crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 Euro 2020 in Belgium, Second Round - Russia 1 England 2 Match Stats Formation & Ratings We navigated our way through to the quarter finals with a win but it took extra time to find the winning goal. Rooney finally seems to get going, scoring in this match, with Billy Crooks getting the other goal for England. Still some worrying individual errors with Chris Smalling and Tom Huddlestone both having shockers. England will play France in the quarter finals (a team I always have trouble with on FM, so I'm worried)! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 Euro 2020 in Belgium, Quarter Final - France 1 England 0 Match Stats Formation & Ratings I was right to be worried. We were beaten by a single goal but didn't really deserve it. Rooney was poor, Wilshere was average. Throughout this tournament, my star players just haven't really performed. That's why we're going home now. Very disappointing. I know it's France and it was always going to be a tough game but I'm just upset that certain players have let me down during Euro 2020. That's how it feels anyway. I think I need to do some serious thinking about certain players and the tactical side of things. Not a terrible tournament. We didn't disgrace ourselves as in previous tournaments. But nonetheless, disappointing as I felt that Wilshere and Rooney just didn't show up for this tournament. Will another quarter final be enough for Roy Crouchson to keep his place as manager of England? Let's hope so! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 Euro 2020 in Belgium - Knock out stages summary Click here to see the tournament tree. Scotland were knocked out by Portugal in the second round. Ireland did extremely well beating Romania and the Netherlands before crashing out in the semis to Portugal. The hosts, Belgium, were knocked out by the Netherlands. The previous holders, Turkey, were knocked out by Portugal in the quarter finals. Perhaps the biggest shock was to see Spain knocked out in the second round by Croatia. Germany triumphed in the final by beating Portugal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 Euro 2020 in Belgium - Team of the tournament Click here for the team of Euro 2020. Once again, no English players in the starting XI. Wilshere and Rooney should be there but they didn't turn up at the tournament and were both disappointing. Joe Hart and Billy Crooks make the bench. Next tournament, as a minimum, I want to get some English players in the best tournament XI. That means getting Jack Wilshere ticking. As for Rooney, he is going to be 36 when the next tournament comes around. So this is most likely to be the end for him. A poor performance overall at this his likely to be final tournament. I'm not ruling him out but I think it's my duty to England to look for better options now that he is in decline and really due to retire in the not too distant future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualification The World Cup 2022 is to be held in Qatar. The holders are Argentina. Below, you can see the qualifying group that England have been placed in. | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Belgium | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [b]| 2nd | | England | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | [/b] | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Ireland | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Lithuania | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Macedonia | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Hungary | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| I would hope that we'll have no problems getting to the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnakeXe Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Excellent performance to win the group, and a good result against Russia, who are usually a good side on FM a few years down the line. Bad luck against France, those are the sort of games you need your big names to show up in, and obviously they didn't for you. How did you use Wilshere and Rooney in this tournament? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 Excellent performance to win the group, and a good result against Russia, who are usually a good side on FM a few years down the line. Bad luck against France, those are the sort of games you need your big names to show up in, and obviously they didn't for you. How did you use Wilshere and Rooney in this tournament? Thanks SnakeXe. Wilshere was advanced playmaker in the middle of the park. Rooney was second striker playing complete forward support if I recall correctly (I've played a little bit ahead). Both were given some additional creative freedom under advanced instructions. I'd say Wilshere 'turned up' for three out of the five but never really excelling beyond just playing very well. Rooney only turned up for one game and was appalling at times. I think his age has caught up with him. I'm going to be changing things very shortly. Not immediately, as you'll see when I start to post up the qualifiers, but there will be changes. Tactically, I decide that I need to get the best out of Wilshere who is definitely England's most talented star in 2020, so I decide to build the team around him in a different kind of role whilst still sticking with my Hodgson 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 rule. All will become clear very soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - England 3 Belgium 0 Match Stats Formation & Ratings We were dominant against Belgium and fully deserving of the win. Didn't make any major changes just yet as I wanted to get a solid win in this first game to get us up and running. Billy Crooks with two goals today and I'm hoping he'll continue developing and have shown significant improvement for World 2022 in Qatar. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - Lithuania 1 England 2 Match Stats Formation & Ratings A dominant performance again but not quite as solid as we should have been in terms of the result. Crooks was poor up front for this one, which was a disappointment. As I said above, I want him to be a big player for us at World Cup 2022. I'll need to see more from him if that's going to be the case though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - Ireland 2 England 6 Match Stats Formation & Ratings We hammered the Euro 2020 semi finalists but in all honesty we were sloppy and gave away a couple of cheap goals. Must do better. Crooks bounced back from the last game with two goals and two assists. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 Where are they now? England Euro 2012 Winning Side! I got a sudden desire to see where my Euro 2012 champions team have ended up now. Click here to see where they are! Steven Gerrard a youth coach at Arsenal. Peter Crouch assistant manager at Derby County. Frank Lampard is a coach at Burnley. Pretty much as you all expected, right? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - England 6 Macedonia 0 Match Stats Formation & Ratings We score six again and this time also keep a clean sheet! This is the match in which I decided to change things tactically and bring in my new master plan. With Wilshere our best player and most creative asset, I decided to play him further forward in the hole behind a central forward. This AM position is his natural position and one in which I can see him being the most effective. Wilshere will be an advanced playmaker with extra creative freedom given under the advanced instructions. This move also means that I can bring in another central midfielder, of which we have a few quality backups, and take out a forward, which is ideal seeing as Rooney is in decline and there is nobody really good enough to replace him just now. The experiment seemed to go well although obviously the key will be to test it against big opposition. Wilshere set up one and scored one. Crooks scored a brace of goals and also recorded an assist. Meanwhile, Huddlestone and Mooney look like a good central pairing in midfield. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - Norway 1 England 5 Match Stats Formation & Ratings All of a sudden, my England are now a free scoring side. 17 goals in the last three matches! The Crooks and Wilshere partnership up front seems to be working well. Crooks scored one, whilst Wilshere did exactly what I want him to do by setting up two goals. Raheem Sterling was man of the match with a superb hat-trick. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 International Friendly 2020 - England 2 Tunisia 2 Match Stats Formation & Ratings We were mostly in charge of this game but we just didn't perform as well as we should have done. We didn't exactly round of 2020 in style with this result but I guess it is just a friendly. Performances have otherwise been very promising and there are good signs for both Wilshere and Crooks as we head in 2021. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 End of 2020 - Results Summary Click here for all results from 2020. Just the defeats to Denmark in a friendly and France in the Euro 2020 Quarter Finals to look back at with regret. We performed fairly well at Euro 2020 even though we didn't really shine. We did a professional job in the group stages and went close against France but ultimately didn't do enough. Another quarter final for Roy Crouchson's England. Afterwards, we've made a really great start to the World Cup 2022 Qualifying campaign. Also there are good signs for my new tactical changes. Wilshere could really shine in his new role behind the striker. Whilst I think Crooks will get better and better in 2021. He already grabbed 15 goals in England's 15 games this year. He'll need to be scoring against the top sides to prove that he is a top striker though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnakeXe Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Interesting new role for Wilshere, I'd have gone the other way personally and played him deeper in order to find more space. Looks like your way is working though, and you know what happened when I was in charge of England, so probably best to ignore my opinion! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpayne Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Another disappointing torno for Rooney, Billy Crooks is looking a real gem though. Who is he currently playing for? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Doing well in the qualifiers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Starting to score now! Nice partnership up front Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Things have definitely clicked. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 Interesting new role for Wilshere, I'd have gone the other way personally and played him deeper in order to find more space. Looks like your way is working though, and you know what happened when I was in charge of England, so probably best to ignore my opinion! I'm a fan of the playmaker of the number 10 type more than any other. Plus his natural position is at AM so I figure I'll get the best out of him there. Another disappointing torno for Rooney, Billy Crooks is looking a real gem though. Who is he currently playing for? He came through at Southampton, moved to Spurs for £3m but really made his name after moving to Hull City for £4.9m. It was there that he scored 15 goals in the Premier League that attracted Arsenal to make a £6.5m bid. He is now playing for Arsenal. He isn't as prolific for them as he is for his country. He isn't always first choice either, playing around 25 Premier League matches a season. Doing well in the qualifiers. Starting to score now! Nice partnership up front Things have definitely clicked. Thanks guys. Things are certainly heading in the right direction. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 International Friendly 2021 - England 2 Tunisia 2 Match Stats Formation & Ratings A narrow victory but a victory nonetheless. Billy Crooks was lethal up front, scoring a brace, whilst Jack Wilshere set up a goal and also performed excellently. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - Hungary 1 England 4 Match Stats Formation & Ratings Back to the more important business of the World Cup 2022 qualifiers. We dominated Hungary and were completely on top. No Billy Crooks for this match so I gave Welbeck a chance but he disappointed as he so often has during his England career. No worries though as we had Jack Wilshere to play magnificently as he set up one of the goals and played a ton of key passes. Raheem Sterling also scored a brace. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - Belgium 0 England 1 Match Stats Formation & Ratings A tense and edgy win in Belgium. Billy Crooks grabbed the only goal as we struggled to assert ourselves in Brussels. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - England 4 Slovakia 0 Match Stats Formation & Ratings Dominant performance in which we could have scored more. Billy Crooks scoring two and setting up one. Wilshere also grabbing a goal. I've high hopes for these two at World Cup 2022. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 Billy Crooks breaks Rooney's goalscoring record for goals in season! A sign of things to come as I hope and maybe even expect him to break all the goalscoring records for England. He also set a record for the most man of the match awards in a season too! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 International Friendly 2021 - England 5 South Korea 1 Match Stats Formation & Ratings Billy Crooks was on fire at Wembley in this friendly just stopping short of a double hat-trick. He got a perfect 10 score! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - England 7 Lithuania 0 Match Stats Formation & Ratings Just look at the stats! Hugely one sided. Billy Crooks bagged another four goals! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - England 4 Ireland 1 Match Stats Formation & Ratings We were very comfortable here against Ireland and the big news is....... We're going to Qatar! World Cup 2022 qualification confirmed with two games in hand! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - England 5 Hungary 1 Match Stats Formation & Ratings Even though we've already qualified, I played my strongest side as I wanted to go for a perfect qualifying record. Billy Crooks added to his incredible goalscoring record during this qualifying campaign with another four goals! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - Macedonia 0 England 1 Match Stats Formation & Ratings With Jack Wilshere unavailable, I returned to a 4-4-2 formation. Rooney was also out so Welbeck came in for another chance up front for England. We were totally on top in this match but struggled to find goals. Luckily for us, Crooks managed to grab one to ensure that we had a perfect qualifying record, having won 10 out of 10 games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group 7 - Final Standings | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [b]| 1st | Q | England | | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 6 | +33 | 30 | [/b] | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | Pl | Belgium | | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 26 | 11 | +15 | 21 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Ireland | | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 15 | 19 | -4 | 14 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Lithuania | | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 22 | -10 | 11 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Hungary | | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 23 | -14 | 7 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Macedonia | | 10 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 23 | -20 | 3 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 International Friendly 2021 - Greece 0 England 2 Match Stats Formation & Ratings Not too much to experiment with as I have a winning formula and I want to stick with it when we go to Qatar. There are still uncertainties though like my first choice central midfield partnership and the fullback positions too. A nice solid victory in this friendly as Crooks bagged another goal and Wilshere also scored to give us a 2-0 win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 More goalscoring feats for Billy Crooks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 International Friendly 2021 - England 2 Ukraine 0 Match Stats Formation & Ratings A nice way to round off a perfect year. We've won every match in 2021 and scored a lot of goals. I now have high hopes indeed for this team going into 2022, which of course is the year of the World Cup in Qatar! This is possibly the best team I've had going forward and I'm starting to think maybe this could be my best chance at filling that huge gap in my Football Manager CV (it's a World Cup shaped gap)! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 With Crooks on fire now, hopefully that carries into the trip to Qatar Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 End of 2021 - Results Summary England results 2021. 37 goals scored in 11 games. An average of over 3 goals a game. 22 goals in 11 games from Billy Crooks! All games won in 2021 - 11 out of 11 wins! It has been a remarkable season for the England national team. The switch to 4-4-1-1 with Wilshere as playmaker in behind the prolific Billy Crooks looks to be working excellently. I'm getting excited about World Cup 2022 as I feel we have our best ever chance under my management of really making our mark on the tournament! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 With Crooks on fire now, hopefully that carries into the trip to Qatar Fingers crossed Cerud! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 To give you a taste for World Cup Qatar 2022, here is the group that England have been drawn in: | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Japan | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Ivory Coast | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Italy | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [b]| 4th | | England | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | [/b] | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreatTraveler Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 Tough group! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnakeXe Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Tough but exciting, especially after qualifying in such barnstorming style! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Surely this is the most exciting your England sides have been since the Euro 2012 champions squad, I don't want to put too much pressure but you're due at least making it past the quarter-finals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamshankley Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Crooks looks awesome. What's the goal scoring record? And how many has Crooks got so far? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Definitely got a good shot at this one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Tough group! Should be interesting, for sure! Tough but exciting, especially after qualifying in such barnstorming style! Indeed! Surely this is the most exciting your England sides have been since the Euro 2012 champions squad, I don't want to put too much pressure but you're due at least making it past the quarter-finals. You would hope so, wouldn't you. Fingers crossed! I have big hopes and high expectations for this tournament. Crooks looks awesome. What's the goal scoring record? And how many has Crooks got so far? I'll be posting a screenshot of him before the World Cup, so you'll be able to see his record and also how he has developed since he first came through. Definitely got a good shot at this one. Thanks Deltablue! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 International Friendly 2022 - Austria 2 England 3 Match Stats Formation & Ratings A bit of an experiment with a few new caps and five subs used. Crooks in fine form again with a brace of goals. I got a chance to look at one or two fringe players who could make the squad for the World Cup this summer. This team can score goals but they also concede them, which is worrying. However, I guess we can't learn too many lessons when I'm conducting these experiments with the team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Roy Crouchson names his preliminary squad for World Cup 2022! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 International Friendly 2022 - England 2 Ghana 2 Match Stats Formation & Ratings Once again, defence is a worry. Two shots for Ghana in this match resulted in two goals. Not good. I played my likely strongest XI for the World Cup in this match. Billy Crooks played poorly and I really gave him a telling off after the game. I want to see what kind of reaction we get out of him in the next match. We have two more friendly matches before we begin our World Cup campaign in earnest! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 International Friendly 2022 - Iran 1 England 6 Match Stats Formation & Ratings Okay, it was weak opposition, but Billy Crooks did bounce back in this match. I think he has reacted well to the telling off I gave him after the last match. He scored a hat-trick and set up two. Jack Wilshere has been in good form over the last few matches. He set up four goals in this one. Let's hope he can take this form into the World Cup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crouchaldinho Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 The World Cup 2022 odds for the top sides are as follows: Argentina (the holders) 3.00 Spain 3.00 Germany 3.00 France 3.50 Italy 3.50 England 4.00 Apologies to those who don't work in decimal but that's the way I have the odds set up in my game! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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