In a lengthy career as a in the AGFL, I've managed clubs all over the globe, in Brazil, South Africa, France, Germany, Poland, Holland, Italy, Spain, Scotland, Czech Republic, Ukraine. Mexico, Argentina and now I'm heading to ....... Leeds! I finished dead middle of the table in Division 2 last season, and looking at who I'm up against in Season 38, I'd be delighted to finish there again. I brought my squad of South Americans back over to Yorkshire from Turin, with the ratings on the new game not being very kind to me (although it was kinder to my wage bill) as it was mostly downgrades for my players.
The omission of the Mexican league from FIFA 23 was a bit of a blow as I lost two of my longest serving players; Caceres had been a starter at CB for the last 3 seasons (replaced by the Brazilian Marlon), and Quinones had been a great goal-scoring striker since an upgrade at the start of last season (replaced by Nzola who is likely to be shipped out as he doesn't fit my squad theme). Now that we can make 5 substitutions, having a bit of depth to the squad is more advantageous now, so I took advantage of the short preseason transfer window to get some decent for the bench. In came Duarte as a third CB, Yan Couto as cover for RM & RB, and Fernandez as an impact sub up front. Suspecting there might be a cut due to the ridiculous amounts of money people were sitting on, I tried to splash in the BFA's, eventually bagging the winger David Neres for 50m scudo. I lost 95m in the cut, but I'm reasonably happy with the squad, and the wages are only 100k into the red despite having a big squad of 22.
The omission of the Mexican league from FIFA 23 was a bit of a blow as I lost two of my longest serving players; Caceres had been a starter at CB for the last 3 seasons (replaced by the Brazilian Marlon), and Quinones had been a great goal-scoring striker since an upgrade at the start of last season (replaced by Nzola who is likely to be shipped out as he doesn't fit my squad theme). Now that we can make 5 substitutions, having a bit of depth to the squad is more advantageous now, so I took advantage of the short preseason transfer window to get some decent for the bench. In came Duarte as a third CB, Yan Couto as cover for RM & RB, and Fernandez as an impact sub up front. Suspecting there might be a cut due to the ridiculous amounts of money people were sitting on, I tried to splash in the BFA's, eventually bagging the winger David Neres for 50m scudo. I lost 95m in the cut, but I'm reasonably happy with the squad, and the wages are only 100k into the red despite having a big squad of 22.
As for the game itself, I'm enjoying playing FIFA 23 more than the last game, but at the moment I'm nowhere near as good at it. I've been trying out different formations and line-ups in Head2Head games in preseason, but not much has seemed to work so far. My defending is really poor at the moment, with my CB's getting pulled out of position, and I cant get the forwards in behind the defence like last season. My style has always been to get plenty of crosses in, but again its an ineffective tactic in this years game, and its a hard habit for me to break. When I look at the other players in Division 2, I can see myself really struggling on current form. My season starts with games against deareststorm so if I come away from that from nothing, I'll be in a relegation fight from the off. I'll aim to pick up at least 3 points against the other guys I'd expect to be in the lower half, so I'm looking at S8TY Jobi Juan and Diode X there, after that I'll just need to nick points of the others and see where that leaves me.