Football Manager 2021 - My Personal Regen One to Eleven

With Football Manager 2020 hooking me back into the game franchise it was no wonder that 2021 has kept hold of me. While sometime has passed since my last post like this with Chelsea not only did players in that team change with the likes of Tarô Togawa, Shane Goodchild & Barry Johnstone get replaced with the likes of Mohamed Bertin d'Avesnes, Kristijan Iliev and the man who became my personal favourite regen in Alekos Orfanos I look back at that Chelsea squad and see I would change a few of the players listed while I write this post in the 6th season at the club I am using and the Chelsea one in the 7th I played 3 more season with Chelsea hence why some of my main regens at the end are not mentioned here. 

I changed thing up this year in terms of who I played as, the 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress remained, the signing old club players to the staff remained but the club changed. This year, I wanted to see what I could do using the editor to boost Dagenham & Redbridge up the leagues. Winning everything along the way to see how it would look and gives me a bit of escapism from the misfortunes that they and Arsenal my two teams suffer from on a weekly basis it seems. Not the purest of playthroughs I know but I enjoy it and that's what you want from a game right? Enjoyment in what you do. In what I'll call National League to Champions League Dagenham have risen up the leagues and in the last season won the Premier League and now in season 6 look to win the Champions League. Along the way I was surprised to see I got more suited to wanting to use a lot of players who graduated through my youth academy as opposed to the Chelsea game of spending big money on the best talents around I preferred in large parts to develop in house the majority of a core and then improve it with those outside the club. My current first eleven poses quite the difficult situation for any other players coming in as not only have I grown fond of the players I have but most of them have been edited to be the world's best. With that being said here is the one to eleven of Premier League winning Dagenham and Redbridge.

Goalkeeper: Khalid Mohammad Mahmoud
Starting in the goal the man with the number 1 shirt for both club and his country of Qatar. I needed a new number 1 early on in the game and bringing him in was a smart move. Khalid grew and grew on my as a plater and quickly become the man who I could rely on. While he can be erratic at time he still has proven a solid addition winning the world golden glove on three occasions so far.

Left Back: Junior Rochester
Originally a centre midfielder turned left back Junior Rochester is one of the original crop of youngsters. I wanted to fit Junior in somewhere but he came in with a crop of talented midfielders and really didn't have room for him to play then. Luckily he could play full back and he overtime excelled as my main left back. Junior has nailed down the position with a complete consistency and professionalism in the role which no other left back has done.

Centre Back: Akeem Harriette
The 6 foot 4 inch behemoth at the back has been the centre point of my defence for the majority of seasons now. The best in the air and can also pass the ball he has the best of both worlds. While it would be nice to have him a bit more mobile my teams were normally focused on ball playing central defenders and now having someone who is strong in air is a new dimension for me to play with and with this I am finding even if not through Akeem I am scoring more goals from corners. 

Centre Back: Lautaro Obregón
My record signing as of the time of writing of £100 million the Argentinian Centre Back signed from Roma has proven himself worth the money. Calm on the ball, Lautaro has excellent distribution of the ball and is able to pick out a pass and has played it route one for goals and much like Louis van Gaal would say it is a long pass not a long ball. I wanted to bring in a new partner for Akeem as my other defender Liam McSwegan is prone to errors and falling over and this new centre back pairing is strong for the moment while early in Lautaro's Dagenham career I imagine once his intensive language course is completed he will be even better for the team. 

Right Back: Roman Huk
Another product of the Dagenham youth academy the Slovakia international came in at just the right time. My main issue had been the right back until Huk arrived and not only did his no nonsense attitude allow me to move Junior to left back and shore up the defence and allow it to flourish. While he's only scored one league goal in 150 league appearances which funnily was on his debut the next time he scores much like Chris Jones my Chelsea left back myself and the fans in attendance will do wild. The definition of a cult hero.

Centre Midfielder: Mark Buttigieg
Captain, leader and the first regen to start it off. A man from Dagenham and a Dagenham fan he was the ideal one to make the save and then the team around. My number 8 since the season after he came through the youth academy and has won everything from the National League right up to the Champions League. It just made sense that Mark was the right man to develop the ream around. Strong on set plays he will only score set pieces or worldies and strong leadership he quickly became captain before he was 20 and with over 350 total career appearances now I think it is easy to say he is a Dagenham legend now and hope it will continue for several seasons more so he can get the testimonial he deserves. 

Centre Midfielder: Ahmed Hassan
The Egyptian right back and central midfielder who now is mainly a central midfielder first came to my attention by being the NxGn 2023-24 runner up and the first regen to appear on this award. Signed that summer from Vitesse for £56 million he took the place of Dan Fearn right away in the team and we haven't looked back. It is hard to describe what Ahmed bring to the table exactly but he's added an extra dimension maybe even two with the team. A key passer who can pop up with a crucial goal he has allowed Mark to feature for as a box to box or deep lying playmaker while Ahmed runs around in the attacking third delivering strong passes and key decisions to break up play high up the pitch. He will go down as maybe my second favourite signing for Dagenham in this save.  

Left Winger: Sam Ngata
The man originally from New Zealand was part of the initial crop of youngsters coming through Sam Ngata is a strong pacey winger who also surprises me with how good he is in the air scoring a large number of headed goals over the years. Sam is the definition of a big game player scoring the winning goals in FA Cup and Super Cup finals as well as a number of key goals throughout the years. Sam is slowly moving into a position where he New Zealand captain and their top scorer as well. A player key for club and country but even now nearly 300 games in is a player I can always rely on for the big occasions. 

Central Attacking Midfielder: Giorgio Di Marco
Signed out of the Juventus youth academy and easily the best on the ball player I have the nicknamed 'Italian Stallion' has been the number 10 and will probably continue with that for seasons to come. I will always remember the Carabao Cup final against Leicester ball came to Giorgio who beat two men to slot the ball in the corner in the 81st minute giving us the win and the cup for the first time. I know whenever Giorgio gets the ball I will see him run past beating every man in his path. A wizard on the ball and sheer genius loved by club and country as he scored the winning goal for Italy in Euro 2024 and really is key to all our play in the final third. 

Right Winger: Ranaldo Buttigieg
Full disclosure this guy is heavily edited for the surname, I wanted our captain to have a brother in the team for something new since my Chelsea save didn't have this. Ranaldo taken from a Fulham regen and redesigned as the winger who specialises in one on ones and finishing. While young Ranaldo gets goals I like the fact we have him and his brother playing in the same team. The funny thing is if sets plays end up going to the far post from Mark it is normally Ranaldo running onto it. The most recent addition that makes this top eleven but worth it.

Striker: Lucas Matheus
The record scorer, the main who scored a hattrick in the World Cup final and number 9 Lucas Matheus gets the ball and puts it in the next. The three time World Golden Ball and World Player of the Year winner Lucas is another Dagenham legend. Signed from Man City when he refused a new deal for more game time he has run through all in his way to become the best striker I've ever had. If I ever need a goal Lucas manages to come up with something special. I would argue it is between both him and Mark as to who is the most important player in my squad both provide key qualities and have been the base of the squad I have built and probably will continue to be as such for many more seasons to come. 

Even while writing this out I have signed several players and played new options which made this even harder to do. I want to give mention to Mike Terry the current England number one who I've just signed to be my goalkeeper next year and loaned out to French League 1 champions Rennes, Khalid decided to be spotted at a bar and then missed the Champions League final and it has soured me on using him. I'll use him for one last year to get him past 200 league appearances but I'm planning on an overhaul on the keeper position next season. A few former players also were close to being on the list such as defender Liam McSwegan, winger Alan Byrne and the closest one was one of the original youngsters in the squad who came through the academy with Mark, Junior & Sam who went to Real Madrid when Hassan took his place. I have had more fun with this squad mainly because I have had something to compare it to in the Chelsea team of last year, it has been fun to compare which areas have produced my favourite players and a comparison per position. While I feel I still have many seasons left with the team I felt it best to now go over my favourites for the team as it stands.