Matthew Hennequin has resigned from his position as manager at Olympique Lyonnais.
Hennequin, a Ligue 1 Manager of the Season winner in 2020, will surely prove hard to replace considering his wealth of experience and previous track record. During his tenure, Hennequin’s team won the French Cup in 2020, the Ligue 1 in 2020 and finished runners-up in the Trophee des Champions in 2020. OL finished the 2020/21 season in 2nd place in the Ligue 1.
OL will be looking for a new manager.
Maxifoot, Football Manager 2020
Here I am, Fiorentina
As stated above, we left Lyon after 2 seasons with a phenomenal performance. Now, we join the Italian club, La Viola, Fiorentina! We replaced the previous manager Eusebio Di Francesco, who didn’t manage to hit the expectation and the targets that are set by the board.
We did bring some of our previous staff to our new club. Joao Tralhao and Claudio Cacapa joined us as our coaches. Claude Fichaux, who previously was a coach in OL, now became the assistant manager in Fiorentina.
On the other hand, the man that replaced us and took OL hot seat was the Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho! I am actually looking forward to seeing how Jose Mourinho will do in Lyon. He was a great manager who managed to win the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan. It would be exciting to see how far he can bring Lyon in the European Champions League this season.
Club Vision
Before signing the contract, we agreed on the club vision and the club plan. Now, let’s have a look at them. The board wants us to play entertaining football, which means no defensive football. This playing style suits me a lot as I love playing attacking football, so I don’t see any problem here. Another preferred culture is to sign high-reputation players. It is very rare to see a 4 stars reputation club prefers signing high-reputation players. However, the board only gives a total of 18mil pounds in current season, which I can’t see us signing any high-reputation players (sigh). Another two signing requirements are signing Italian players and do not sign players over the age of 30. I think these two requirements are not tough and Italy does produce great players. The last club culture is to develop players using the club’s youth system. To be fair, I had a glance on the development centre right after I arrived at the club. The youngsters look fine, but not great. So, we definitely have to work harder in the future in order to achieve this.
Moving on to the 5 year plan, we will focus on the plan for the current season. The board requires us to finish at least 6th position in the league to qualify for the Europa League. Last season, Fiorentina finished at 11th position which means there is no European competition for us this season. I personally think that would be good, as we can focus on the league as well as the Italian Cup. The board wants us to at least reach the Quarter Final in the Italian Cup. My plan is we can focus on the Italian Cup since there is no European competition.
Meet the players
Yes, first day in the office, I am going to have a look at my players and see who the key players will be in my new club. With that being said, three players have caught my attention – Federico Chiesa, Nicola Tagliaferri, and Dusan Vlahovic.
Federico Chiesa
Chiesa is undoubtedly the best player in Fiorentina squad. The 23-year-old now has incredible attributes in Season 2021/22. He is natural at both flanks, with 18 dribbling, 17 off the ball, 18 acceleration and 16 agility. Most of his attacking attributes are at least 13 and he is still considered young. However, he is currently unhappy with the club performance previous season and wants to leave to a bigger club. I will definitely try my best to keep him in the club, but I can also see the reason he wants to leave.
Nicola Tagliaferri
Tagliaferri is an Italian newgen who is currently 17 years old who is valued at £425K. Looking at his current attributes, I think he is going to be a beast in the next few years. His physical is brilliant, 15 acceleration, 17 agility, 16 balance, 14 natural fitness and 16 pace. His technical ability isn’t bad as well, with 15 crossing, 14 first touch, 14 passing and 16 technique. His determination is at 12 which is decent. I am extremely excited about this young prospect. He has a potential of 5 stars potential and his current ability is at 2 stars, which means he can still grow a lot. I am planning to give him more game time this season, try to make him the Italian best left winger.
Dusan Vlahovic
Vlahovic is one of the players that I am looking forward to in this Fiorentina squad. He is only 21 years old and he looks pretty solid. His 14 finishing is not the best for a striker, however, his mental ability and physical ability look great. He has 16 composure, 15 decisions, 15 off the ball, 17 balance and 15 pace. He is 191cm which is tall, but he isn’t a slow player. He also has 15 technique, and 15 work rate which I love it very much. I think he will be my main striker up front this season.
Tactics
After meeting the players, here is the tactics that I put on for Fiorentina. I decide to go for a 4-1-2-3 instead of a 4-2-3-1 that I used for Lyon. The main reason is Fiorentina only have one attacking midfielder and heaps of centre midfielders. The midfielders aren’t bad and in fact, they are decent players. I don’t feel like investing a lot of money in bringing more attacking midfielder, so I will rather stick with the players I have right now.
In terms of the roles, I like the role of Sweeper Keeper on Support so I’m going to stick with that. Fiorentina has a couple of good defenders, but none of them suit the role of Ball Playing Defender. However, I am still going for one Central Defender and one Ball Playing Defender. Hopefully, we can find a Ball Playing Defender from the transfer market. In the left back position, I decide to go for a Wingback on Support because we have some attacking left back options in the team. In the right back position, I am going for a Fullback on Support, so our full backs are not all out attacking. The roles for the midfield trio are Deep Lying Playmaker on Defend, Box to Box Midfielder and a Mezzala on Support, which I think it is a balance setup for my midfield. I am planning to play Federico Chiesa on the right side as a Winger on Attack, Dusan Vlahovic up front as a Pressing Forward on Attack, and Nicola Tagliaferri on the left side as an Inverted Winger on Support.
Since our board wants us to play entertaining football, we are going for a Positive mentality. I want my team to play shorter passing in a higher tempo with the play out of defence instruction. Most of our players are decent dribbler and I am also willing to take the risk by asking my players to run at defence. I also decide to play in a higher defensive line this time since we have a defensive midfielder in our formation. Other than that, I stick with the same defending instructions as always – More urgent, prevent short GK distribution, stay on feet and use offside trap.
Transfer Targets
Obviously, I will be looking at the transfer market and bring in a couple of new faces to strengthen our squad. With that being said, I am looking at my previous club Lyon players. I have three realistic targets that I am looking at – Lucas Tousart, Leo Dubois, and Aurelien Tchouameni.
Lucas Tousart is one of my key midfielders when I was at Lyon. He is an incredible Box to Box Midfielder, and I think he could be an upgrade for my current Fiorentina squad. His mental ability is insane, great physical, and decent technical ability as well.
Leo Dubois, the vice captain of Lyon. Our current squad only have one right back, so I am definitely looking for a backup or a regular starter at the right back position. The first person that comes to my mind is Leo Dubois. He has been incredible in my 2 years’ time in Lyon and he is an extremely reliable defender.
Aurelien Tchouameni is a youngster that I bought from Bordeaux to Lyon. Now, I am hoping that I can bring him with me to Fiorentina. Last season, I barely start him. However, his performance was always incredible whenever he got the chance to play. He is only 21 years old and I am very keen to develop him into one of the world class midfielders in the future.
Conclusion
Overall, that is basically my first day in the office. I know that we have some jobs to do – strengthen the squad, sort out the training schedule, testing out the tactics, find the strengths of our players. I am confident that we can figure out these soon and I am very excited to play my first game as the manager of Fiorentina. In the next chapter, we are going to the transfer deadline day and see who we have signed. Take care and I will see you next week. Bye-bye!
ABT Football Manager 