League Two’s Stevenage FC - A Fascinating Club to Manage

Stevenage FC
a fascinating club to manage?!

In the English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 league two, Stevenage have a few FASCINATING aspects for an FMM manager to work with - including low expectations + a STAR player  

Can you do better than ex-manager Teddy Sheringham?!

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1. Board Expectations 
In real life, this season the club avoided relegation in 21st place (of 24 teams).

However in FMM, your Board’s minimum expectation are relatively low - a mid table finish.

Spoiler

Real Life: 

FMM:

2. Wage Budget 
If you do agree to ‘mid-table’ expectations, then you are already +£3k (10%) above your wage budget.

You can solve this either by (a) moving all your £100k transfer budget into wages, or (b) even better - cancel the three loan deals which are costing you +£6k/week!

Spoiler

Your Wage Budget - with mid table expectations:

Cancelling these three loans (inc. GK Pym) saves you +£6k/week in wages!

Just cancelling these three loans would give you ~£3k of available wage budget to invest! 🙂
 

 
⚠️ 3. Problem GKs ⚠️
If you cancelled the loan of GK Pym, then you’ve saved £2.8k/week in wages, but your remaining GKs are poor.

Thankfully the loan market gives a (free!) solution …

Spoiler

Loaned Pym was your best GK. Now you have two weaker GKs to pick between:

Of these two GKs, Bastien is probably the best … er … probably.

Alternatively - you can loan someone new (for free! / no wages) - like £4.1m valued Dewhurst!

 
 

  
🔻 4. Slow Defense 🔻 
With 6 center backs at the club, including one high-potential youngster, there’s enough to play a back three (e.g. a 532) if you want.

However half of your DCs are … sloooow … it is NOT advised to play a high defensive line with these slow ones!

Spoiler

• According to the coaches reports ("stars"), O'Neill is your best center / right back, with good passing + all-round attributes. But he's slow (8 pace!) 🔻.
• However 23 year old Vancooten seems to be your 2nd best DC, with 12 pace (!), he's also a good all-rounder, except for his 5 (FIVE) aggression. Ouch.
• Elderly Cuthbert + Prosser are both strong in the air & tackling, with high leadership. Alongside their age, they are also slow (8 pace!) 🔻.

Interestingly you've got two youngsters who could develop more:

• 21 year old Marshall doesn't have the highest potential, but has good all-round attributes, and (except for 8 passing) no obvious weaknesses.
• Your future star is exciting 17 year old Townsend-West, who has high potential to grow into a great defender (!). 
   

 5. Star Striker
You could build your attack around 24 year old speedster Elliott List. He should be highly effective in both league two and (if you get promoted) league one.

Plus there’s another high-potential youngster to get excited about …

Spoiler

Elliott List is our star striker with 15 pace, plus 12 each for shooting, dribbling, movement + technique. Nice!

Admittedly, he’s inconsistent + a poor penalty taker. Not ideal.

But he is better than all your other attackers … ! 

• If you play 2 upfront - then Luke Norris can be a solid partner, who is popular in the squad, plus is decent in the air (TM role?) and passing (DLF role?) - but not excellent at either.
• If you play 3 upfront (433 or 41221 for example) - then you can add young Daly as a wide striker (e.g. IF), who is reasonably quick + decent.
• Unfortunately (lower down on the list) both Andrade + Reid are unprofessional, with "highly strung" and "insecure" personalities respectively.

Excitingly - you also have Luke Norris' younger brother in the squad - as a high potential 17 year old with lot of room to grow!  
 

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⁉️ So What Tactic ⁉️

You have a speedy star striker  so what role + tactic should you use? Thankfully here is a Vibe poll asking that exact question < here > 

Here are some (theoretical) options for you - which suit the current squad:

Spoiler

One solid option is a back 3 (i.e. back 5 with 3 DCs + 2WBs):

• as you have lots of mediocre DCs + MCs, plus weak depth up-front in wide positions.
• perhaps a 532, 5122, or 5212 playing down the center would fit your current squad.  
• star speedster Elliott List would be one of your two strikers upfront.
• for a very defensive option, you could defend deep, then it long / direct balls to your striker(s).

For a more attacking option, a narrow 433 or narrow 442 diamond (41212) could also work.

• your excess of central player would favour this, though you’d also be vulnerable down your open flanks.
• again, star speedster Elliott List would be one of your strikers upfront.
• for a 433, you may want to reinforce your depth of quality strikers though.  

If you want to play just one up front, you’d have a decent first team playing a 4231 or 41221 -

• star speedster Elliott List could be your main ST, or could be behind the striker in an IF or SS role!
• though you may want reinforcements for your weak spots in the attacking 3-4 positions (AMRLC, ST) - to either improve your first team or at least to add some depth. 

 
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Summary

Stevenage FC are a fascinating club to manage:

• a struggling lower league club,
• possibly the best attacker in league two,
• plus some exciting high-potential youngsters.

How far could you take them?! 😄 

Edited July 10, 2022 by DanEnglish

[Superking]

League 2 winners!

[Rauz]

Lets be honest the only reason it is a fascinating team to manage is because of the bloody brilliant burger king shirt sponsor😉

 

Jokes aside, wonderful write up and insight into a team 90% of us wouldn't give this much thought!

[fritzbarr]

Great!

[DanEnglish]

On 11/07/2022 at 11:13, Rauz said:

Lets be honest the only reason it is a fascinating team to manage is because of the bloody brilliant burger king shirt sponsor😉

Aaaarrrggh! That’s a horrible horrible logo to splash on an (already pretty ugly) kit. 

[JamesVilla]

26 minutes ago, DanEnglish said:

Aaaarrrggh! That’s a horrible horrible logo to splash on an (already pretty ugly) kit. 

I read somewhere some time ago that they sponsored Stevenage, purely due to the fact it was a cheap deal and their logo will be in Fifa. They ran a marketing campaign that if you played as Stevenage and capture good goals etc, you could win free food and the like. Excellent business idea anyway 😂

[AleThoHDFC]

Scunthorpe is another one to try

[mlvn98]

Hi,
I wast just wondering: how did you get this layout? I can't see all those stats and information in one view.

[DanEnglish]

7 minutes ago, mlvn98 said:

Hi,
I wast just wondering: how did you get this layout? I can't see all those stats and information in one view.

Quick answer: “view” => “defensive attributes”

Long answer:

Spoiler

That was just a joke. Unfortunately there is not really a view like this. I did it in PowerPoint. Took multiple screenshots of the different views + then merged them together. Took longer than I expected 😞 

 

[Oseni]

I'm not the totally hard-working type that would like to grind from the vanarama league or the league 2 

I want a pl team 

But I don't know which one to choose 

Preferably a midtable quality team🤷