Home Stories FM18 | Damon Does Dallas II: Staff Overview

FM18 | Damon Does Dallas II: Staff Overview

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Welcome back to Daniel Sloane-Suarez’s MLS adventure in charge of FC Dallas! In the previous update, we introduced the team and went over some of the better first team players in the squad to give you an idea of the quality of the team right now. I said I wanted to make some new staff signings, so with this update, I’m going to introduce to you the team I have in the back room, and I’m going to make some signings that I want to introduce to you before we get into the actual season in the next update.

Part one can be found here

As you can see from the image above, this is the staffing situation on the day of my hiring. We’ve got a perfectly average coaching setup, with room to bring on one additional coach. We are at or above the average on every coaching position except for man management, which is way below the league average, but we’re well enough on the right track.

That said, I’m still interested in bringing in that additional coach, and depending on the overview of the individual staff members, which I’ll get to shortly, I may terminate someone to bring in another option. My career goals are a bit loftier than what the current setup brings, and we need some changes to get the most out of the staff here!

For the recruitment team, we have our General Manager (Director of Football for the Europeans) and we have one scout, but we don’t have a chief scout, nor do we have any analyst positions filled. I’m not going to make signings for the sake of signings to fill all of the blank spots, but at the very least we need that Chief Scout, and I’d like to have at the very least a Chief Data Analyst, depending on what the quality of the applicants coming in looks like.

For the Medical Staff, we have one Head Physio and one Chief Doctor. Both of them are poor enough that we’re very low in the league rankings for that, and I’d like a substantial increase in the Medical Staff’s ability. Arguably, it’s more important to me than the coaching staff improvements! We can make things happen domestically in the league with the quality of our first teamers and an average coaching staff before the overhaul for the future, but we need a quality medical team to assist in keeping our guys healthy.

I’ve immediately put in advertisements in the job centre for a general coach, a chief scout, a chief data analyst, and a physio.

While we’re waiting for applicants to come in for the vacancies, I’m going to take a look at all of the members of the existing staff, and we’re going to see how good they are for the team. Again, most of these people probably are good enough already for domestic competition this season, but I’m interested in prepping for an upgrade early so we’ve got what we need in place if continental competitions come around.

The first member of the coaching staff is naturally going to be me. I set up Sloane-Suarez as a national professional footballer with his top license, and he’s a fitness coach, with that skill maxed out. He’s also got 11s for attack, defence, and tactical, and a 12 for technicals. On the mental side of things, he’s got a 19 for determination, and a high level of discipline and motivation.

For the coaching setup, I’ll be taking on fitness duties, and I’ll put some light side work in at whatever one or two areas we’re weakest at with the current coaching staff.

Next up is assistant manager Marco Feruzzi, who has been in that position since 2012. He’s an all-around average coach, with no skill higher than 10, his man management is atrocious at 6, but he’s got 12s for judging ability and potential.

Unfortunately for him, he’s not here to be a scout, he’s here to help coach, and he’s got low man management and is an average coach at best. I won’t fire him immediately, but I’m going to be keeping my eye out for upgrades. His position can be considered under threat, because he isn’t what I’d want to look at if I was setting up an elite coaching team.

Our current Head of Youth Development is Chris Hayden, who’s in his first year in the role. He’s got a 14 for Working With Youngsters, and a 10 and 11 for judging Ability and Potential. I’ll give him a chance for the next couple of seasons and see what he gives out. His job is only to give me youth, and he’s not a day-to-day coach for them, although he could do it if he had to.

Our goalkeeping coach is Drew Keeshan. He’s been in the post since 2008, and he’s got playing experience in Ireland. His determination and motivation are lower, but he’s got 14s across the board for goalkeeping attributes.

I’m not expecting to be signings European superstar coaches, but 13s-14s would make me happy for the next couple of seasons, so he’s going to definitely be safe in his role with the team.

51-year-old Argentine Fabian Bazan is our current fitness coach. Turns out we already have a dedicated one that isn’t me! He’s not that bad either, with a 14 for that skill, and he’s got some decent enough mental attributes.

My 20 beats him for fitness, but he’s good enough that I’ll let him be dedicated to that alone, and I’ll split my time with attacking training since that’s a little lacking so far.

I can only assume this guy is Fabian’s brother. He’s currently hired as a general coach, and he’s got a 13 for defending. He’ll probably be employed in that role as a defending coach. He’s really not that useful to me in any other way.

Skylar Richards is our current head physio, and he’s a top-notch one, with an 18 in the skill. It’s pleasing to see that we’ve actually got a good one here already, he just needs a support team so he’s not so lonely in the medical centre.

After giving a look at the major positions in the backroom, I’ve committed to three signings so far, though the preseason is still underway. I’ve brought in an additional physio, a sports scientist, and my general coach, though I’ve still got applications to review for the chief scout and chief data analyst positions.

Steve Bagus has been hired to serve as a physio alongside Richards. He’s the best of the two weeks worth of applicants, and he’s got a 14 for the rating, which is acceptable enough since he’s a support guy and not the head himself. His only other sports medicine job was with our rivals the Chicago Fire, but he was only with them for a short while in 2015 and has been unemployed since.

Adam Cuevas, a newgen with no prior job history, has been brought in as a sports scientist. To be completely honest, halfway through the FM18 life cycle, I still have no idea what this role I’m filling does, but he’s got a good rating for it and there was a vacancy, so hopefully he’ll do whatever it is he’s supposed to do and we’ll be better off than if we didn’t have him!

After almost a month of an open advertisement, we brought in newgen Joe Luthy. Luthy has 11s for attack and defence, and a 12 for technical, alongside his exceptionally high mental attributes. He should be an excellent general coach, and he’ll be assisting with whatever I need him to, which will probably be on the attacking and technical fronts since we have one Bazan in charge of fitness and another in charge of defending.

I’m still looking to do some expanding and upgrading down the road, but right now I’m happy with what I have to start off the current season with. I only needed three additional signings to make up for some spaces we were lacking in, but we’re good to go for now. We’ll review our staff and our final league position at the end of the year and we’ll see where any failings in the first team and backroom were, and we’ll adjust accordingly for season two.

It’s been another lengthy update, but in the next one I’ll have the preseason wrapped up, and we’ll go over the results before looking ahead to the league table for the upcoming Major League Soccer season.

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