Hi.

This is my first assessment of the austrian NT.
Tomorrow will be the first games, so maybe I will change something then, but currently this is what I came up with:

First of all, my distribution.
GK: 2-3 (normally 2 would be enough but with injuries I might need a 3rd keeper)
DEF: 8-9 (to play with 5 defenders could be important)
MID: 7-8 (normally I will play with 4 midfielders, rarely with 5)
FW: 4-5 (to be able to play with 3 forwards and make 2 substitutions might be important)

So I settled with
3-8-7-5
I am not too happy about that, I might drop the 3rd keeper later on.
I am not too happy with the shortlist either. Our midfield is lacking :(


If you think I have misjudged your player, feel free to post here.
But keep in mind that when I talk about a trainable feature, I am talking about the "real skill" of a player. Fixed features and Experience influence a players real passing, dueling, scoring and blocking skill.


Keepers:

I don't think I have to say much about our Keepers.
Biest is the best and Heger is his backup.
We don't really have young ones coming up, which is probably a problem with how the shortlist system works, but oh well.

My 3rd Keeper is Ljankes. His blocking is a bit lower than Siebert's (about 0.02) but he is younger and will overcome Siebert within this Season. And he is 3rd anyway, so probably won't get much play except the occasionally friendly. Thiessen has the lowest blocking and his 1.25 tactics scare me. He got penalty stopper though, so I might chose him as 3rd keeper for playoff games. Not sure yet though.

It bothers me that neither Biest nor Heger got Setting Walls or Penalty Stoppper. I really think these are important attributes.



Defenders:

I will leave 3 defenders behind, which kind of sucks that I have so few to choose from. So I'll start with the 3 I leave behind.

Dittmar, Winckelmann and Kohler. All 3 have very low dueling. The only other 2 players with low dueling that I take are Beckmann and Ettmuller. Both have high blocking to compensate their low dueling. Dittmar has decent blocking too, but he has only Flank: L, which makes him worse than Beckmann and Ettmuller on DCB.


Blenker:
Do I need to say anything about him?
He is awesome.

Loy:
He is my player, but I think it is obvious why I chose him for the NT.

Bischoff:
I am concerned about his low dueling. He has decent blocking and fixed features and decent tactics though.

Ettmuller:
He is a DCB. I am not too thrilled with him, but he'll do.

Sinner:
Decent player. Nothing too special

Fritzsche:
He is awesome. A definate first-11 guy.
But needs more tactic I am afraid :(

Claessens:
He has decent dueling bit a bit low tactics.

Beckmann:
Meh player. Could play DCB, but got such high scoring and selfish that I want him up on corners.
Not really sure what to do with him.


So that is our backline. Not too impressive. Well, don't get me wrong. Blenker, Loy and Fritzsche are awesome. But the other 5 guys are meh.

So we'll play our back fours most likely:
Blenker, Fritzsche, Loy, Sinner

Not too sure yet who will play central and who will play wing. Loy will probably play central because he is the biggest threat in a corner situation and CB is best for scoring corner goals. So probably Fritzsche and Sinner will play on the wings, but we'll see about that.

Sadly there is not much back up for our top 4. Ettmuller is a decent DCB when we need 5 defenders, but besides that, neother Claessons nor Beckmann can really replace either of our 4 starter backs. :(


Midfield:

Blume:
You might have heard about him.

Eulenberg:
He is getting old, but still world class.

Gerlich:
Hardworking really keeps him up there. He is getting older but still a top player.
I am a bit sad that he doesn't have any special attributes.

Kielgass:
I am a bit concerned about his low passing. DM of course don't need good passing but that is really really low.
He will probably still start as DM, because there is not much competition for him. And let's face it, if he is good enough for Hapoel Tel Aviv, he is good enough for me.

Gerhard:
Decent player. He got playmaker, which gives him just the edge over Gerlich and Engelhard.

Engelhard:
Good passing. On par with Gerhard and Gerlich.
He is still young, a special attribute would really increase his worth for the team.

Koch:
Basically a weak clone of Kielgass.
This is what keeps him in the NT. He can replace Kielgass if he get's injuried or is tired.


Players that didn't make it:

Schahin:
He got Playmaker and Versatile. I am not that big of a fan of Versatile but Playmaker is good.
It was a close decision between him and Koch. Koch won because Koch can contribute to the Team by replacing Kielgass. Schahin will probably not make a big play: we got good attacking midfielders already. I am a bit sad, I would have likes to play around with a Versatile player, but it seems like currently there is no open slot for him. Maybe next time.

Krenz:
He got set pieces specialist, which would make him a natural replacement for Eulenberg, but sadly his passing is way too low.

Bittinger:
also way too low passing.

Röhm:
also way too low passing.


We don't really have much depth here. Blume and Eulenberg are top of the world, but we are lacking replacements for them. There are some good austrian midfielders that are not on the shortlist, which is sad. Especially since Bittinger and Röhm are just awful. :(

But we got good players and can mix it up a bit. Our 4 starters are Blume, Eulenberg, Kielgass and Gerhard. With Gerhard having the "hot seat".



Forwards:

Lenz:
The second player that plays in my Team. I hope I don't have to explain why I took him.

Osterloh:
Top forward, but fragile with low endurance. Might be some kind of glass canon. We'll see.

Klinger:
On par with Osterloh. He got Sharpshooter which might give him the edge over Osterloh in certain games.

Seligmann:
Scoring wise he got the edge over Osterloh and Klinger by a Narrow margin. But he got Selfish too.
So probably second Forward next to Lenz.

Mesmer:
He is the yough guy. Maybe Long Shots is good? I am not sure.
He is not far behind Osterloh and Klinger and will get his games.


There are lots and lots of Forwards who didn't make the team, but I have only 5 spots...

Knueven:
OK player, but just not high enough scoring

Metzler:
Good young guy. But sadly only 4.55 Talent.

Grbech:
Good young guy. High talent and might get his chance when Klinger and Osterloh retire.
Currently his scoring is just too low. But he will play NT sooner or later.

Till:
Like Metzler a good young guy, but too low talent.

Dost:
a good youngster but I feel he will never overcome the players before him (Mesmer and Grbech).

Steinhoffel:
He will play NT sooner or later, probably later. 5 Talent and awesome fixed features.
I might call him in the next time I can choose my players, just do boost him some.
But it will take a few years before he can play in the first-11.


We have good forwards. Lenz is the best but with Seligmann, Klinger and Osterloh we got 3 very strong forwards right behind him. So we are set for the near future with a top offense :)

With Grbech and Steinhoffel as upcoming players I think austria is ready for the future.



This was my analysis of the NT squad.
I am a bit sad that I didn't get a lot to choose from in our midfield and defense, but our first-11 looks very good.


Feel free to rant about how stupid I am or praise me all you want.
If you want to send donations, I accept only gold-pressed latinum.

good luck schorny,
i hope in the future i can bring also one of my players to the NT.

I'd take Michael Krohn over Krenz, Bittinger or Röhm any day!

Grats Schorny and "Immer wieder,Immer wieder;Immer wieder Österreich"..

Recap of todays games.

Sadly there was not really much time to really think about formations, lineups, opponents, etc.
I spend too much time on figuring out what squad I want, so the games today were not that impressive. My apologies.

The first game we had today was a friendly versus Zimbabwe. And to be honest, I haven't even looked at their squad. So I made the lineup for our Qualification game against San Marino first and fielded the players that weren't playing in the Qualification game. The result was a 4-3-3.
Zimbabwe played also 4-3-3 and since it was a home game, it worked fine. we got 19 to 1 shots but as football works, the result was a 2:1 victory for us. Most notable players were Engelhard/Klinger as a combo that basically scored both goals (even though one was technically an own goal).

http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/match-4600563
Austria vs. Zimbabwe 2:1

The next game was an away game for our Qualification game against San Marino.
I will look at our group in the next few days and post my thoughts and views. But it will take a bit.

I was totally unsure what San Marino would play. I made a big mistake with my formation, a 4-4-2 diamond with LF/RF which I instantly regrettet as I saw their formation. I was scared of a 5-6 defender formation fo San Marino and tried to play around that by switching my S/S formation to LF/RF which in hindsight was dumb. But oh well. It worked out OK in the end.
We got an away draw which is fine. But I have no idea what that means for our group. I will post an analyzation in the next days.

What I really did not understand was the second goal of San Marino. It was a weak shot and a weak assist. But oh well, such things happen. The first goal was a freekick and like I said earlier - we are lacking Setting Walls.

On the other hand Blume played awesome and Loy did what I expected of him. Blenker on DCB - I am not too sure, but where else to play him? Maybe a double CB backline? But Loy as single CB is so strong. Seligman really underperformed :( Nevertheless I think it worked out Ok.

http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/match-4528865
San Marino vs. Austria 2:2

unlucky game. 2 red cards
but at least a draw.

Yeah, like WTF, my best forward gets injuried and i get 2 red cards...
it will take a few days for me to write a review... my nerves... my anger... i need chocolate...

well that was a unlucky game. 2 yellow to red cards...
and these are top class defenders and got the cards against much worse opponents. i dont get it

well bad start - on the good side it can only get better ^^

Some changes in the NT, nothing big:

I droped one Goalkeeper as it seems 2 is enough. I feared there might be injuries and such, but most NTs have only 2 Keepers and I really need the 8th Midfielder.

So we have new Players:

Otto Schahin.
He actually joined a bit earlier already and replaced Hugo Ettmuller. He is a decent player and maybe I can see if Versatile is really worth it.

Jurgen Friedeck
Finally! I was waiting for him, he is 3rd best Passer in our Team now.

Lars Baudendistel
Sadly he is L Flank only but he a good defender. Sadly there is no real young star on the shortlist.



These Players had to go:

Jörg Gerlich
He had his time and it is now past.

Johann Hackl
He lost narrowly to Ljankes for the spot for the backup keeper. Since Ljankes' Team has the higher training facilities I think Ljankes will always stay a bit ahread of him.

Hugo Ettmuller
He was replaced by Schahin earlier. He has high Blocking but in the end I think his Dueling is too low to compete with Players like Sinner for the Spot of the Backup DCB



So what does this mean:
The midfield rotates slightly with Friedeck replacing Gerhard as the 4th Midfielder.

just to be a samartass: friedek is second best passer in team :p

i just noticed this guy.
http://rockingsoccer.com/de/fussball/info/player-755107
i guess will be our next midfield Star.

And if you really need Lars Baudendistel on another flank i could let him play a bit on the other flank to get him some experience.
Then can use him as LB,RB or CB. DCB is not good for him i think.

Don't worry. I personally prefer L/C/R players myself because it makes it harder to figure out what I am playing. But Flank L is Okay. I for example randomly assign my left and right fullback. It's always the same guys but they change position all the time, so both have L/C/R.

And yeah, Auwers will be the next Blume :)

Next change in our Lineup:
Schahin is out and Auwers is in. Even with only 20 years, Auwers is stronger than 24 year old Schahin.

I feel a bid sad for Schahin, he is so close to playing for the NT but he falls a tad bit short.

wuhuu, that was Close ;) Kevin for president.

congrats schorny

cool :) grats schorny :)