European Journeyman – First year in Slovakia

When I left you last …link…. I had just taken over my second job in the journeyman save. We had a bare bone squad so the Director of Football had a job on his hands. As I mentioned in the previous post I set the tactic to be a 343 and we had gaps in the squad to fill.


As you can see he brought in 7 players, we now have a 23 man squad which I’m happy with.

Borics


Borics didn’t playa game last season so there’s no real data on him. In 22/23 he did make 7 appearances aged 15 for a lower league side and grabbed one assist. The coach reports have him as one for the future.

Sarkozi



43 appearances 6 goals and 2 assists with a +10 xG and a average rating of 7.27 at aged 21 hopefully he can make the step up.


Kovacs


Kovacs signs after a really good season in the Hungarian lower leagues,


From 43 games as a defensive midfielder he scored 4 times and set up 8 goals. Hopefully we can get a similar level of returns for us.

Harsanyi


Harsanyi hasn’t played a minute for two years so there is no data to draw on and at 22 with him not making an appearance We have to hope theres something the recruitment team have seen.

Szendeff

Szendeff joins after 7 goals in 22 games in the Hungarian lower leagues.


His form ahead of the move wasn’t great, Hopefully the DOF has seen something he likes.

Zsolt


Zsolt joins on loan after playing in the lower leagues in Hungary. There’s nothing in the way of data for him but he does seem to have a good pedigree

The past 2 seasons he’s averaged a rating over 7 for Budafok B team. Hopefully he can bring that level of performance to us.

Cserkuti-nemeth


Joins on loan after 8 goals in 23 appearances for Mol Fehervar B team in Hungary last season, His stats show he’s an aerial threat with an above average rating on headers won per 90.

He doesn’t look the best dribbling wise but if he’s a target forward you probably wouldn’t expect much. We have a real lack of strikers so he probably will be thrown in the deep end with me.
There seemed to be a real recruitment drive from the Hungarian lower leagues from the DOF hopefully he thinks its a untapped market. I did wonder if he had knowledge of the nation but he doesn’t so it’s an interesting transfer policy.

The season


When we took over we had enough time for one friendly before the season started. Then our opening game was vs the promotion favourites, New signing Borics started in the DM slot due to being the only U21 we had that was available (must start one u21 slovakian is the league rules) Which maybe explains why he was signed. His goal wasn’t enough to help us before we went down 2-1. Not the start we wanted but understandable at least. I do think the lack of a proper preseason hindered us early on but by the break we were beating the same team 4-0 to be within 8 points of the promotion spots. Cserkuti-Nemeth helped us with 7 goals so far but the star had been Sarkozi.

During the winter the DOF was busy again bringing in 4 more players



Brandis


4 starts and 2 sub appearances grabbing 1 assist for top of the table Trencin already this season he’s been loaned out for more regular first team football. Janso has been having to play LCB due to injuries so we have been short at LWB at times so its a sensible move from the DOF


Feher



We could do with some more goals so the DOF has returned to Hungary to snap up Feher who managed to grab 10 last season hopefully he can help us improve up top.

Kalman

Kalman has never made an appearance at senior level; he joins us from the top side in the country at the moment so he’s been sent here for first team football.

Zakovic


Another youngster on loan from the top division looking for his first experience of senior football and another option at LWB.

3 loan signings and one permanent hopefully the reinforcements can help us push further up the table.


After 104 days without a competitive game we returned to league football, I felt like i didn’t deal with the return well with only 3 friendlies I should have treated it like a proper preseason, something to learn for next season.
We had a terrible run in March and April which saw us slide down the table.



But overall with a board expectation to avoid relegation and a team that just survived last season to finish 9th, 23 points clear of the drop overall it’s been a great season.
Next season I’d love to push for promotion. After 3 season’s my coaching reputation could do with that boost.

Squad review

Goalkeepers


Almost ever present Surovcik kept 7 clean sheets in 30 games, He even provided one assist. I’m happy with both these Keepers so I don’t see any need for the DOF to try and improve on them this summer

Defenders


Mario Mrva and Denis Hornik were 2 of our back 3 all season and performed really well. Brandis as you can see did a great job since signing in the summer with 3 assists and a goal in 8 games from LWB. I’d love to get him back again next season. I do think we need to upgrade at RWB and CB over the summer. The DOF has already made Zsolt’s loan a permanent deal.

Midfielders


Bogi and Sarkozi both became favourites of mine in the wide attacking roles rotating with Fajcik, Jano made the step into the first team aged 16 with 9 starts 11 sub appearances a goal and 3 assists, I struggled to find Gallovic a consistent partner in the middle Kalman started 8 games while on loan and I felt a partnership starting to form but his loan was only for 2 months.


Strikers


Cserkuti-Nemeth finished with 13 goals in 26 averaging 1 goal every 2 games, Szendeff with 8 in 26 games. Feher struggled to break into the side following his signing hopefully next season could be a better one for him once he’s settled.


Thoughts

A first season where I think I made some errors especially around the winter break, Coming in late and with the early season recruitment taking a while to get going. I do think going into next season I’m going to switch to a 4231, I feel this season we should have done better probably even push for promotion, But certain games we were on top and didn’t take our chances I’m hoping an extra body in the advanced areas to help with an option in space. I’m going to create a tactic now and hopefully the DOF brings in players to compliment that.

I have one more year on my deal so next summer we will be in the same situation as we were in Denmark with a choice to make about our next move.