Jump to content

PaulHartman71

Members+
  • Posts

    60,374
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    38

PaulHartman71 last won the day on February 12 2023

PaulHartman71 had the most liked content!

Reputation

10,506 "Clear eyes pure heart can't lose"

5 Followers

About Me

  • About Me
    Blue Pants City

Favourite Team

  • Favourite Team
    Arsenal

Recent Profile Visitors

19,310 profile views
  1. Denmark won the World Cup in the 1st save with Arsenal and they managed to reach the final again in this one with a knockout run of Poland, Senegal and Ghana, but they lost in the final as this time it's won by Croatia who had a much more difficult run to get there. Top work from them.
  2. Mid-Season Update Bit of a weird start to the season. We've actually been quite bad for large portions of it but a good run of form just before the World Cup break has put us in a very good position, the main negative is that the World Cup break has come at a really bad time for us as we just started to play well and win on a consistent basis. A good result against Brighton away from home (albeit we went full strength and they didn't) and a smashing of Blackpool sees us through to the 4th Round of the League Cup, where we will face QPR at home after the World Cup. 6 wins, 3 draws and 7 losses, but as I've mentioned we've only really been consistently good in the last month or so, with Adam Armstrong in brilliant form with 5 goals in his last 6 games in the league after Che Adams got dropped. I've changed the tactics a bit recently too so we play very route one. The 4 games we've won have been against sides we'd like to be beating (Newcastle aside, although in this save they've been poor) In terms of avoiding relegation which is the main aim we're actually in a very decent position with a 10 point cushion on 18th place Crystal Palace, with all 3 of the sides at the bottom looking some distance away from the rest at this point. I think 11th and 6 points off 7th actually flatters us really as there was a few games this season where we were 18th and I went into thinking if we got badly beaten I might get sacked, but this nice run of form from the team and Adam Armstrong has hopefully meant we don't have to worry as much about that. Still plenty of time to get dragged right back in it after the World Cup. In terms of managers who did lose their jobs, much like in the first save all of Vieira, Rodgers and Howe have been sacked before Christmas. Leicester for the second save in a row have got Rafa Benitez in to sort them out. He finished rock bottom with them in the last one but does seem to have them out of the drop zone in this one. Palace got in Giovanni van Bronckhorst in this time and Newcastle who couldn't take Arteta on a free have instead gone for Lucien Favre. Conte wasn't sacked in the last save, but in this one he was tanked out early by the players and in a bit of a random one they've got in former World Cup winning manager Joachim Low so that should be interesting.
  3. My tactic with Southampton is a lot more cautious than the Arsenal one. Planning to be more compact defensively and try and get teams on the break. Think we've got some decent strikers who can get in the box and on the end of things. Ward-Prowse obviously a big threat at set pieces too.
  4. Southampton Difficulty Expectation: 3/5 I think this one could be hit and miss. I think in some ways it's fairly easy in the sense that they finished bottom so anything better than that is an upside. Obviously there is the threat of being relegated or getting sacked, with nasty penalties, but there's also a nice avoiding relegation bonus on offer if I can avoid relegation, plus an extra +1 point depending on how high we get and potentially avoiding the sack bonus too. The AI got them 14th in the Arsenal save so I'm somewhat optimistic it won't be too bad
  5. Total Points: Arsenal: Bonus Points: + 10 points for winning the League Cup + 2 points for reaching Europa League final +2 points for reaching FA Cup final Penalties: -1 point for finishing 3rd (1 position below actual finish) Arsenal Total Points = 13 Overall Total Points = 13
  6. End of Season Update A fantastic run in the League Cup, including a penalty shoot-out victory in the Semi Final against Spurs which was nice. In the final we managed to get the better of Liverpool, beating them 3-2 thanks to a Jorginho brace and Gabriel Jesus winner. I only really went full strength from the Semi Final so I'm pretty happy to have won the League Cup. A great run in the FA Cup too, which saw us beat Tottenham and Man United on our way to the final. Unfortunately, Brentford got the better of us in the final and we left Wembley empty handed. We started well with an early Xhaka goal, Toney equalised almost immediately, before Mbuemo gave them the lead late on. They should have won really but Eddie Nketiah popped up in the last minute to equalise and drag it to extra-time, but we looked tired and Brentford outplayed us in the extra 30 minutes ending up good value for their 4-2 win as Toney scored again and Rico Henry popped up in the 114th minute to put it beyond our reach. In the Euroap League we got past Marseille and Real Sociedad without too much bother. Inter Milan posed a much harder test, after a 3-3 draw at the Emirates it looked like the Semi Final second leg clash would go to extra-time, but Fabio Vieira popped up in injury time to give us a huge win to get us into our 3rd final of the season. An absolutely crazy Europa League final and for me this was our worst performance of the season (Aaron Ramsdale aside) We did alright in a cagey first half before Bruno Fernandes was sent off a second yellow card, which should have put us in the driver seat in the second half against 10 men. But we gave away a penalty in the 55th minute, which Ramsdale saved, but then Rashford scored heading in from a corner in the 62nd minute. We couldn't find an equaliser and then United got another penalty in the 85th minute, which again, Ramsdale managed to save Then in injury time Nketiah was through on goal and Martial took him out in the penalty area as he was through on goal, which saw United pick up another red card and go down to 9 men. Jorginho in the 95th minute had the chance to equalise on the night and give us an extra half hour against a 9 man United side which we surely would have got past, but De Gea saved the penalty and United somehow managed to win the match. I would've accepted losing 1-0 before the game as these things happen, but given how it panned out I was furious We got Partey and Saka back after the World Cup, but Saka and Partey both picked up other knocks which saw them miss more games. Trossard just after the World Cup got injured for 3 months, we also lost Ramsdale for a combined 3 months, Martinelli for 2 months with a variety of random knocks and Gabriel Jesus missed about 6 weeks of the business end of the season as seen below. I think in the league we never looked like going fully in on the title as we couldn't keep up with Man City. We lost 2-1 away to them and then dropped points at Newcastle and Tottenham, not horrendous results, but after that run of 4 games we were generally always 9-10 points behind City and it was always going to take something crazy for us to win the league after that. We did actually beat Man City at home in a massive result, but we also lost 2-1 to Nottingham Forest and 1-0 at West Ham and later dropped points to Palace before losing to Chelsea in the penultimate fixture as well. I think given the injuries we had we have to be pretty happy with how the season went. 7 points and goal difference off the title isn't horrendous albeit Liverpool pushed City slightly closer. In the end Top 4 at least was relative secure as we were comfortably 3rd in the end. I think it would be interesting to see how we'd have done with Party and Saka fit for every game, but overall especially with reaching 3 finals I'm pretty happy, even if we did bottle the Europa League final. Leicester, Palace and Fulham all relegated.
  7. Graham Potter didn't manage to see the season out as he was sacked in April, with Luis Enrique coming in to replace him.
  8. After getting through in the FA and League Cup and the fixture aligning in the league as well in the space of 12 days we play Tottenham 4 times all in a row
  9. A hell of an effort from Denmark who win the World Cup after beating Argentina/Messi on penalties in the final.
  10. Mid-Season Update We got through in the League Cup against Leeds and have an away trip to Burnley in the next round. Burnley are actually mid-table in the Championship and currently without a manage after sacking Vincent Kompany who clearly couldn't replicate their excellent season in real life I can't even remember who we had in the group stage in real life, but despite rotating quite heavily in all of the group games we had no problems at all against any of Rennes, Union Berlin or Union Saint-Gilloise. We won all 6 games with only 1 goal conceded at home to Rennes. A hell of a lot better than we did in real life. As we were group winners we won't know who we get in the next round until like February. Some decent teams kicking about to potentially get, with Feyenoord, Man United, Lazio, Real Sociedad, Roma, Real Betis, Bodo/Glimt all through as group winners. Overall a decent enough start to the season. We lost 2-1 at Anfield and 3-1 at Old Trafford, but elsewhere we've been looking pretty good scoring goals and keeping clean sheets. A massive 4-1 win at Tottenham, as well as beating Chelsea at home too. We nearly lost at Newcastle despite them not actually having been that good in this save, but a last minute Jesus header got us a point. We also couldn't get past Vieira's Palace side and had to settle for a draw against them too. Man City top of the league with superior goal difference and a game in hand. We also have to play them home and away before the season is out, weirdly they actually lost to Emery at Villa Park on the opening day but since then have been very strong. It's incredibly tight for the title and even Top 4, with just 3 points between 1st and 5th (albeit 6 points if City win the game in hand) so it really does look like if you go on a 3-4 game run of bad form you're in big trouble. City have to be the favourites at this point but given we lost Partey for the first 16 games and Saka for all of September and October I'm happy with how we've done so far. Interestingly when he has played and been fit (just 6 of the 16 games) Saka has been the best player in the league for averaging rating, which is very encouraging. Leicester have actually sacked Brendan Rodgers in this save and they sacked him very early on in the hope of avoiding the drop. It's Rafa Benitez they've got in to try and turn things around. Wolves sacked Julen Lopetegui just days later and they've actually got in the highly rated Marcelo Gallardo which should be interesting as he manages his first side in any European league. Patrick Vieira much like in real life (albeit sooner) got the sack and with no Roy Hodgson in the game in the game they instead went for Ralph Hasenhuttl as his replacement as they sit with just 1 win and 5 draws from their first 16 matches (which doesn't make our draw against them look any better ) Finally, big news at Newcastle as they sacked Eddie Howe just before the World Cup and are currently still manager-less. It will be very interesting to see who they get in to replace him and how nuts they go in January given to be fair in real life I'd say he's over-achieving with that squad and in this save they're probably about roughly where the squad should be.
  11. A big blow in pre-season as Thomas Partey picks up a really bad injury in a friendly against Italian side Genoa. This will actually rule him out of action until at least January. The main silver lining is that as it's a World Cup season this will only be 16 games instead of 20+ It will damage our hopes at winning the title though given how key a player he is in that midfield. The big gift of the FM update working like it does is that we had Jorginho and Trossard from the start of the summer, which at least with Partey being out means that Jorginho can play instead. I looked at recalling either Lokonga or Maitland-Niles but neither of them have a recall clause in their loan deals (personally don't think recalling a loan in an injury situation is too gamey) so I've actually recalled Charlie Patino from Blackpool. I don't expect him to play a huge amount but if Jorginho, Xhaka or Elneny get a bad injury then we would be very short in midfield so Patino is better than any of the other kids that might end up having to play. I guess I could have used Zinchenko there and moved Tierney or Tomiyasu to left back, which I could still do over starting Patino, but best to be safe rather than rely on either of those two to stay fit Bukayo Saka also slipped a disc lifting weights just days after the 2nd game of the season, which put him out for 8 weeks missing all of September and October, which again, when looking at going for the title is far from ideal.
  12. With Arsenal the main benefit is I know the squad and with the tactic I'm going to try and replicate the real life one as much as possible. The above is basically right although I'll be using ESR as the Odegaard back-up even though the game doesn't seem to like him as a box-to-box midfielder. In an ideal world if transfers were in place I'd probably ship out Holding and Nelson and get replacements for their respective positions and a Xhaka upgrade in that midfield role would be nice but this is what we have to work with so it is what it is.
  13. Arsenal Difficulty Expectation: 3/5 2nd place finish, with no finals of any tournament, manager not sacked I've given this a 3/5 difficulty ranking. I think the main reason it's a bit of a challenge is there's hot competition for a Top 4 finish and I will lose 10 points if I don't make Top 4. The main plus is we have the Europa League as a back-up/second chance to get Top 4 and obviously if we win the Europa League we get the bonus for winning that and we should have a decent chance at doing so depending on how heavy I focus on it. Where it is also a tricky challenge in the league itself is to get any bonus in the league at all we have to win it. So in some ways where this challenge is easier is trying to win a cup or Europa, but then if we push too hard in those we might lose Top 4 or chance at the big bonus prize for winning the title. This is my first save on FM23 so I'm not sure how good Arsenal are on it or how good the other sides are but I imagine it will probably be harder than it was for Arsenal in real life to win the title which doesn't bode well
  14. I've knocked up this little game/thread myself to get into before the next FM comes out. The basic idea is I'm going to do the 2022/23 season with all 20 clubs with the goal of doing better than the respective clubs real life manager/s in the league and all other competitions. So I'll do 1 season with 1 club and then "end the game" so to speak and then do the season all over again with a different club. To make it as realistic as possible and to avoid being able to get gamey with transfers etc I'm going to disable any transfers in the first window in all 20 seasons. I will treat January as an active window as other clubs will but I won't be looking to go too nuts. I'm not banning myself signing any players but I will mainly just look to buy replacement players if existing players desperately want out and have to leave etc or if I get some major injuries and need a replacement/loan player. I'm obviously not going to be planning for the future too much but I think it's a bit gamey to sell off all the promising youngsters or back-up players in January when you can sell players so I won't be doing that. The basic scoring system I've given myself is: Basic Points 1 point per higher league position (E.G - If club finishes 10th, but I finish 8th, I gain 2 points) Lose 1 point per lower league position (E.G - If club finishes 10th, but I finish 12th, I lose 2 points) Bonuses: 30 points for winning the Premier League with any team (except the side who actually win it) 30 points for winning the Champions League with any team (except any side who actually win it) 15 points for winning the FA Cup with any team (except any side who actually win it) 15 points for winning the Europa League with any team 10 points for winning the League Cup with any team (except Man United) 10 points for wining the Conference League (except any side who actually wins it) 10 points for finishing in the Top 4 or qualifying for Champions League via Europa League win with any team who don't achieve this 10 points for avoiding relegation for any team who are relegated 5 points for Europa League qualification for any side who don't qualify for Champions League or Europa League (includes Conference League win) 4 points for Conference League qualification for any side who don't qualify for Champions League, Europa League or Conference League 3 points for reaching Champions League final as runner-up (except any side who actually make it) 2 points for winning the Community Shield (except Liverpool) 2 points for reaching the FA Cup final or Europa League as runner-up (except City or United for FA Cup final) 1 point for reaching the League Cup or Conference League final as runner-up with any side who didn't make it 1 point for not getting sacked at a club who sacked their manager this season Penalties: Lose 30 points for not winning the Premier League with the team who win it Lose 30 points for not winning the Champions League Lose 20 points for relegating any side who were not actually relegated Lose 15 points if sacked before the season is finished (except if the club sacked a manager, then this penalty is just 10 points) Lose 15 points for failing to win the FA Cup with the team who win it Lose 10 points for failing to win the League Cup with Man United Lose 10 points for failing to win the Conference League with any side who win it Lose 10 points for failing to finish in Top 4 or qualify for Champions League via Europa League with the teams who do qualify Lose 5 points for failing to qualify for Europa League for any side who do qualify (except if qualify for Champions League instead) Lose 4 points for failing to qualify for Conference League for any side who do qualify (except if qualify for Champions League or Europa League) Lose 3 points for failing to reach Champions League final as runner-up for any side who do (except if win) Lose 2 points for failing to win Community Shield with Liverpool Lose 2 points for failing to reach FA Cup final as runner-up with the runner-up (except if win) Lose 1 point for failing to reach League Cup final with Newcastle as runner-up (except if win) Obviously with quite a few of the clubs it's hard to score myself without knowing exactly what they will win or where they will finish. But it's all but confirmed Arsenal will be 2nd without winning anything and Southampton will come bottom so I will be kicking this off with Arsenal.
×
×
  • Create New...