[FM10] Everton - Breaking The Top Four

[Jenko_EFC]

10.3

England Premier League - BSN/BSS

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Manager Name: Sean Jenkins

Date Of Birth: 02/10/90 (Automatically changed to 02/10/79)

Nationality: English

Favourite Team: Everton

Past Experience: Sunday League Footballer

Managing: Everton

Club Information

Nation: England

Year Founded: 1878

Status: Professional

Reputation: National

Chairman Status: Loves The Club

Legends: Alan Ball, Harry Catterick, Brian Labone, Dixie Dean

Icons: Neville Southall, Duncan Ferguson, Peter Reid, Joe Royle, Graeme Sharp, Dave Watson, Kevin Ratcliffe, Kevin Campbell

Favoured Personnel: David Moyes

Fierce Rivals: Liverpool

Other Rivals: Manchester City, Manchester United

Finances: Secure

Average Ticket Price: £31.00

Average Season Ticket Price: £535

Season Ticket Holders: 26000

Estimated Value: £76m (Loan Debt: £46.5m)

Continental Competition: EURO Cup

Media Prediction: 6th

Squad Personality: Very Determined

Stadium Name: Goodison Park

Capacity: 40158 all seater

Training Facilities: Top Training Facilities

Youth Facilities: Good Youth Facilities + Youth Academy

Squad Kits:

The Squad

Goalkeepers

1. Carlo Nash

25. Tim Howard

12. Iain Turner

Tim Howard is the number one and rightly so, good enough until I'm top four which is my aim. Backup however, is less than able with Carlo Nash and Iain Turner not even good enough for my league I may need to get a better backup but with my £4m budget I may have to rely on frees if anything to get a decent backup as I have other areas that need strengthening.

Defenders

5. John Heitinga

2. Tony Hibbert

19. Dan Gosling

18. Phillip Neville

15. Sylvain Distin

23. Philippe Senderos

4. Joseph Yobo

26. Jack Rodwell

3. Leighton Baines

6. Phil Jagielka

Heitinga and Jagielka in the middle with Baines and Neville on the right with Gosling possibly taking over Phillip Neville. Jagielka is injured until January though but we have Yobo, Distin and Senderos to cover for him until he gets back. No real cover for left-back but I'll have to look for loans or frees as I feel the money will be better spent elsewhere. Rodwell is much better as a midfielder and will one day be captain unless we get a huge offer for him. Cover/Stopper partnership at the back here with Jagielka the more aggressive and Heitinga the more positionally sound defender with Baines an attacking wing back and Neville a defensive one.

Midfielders

25. Marouane Fellaini

20. Steven Pienaar

10. Mikel Arteta

7. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov

17. Tim Cahill

Yep, that's it! 5 midfielders although Rodwell, Gosling, Heitinga, Neville and even Jagielka can play defensive midfield or central midfield if need be. Lots of options here and I'll be switching players all over the place all season depending on the match.

Strikers

8. Louis Saha

28. Victor Anichebe

14. James Vaughan

22. Yakubu

Again, we have very few players here but all of them are of good quality, Saha on his day is as good as any striker outside the top four, Yakubu is a 15+ goal a season striker and if it weren't for injuries Vaughan would be England's number 9 in a few years. Lots of options here as well tactically, Saha can play alot of roles, Vaughan is fast and good in the air, Anichebe is strong, tall and a decent finisher and Yakubu is a typical poacher.

Transfers

I like lots of tactical options so analysed my squad and felt I needed a cheap, preferably free backup left-back, a hard-working ball-winner, a pacey forward and a cheap, pacey backup right-winger.

So I signed a young, fast wing back on loan for £600K as I won't sign him probably and just need one for this season as I'll look for someone who's contract is expiring and sign them. Diarra was a player I am excited about for £4.2m, he has 18 for stamina and 19 for work rate and is perfect for simply chasing shadows and laying it off to Arteta, Pienaar or another creative player. £800K for Djalo was one of the easiest decisions yet, he has his flaws such as low composure, high Championship quality finishing but he has bags of pace and was so cheap. For my right winger I went with Dennis Rommedahl who has 19 for pace and 19 for acceleration and is perfect at coming on late in the game and running at their tired players although he's 30!

As you may have noticed I spent £6.25m and sold £7.75m worth of players as I knew with my good training facilities I needed to make good use of and my youth were fairly rubbish bar Duffy and Baxter with the exception of possibly Coleman, Wallace and Mustafi however my best youths were in the first team, Rodwell, Gosling and Fellaini are under 21 and good enough already! So I signed Koke as he will hopefully play a few games this season. I wanted to sign more youths but usually wait until the regens come through.

Next, I needed to sell players, Osman usually goes for a high price and is not good enough in my opinion, the same for Hibbert who was keeping me from developing Gosling and Coleman in the right-back spot and wanted to utilise them more.

For staff I signed Paul Winsper, he is an excellent fitness coach and was very cheap and a free agent.

I won't bore you with my pre-season results as they're not important and I just use it as a chance to raise morale with easy victories.

My Captain for the season is Leighton Baines and my vice captain is Phillip Neville! Baines would be the only permanent fixture in the team and remains consistent throughout the season whilst I thought Neville was to be a bit-part player to help Gosling develop and I felt fully stripping him from the captaincy was too harsh. The general reaction has been surprisingly good with 5 players reacting well to the change and 2 players reacting badly.

Fixtures

Well, our first game of the season is against Chelsea so wish me luck and we have been drawn Voskia in the EURO Cup Fourth Qualifying Round with the First Leg at home.

[Jenko_EFC]

Everton 1 vs 2 Chelsea

Competition: English Premier Division

Venue: Goodison Park, Liverpool

Referee:Chris Foy

Weather: Dry, 13 degrees

Everton News: Jagielka and Arteta out. Yakubu and Pienaar doubtful

Chelsea News: Drogba and Zhirkov out. Belletti and Ferreira doubtful.

Odds (Sky Bet): Everton: 7-4 Draw: 11-5 Chelsea: 5-4 (Fav)

At home against one of the best teams in the league is always going to be difficult, my players don't seem to like me because of my reputation and Saha is in the reserves after moaning about wanting to leave. The match however is going to be hard it is going to require lots of tactical planning, motivation and lots and lots of luck! They're going to play a very narrow 4-4-2 diamond with pacey, attacking fullbacks and every time I've played Chelsea on Football Manager and Suarez roams to the left (my right) alot so Gosling will be on a defend role. They have very pacey frowards so I'll have to defend with faster defenders and a deep defensive line which I did as Distin and Yobo both have higher attributes in pace and acceleration! We need to close them down alot in midfield as they have players like Lampard who have amazing long-shots. We need a defensive midfielder to take care of their attacking midfielder. Their fullbacks are going to be out of position so we'll exploit that with fast attacking wingers. We need a striker to drop deep and take Mikel with him to allow my wingers to occasionally cut inside.

They lined up just as expected.

As you can see from who I played, Gabriel Silva is my winger but in the ML slot as he is ineffective in the AML slot. Rommedahl is also very fast and will hopefully take advantage of their out of position fullbacks, Cahill drops deep making Mikel follow him and prevent him from closing Rommedahl down. One interesting thing I did was show Cole to his left foot and Bosingwa to his right as they had no passing option down that wing.

The game started and within 2 minutes Luis Suarez injured Yobo so brought on Rodwell. 8 minutes gone and Essien scored, a long ball forward and Howard didn't do very well and Essien nodded it over him! We were getting alot of chances down the left but Bosingwa would race over and foul us but when we did the same when Baines got forward he got sent off! We changed so Gabriel Silva was left-back and played without a left-winger.

Rest of the first half was boring and I told them I was angry which miraculously worked, we got the ball down the right hand side with Rommedahl who swung a ball in for Cahill who won the header and scored! 1-1! I thought we could hold on but I was horribly wrong, Suarez moved to his left and got a ball in and Anelka found space and got a volley in! 2-1. 60th minute and I took Cahill off for Djalo as he is fast and will caise all sorts of problems and Pienaar for Rommedahl. Alot of possession in our half but we couldn't do anything with it. Chelsea scored yet again in the 71st minute to make it 3-1! I thought it was all over but it was dissallowed! I was overjoyed and was hoping we'd gain some momentum! A counter attack from a failed Chelsea corner was hoofed up the pitch and Cole misjudged the header and Djalo was one on one when Coole came racing back and fouled him and got sent off as he was the last man! 10 vs 10, 2-1! Can we do it...?

85th minute and Djalo gets the ball by the right hand side byline, he played alow near post cross but Pienaar headed wide! 87th minute now and Gosling beats Cole for pace on the right and swings one in, Terry nods away but only to Gabriel Silva on the left but messed up the cross. 90th minute now and Silva again in space where he won a throw but again came to nothing! I took a gamble and went overload. Djalo picked up the ball again out wide in the 92nd minute and passed to Gosling but played it back to Diarra who misplaced his shot.

That was it 2-1. I was gutted as we'd dominated but failed to get more than 1 goal! I suppose I should have went gung-ho in the last few minutes but 2-1 against a side who in real life have just been crowned Premier League Champions is hardly embarrassing is it? Next up is two Europa League games against Vorskla of the Ukraine.