We’re into the last full month of Football Manager 2021‘s life cycle… but my journeyman series is still going strong. For now.
Shama Deadman has already won the Swiss Super League title with Basel – and now he’s out to defend it. Today’s chapter will take us through the first half of the 2030/2031 season (you can find the season preview here if you haven’t read it yet).
But can ‘Die Bebbi’ will also have to juggle increased expectations back home with some tough battles in the Champions League. With all that in mind, Shama’s second season in Switzerland could be an even bigger challenge than his first…
JULY & AUGUST 2030
The good news: we started the Super League season unbeaten after conceding just one goal in five games. The bad news: we only scored seven goals ourselves – not exactly ruthless championship form.
We got off to a steady start, with goals from Ertan Yalçın and Matteo Santarsiero midway through the second half breaking through a tough Servette defence. We also struck twice to beat Neuchâtel Xamax, but then came our first real disappointment. 21 shots, 7 on target… NO goals at home to Lausanne, who finished 8th last season. Yikes.
That was followed by a couple of narrow away wins. St Gallen put up a strong fight until they were outclassed by Sead Hakšabanović, whose free-kick was headed in by Ertan before he volleyed in a clincher. Sead’s left-wing understudy Jean-Pierre Bodin then struck the only goal in what was a very poor game against promoted Thun.
A steady but uninspiring start left us 2nd after five games – just behind Young Boys, who had been much more clinical in front of goal.
We did, though, enjoy a comfortable afternoon against non-league Naters in our Swiss Cup opener. 17-year-old winger Manuel Wolf and star forward Sanel Ibric each got braces in a 7-0 rout.
Our Champions League qualifiers began with a couple of simple 2-0 wins against Irish champions Dundalk. Again, it could have been much more convincing, but at least we were through to the Playoffs, where we would meet a familiar foe from last season’s Europa League.
PAOK gave us a real fright in the first leg in Greece, having several equalising chances after Ertan had scored from a counter-attack. Though our defence got sloppy late on, young goalkeeper Gianmarco Nesti was in superb form to give us a crucial away win.
Ibric then struck early back at St Jakob-Park to make it 2-0 on aggregate, only for PAOK to equalise within six minutes. Had the Greeks scored again, they would have advanced on away goals… but after three gruelling hours, we had survived. We were into the Champions League group phase, where great riches – and six gruelling encounters – awaited us.
Actually, that group could’ve been worse. Yes, we probably didn’t expect to take much from Tottenham, who were last season’s CL runners-up – and now had Premier League and World Cup-winning manager Peter Zeidler at the helm.
That said, our other two opponents looked more beatable. Villarreal had beaten us twice in the Europa Group Stage last term, but we kept the deficit down to one goal each time and were optimistic about going a step further. Eredivisie champions PSV perhaps posed the lowest threat, at least defensively.
TRANSFER WINDOW: PART 2
Before I move on, let’s talk about the rest of our summer transfer business. Despite strong interest in left-back José Emiliano Cruz, nobody made a satisfactory offer, so I felt it made more sense to keep him (even with his big-match nerves) than sell him on the cheap.
So, it was pretty much all loan deals as far as outgoings were concerned. Promising centre-halves Noah Micha Liechti and Matthias Wagner will be getting plenty of regular Super League football with Thun and Neuchâtel Xamax respectively. Xamax also loaned in teenage attacking midfielder Sam Lee (no relation to Mr Allardyce’s assistant).
As expected, Dennis Zaugg went to Sint-Truiden to be a goalscoring menace in Belgium’s top flight. Like I said last time, the 20-year-old needs regular football to progress, and there’s no way he’s getting that while Ibric and Ertan are stealing the headlines.
I also helped my old club out by sending Hungarian right-back Alex Rácz to Győr. Long-time readers might be interested to know that they have another new manager – Lewis Ellis! My former youth coach and Cambrian & Clydach winger took over in March after my successor almost plunged Győr into a relegation battle, but Lewis seems to have got them back on track. I wish him well.
My search for a third-choice striker led me to Swedish international Max Oskarsson, who arrived on loan from Bayern München. He’s not the most lethal finisher, but he has good technique, plenty of pace, and a fantastic left foot. Though Max will mainly play up front, he can also play out wide if we need someone who can cut in from the right wing.
If Oskarsson is a short-term signing, 17-year-old Dragutin Ljubicic is very much a long-term one. The flamboyant Bosnian-Croat has signed from Dinamo Zagreb, and he has the potential to be a really good playmaker – but he needs to brush up on his defensive abilities in order to play a deep-lying role.
SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2030
These two months were a real ‘spaghetti western’ for us. Let’s start with the good – a 1-0 win over Young Boys, courtesy of winger/forward Jesper Sjögren. That was an early blow against our main title rivals, though we would suffer a big setback ourselves when captain Alessandro Buongiorno suffered a hip injury during the international break.
Then came the bad. Despite dominating our next two home games, we failed to score against Sion – and we were almost held by Zürich as well. We only won that match because a shot from 16-year-old left-back Srđan Petrović struck the post and deflected in off the Zürich keeper’s back!
Things went slightly better against Luzern, with Ibric hitting a brace in a nervy 2-1 away win. Though we ended September top of the Super League, our woeful shot conversion was becoming a a major concern, and Ertan in particular had gone off the boil.
Sure enough, our chickens came home to roost in October. Our players must have had a wild night of partying in Eindhoven (more on that later), because they looked hungover for our next league match. Servette raced into a 3-0 lead with three goals in eight minutes, and though Santarsiero scored one goal after the break, we lost our unbeaten record – and our lead.
Then came the ugly. Ibric added another goal at home to Neuchâtel Xamax, but that was the only one we managed from 18 shots against the team that sat 2nd-from-bottom. Xamax had ONE shot, from which they scored THAT shambles of a goal to steal a 1-1 draw!
For his pathetic impersonation of a goalkeeper, I dropped Köhn from Super League duty. Nesti had impressed me in Europe, and the young Italian marked his league debut with a clean sheet at Lausanne. Midfielder Alexandre Jankewitz stole the show with two goals to get us back to winning ways – and keep us in touch with Young Boys at the top.
We now move on to a fistful of dollars. The money-spinning Champions League Group Stage began at home to Tottenham, where we battled bravely but eventually went down to a couple of goals from England striker Dane Scarlett.
Things went a bit better in the Netherlands against PSV, where we recovered from a poor start to steal a 2-1 away win through a late header from centre-half Eduard Ciubotaru! (The less said about what happened afterwards, the better.) A second-half stunner by Nicolas Janvier then exacted a revenge win on Villarreal, as we reached the halfway stage sitting 2nd in Group A!
And for a few dollars more, we made it into the Swiss Cup Quarter Finals again. Köniz never stood a chance against our reserves in Round 2, but Luzern took us to extra-time in Round 3. A penalty shoot-out looked inevitable until the 120th minute, when 16-year-old midfielder Stefanos Arsenidis produced this assist for Oskarsson’s first Basel goal!
Awaiting us in the Quarters next March – our old foes Zürich. Oh, cripes.
NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2030
November began with another frustrating defeat at Young Boys. This was another close-fought contest with our perennial rivals, but we just lost it in the final stages and fell three points adrift in the title race.
Not to worry, though, as we regained top spot with three straight home victories. We wasted several opportunities to beat a poor St Gallen side before Hakšabanović and Santarsiero turned on the style late on.
Ertan finally rediscovered his scoring touch with a brace against Thun… and then we produced a narrow 2-1 win over Luzern. Yes, I was delighted to see 19-year-old Louis Engell break his senior duck, but you know you’re struggling when the opposition has to score your first goal for you!
(That own goal was from the Super League’s leading scorer – Luzern’s Danish striker Kasper Adamsen. He’s even a more prolific poacher when defending his goal than some of our attackers are!)
A couple of brilliant away comebacks against Sion and Zürich extended the winning streak to five… but then the year ended with another frustrating performance at St Jakob-Park against Servette. It was basically the same old story – create loads of poor shots, then concede from the visitors’ first shot on target. Only an 84th-minute equaliser from Ertan kept our unbeaten home league record intact.
Our Champions League dream turned a bit sour, with back-to-back away defeats against Villarreal and Tottenham. Group leaders Spurs ripped our defence to shreds, and only some outstanding goalkeeping by Nesti (who made 19 saves and recorded a 9.2 match rating) stopped us losing by a cricket score.
Despite those results, we went into the final group games just behind 2nd-placed Villarreal on goal difference. Captain Alessandro Buongiorno gave us the perfect start against PSV, but the Dutch side scored a late equaliser that crushed our dreams. It wouldn’t have mattered if we’d held on, though, as Villarreal comfortably beat Spurs to secure a place in the Round of 16.
Another valiant European group campaign from Basel had ended in relegation, this time to the Europa League. Things won’t get any easier there, as we’ve been drawn against another strong La Liga side – Real Sociedad – in the first knockout round.
MID-SEASON REVIEW
So, we’re top of the Super League at the halfway stage… but we should be so much further ahead. Statistically, we’ve been comfortably the best team, averaging 58% possession, completing 90% of our passes, and having at least 2.5 more shots per game than anyone else. The thing is, we just haven’t been that clinical in front of goal.
Only 41% of our shots have been on target, and our conversion rate of 8% is amongst the worst in the league. We’ve scored 3.49 goals fewer than our ‘expected goals’ – a worrying stat that was even more pitiful at the end of November, when we were underscoring our xG by as much as 7 goals. Graham Potter’s Brighton would have been ashamed with those figures.
It’s not as if our attackers are consistently misfiring. Ibric and Ertan have scored their fair share of goals, though they have shown the potential to be much more prolific. Our problem is that we’ve been rushing into attacks and having low-quality shots (which often get blocked or miss the target) instead of patiently working the ball into more promising positions.
This is a particular problem, now that most of our league rivals are playing more defensively against us – particularly at ‘Joggeli’. It’s no coincidence that we’ve struggled a fair bit more at home this term:
12 goals from 10 home matches. That’s not good at all. Okay, so we’ve not lost a league game at ‘Joggeli’ yet, but our low-scoring has still seen us draw four games (often against mediocre opposition). We even made heavy weather of beating Thun – and they’re bottom!
After several months of tactical tinkering, I eventually found some consistency with a 4-3-3 – which is solid in defence, strong in midfield, but not exactly lethal going forward. Fielding it against an ultra-defensive minnow is basically accepting a goalless draw before kick-off, while the more direct 4-4-2 doesn’t work that well either.
Now you’re probably screaming, “JUST GO 4-2-3-1, GOSH DARN IT!” Believe me, I’ve tried that formation numerous times, and despite the hype, it has never really delivered. At this point, I’m ready to just write it off and… hold on a hot minute…
Have I had Jesper Sjögren wrong all this time?! I’ve been using the Swede mainly as a right-winger, even though he’s not especially quick and isn’t a great crosser. Sjögren has also played up front as a deep-lying forward… but there’s another position that his abilities look far more suited to.
Look at those attributes: 18 Flair, 17 Dribbling, 17 Long Shots, and a bunch of 16s. Jesper isn’t a winger or a forward – he’s a central attacking midfielder! That’s the one position which has ALWAYS underperformed whenever we’ve played a 4-2-3-1!
Admittedly, I can be a bit myopic when it comes to player roles. I usually have one specific role in mind for them, two at most – and if neither works, I ditch ’em. I was pretty much getting ready to sell Sjögren and sign a creative attacking midfielder in January… until I realised that he was basically the exact player I was looking for!
So, I’m giving a 4-2-3-1 another chance. I’ll try Sjögren in attacking midfield over pre-season, with Jankewitz as an alternative (I’ve already agreed to sell both Janvier and Salifou Diarrassouba). If the switch pays off, it could turn this stuttering Basel team into a more fearsome unit.
I’ll also be signing a proper ball-winner in January, to add some bite to a blunt midfield. A left-back will probably be high on the agenda too, because there is strong interest not only in Cruz, but also in his deputy Javier Murillo! Could one – or even both – of our Spanish lefties be about to move on?
Basel have stumbled their way back to the top of the Swiss Super League, but can Shama’s side retain their title? Come back next time to see how the 2030/2031 season ends!
Thanks for reading!
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