Conquering Europe

[oneteaminglasgow]

FC Energetik-BGU Minsk - Meet the Squad

Four stars is 'good player for most Belarussian top flight teams', 3 is 'operating at top flight level'

Savitskiy is a right winger, and I need him to play there, so Kovalev is my main striker. Beyond him though, I don't have much depth. Kobets is also a centre midfielder, so he's out. Could really be doing with something here.

Good players in each position here, but again a lack of depth. I'll need to play Lukashenko on left wing, as Martyanov is another central midfielder really,, but have a bit of cover on either wing. Not much in central areas though.

Good starting two, again a real problem in terms of depth.

Having the same player be the best in every single position here isn't ideal. That said, I should be able to put together a fairly ok first choice defence. Again, injuries and/or suspensions will be a big problem.

And a decent enough first choice keeper, so that will do.

Probably the makings of a pretty good first 11 for what we are, but nothing much in the squad beyond that. I also have no money to spend, so this will need to do for now. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

July 2088

This month was the mid-season transfer window in Belarus, and I punted a load of players. Is it a firesale if all the players I let leave were complete pish who were never going to get a game? Anyway, they were all shite, with the only exception being Pavel Sokol out on loan. Saves me a fair bit in wages though, which allowed me to make my only signing of the month.

Rudy Irwansyah is an Indonesia (yes, I'm back doing that again) right back, who looks pretty competent all round. Pretty decent defensively, but also fine with the ball at his feet. Not great delivery, but you almost never find that at this level so fine. He'll do well, I think.

Spoiler

A pretty solid start to my reign here. Outclassed by Soligorsk, as I expected to be, but after being 3-0 down at half time we rallied and played fairly well for the second half. 

Rest of the month, I'm extremely pleased with. We were poor in the cup game against a lower league side, but still made it through, and we've also loved a late goal. That win over Vitebsk, the side in second place, is really impressive stuff.

And that decent run of form sees us shoot into the top half.

[oneteaminglasgow]

August 2088

Dumped out the cup, but there was always a good chance of that when we were drawn against BATE.

Two good wins in the league as well, including over Isloch where I was down to ten men for most of the second half but saw it out comfortably nonetheless.

It seems that we're actually a pretty decent team.

From nowhere, we now seem to be getting involved in a fight for the European spots.

Might all fall away, but it's a good place to be just now. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

September 2088

Thumped off BATE, but seven points from the next three is a very decent return. Granted, the two wins were against sides we should be beating every single time but we did it and pleased to do so.

Five games to go and we're still in with an outside shot of getting fourth in the league. 

Not a bad start for me. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

October 2088

Three relatively straightforward victories, although Rukh Brest kept us waiting for the winner it always just felt like a matter of time before we got it and that they were desperately just hanging on for a point.

Got to say, I don't know how this squad was struggling so much when I arrived, as there's a number of very decent players in there.

We move into fourth with just two games to go. We're playing Minsk and Slutsk, so you'd like to think we'll have the beating of them.

I'll be honest - I have no fucking idea if that'll qualify us for the Europa Conference League. The rules say it will, depending on who wins the cup, but the cup quarter finals aren't until March by which point next season will have started so I'm really not sure what's going on. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

November 2088

And another couple of wins sees us through the season. Wonderful stuff.

And so it sees us into fourth place. Maybe we'll be in the Conference League, but who knows really.

Both sides in the premier league won their playoffs to stay up as well.

Time to build for next season. Fourth place or not, we're absolutely miles behind Soligorsk. 

[Connor1874]

Energetik-BGU currently joint top of the Belarusian league with BATE IRL. Clearly inspired by @oneteaminglasgow

[oneteaminglasgow]

Transfers 2089

That's the outgoings. Kisel was a good player, but his release clause was met and I have others in his position anyway so not massively bothered.

And here's the new boys.

Jan Kracun is a left winger from Sloevnia, and he has a bit of pace and his crossing and technique are good. Appalling defensively, but that's fine. Pretty weak mentally, which will be why he's pitching up here, but overall he's fine. 

Spoiler

Arkadiusz Nowak is a right winger from Poland. He can also cover up front or centrally, but definitely see him as a wide player primarily. A good dribbler, his end product might be a bit lacking but he's an intelligent player which is good. Very different to Kracun.

Spoiler

Davor Poljanec is the second of three Slovenians now at the club, an attacking midfielder. He's very similar in style to Nowak but looks a bit better at passing.

Spoiler

Ivan Tsykalo is an actual Belarussian, and is my new number one goalkeeper. Looks like he'll control the box well and deal with crosses, but also has some pretty glaring weaknesses. Still, an improvement.

Spoiler

Aljaz Lah is a striker, and my final Slovenian. Good finisher, good first touch, good composure. He's not very fast or very strong though, which is a worry, but if he gets a chance he should take it.

Spoiler

Vladislav Chervyakov is another striker, and is very similar to Lah. Not sure which one I'll play as my main player up front as they seem very evenly matched to me.

Spoiler

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

April 2089

Solid start to the season. We were the better team in the Slavia Mozyr loss, but didn't take our chances so ultimately didn't deserve to win. Other than that, have to be pretty happy with how it's gone, and good to see a few of the new boys getting goals early doors.

Early days, but it looks like the best we can aim for is 'best of the rest' behind Soligrosk.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Well, it took almost six months to confirm it, but there we go - Shakhtar Soligorsk won the cup, so I'll be playing in the Europa Conference League.

Apparently, it's not some glitch in the game and Belarus actually do have the cup running in a different schedule to their league so that it kicks off in one season and ends in the next. Seems like an absolute nonsense tbh, but good luck to them I suppose. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

May 2089

A mixed month, we were very good against Dinamo Brest and really, really should have beaten Zhodino as well. However, we weren't good against Gomel and Soligorsk, while I was expecting to lose, was a frustrating experience. We were holding our own and only 1-0 down when I changed to try to get back into the game, and was promptly caught out twice in quick succession for a comprehensive loss.

As expected, Soligorsk are running away with it. I would expect Zhodino to fall away a bit in the coming months, as they weren't very good against us, but who knows. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

June 2089

Three wins, and a deeply satisfying sequence of results. Lah finally got his first goal, which I'm hoping will lead to others, and we just generally looked quite good.

Up to third. which is nice. We're doing ok.

And we'll be playing Servette from Switzerland, so we'll probably be heading out quickly.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Europa Conference League - Second Qualifying Round - July 2089

Spoiler

It's a loss in the first leg, but we've given a good account of ourselves against pretty good opposition, and we're still in with a shot if we can scrape a win in Minsk. Away goals are still a thing in this game, so Kracun's strike could be very important

Still all to play for.

Spoiler

Ah we just didn't have enough. As I say, I think we did well over both legs given that Servette are a superior side to us, at least on paper, but we didn't have enough to get through.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

July 2089

A bit of a dip in form - nothing drastic really, but we should have been beating Slutsk and the loss against Dinamo Minsk was a really poor showing from us all round. It's nothing that we can't turn around, but still disappointing.

Aye, there's no chance that we'll win the league, as we've known for a while now, but I can certainly continue pushing to ensure we're in Europe again next year.

That's the aim for the season now. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

August 2089

Well, dumped out of the cup but two pretty solid results on league duty. Very annoying that we've drawn BATE this early on in the cup two seasons in a row, but oh well.

Us and Isloch are starting to pull away in the top four, which is lovely.

Hopefully we can pull away from them and secure ourselves into third.

[oneteaminglasgow]

September 2089

A great month. We made an arse of it against Gomel, but beating Soligorsk and Isloch more than made up for that. Both were somewhat smash and grab but I think we deserved them. Chervyakov got himself up to 11 goals for the season, which is more than a third of the goals we've scored. Some effort from him.

Six games to go, and we're looking good for top four at least and we've entered the chase for second as well.

Despite beating them, Soligorsk have far too much of a lead to catch them. Maybe next season. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

October 2089

Well, we just went fucking daft this month. We'd scored 32 goals in 24 league games prior to this, and got 16 in these four. Which is nice.

Other than Torpedo, these teams are all pretty poor sides, but still good to get such convincing victories.

Well, well, well.

Thought we were done, and we probably are, but that's made things a little bit interesting.

Unfortunately, the teams who Soligorsk still have to play sit 10th and 15th in the league, and we play BATE and Rukh Brest. Still, focus on doing our bit and if someone does us a favour then we're golden.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Matchday 29 - November 2089

Spoiler

Yermakovich has nine goals this season, and all of them have come in the last five games. He was playing left back in this game for fucks sake.

Really pleasing win - seemed like every time we attacked we scored, especially in the second half. Delightful stuff. It also knocks BATE out of the title race, and means I'll definitely be top two.

That's not what I wanted though. 

I need them to lose and us to win, but taking it to the final day is some achievement in itself given that I was 12 points behind not too long ago.

We're playing Rukh Brest, while they're playing (already relegated) Belshina. The only thing giving me hope is that they have a midweek European fixture, so hopefully they'll be knackered. 

 

[dysartrovers]

Matchday 29 - November 2089

Spoiler

Yermakovich has nine goals this season, and all of them have come in the last five games. He was playing left back in this game for fucks sake.

Really pleasing win - seemed like every time we attacked we scored, especially in the second half. Delightful stuff. It also knocks BATE out of the title race, and means I'll definitely be top two.

That's not what I wanted though. 

I need them to lose and us to win, but taking it to the final day is some achievement in itself given that I was 12 points behind not too long ago.

We're playing Rukh Brest, while they're playing (already relegated) Belshina. The only thing giving me hope is that they have a midweek European fixture, so hopefully they'll be knackered. 

 

OK an hour is more than enough to update this [emoji23]. You must be fantastic at arranging your tactics and buying for the system you plan. What's your secret? [emoji23]

[PB1994]

2 hours ago, dysartrovers said:

OK an hour is more than enough to update this . You must be fantastic at arranging your tactics and buying for the system you plan. What's your secret?

Please put me, also, in the fuming category that we won’t find out the results tonight.