Season 6 gets started tomorrow on MFL and the Motherwell Eagles are all set for their second season. There are now two teams in the Thinking Fantasy agency, but nothing changes for the Eagles. They remain my top team and have the best of the players in the agency. There has been a little bit more turnover in our Spark league than I was expecting. We’ll have a look at that and set some goals for the seasons below.

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The Squad

There hasn’t been much turnover in the squad heading into this season. To get us in a position for promotion, I think I would need to bring in 7-9 starters. I’m not interested in using loans and I don’t want to spend to sign the players to my agency. So, this season will be another year where I’m looking for some good progression from my players and aim for promotion in future seasons.

In goal Mariano Ochoa remains the starter and should get the vast majority of games. I’ve actually downgraded at the backup spot for this season. Rex Brennan has moved to Tabasco Fire to be the starter there. So Sidnei Mariano comes into the squad to be the new back-up for the Eagles. I picked him up from a reward pack and unfortunately he’s way below the level needed to start. He is at least young so hopefully he can grow into a useful player.

The defence is exactly the same as it was last season, with three man rotations in the centre and at the full back positions. The defence is pretty old overall, so I’m hoping Jacques, de Arruda and Schumacher can start showing some strong progression this year otherwise we’ll be in the market for starting level defenders within the next couple of seasons I think.

Rodrigo Llanes is the second addition to the squad after I pulled him from a limited pack. As well as being a 59 rated CAM, he’s a 58 rated RM. He will be playing in both positions this season rotating with Almeida at RM and Cooper at CAM. I should be able to get him 20 games this season and maximise his progression.

The rest of the midfielders are familiar faces. Lombardo and Domingos will rotate at CDM and probably get some games together when we play a 4-2-3-1. I need to see progression from this pair, or they will be a key position to improve before a promotion run. The aging pair of Ogbu and Bruyninckx will rotate on the left side of midfield – a long term solution is definitely needed in this position.

Star player Martin Beck is the pick of the forwards and will be the first choice to lead the line in single forward formations. 18 year old Shane Garcia will partner him when we play two striker formation, that will be the norm to get Garcia as much game time as possible. Henrik Ohman, is the backup and should get 15 games this season. He hasn’t progressed yet despite having 20 appearances for the Eagles so far.

The League

We might have had two strong teams get promoted last season, but the league is looking to be even tougher this season. We’ve ended up with four new teams in the league – only one came from relegations and the others three are brand new teams added to the league. Possibly because people haven’t registered their teams for this season?

Up at the top, the Central Valley Rednecks will have a tough battle for the league title against last season’s over performers, Wings of Fury. Unreal Madrid are predicted 3rd again this year and will hope to do better than last year when they could only manage 5th place.

The Reiskocher Akademie is looking much improved this season. They finished bottom of the table last season but look like they should be in the race for a playoff place this year. At the bottom of the table, recently relegated Vraxatians look to have the edge over ZMSFC.

The Motherwell Eagles look to be in a three way battle for 8th place based on the projections. We’re really evenly matched with Terrassa Fenix and VSG Sapporo FC in terms of our in game starting XIs. Sapporo trail a little bit in their squad depth, but both will be tough competitors this year!

The Goals

Finish 8th in the league – Realistically somewhere between 8th and 10th is where we are likely to finish. The target will be to edge out Sapporo and Terrassa and match last seasons 8th placed finish.

Knock-out rounds in the Cup – After a disappointing end to our group stage last season, I want to make it into the knock-out rounds at least this season. Promotion isn’t happening so the cup will be prioritised to try and get some extra MFL.

More progression – This one I can’t really control, but I’m hoping to see some strong progression to help the squad get closer to challenging for promotion in the next few seasons.

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