This is post two of a wider series. A series for FM24.
“We Italians learn this from our mothers.”
In-game date: 29 May 2024
Enzo Scutari is speaking to the local press after the final whistle of the last league game of the 3.Liga season of 2023-2024. It was a tight 1-1 draw at home against Ingolstadt. In typical Scutari fashion, he is leading with a monologue, in spite of the many questions excitedly fired in his direction by the gathered journalists. Attendees include a handful of delegates from online media platform, theangrylinesmen.
“I have two favourite phrases. The first is ‘la bella figura.’ This is the art of making a good impression. Being the best version of yourself and conducting yourself with the appropriate etiquette. We Italians learn this from our mothers. This season was my first impression here in Germany.”
“The second is ‘immer weiter.’‘”
The fans trying to push through the doorway past the sole security staff member just about lift the roof off of the small conference room at the Sportpark Höhenberg with a ferocious roar.
“Immer weiter” in German means to go ‘on and on’ or ‘always further.’ It embodies a never say die attitude and is a Viktoria Köln club slogan.
Viktoria Köln are the 3.Liga champions in Scutari’s first season in charge, and he is enjoying every second of it. Next season will represent the highest domestic level the club have ever competed at in their 120-year history, joining Germany’s second tier to battle against teams such as Hertha Berlin, Kaiserslautern and relegated Werder Bremen.
“If people are failing, they look inept. If people are succeeding, they look strong and good and competent. That’s the ‘halo’ effect. Today, we, as as club, collect our halo.”
Philosophical quotes included, Enzo Scutari is in his element.
“What can we expect from your Viktoria Köln side next season?” Jonathan Simpson, the journalist who has met Scutari before when he managed Sampdoria, manages to raise his voice just loud enough above the cacophony to be heard.
Enzo Scutari pauses and smiles.
“Jonathan. Molta gioia. That is all. Grazie.”
The manager of the promoted champions of Germany’s third tier stands up, buttons his immaculate suit jacket and disappears down an internal corridor of the Sportpark Höhenberg, leaving the journalists to write up their season reviews, and the fans to celebrate, long into the night.
We won it!
The first season of a save is often a slog, especially if, like me, you tick to close the first transfer window to try and keep the realism of squad balance (or imbalance) as accurate to real life for as long as possible. In Scutari’s first year as Viktoria Köln manager, no inbound transfers were made and the team stuck religiously to a counter-attacking, cautious mentality 4-4-2.
Competing on two fronts, in 3.Liga and the DFB Pokal, Germany’s domestic cup, our first year was a roaring success, and not a slog at all.
We managed to get to the 3rd round of the DFB Pokal, one step short of the Quarter Final stage, having faced three Bundesliga opponents.
First, St. Pauli were edged past on penalties.
Next, Kiel fell to the mighty Viktoria Köln.
Sadly, a third Bundesliga opponent in a row proved a bridge too far, as Hoffenheim had the quality to put us down. We fought hard, but it wasn’t enough to go through. The press awarded us ‘Biggest Overachievers’ in the cup at the end of the season, which was nice validation.
The domestic league wasn’t plain sailing. Despite only losing three matches from the 38, we drew 11 times, which suggests that we perhaps need a bit more of a cutting edge in attack. Though we did top the xG table alongside the actual table, showing that our position was merited by our performances, so maybe not. We scored the most goals (75), conceded the fewest (30) and had the best goal difference (+45). The reason this is so important is that it suggests that our success wasn’t a fluke. The step up to the next division shouldn’t be a complete culture shock. Famous last words? I hope not.
In terms of the squad performances, there were a few standouts.
Lex-Tyger ‘La Tigre’ Lobinger had the highest average rating of any player who played more than a few minutes, bagging 19 goals and 5 assists in 40 appearances. His strike partner Serhat-Semih Güler scored 28 times in 38 starts and contributed 10 more key passes than his strike partner (36 vs 26), showing that he was both the better finisher and provider. That said, Lobinger outshone Güler in npxG per 90, xA per 90, dribbles per 90 and heading win percentage. This tells me that the Advanced Forward – Attack and Pressing Forward – Support partnership worked exactly as intended, as both excelled differently.
Inverted Winger Suheyel Najar delivered more key passes (a pass leading to a shot on goal) than anyone else in the division with 100 in the league and 108 in all competitions, which led to a table-topping 16 assists, 17 in all competitions. His partner on the other flank, Albion Vrenezi, who played more as a dribbling classic flair player on the wing, bagged 10 assists and 64 key passes in all competitions. Another healthy combination.
Centre-back Christoph Greger finished in the top three in the league for successful headers and winning of possession and 34-year old goalkeeper Kevin Rauhut topped the table for expected goals prevented with 9.64 and 18 clean sheets.
For the system, we stuck religiously to a flat 4-4-2, but with some key tactical tenets to call out. We positioned ourselves in a high press but didn’t trigger the press too aggressively, allowing the opposition to play out from the back and make mistakes that our counter-attacking style could capitalise on.
Left-back Niklas May tended to stay back and join the centre-back pairing to remain solid even when in possession, while right-back Patrick Koronkiewicz or his exciting backup, Sidny Lopes Cabral (more on him later) were allowed the flexibility to push further up when our team had the ball.
Bryan Henning operated as a Central Midfielder – Defend, focused on winning the ball back in the heart of the pitch but without pressing too far or chasing the opposition and breaking from his area of responsibility. Young playmaker Florian Engelhardt operated as a Deep-Lying Playmaker and had More Direct Passes applied, as his chief responsibility was to get the ball in the middle of the pitch and try to immediately either play in one of the front two with a long pass, or play precise diagonals for either of the wide men to collect (think Kevin De Bruyne when deployed in the middle).
Suheyel Najar cut inside to effectively become a playmaking threat high up the pitch (think Bruno Fernandes when he plays out wide), while Albion Vrenezi on the other flank hugged the touchline and looked to take opposition full-backs on before firing in crosses from open play.
Lex-Tyger Lobinger was the number 9, leading the line, while Serhat-Semih Güler looked to drop deeper, chasing defenders and pulling them out of position, in reality behaving more like a False 9 than the Pressing Forward – Support role he was given, allowing Najar to enter the vacated space as a key offensive threat.
As mentioned earlier, no new players arrived this season due to a lack of funds, but we did manage to move out four players on free transfers, including the exit of Simon Handle, who despite his six and a half years of service to the club, wasn’t up to scratch to start every game, and was on an eye-watering £3k a week, making him our third top earner. As a result, our available wage budget went from -£6,000 a week up to just about breaking even. The exits of four players plus a few loans out led to the club being devalued from £4m down to around £3m, but our promotion and newly solid financial footing should begin to build that back up. In theory, at least.
For the 2024-2025 campaign in 2.Bundesliga, we head into the summer window with £350k to spend, and £18k a week free in the wage budget. This is absolutely ideal, as we will need at least a few new faces around the place to strengthen our squad heading into a tougher division. Though there will be many contracts that need renewed, and annual and promotion-linked wage rises to consider. We’ve been granted permission to hire a Set Piece Coach which we could not previously, and a new Club President has been appointed after a few tough months of boardroom drama.
Our first youth intake was nothing to write home about but did include a goalkeeper with a decent potential ceiling, which is always nice to see.
The arguably best prospect is defensive midfielder Markus Schubert. Will he be one to watch in a few years? I’m not yet convinced. Though he is tall, determined, brave and left-footed, which is a nice combination of initial qualities.
Of the existing squad, by far the most exciting prospect to emerge this season has been right-back Sidny Lopes Cabral. Though he has obvious gaps in his skillset, that combination of 17 Tackling and 16 Crossing coupled with well-rounded physical strengths, a good work ethic and decent passing range adds up to a very nice prospect indeed. I feel he may oust Patrick Koronkiewicz from the starting eleven in 2024-2025.
There was nail-biting drama elsewhere going in to the last day, as bookie’s favourites Dynamo Dresden and promotion hopefuls RW Essen were locked in battle for that third spot in the table. Facing each other on the final day was fate.
The result? Despite a 93rd minute Essen red card and a 94th minute Dresden goal, RW Essen snuck through 2-1 and landed in that precious playoff spot.
RW Essen were rewarded for their resilience, as they defeated Münster 4-2 on aggregate in the playoff double-header to join Viktoria Köln in 2.Bundesliga next season. This is a side who sacked their manager heading into match day five sat at the foot of the table, giving Christian Flüthmann, their former Head of Youth Development and Director of Football the task of reviving them; first as a Caretaker Manager, then as Interim until the end of the season, ahead of bagging the role full time just before the second leg of the playoff. What a story.
As we head into the summer break, we receive new targets for season two. Understandably, we wish to avoid relegation if possible. Interestingly though, the Sportpark Höhenberg doesn’t meet the mandatory stadium requirements for the league rules, so we agree to rent Bayer Leverkusen’s BayArena for the next year (15 kilometres north of our current home) while the board invest in building a whole new 15,000 capacity Viktoria Köln stadium.
Let’s hope that is not an expensive mistake as a new £16m loan suddenly plunges the club into an ‘insecure’ financial status…
I wonder what season two has in store!
Thanks for reading.
FM Stag