Shanghai Dynasty: The First Generation

Since the lag is making it almost impossible to play matches tonight, thought I'd give a quick rundown of my starting team for season 1.

GK - Sebastien Martens. A Frenchman, nothing spectacular but has seemed (touch wood) solid enough so far.
DR - Yildiz Emrah. Turkish RB picked up in wage auction, considerably better than either of the two I had in my initial pool (although that's not saying much!). Nothing spectacular, but has high pace, positioning and stamina - three key skills in this position I think.
DL - Lucas Koci. Brought in to my initial squad after out-performing the other LB from my initial pool despite lower attributes. However lower atts now starting to shine, he may not be around too much longer.
DC - Ivan. Brazilian. Has done a creditable job, but has a tendency to get found out by good strikers, so I try to swap my CB pairing around to make sure he avoids the best ones.
DC - Erwin Tol. The best player from my pool with an AF of 95k. Almost didn't sign him owing to 7k/day wages, but my defence looked so leaky without him I couldn't resist in the end.
MC - Rob Coward. Veteran (32 y/o) English man, brought in to provide some experience and physicality to the midfield for one season. I tend to think it's a sign the team's playing well when I don't see too much of him in a game...
MC - Guillaume Petitjean. Has had a stunning start to the season. Technical atts are ok but crucially he's quick and fit and covers a lot of ground in the middle of the park. He therefore provides a nice counter-weight to Coward who doesn't move around a lot these days!
AMR - Giuseppe Costa. Average but no better. Will probably look to replace after a season, or sooner if the 16y/o almost-wonderkid who will replace him during the injury he has just picked up does well.
AML - Oleg Shevchuk. The most creative player in the side, capable of scoring himself, putting in crosses or cutting inside to set up others. Only 21.
AMC - Kenneth Paul. Like Shevchuk just 21 and with some promise. Not quite as creative as I'd like in this role, but he's quick and makes helpful runs that confuse defenders.
FC - Paul Thomas. A veteran Welshman I picked up unchallenged in a wage auction (possibly because of the age/nationality combo ;) Nothing incredible but crucially has a bit of everything; pace, strength, finishing, creativity. This makes him versatile, and in fact I'm still not sure I've found the way to get the best out of him.

Warming the subs bench I have three other strikers; a beanpole target man, a more direct replacement for Thomas and a promising 18 y/o. If I decide to stick to 4-2-3-1 all season I may need to sell one of them, but for the time being I'm hanging on to them all whilst things settle down.

Youths wise the aforementioned almost-wonderkid da Cruz looks like a real talent, as does the young striker on the bench Santos. One or two others who look reasonable in the U-21 squad but I don't want to jump to conclusions as I haven't even got initial assessments on them yet.

The official season has started ok, with a win in our first league game and through to the second round of the TFA Cup. Out of the GWC at the first time of asking though.

So in summary, Barcelona we ain't. But hopefully we can have a respectable season.