must:
- Fit the clubs Player DNA model
- First team ready signings – Have the ability to play in the Champions League and will not need replacing for a number of years.
- First team potential signings – Have the potential to play in the Champions League in the future.
- Have potential for greater resale value in the future
- Fit clubs wage structure
What this means is that I can now spend over the £10m limit on players however they still need to have potential for greater resale value in the future. This will allow us to stay financially prudent as opposed to doing something such as signing a 31 year old for £40m whose value is only going to decrease. Whilst Filip Bundgaard has struggled since returning from loan I want to continue signing young players who aren’t first team ready but with loans can develop to become first team ready. This means there should only be a couple of first team ready signings each summer which may be for large fees as opposed to the large volume of first team transfers we have seen in this save so far. The first team potential signings will naturally be for smaller fees however as long as I believe they will provide a greater resale value in the future, I don’t want to put a limit on what this fee can be. Together this approach can hopefully take us towards the top 4 in the not too distant future without overspending. I think the £10m limit would prevent us from moving much further on than where we currently are, demonstrated by the struggle to improve on Ben Godfrey in the January window.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post, I’ll be back soon having started to implement the new recruitment policy.
Cheers
The Last Throw.
LutterworthFox 