FM2009: Grasshopper-Club Zürich Team Thread
Magnakai Haaskivi
I'm gonna give this a shot with a team that I'm familiar with that hasn't gotten a lot of love around these parts: Grasshopper-Club Zürich, from the Swiss Super League (I'm doing a lot of this from memory at work, so bear with me and let me know if I've messed something up). Full Name: Grasshoppe...
//content.invisioncic.com/Msigames/monthly_2024_05/320636817_Forum-websiteicon_Blue.png
Sports Interactive Community
I'm gonna give this a shot with a team that I'm familiar with that hasn't gotten a lot of love around these parts: Grasshopper-Club Zürich, from the Swiss Super League (I'm doing a lot of this from memory at work, so bear with me and let me know if I've messed something up).

Full Name: Grasshopper-Club Zürich

Nicknames: GC, GCZ

Founded: 1886

Ground: Letzigrund, Zürich (capacity: 26,500)

Manager: Hanspeter Latour

League: Swiss Super League

Grasshopper is one of the most successful teams in the history of Swiss Soccer; they've won the Swiss League 27 times and the Swiss Cup 18 times, both of which are records. In fact, they've been runners-up in the Swiss Cup more times (13) than anyone else has won it (their closest competition, FC Sion, has won the Swiss Cup 10 times).

That said, GCZ hasn't exactly had great form lately. They followed up their most recent league championship (in 2002-03) with a seventh-place finish the next season, and really haven't gotten back to form since. The highest they've finished since then is third in 2005-06.

Grasshopper's main rivals are FC Basel and FC Zürich (with whom they share a stadium). In real life, they're occupying fourth place in the Swiss Super League; can you do better?

SQUAD

Goalkeepers

Eldin Jakupović (on loan from Locomotiv Moscow)*

Mario Kirev (on loan from Juventus)

Massimo Colomba

Defenders

DL-Kay Voser

DR-Scott Sutter

DC/DMC-Guillermo Vallori

DC-Boris Smiljanić (captain)*

D/WBL-Fabio Daprelà^

DLR/WBR-Rolf Feltscher

Midfielders

MC/DMC-Josip Colina

MC/DMC-Veroljub Salatić

AML/ST-Senad Lulić*

MRL/AMRL-Davide Callà

AMC/MC-Ricardo Cabanas*

MC-Bruce Lalombongo

AML/ML-António dos Santos

Forwards

ST-Alain Schultz

ST-Gonzalo Zárate (on loan from Kriens)

ST-Roland Linz (on loan from Sporting de Braga)

ST-Raúl Bobadilla*^

ST-Steve Zuber^

Out on Loan

ST-David Blumer (at Thun)

ST-Gabriel Machado (at Stade Nyonnais)

ST-Samel Šabanović (at Esbjerg)

ST-Vitor Huvos (at Stade Nyonnais)

State of Affairs

Your chairman (Roger Berbig) loves the team and doesn't see any reason why he'd ever leave, which is good; when you take over, you'll have no scouting restrictions. You also don't really have a ton of talent, and your depth is a little lacking; the budget won't provide you with a ton of cash to fix this, but you also won't have to deal with any debt; transfer money you bring in should be mostly yours to spend.

The standard Grasshopper formation is a 4-2-3-1, and your personnel match up nicely with that.

Best Established Player

Ricardo Cabanas is your best player at the outset. While he's classified as an AMC, I've always played him in a holding role with good success. Cabanas is a Swiss national, and will probably become your team's captain in the second season; he might not score a lot of goals, but most of the passing is going to run through him.

Best Young Player

Raúl Bobadilla is an absolute animal up front, especially after he gets going. He's also a conssummate professional; if you become successful, he's not the kind of player who will start complaining about the lack of prestige at the club. Also, while he's Argentinian to start off, he becomes Swiss about two years in; this will help you stay under the "Foreign Players" limit that Switzerland's league has.

I hope I did this right; I'll double-check my info tonight when I'm in front of the game to make sure I've got it right.

If you play on 9.3 (which takes into account the January window), Machado will be loaned out; 9.2 will have him, plus a couple of other players (Yakim Mikari and Demba Toure) that are worth keeping around for a little while.

The transfer kitty amps up nicely. Steve Zuber also becomes a relatively good second striker; I finally ended up sending Machado to Gremio (along with some cash) for Gerson, then started rebuilding the back. Smiljanić is fantastic for the first two years, but he declines pretty rapidly after that, so look into getting a young DC.

I had to dump Vallori earlier than I'd have liked (he and Bobadilla clashed on my save), but he and Smiljanić make a GREAT partnership. The fullbacks could use some upgrading.

Incidentally, it may be worth expanding your stadium as soon as you can if you've found you're getting good results; the average attendance isn't that great at the outset, but they start pouring out of the woodwork after a couple seasons and you want to be prepared. The lack of debt is really nice, and the payroll is VERY manageable.

I played Grasshopper with my first ever save this year, and it was a good team to feel the game out with. I also tried to steer clear of forums like this, because I wanted to find players and make mistakes on my own, without knowing who they were. So I ended up scouting finding Daniel Opare, Gerson, and Canales, and bringing them in (for awhile, at least; outside of Gerson, who apparently loves it in Switzerland, the other two only hung out for two or three seasons). Their ambition matches their skills; they aren't going to stay forever, but if you're okay with that than they'll play fantastically for you.

I eventually took a job with Liverpool, so outside of one really good regen none of my players were really of a high enough caliber to bring along. I have a feeling that even mid-table Premiership teams might benefit from Bobadilla's services, but I haven't tested that theory as of yet; he's been fantastic in the Swiss national team for me, though, which is nice.