There was some specific objectives which were outlined in the previous post that i stated to trim the squad of high earning fringe players but also to trim the average age from 29 to a respectable 25. For now having a lot of experienced older players is fine for the rest of the season but some of these players weren’t worth the wage that they were on.
Discounting Allan who is on loan from Napoli there is only one player who has the Key Player status which is Ignacio Pussetto. The likes of Badelj and Basselli i believe aren’t in my opinion worth the wages that they are currently on and by selling them on; would free up some of the wage bill to cut down on the committed spend by at least £215k p/w. There is also one more cull i would make to this and that would be Lapadula. Lapadula even though he is decent backup; he is too old and Palombi will be the number 2 and with a signing in mind who is younger; he won’t be getting any game time whatsoever.
The Actual spend on wages
So before trying to shift these players on; if teams want to come in for them; I have to have a look at the wage budget in total and to see whether the player i have in mind i can afford to bring him to Rome.
With a budget of £2,247,415 p/w on wages; we’re overspending by £70k p/w which is a bit of a concern as 9 players alone are eating half of that budget being on contracts over £100k p/w and with shifting those players on we could shrink it down considerably. But then it’s the case of whether to cash in on Luis Alberto and with only receiving 55% of the transfer revenue; it would be tricky to find a talented replacement of his calibre.
My expected points gain
Looking at the Lazio squad in general and looking at the games still to play; using the power of an Excel spreadsheet; i place down my predictions on what points (if any) I expect to get from the rest of the games left to play.
There are some particularly tough games left to play and with the 2022 World Cup being in winter; A lot of the fixtures will be crammed into short bursts of like 2-3 games. The biggest tests will be the first 2 matches against Roma and Napoli.
Three Outs
Before the first two games; I outlined a few players that would be leaving and alas they did. Knowing that I would only attain 55% of the transfer revenue and the fact that these players are in their 30’s; I wouldn’t really get top whack for them. The first out was before the Derby della Capitale game and that was Daniele Basselli. He was a player who for a rotation player; was earning £110,000 p/w and even though he was a good player; I needed to shift him on and let him earn his paycheck somewhere else and went to Aston Villa for a less than ideal £12.75million and a selling wage contribution of 43.5k p/w for the rest of the time that would have remained on his Lazio contract. Gianluca Lapadula also moved to England but to gain some revenue off him; I needed to trigger a one year extension so he wouldn’t be going a the end of the season on a free. He was getting too old and Palombi and the new addition i brought it would be adequate cover. He moved on to Burnely for £5.75million which for him being valued at £2.5million was some decent business. Milan Badelj would be one of the last to go in January and like Lapadula; his one year extension would need to be triggered in order to sell him on for some Mafia money. on a 105k a week and 33, He needed to go and i accepted £875k from Werder Bremen to take the experienced Croat off my hands.
The Only In
Time was a bit short as there wasn’t much time to bring in a huge amount of players; but some youth was needed to inject some life into the old squad and up stepped:- MOISE KEAN!!!!
Now this young Italian came to us for only £5,75million which blew my mind why Juventus would let him go for so cheap. He still has room to develop mind you and would easily either slot up front or on the left wing. But he did come to us injured and didn’t play in the first two matches. But i know hopefully he will come up good when i need him to.
The Derby della Capitale and the Napoli games
This will definitely be the first true test of my tenureship as both Roma and Napoli are two of the toughest teams in the league. But to keep the fans from driving me out of Rome with their torch and pitchforks; we needed to beat Roma.
vs Roma (away)
We started off away to Roma and to be fair their squad was a decent looking side with the likes of Pellegrini, Piatek, El-Shaarawy, some experience in Nzonzi and Fabricio Bustos who was brought in on loan from Man City and looking at their formation; they were looking to attack using the wings
We went out to test the narrow 4-2-3-1 and to try and restrict their wide play.
Comparing the two squads; I believed we would edge it out in what i believe to be a close affair but i wasn’t going to count out Roma who might try to exploit our middle heavy formation (at least the assistant wouldn’t complain about us being overrun in the centre of midfield)
This game was such a tight ended affair and there wasn’t much in it but we edged it out somehow as a Luis Alberto free-kick found Wallace who volleyed it past Burki in the 19th minute. There was threats from either side but Wallace’s goal was enough to win the Derby della Capitale for the blue half of Rome.
Our defence was impressive as Wallace got the Player of the Match for his goal as well as some great defensive work. There was some concerns over the performances of Correa, Berisha and Immobile who really failed to impress but this was probably a teething problem and made me think whether or not this was the right formation for Lazio.
Looking at the heat map; it was looking like the Roma setup was uniform no-one overlapping each other and all seemed to be in line compared to the Lazio lineup where it seemed like Correa and Berisha were getting in each other’s way. It was only one game but playing this formation against Napoli might not be the best choice going forward.
vs Napoli (away)
Two tough away games to start with and this would be the tougher of the two. I expected Napoli to get 3 points and be the dominant side. They would start with the 4-2-3-1 with some great players such as Insigne, Hamsik, Zielinski and Marko Rog to name a few. Meret is a good goalkeeper and would need something special to get past him.
We ditched the 4-2-3-1 Narrow formation to go with something a little bit different and bizzare. Watching different people play Football Manager on Twitch; a Adam Bodgan lookalike by the name of UnarmingPine caught my eye with a formation he used with Liverpool which might have worked with my team and so gave it a whirl to see how it played out. Using this tactic. Pussetto and Mahrez came into the team replacing Murgia and Correa who really did not impress in their last match.
Having Immobile as our top scorer with only 6 goals; i gave him another chance to redeem himself.
As i expected Napoli took to their attacking prowess i know them well for having managed them in FM18 and was dominant in the shot count; but our defence who were impressive against Roma showed their class by keeping out the Naples outfit and it seems like so far nothing could get past them but the same could have been said for Napoli’s defence. As i stated earlier; something special would be needed to get a goal past Meret and his defence and as the clock was ticking and there was only a few minutes to go; Pussetto swung the ball into the box and Mahrez was on the end of it and slotted it past Meret at his near post and gave us an unlikely victory in the end.
10 of Napoli shot’s were blocked so it goes to show that the defence was doing their bit indeed but it was surprising how the possession count was in our favour. But i was still shocked how we managed to get away with the 3 points when it was looking like there would be only 1 point.
The heat map was less intesive than our first game in charge with a lot less red blobs but it looks like the formation was working and no-one was getting in anyone’s way. It was another match where Immobile failed to find the net; which goes to show he really needs a partner to feed off as the Inside Forwards and the creative players aren’t supplying him well enough.
There was another match against one of the weaker teams in Pescara Calcio but we only just managed to get 3 points after being frustrated by not being clinical enough but it was a heavily rotated squad but it took an own goal for the Blue half of Rome to take 3 points which made me not happy with the performance of the attacking players.
Overall we rode the wave and got a positive start from it with 3 wins out of 3. The tactic needs a real thinkover with us still being in Europe as well as the TIM Cup.
Next Update: The Chinese raiding our squad and the rise of a new formation?
MJBoothFM 