Gli Azzurri | Part 2 | Seven Successive Defeats

In part one of Gli Azzurri, we gave you a brief introduction to Empoli FC, ran through the board and supporter expectations and met the players available to us in the FM24 Beta. Now we’ll look to play our first matches of FM24 with Empoli.

I began digging into the game by looking for staff, including bolstering our coaching team, and taking a first look at the transfer market. However, given our huge lack of finances – £11m in the bank and £5m in the transfer budget – that proved a waste of time. I moved on a few players, hiring my first Intermediaries to ship elderly centre-back Lorenzo Tonelli to Vitória on loan and third keeper Samuele Perisan to Palermo for £79k. We also had a few injuries, including right-back Tyronne Ebuehi doing his cruciate ligament, so my first signing was an emergency loan for Brighton’s Casper Nilsson with zero wage commitment.

First Taste Of Matches On FM24

It wouldn’t be Football Manager, and a new version of Football Manager, if we didn’t concede our first shot on target. And that was the case in my first match, a Coppa Italia game at home to Cosenza. That said, we also scored our first shot on target as Tommaso Baldanzi, playing as a false nine, teed up midfielder Filippo Ranocchia for the opener. But we conceded to a near post corner in the final minute of the first half. We continued to dominate and eventually got our reward as midfielder Jacopo Fazzini passed out wide to Matteo Cancellieri, who went on a mazy run and coolly slotted it into the bottom corner. But we somehow immediately conceded to their second shot on target, only to nick a deserved win in the last minute as centre-back Ardian Ismajli headed home a near-post corner of our own.

Facing A Tough Serie A Task

The Italian bookies certainly don’t fancy Empoli’s chances of survival, predicting us to finish 19th with odds of 1000/1 to win Serie A. Frosinone are also 1000/1 and predicted 20th with Cagliari at 800/1, Lecce at 700/1 and Salernitana at 600/1. Inter are unsurprisingly 9/5 favourites followed by Milan at 4/1, Napoli at 5/1 and Juventus at 7/1. This could be a long season!

We kicked off with a crucial clash as we made the trip to competitive rivals Cagliari, for which we already had eight players injured and no natural left winger available. Lovely. A cagey start was ended with left-back Liberato Cacace’s low cross being turned into his own goal by Cagliari’s centre-back. Homegrown Fazzini was handed a start and took his opportunity as he fired home from Baldanzi’s low pass before Cagliari got back into it with a dodgy penalty. Holding midfielder Razvan Marin cannoned one off the bar before killing the game off as he latched onto Cancellieri’s low cross on 78 minutes, before Ismajli scored another near post corner. So we began life in Serie A with a thumping 4-1 win at a rival!

Our first match at the snazzily-named Stadio Carlo Castellani-Computer Gross Arena was against Atalanta, who gave us a chance as centre-back Palomino was sent off for a horror challenge after 50 seconds. But we couldn’t break them down and drew 0-0.

We were back on home ground a week later as Lecce came to town. I changed things up a little, switching to a 4-2-3-1 with Baldanzi dropping into an advanced playmaker with licence to roam. We started well as a delicious flowing move ended up with Cancellieri cutting inside and finishing nicely. It was a terrible game but Fazzini again came off the bench to secure a 2-0 win.

Our first defeat followed at Bologna, where we conceded to their first two shots on target, got one back through Baldanzi’s first of the season, but conceded late on as we pushed for the equaliser. We then got dominated at home to Udinese and, despite Fazzini giving us the lead, Lorenzo Lucca scored twice early in the second half.

Those two games had me worried as we faced a terrible run of fixtures. That began with a trip to Juve, who scored their first shot and won 4-0, Baldanzi scored early on at Fiorentina but we got spanked 5-2 from seven shots on target, before 3-0 defeats at home to Sassuolo and at Milan. Elia Caprile finally returned from injury so I threw him in for old man Berisha, who had a 6.24 average rating, at home to Roma. We played well only to get undone by Lukaku scoring off a long throw then scoring again in injury time. And that set a new club record of seven straight defeats.

Desperate Formation Switch

It didn’t get much easier as we entertained Lazio in early November. I switched things up drastically, moving to a strange asymmetric formation.

It started well as Nicoló Cambiaghi scored his first two goals for the club inside 28 minutes. Lazio got one back from a free kick and totally dominated the second half but we held on and – get this – Caprile actually made some saves to snap the losing streak.

Cambiaghi scored again from one of my short free-kick routines to open the scoring at Genoa. Winger Stiven Shpendi clearly took inspiration as he scored his first two Empoli goals either side of half time to put us 3-0 up. And we were in dreamland as Bartosz Beresyznski fired us 4-0 in front on 65 minutes!

Boosted by confidence, we entertained Frosinone and raced into a 2-0 lead as Marin scored from a lovely corner move where we pass to the edge of the area and the receiving player passes to another player on the edge of the box and Baldanzi doubled the lead. Frosinone got back into it through a Caprile howler but we held on for three wins on the bounce.

A 1-0 loss at Torino, courtesy of an 89th-minute header from a corner that went straight at my defender on the near post, was followed by Cambiaghi nicking vital 1-0 wins at 19th-place Salernitana and at home to 15th-place Monza.

That little run was crucial as we then faced Napoli and Inter, whch meant we finished 2023 with two heavy defeats. Right? Wrong! We were 30 seconds away from a 1-0 win at runaway leaders Napoli until Italy’s match-fixing reared its ugly head and the referee gave them a penalty. But we of course got thumped 3-0 by Inter, who were a little lucky given Bastoni scored twice from corners inside 21 minutes.

That saw Empoli finish the year sitting 12th in Serie A with 23 points from 18 games. We’re eight points clear of the relegation zone and, interestingly, only six points off the European places! But I’m very much keeping my eye on the bottom of the table as we move into the second half of our first series.