FM22: DIE ALTE DAME
DAS REBOOT
THE CITY
Every European capital is steeped in history, but Berlin, Berlin has been through more than most.
However, whilst almost every European capital plays host to at least one of their countries biggest, or even, more recognisable football clubs.
Berlin, well that's where Berlin doesn’t quote follow suit…The Bundesliga remains the only league in Europe’s ‘top five’ to not have produced a title-winning side from its capital city this century, and that does not appear to be set to change for the foreseeable future.
CLUB HISTORY
Commonly referred to as Hertha BSC, and sometimes Hertha Berlin, or simply Hertha, they are one of two German Bundesliga clubs from Berlin. The club is known by the affectionate nickname Die Alte Dame (The Old Lady), and Hertha is also a reference to the fertility goddess. The club was originally named for a steam ship, just because the two founders apparently thought it was a cool name, and their colours come from the ship’s blue and white smokestacks.
Since the Bundesliga was founded in summer of 1963, Hertha BSC have experienced almost every high and low imaginable. From dropping down to the Regionalliga (fourth tier, 1965–68), to finishing runners-up in the Bundesliga (1974/75) and playing in the Champions League in 1999/2000 — the Blue-Whites have seen it all. Even the two 21st century relegations were followed by immediate promotions in 2011 and 2013, before returning to European football in 2016 and 2017. At least since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hertha BSC has been proud to call itself the capital city’s club, uniting fans from the east and west.
MANAGER MERRY-GO-ROUND
When German businessman Lars Windhorst purchased a stake in Hertha Berlin three years ago, he had one goal in mind — to make Die Alte Dame a ‘big city club’. Yet Hertha have regressed massively in the ensuing years, with a revolving door of managers and an influx of mega-money signings descending on the Olympiastadion.
Well-known investment guru Windhorst became a minority owner of Hertha in June 2019, purchasing a 49.9% stake of the club for an eye-watering €224million — the biggest deal in Bundesliga history. The German spoke of his ambition to restore the former glory of Die Alte Dame, a founding member of the Bundesliga whose last top-flight title came in the 1930s.
What was supposed to be an unforgettable day in the history of Hertha Berlin; the awakening of a sleeping giant after years of general mediocrity, has yet to live up to initial expectations
KLINSMANN’S DOSSIER
Shortly after resigning from Hertha (via Facebook), ‘Sport Bild’ published Jurgen Klinsmann’s 22-page dossier of notes that the manager had made during his time in charge at the Olympiastadion (10 weeks). In the report, Klinsmann criticised the hierarchy and the aspirations of Hertha.
I have decided to use Klinsmann’s dossier as a starting point for the save, it will provide me with the initial stages of focus for the rebuild of Hertha BSC.
CATASTROPHIC SQUAD PLANNING
“The age structure of the squad is completely wrong, too many older and full players who have no power to survive the relegation battle.”
The above squad profile is a reflection of the playing time secured by players in real life from the 2021/22 Bundesliga campaign, I feel this visualisation goes a long way to highlight just how bad the squad planning really is and justifies Jurgens comments.
There are five players who are past their prime and drawing down a significant amount of minutes, whilst there is nothing wrong in having a good blend of youth and experience, Hertha clearly have a need for a rebuild.
Looking at the players now in their prime (24–29), there seem to be too many (8) who are playing less than the average which indicates that these individuals aren’t either up to the standard or have experienced injuries.
Finally, there are no young players that have secured above average minutes which again highlights the incompetency's of the recruitment system. These individuals are stagnating at a crucial time in their development and aren't offering value to the team.
THE SQUAD IS WAY TOO BIG
“The squad is also completely unequal in terms of positions. Four top central defenders, of whom you only need two — but no right full-back, no game designer.”
Upon starting the save you will know that one of the first things I like to do is conduct a thorough analysis of the individuals at my disposal within the club, this provides me with a good understanding of those player which I will come to rely upon during the save and areas for development.
I must admit that other than saves in Brazil, where you have the challenge of squad sizes which are bursting at the seams, Hertha is up there, in terms of the size of the scale of the problem.
The club have four goalkeepers, eight centre-backs and seven central midfielders within the first team alone! I honestly believe each manger to take the reign has almost come in and dismissed historic acquisitions and tried to upgrade the team in the same areas rather than looking to build.
Oh and there are a further 10 players which are out on loan, ok five have future options to buy. However, as I found out later only one club took the option to purchase.
THE STADIUM ISSUE MUST BE RESOLVED
“Without a pure football stadium with the fans right on the edge of the field, Hertha BSC will always start the season with -10 points.”
Looking at the above picture I would say that the Olympiastadion is a thing of beauty, architecturally speaking its epic, giving fans the feeling of entering a coliseum when walking in.
The stadium is rich in history, Jesse Owens won gold in it, World Cup Finals have been held there and even the famous Zinedine Zidane headbutt occurred on its pitch. Oh the stadium is also used for the DFB Pokal Final each year.
However, Jurgen believes that the stadium lacks the intensity and atmosphere due to the distance fans have to sit from the pitch and in comparison to rivals Union, who play at the Stadion an Der Alten Forsterei (22,000 capacity) with 18,000 standing, who is going to argue that.
THE LACK OF A NATURAL LEADER
“There is no apparent captain within the club, when Hertha has been successful, we have always had a captain who’s been a good or silent leader.”
Kevin-Prince Boateng is the player with the highest attributes for Leadership (15) and Teamwork (13), he also started his career at Hertha back in 2001/02 before playing for some of Europe’s great clubs (Dortmund, Milan, Barcelona and Fiorentina to name a few) which made me opt to give the 34 year old Ghanaian the captaincy for the 21/22 season.
Kevin’s performances on the pitch lacked any value, given that I have opted to play/build towards the 4–3–3/4–2–3–1 hybrid which is captured by one of my favourite FM writers Crusadertsar, the 0.87 key passes per 90 in the role of the Advanced Playmaker highlighted that he wasn’t capable of playing those riskier/shot creating action passes.
Hence the acquisition of Bredon Aaronson in my first window (January 2022) for £6 million. (Yes I literally blew the whole budget on the one signing)
Aaronson plays at the tip of the midfield diamond and provides the chance creation of a ten and work rate of a box to box eight. His quick-thinking and composure in tight spaces should be key in aiding our possession-based game.
Aaronson concluded the season with 1.48 key passes per 90 and tallied up eight goal contributions (three goals and five assists). Considering our poor attacking efficiency (I will cover later) the 21 year old American impressed, finishing as the runner up in terms of assists (Mittelstadt ranked top with six).
THE BUNDESLIGA
We outperformed the media’s expectation which had us down to finish the Bundesliga in fifth place, a success in itself especially considering we managed to build a ten point buffer above the competition below.
The foundations of this season were our defensive solidity, in fact we only conceded 23 goals across the season, ranking us top in terms of goals against.
We have Alexander Schwolow to thank for that, the 29 year old German prevented a significant amount of expected goals than average and also boasted a very high save percentage when compared to most.
We scored 46 goals across the 34 games and actually only manged to secure four wins by more than the single goal across the campaign. This my friends wasn’t the entertaining game which we have all grown to love and enjoy.
Despite sitting on the edge of my seat for the majority of games (more out of frustration) I was not happy with our style of play and in all honesty it probably was pretty distant from what Crusadertsar designed with his Villarreal side.
Davie Selke secured the Fans Player of the Season, he held the highest rating amongst all players (7.22) and also secured the Top Goal scorer (10) and most Player of the Match awards (5) in what was a great season personally as the German forced his way into the starting eleven, making the shirt his own.
Fredrik Bjorkan was awarded the ‘Players Newcomer of the Year’ after an impressive season, averaging 7.15 in respect of his average rating.
ATTACKING ANALYSIS
A brief skim of the team detailed stats brought the following to my attention, our expected goals for (38) had us ranked 12th in the division.
Despite not having a lion share of the possession, we could boast a decent pass completion ratio (90%) which seen us finish in fifth place.
Again when we did shoot we were effective at hitting the target with a 46% shot on target ratio and finished up with a conversion rate of 12% which was only beaten by Dortmund 13% (Haaland scored 52 goals by the way!) and Freiburg’s 14%.
This really was all that I could pull, with the ball we were dull at best, we did come alive in one game and it was THE game to light it up!
DEFENSIVE ANALYSIS
As previously stated we had the best defence in the Bundesliga. However it was Bayern who accumulated the lowest expected goals against of 28.11 compared to our 29.78.
We conceded 333 shots against which meant that the average xG per shot faced was 0.8 compared to Bayern's 0.11 (237 shots faced) which effectively means that we conceded chances of lesser value.
The lower than average clearances, blocks and interceptions may leave a few of you scratching your heads as to how we managed to achieve this feat and in all honesty, the data baffles me too.
HOW TO SPEND £75 MILLION
Since 2019, German entrepreneur Lars Windhorst has injected €375 million into Hertha BSC. This season securing the passage to the UEFA Champions League meant the German didn’t deviate away from his past, injecting £75 million into the clubs transfer budget.
With all that money sitting there, burning a hole in my pocket, it was time for phase one of the rebuild. The big one…
Nico Schlotterbeck was secured from Freiburg for £15.25 million, meeting a clause in his contract accessible to teams in the UEFA Champions League.
Nico is the instantiation of a good ball-playing centre-back. Primarily a ball carrier, he is good with both feet (the left being his dominant), exceptional at reading space around opponents when ball-carrying, and has the perfect physique to be a mobile central defender.
When conducting a data analysis when looking for the perfect signing, Nico possessed the third best pass completion ratio out of all central defenders in the Bundesliga and ranked highest when considering chances created per 90 with 0.11.
Defensively he held the highest interceptions per 90 (3.62) which is no doubt aided by his decision making (14).
Junior Sambia services were secured from Montpellier, the 25 year old leaving Ligue 1 under the Bosman ruling.
The 25 year old made 27 appearances in Ligue 1 across 2021/22 and when compared to Lukas Klunter’s player profile you can see should offer more in the attacking phase of play, Sambia is well balanced in terms of his playing ability and will provide tough competition for the right wing-back role.
Ibrahim Sangare signature was secured for £10 million from PSV.
Sangare was certainly a big part of the PSV defensive system during my save with them earlier in FM22. He largely stays in the defensive and middle thirds of the pitch, and is therefore one of the first players to engage with the opposition in the event of a counter -attack.
Standing at 6'3", he is more than capable of holding his own in aerial duels, and can therefore often be found in the box to defend crosses when the opposition have sustained periods of attacking momentum.
Maxence Caqueret was our third biggest deal in the window, as we spent £15 million upfront, with a further £5 million to be paid in a years time to Lyon for the 22 year old’s signature.
At 5'9" his size could make him a liability defensively. However the Frenchman is excellent at tucking into passing lanes to intercept and has a good sense of when to step out of the midfield line to press in the attacking-third.
The real fun starts when Caqueret receives the ball. He is a quick, effective decision maker who can operate seamlessly in all phases of possession, which is why he was secured to operate in the role of the Segundo Volante (support)
A good comparison which shows the potential value which Maxence can bring to the club when compared to the main Segundo Volante this season in Suat Serdar
Filip Duricic services were secured from Sassuolo, the 30year old leaving Serie A under the Bosman ruling, opting for a return to the Bundesliga after playing 11 times for Mainz 05 in 2014/15.
The Serbian played every game for Sassuolo in Serie A in 2021/22, contributing with nine goals and four assists. His two-footed skills help him a lot, being unpredictable for the opponents both in the dribbling situations and in key passes, there is no doubting he is an improvement against the likes of Lee Dong-Jun and Myziane Moalida.
Noa Lang joined from Club Brugge for £6 million initial payment with a further £5 million in six months, along with £2 million after 50 league appearances.
Noa is a gifted, right-footed wide forward most comfortable coming inside off the left wing, though he has the versatility to play across the attack. He is a hub of activity and creativity in the final third, where his technical skill and bravery on the ball are obvious signs of his education at Ajax’s exceptional De Toekomst academy.
Antony was the most expensive signing, his deal equalled £33 million (£13 million upfront with £20 million paid over two years and a further £5 million after 50 league appearances) I love a structured deal!
The Brazilian is an inventive and intelligent player who enjoys hanging out wide on the right so he can gain momentum after picking up the ball by driving inwards. His acceleration from a standing start is explosive; his elite balance and lower body strength allows him to remain on his feet even under heavy pressure — he is a worker with great endeavour.
Gianluca Scamacca, our second highest deal, £13 million upfront with £12 million paid over two years and the standard additional £5 million after 50 appearances.
Scamacca is capable of being a nuisance to defenders from anywhere in the final third. He is willing to hit the channels and run wide, play a target man role to hold the ball up for others, drop into attacking midfield to combine, or sit on the shoulder of the last man and wait to burst through for an opportunity on goal.
Despite possessing the physical qualities of a traditional target man, Scamacca’s creativity has been a feature of his game which makes him the perfect candidate to lead the line in the role of the complete forward (support).
The squad for our second season in the Bundesliga, how will the players cope with so many changes? Can we challenge on both fronts? Will there be any issues in relation to agreed playing time?
So many questions which need answering, until the next time, I hope you have enjoyed the read!
