FM21: The Invincibles — 2022/23 Season Analysis
The Invincibles
As the final whistle blew at the Stade des Costières, the eleven players of OGC Nice could be found sprawled across the playing field, many of which had given their all for Les Aiglons over the course of the season.
Todays victory over Nimes Olympique FC courtesy of a penalty from Amine Gouiri in the 55th minute, extended the clubs record of 42 games without defeat, a run which spans back from the 24th of April 2022 after losing 2–1 to Marseille.
Les Aiglons would go down in history as being invincible, joining five other sides in major European leagues in securing such an illustrious feat and failing to win the title in the process.
Yes you’ve read that right, OGC Nice will join Spartak Sofia who finished a point behind CDNV Sofia, despite winning 14 and drawing eight of their 22-game programme. Benfica were the next unfortunates, losing out on goal difference to Porto in 1977–78. Perugia went undefeated all season in 1978–79 and still finished second in Serie A to Milan, they drew 19 games out of 30 that season.
Galatasaray were next to experience this singular type of frustration, trailing Besiktas on goal difference in 1985–86 after a 36-game unbeaten streak. Finally in 2008 Red Star Belgrade finished a whopping five points behind their rivals Partizan Belgrade after 33 games of mellow fruitlessness.
Serious kudos has to be given to Thomas Tuchel’s PSG, once again they have risen to our challenge and retained the Ligue 1 title.
Despite scoring a record number (90) of goals and also conceding the least (16) during my time with Nice, PSG were still in the luxurious position of winning the league with a seven point gap. They only failed to score in their four draws and their only defeat was away at the Allianz Riviera, which was in game week three.
To make matters worse, when looking at the expected points totals from across the campaign, I should have won the league!
I would like to say that this addition to FM is really a great asset to the game, however I am writing this post a good few weeks past closing the season and I am still gutted to be documenting the invincible season without a Ligue 1 title to gloat about.
UEFA Champions League
Our form in Europe was nothing short of exceptional, our only defeat came in the semi final first leg away to Liverpool. I’m not going to lie to you, the minute Virgil van Dijk scored an own-goal in the 15th minute of the second leg I thought we were going to reach the final.
My favourite result of the campaign was the 4–0 destruction of Chelsea, however looking at the teams which we managed to get results against, I think you will agree that this was truly a special season.
The ascendancy of Amine continued momentum when the Frenchman was crowned with the European Cup Golden Boot, his goals across the UCL have been so important in terms of the teams success and I am sure all would agree that nine goals in 12 appearances is an exceptional return for any player, the fact that he has featured an an inside forward makes this even more impressive.
Coupe de France Final
The Derby de la Cote d’Azur would be the pinnacle of the Coupe de France this year as OGC Nice meet AS Monaco in a game which saw second place play third at the Stade de France.
The match got off to a flying start and we took the lead within the first minute, 26 second to be precise.
Rony Lopes winning the ground duel with Ruben Aguilar before smashing his shot through the hands of Lucas Acosta to give us an early lead.
The wind in our sails, it wasn’t long before we extended our lead, this time Lopes was the creator. 19 minutes in and he drew a foul from Oleksandr Zinchenko inside the box, an easy call for Frank Schneider to point to the spot. Andre Silva product of the Monchi Masterclass slotted the ball away, he pumped his fists in the direction of the Monaco fans, fans favourite material.
Just before the break Lopes, the big game player, run the length of the pitch before delivering a floated cross in the direction of Silva. The ball was not dealt with and landed at the feet of Gouiri who slid the ball to Szoboszlai who scored from close range.
It was fair to say that these three goals had completely killed off Monaco who finished the game with just three shots on goal.
Champione, Champione Ole Ole Ole.
The result over Monaco secured my second piece of silverware during my tenure at the club, this has seen Les Aiglons move up to 28th place within the European rankings, moving beyond Lyon, making us officially the second best team in France.
Accolades
After the invincible season I am actually a little surprised with the lack of OGC Nice players that appear in the Ligue 1 Team of the Season which only includes two players from our club, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mr. Consistent, Rony Lopes.
Szoboszlai may have had a slow start to his Nice career, however to finish the season with four goals and 15 assists in Ligue 1 is exceptional. The £25.5m signing surely lived up to his billing, he certainly has proven to be an improvement of the likes of Hicham Boudaoui and Pierre Lees-Melou.
The performances of Rony Lopes have been the foundations of the success within the save, season after season the Portuguese winger has delivered. This season he contributed to 25 goals in 28 games, his value has increased to £50m making the £18.25m fee paid after the first season seem like very smart business.
Fans player of the season again falls to Lopes who has secured the achievement now in two out of the three seasons which I have completed.
Young player of the season was awarded to Arthur Zagre, the free signing from Strasbourg will be pleased to have won this award as he looks to build on his initial success.
OGC Nice Best XI
The best eleven for the season, I opted to not produce a visualisation for this blog like I have in others purely out of laziness.
Khephrem Thuram was the only player not to average above a score of seven, every player apart from Kristoffer Klaesson contributed with either a goal or an assist across the campaign.
Below is the all time best XI at OGC Nice, this makes pleasing viewing as only two players to date are new signings which shows really emphasizes the quality of players which I inherited at the start of the save.
Fortunately, nine of these players are still at the club and more importantly all are entering their prime which should at the bare minimum lead me to believe that Les Aiglons will be able to compete across all fronts for silverware.
The chase
Like many Football Manager players out there, the 1st of January is always a significant date on the FM calendar, especially for those of you who enjoy a European save.
The day holds significant value due to it being the point where individuals who have professional contacts with less than a year remaining, will cross the threshold allowing managers to start contract negotiations without having a transfer offer accepted by the players club first.
This year there is a certain Eduardo Camavinga up for grabs, a target that would be at the top of any clubs list.
Camavinga, arguably the most prestigious teenager in European football, the midfielder has a unique blend in terms of his playing style/attributes. Destructive in the tackle (tackling 16), a marauding box-to-box midfielder (stamina 16, work rate 15, decisions 16) and an elegant, imaginative player (vision 16, technique 16, passing 16), making the Frenchman the Swiss army knife of a midfielder.
The list of clubs initially showing an interest in Camavinga, it is clear that with the likes of PSG, Lazio, Napoli and RB Leipzig on the early list that as time progresses over the next six months many more of Europe’s elite will no doubt be in the mix.
Given the caliber of clubs showing an interest it was time to be pro-active, I needed to improve my chances of securing Camavinga, I did this by adhering to the following process.
- Declaring my interest — by declaring my interest in Camavinga as my top transfer target it provokes the game to ask you to comment on the rumors, of course I opted to go public which can sometimes draw the player to commenting on your response, in this case the Frenchman stated that a move to the south of France would be appealing.
- Go watch the player — the next stage in the tapping up process was to show my face at a few Stade Rennais games, this can be done by selecting the team of interests schedule and clicking on fixtures that do not clash with your own.
The more you do this the more you are likely to influence the players opinion of you.
3. Endorse the move — now to generate a little bit more of a media interest surrounding the potential signing, this is best done by leaning on favored personnel, former teammates or international colleagues to promote the move.
In this circumstance first to add his opinion was club captain Rony Lopes, followed by Amine Gouiri a few months down the line.
4. Low ball the club — we all love a bit of the dark arts, here we put in a bid for the player under that of what is demanded by the club. Why? Well the aim here is to attempt to force the move by the player attempting to push through the transfer by ending up putting in a transfer request, this can often lead to you signing him for a lot less than the number which the club initially quoted you on.
After completing the above it was clear that the player would be interested in a move to OGC Nice, a bid of £31m was submitted with a further £26m once the player reached 50 league games for OGC Nice.
My reasoning behind selecting 50 games is that this will spread the cost of the transfer across two seasons and therefore have less of an impact in the clubs finances.
The fee was agreed by Stade Rennaiss and as of the 2023/24 season Les Aiglons will have Camavinga stepping out onto Allianz Riviera in the red and black of OGC Nice.
If you have enjoyed my latest update from OGC Nice, please give this post a clap!
Also if you are unaware my account on Twitter @steinkelsson has been locked and I am struggling to get Twitter to unlock it, therefore I would highly recommend that you follow my personal account @MattyLewis11
