A Guide to… Antwerp FC

League: Belgium 2nd Division

Status: Professional

Chairman Status: Happy to Stay

Legends: Patrick Goots

Fierce Rivals: Germinal Beerschot, Anderlecht

Finances: Okay

Continental Competition: None

Media Prediction: 3rd

Squad Personality: Ambitious

Home kit: Red

Away kit: Blue

Third kit: White

Antwerp FC are mostly known for being the affiliate to World Champions Manchester United, and this is beneficial as they can get a lot of good young talent on loan to them. Antwerp have 25 senior players in their first team, an Under-21 squad and an Under-19 squad to nurture young talent such as Giovanni Radermacher. Antwerp’s minimum expectation is to gain Promotion to the Belgium Pro League, and with only a £120,000 transfer budget it may be worth selling a couple of players to gain some more cash and more wages. There are 2 assistant managers that aid the manager, so its worth noting you should take full advantage of them. There is also a minimum expectation that Antwerp reach the 7th round of the Belgium Cup. With an average age of 24, the team is young but close together

Best Players/Recommended Buys

Transfer Budget: £120,000
Wage Budget: £19,000

Antwerp have many different cultures, Belgium, Dutch, Serbian, French, Argentinean and Ghanaian players. There are no real players that stand out from the rest, however Zarco Jelicic is a Serbian Playmaker who can play in the middle or on the left. There is also youngster Kevin Baert who has come up through the Antwerp ranks, he can play on either the right or in the middle. Lastly French striker Adamo Coulibaly is a 26 year old who boasts some good mental and physical stats. He’s definitely a man that can lead the line and should be in the starting line-up. With all these players starting week in and week out there is a good chance you wont need to spend much on players anyway, and you should get into the Pro League.

Baert
Coulibaly
Jelicic

Best Goal-keeper: 32 year old Serbian, Predrag Ristovic
Best Defender: 25 year old Dutchman, Ray Frankel
Best Midfielder (bar Jelicic/Baerts): 23 year old Frenchman, Marc-Antoine Gbarssin
Best Striker (bar Coulibaly): 24 year old Swede, Darko Lukanovic

As you can, all these players are foreign. The current crop of Belgium players have not reached their potential yet, but give it a season or two and you’ll see a squad with 7/8 players from Belgium.

I think the case with Antwerp is to sell before you buy, as soon as you join the club the wages are over budget. But if you have sold a few players, I would go in for the following; Mike De Koninck from KVSK, Ma Kalambay from Hibernian and Rodney Sneijder from Ajax on loan. These players will strengthen the depth and get into the first team. Its worth a try going in for Binya from Benfica too, he is transfer listed at the start of the game. It could also be worth trying to loan a few players from Man Utd, such as Gibson and Welbeck,

In the Staff department, I would recommend a few more scouts. There is only 1 scout at the club, and he is not the best around anyway. I would recommend getting Julien Cools, a 61 year old scout with knowledge from Belgium, Holland, France and Germany. I would also bring in an extra coach or two, and one I’d recommend is Andre Laus, a 62 year old who has good defensive and attacking coaching skills. I’d also bring in 39 year old Robert Prosinecki, he has decent stats and has knowledge from Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Slovenia.

I would not get rid of any staff, as there is already a shortage. However an interesting little fact, 24 year old versatile player Spencer Verbiest is already a youth coach, and he still plays senior football. The assistant managers are the best among your staff, Englishman Andy Welsh and Serbian Ratko Svilar have good attributes and knowledge in a various amount of countries.
Recommended Sales;

David Geerom’s is the first on the list. He’s a central midfielder who at £140,000, would help the budget tremendously. He has no great attributes and would save you around £1,000 per week in wages. Hakim Bouchouari would be the next to be shown the door, he’s a left sided midfielder/striker worth £30,000 and yet again is another man who will be wasted on the bench. Wing back Roel Van Hemert is another play I’d show the door, he has really poor technical stats and would not get into your first team or bench. He’s worth £35,000, but any kind of money is good to be honest. Vincent Van Trier would be the last one out, he’s a goalkeeper worth £3,000 who offers nothing the two other goalkeepers don’t. He is also transfer listed at the start of the game. From these 4 sales you would be making £200,000 and saving £2,200+ in wages per week.
Recommended Formation and Tactics

Due to the amount of central players Antwerp have, it would be best to use the most out of what they have. To do this I’d play 3 centre midfielders, one as the attacking midfielder (Jelicic). Being in the 2nd league, an attacking formation would suit Antwerp as they will be favourably dominant in the attacking areas and will carve up defences a lot easier than in the Pro League. That’s why I would put 2 wide men outside and a striker who can win balls in the air, you don’t need 2 strikers in this sort of league as its very likely you can win with one. I’d also have the wing backs pushing up, as all of them are adapted to doing that and have decent attacking stats. It would aid to assists, meaning more goals.

In the graphic above is the recommended tactical instructions to use. An attacking mentality is obvious, with the current team there is goals to be scored and the potential to annihilate lower teams in the league. A short passing game seems to work best in FM rather than Direct, and to play a short passing game it needs to be quick to get the flowing football going in matches. Using the 2 wide-men, you want the team to play out wide, giving them the ball to put in a crosses. This is why its recommended the width is wide and the focus passing is ‘Down both flanks’. A deep defensive line is crucial due the centre backs not having the greatest amounts of pace. Counter attacks would be useful as said above Antwerp can really take games to the opposition, so the potential to hit sides on the break will just generate more goals. The playmaker box is ticked, as this goes to Jelicic.

Financial Situation

The financial situation at Antwerp is pretty poor to say the least if the first month figures are anything to go by. With only 35% transfer revenue available, in the future it made be hard to make money for players in there millions value. There is also bank loans to pay off which don’t end until the mind 2020′s, so expect to be losing a fair bit every month and year for that. That’s why I would recommend releasing a couple of staff, freeing up some of money, but the actual bank balance is not too bad at £690,000, as long as the club is kept in the black there should not be any trouble. There is also a new stadium in development, which will be available in 2017. It holds 40,000, which is 25,000 more than the one now, but even the stadium now if nearly sold out every game the club will make good profits.

Recommended Starting-11

GK: Predrag Ristovic
RB: Spencer Verbiest
CB: Ray Frankel
CB: Ransford Addo
LB: Mathias Trenson
AMR: Bars Vervaeke
AML: Emmerik De Vriese
CM: Matias Fondato
CM: Marc-Antoine Gbarsson
AMC: Zarko Jelicic
ST: Adamo Coulibaly