[FM17] Football, fire and ice: The inside story of Iceland's remarkable rise.

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, kidthekid said:

What's your experience with ambitious personalities? Many players say ambition is good but I feel like if you are not a top club in England, Spain Italy or Germany, then ambitious players would want to leave your club no matter what. Do you find that a problem?

Many players are wrong. 

It is a complete myth that both ambition and determination assist the development of young players to any great degree.

What I would say however is that you need to move away from thinking about the name of a players personality, and instead look at what actually makes up that personality. 

To give you a few examples. (And please remember that these templates are old now and out of date, but they at least give you an idea). 

Balanced. A player with a balanced personality doesn't have a balanced set of hidden mental attributes at all. It's a really negative personality in my opinion rather than a middle of the road one or an average one. It's not middle of the road, it's poor. It's not average, it's bad.

Balanced Pro 1-14, Det 1-14, Amb 1-14, Loy & Spo 1-14

That being said, if we look at the above template, it's possible that a player could have Pro 14 and Det 14 and while not brilliant, that's certainly not awful, (so there are of course exceptions. If we look at the average attribute within the above template then it gives us the following.

Pro 7 Det 7 Amb 7 Loyalty 7 Sportsmanship. 7. There is absolutely no discussion that we would not want a player with those attributes and that is an "average" balanced player. 

In the main though, a Balanced personality is a bad personality, (in my opinion). 

The next thing to think about are the Ambitous personalities themselves. 

Very Ambitious Amb 20, Loy 1-9, Det 1-17
Amibitous Amb 16-19, Loy 1-9, Det 1-17
Unambitious Amb 1-5, Loy 11-20

Now the first thing that jumps out at me here is that there seems to be some sort of link here between Ambition and Loyalty. Where Ambition is high, then Loyalty will be low. Right? No. Not right. It's possible to be Ambitious but not be "labelled" either Ambitious or Very Ambitious. These are just "labels" that we need to get away from accepting at face value and instead think about what exactly they mean. 

A Very Ambitious label means that a player has Ambition of 20, Loyalty between 1-9 and Determination between 1-17. Without going into media handling and some of the other hidden attributes, it also means that we don't know what ther other attributes are. They could theoretically have Pro of 20, but they aren't called Pro or Model Pro or anything else. (That's an extreme example I know, but I just want you to get away from thinking of the personalities in terms of their names, because they are misleading). 

4 hours ago, Jellico73 said:

Well, speaking for myself, in the past six months I have had a player with:

• Fairly Determined
• Resolute
• Driven

Come to me and say they want to leave for a team that will allow them to compete on a bigger stage.  Never mind I'm the 29th ranked team in the world, the 47th Richest Club, have been to the Europa League Semi's Twice and have been in the Championship three years in a row, I'm still not a top club...apparently.  I don't know how much a players personality has to do with them want to move, frankly I think the whole mechanic is bugged.

Jellico73

Once again, you are looking at the label that a player has been given rather than what the label actually means. You are assuming that because a player has a particular label, then that is all they are and they can't be anything else.

Fairly Determined Det 15-20, Pro 1-14, Spo 5-20, Pre 1-16

Where is the mention of low ambition or high loyalty in that? It's not there. You might be able to delve deeper looking at the media handling style, but there is nothing about F.Det as a personality that suggests Amb or Loy will either be high or low. It just isn't factored into the build-up of the player. 

Resolute Pro 15-20, Det 15-20, Pre 1-16 Spo 5-20

Again, there is no mention of either Amb or Loy.

Driven Det 20, Amb 10-20

Ok, so now we have an idea about Amb, but it's actually quite a big window in that it could be anything between 10-20.

The other thing to ask yourself is.... what if a player is both Ambitious and Loyal?.........

Who says that it's impossible? 

Very Loyal Loy 20, Amb 6-7, Det 6-20
Loyal Loy 18-19, Amb 6-7, Det 6-20

It's not quite right I would agree, but in SI's defence, they are sort of imitating real life which is their ultimate goal. What they are after is realism after all. 

If I am managing in Iceland, (where I am now), or in Gibraltar where I have managed in the past, then even if I go and win the Champions League, then the chances are we will still be playing in a domestic structure which is significantly behind the likes of England, Spain and Germany. Your situation is a little different in that I think you are managing in France. This should mean that while you are closer to the top end of the scale, you are still not considered the power-house of European football in the way that the other 3, (or even Portugal), might be. 

I remember winning the World Cup with San Marino, beating Italy in the Final and then seeing players with dual Nationalities still opt to play for Italy rather than San Marino. I was the #1 ranked Nation in the World, (I think), yet something in the game still classed Italy as a bigger footballing Nation than San Marino, (which of course it is). What I would say is that while there are rankings in this area, it's also more than that. There are various ways to "grade" things within the game and this is just one of them. 

There is reputation of course, and this is particularly true of domestic structure reputation which is often ignored, but there are also other things under the hood that we are either unaware of or simply just don't understand how they interact with areas of the game that we do understand, (or think we understand). 

Do I know what the implications of the following are for example?

Importance. I think this is how important the game of football is within the Nation. That's great. It seems pretty straightforward, but what I don't understand for example is what the in-game implications are of this within my game. Let's go back to my San Marino example for a minute. Is it possible that because San Marino have a low score in this area, that it will affect a players decison-making on who he is going to play for? The truth is that I don't know, but it certainly seems a reasonable assumption.

Developed can be Developed, Developing and Third World. While this isn't going to be a driving factor in your current save or mine, I certainly don't understand what the implications of this are within the game. 

Economic Factor. I can't even begin to guess at this. The standard of living within the Nation possibly? The implications here are huge. 

FA Financial Power. No idea. Honestly no idea. 

Youth Rating. I think I understand how this works, but to be honest it's all guess-work and assumptions based on guess-work of other people. The truth is I don't know 100%.

I guess what I am saying is that you need to stop thinking within such rigid boundaries with regards to what is and isn't true within the game. Player personalities is just the very tip of the Iceberg. 

 

[nie jem frytek]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Rating. I think I understand how this works, but to be honest it's all guess-work and assumptions based on guess-work of other people. The truth is I don't know 100%

I would love to read about your assumptions on it, even if they're all wrong.

[Stocke]

Shame about losing the initial intake but getting a 20 Determination Professional, with decent attributes elsewhere to boot, more than makes up for it. If Vilhjálmur lives up to his early promise and you can keep hold of him (which could be a tough ask depending on how good he ends up getting unfortunately) he could be a key player and tutor for you for years to come, and if you can't keep hold of him I'm sure he'd still help out the national team quite a bit.

[Jellico73]

I cheated and loaded a skin that shows the hidden attributes.

My Resolute Winger that left has a Prof 15, a Loyalty of 10, and an ambition of 15.  And he went to a team that's 3 spots higher in the club coefficients but 10 spots lower in Nation Coefficient

My Fairly Determined Goalie had a Prof of 10, an ambition of 18, and a loyalty of 12.  And he went to a team that's a lot lower on the tables than I am.  Although the team he originally wanted to go to was a little higher.  And he's been on the team since we first made it to Ligue 1.

My Driven D(R) went to the same team as my Resolute winger, and has a Pro of 12, a Loyalty of 12 and an Ambition of 19.

My current D(L) who's Fairly determined, with a Pro of 10, a Loyalty of 5, and an ambition of 13, a players whose been my starting D(L) for the past 7 years, recently walked into my office and said if we don't win the Champions League he wants to leave.

Now, if I was still a Ligue 2 or even CNF team, I can understand their wanting to move onto something a bit bigger and better, or if I was losing consistently in the early rounds of the Europa or Champions League.

But I'm not.  I'm a top 5 team in  the 4th ranked league in Europe in the country that's ranked 1st in Nation Coefficient, and I've never not made it past the group stages of any tournament I've been in.  Now, if I was getting bounced of the Knockout Rounds of the Europa or Champions League, or falling consistently short in the Coupe de la Ligue and Coupe de France tournaments, I can see why some of my better players would want to move on.  But even when I won the Coupe as a Ligue 2 team none of my players then tried engineering a move to a "bigger" team.  These past 6 years I've qualified for the Europa League twice, the Champions League twice, and been fairly successful in both.  My players weren't coming to me telling me they needed to move on when I was 16th in the Ligue or didn't qualify.   Why come in now?  Why not last year when we only made it to First Knockout round of the Champions League, or the year before when we made it the Quarter Final?  Did my teams chances of winning it all somehow get worse the higher up the table we went, or the further into international competitions we went?

These moves are, in my mind, at best lateral. Whats the logic behind leaving the 2nd place team in Ligue 1 for the 7th place team in the Bundesliga for "a better opportunity to play Champions Ligue or Europa League football?"  Especially after four years of performing pretty well on the world stage with the team your currently part of?

I don't think the mechanic is entirely broken, but it certainly appears to me that Pratchett's Law of Odd's is at work here, and that's not a good thing.

Jellico73

[kidthekid]

i have read some of the simulations which show that professionalism is the key and maybe only attribute that helps players develop fully. I like determination for in game performances but I don't worry if I have a player who lacks it.

My issue with ambition is that I get scared when my assistant says "kidthekid lacks ambition which means he will not further himself"

My interpretation of that statement could me a variety of things.

 1) Nor furthering himself does not mean he is not going to work hard to get better, It just means that he may not agree with your objectives for the team, believing you are putting too much pressure blah blah

2) Too much ambition may mean the player will want to leave, but two little does cut into his development even though he has high professionalism

3) Assistants don't know anything, who cares about them anyway. All they are good for is coaching one aspect of training

In all honesty, like Jimbokav1971 said, there are a lot of things that factor into players' decisions, and personality is one of them but not the only one, so I tend not to spend too much agonizing over some unhappy player, I just tell them want they want to hear (we will sell you providing a valuation is met...) and then set their asking price to some ridiculous value.

Edited April 9, 2017 by kidthekid

[BoxToBox]

46 minutes ago, Jellico73 said:

Why come in now?  Why not last year when we only made it to First Knockout round of the Champions League, or the year before when we made it the Quarter Final?  Did my teams chances of winning it all somehow get worse the higher up the table we went, or the further into international competitions we went?

It's because as you're more successful, and they're having better seasons, their reputation is increasing.

[Reggiana]

On 09/04/2017 at 09:02, Jimbokav1971 said:

I remember winning the World Cup with San Marino, beating Italy in the Final and then seeing players with dual Nationalities still opt to play for Italy rather than San Marino. I was the #1 ranked Nation in the World, (I think), yet something in the game still classed Italy as a bigger footballing Nation than San Marino, (which of course it is). What I would say is that while there are rankings in this area, it's also more than that. There are various ways to "grade" things within the game and this is just one of them.

I do think this is an area of the game that is wide of the mark. In real life you get players playing for another nation that aren't quite good enough to play for their own nation but I do think it's pretty rare for players to hold out for a bigger nation. Massimo Bonini chose not to play for Italy even though San Marino weren't actually a recognised international team for the majority of his career.

I'm not saying that no one from San Marino should ever hold out for Italy, but at times there can be 5 or 6 players in a youth intake who are Sanmarinese but holding out for Italy which I just don't think is realistic.

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, Reggiana said:

I'm not saying that no one from San Marino should ever hold out for Italy, but at times there can be 5 or 6 players in a youth intake who are Sanmarinese but holding out for Italy which I just don't think is realistic.

I don't so much have an issue with a player wanting to play for Italy, if for example they have featured for Italy at U19 or U21 level, or if they have an even slightly remote chance of getting that Italian call-up. What I have an issue with is players who don't have a realistic chance of playing for the (ITA) NT, and have never represented Italy at aged group level somehow thinking they are good enough. 

The general rule of thumb is that if you can play for both I would expect you to pick the biggest historic Nation, but you have to have a chance of playing for them or it's just mot correct.

[Jimbokav1971]

International call-ups decimating squad. Sep 2037.

We are down to our 6th GK for a league match against Stjarnan. 

8th choice DR.

Needless to say, we lost 3-2. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Model Pro OCD watch. Oct 2037. 

We are slowly but surely getting there.

[Jimbokav1971]

It's not just the M.Pro's that are increasing. We are actuall ding really well across the board. The one little problem that I have found, (other than the slow nature of the process), is that because a player can't turn M.Pro until he is 23, and you can't tutor a player after he has become a regular member of the First Team, well then you have to sort of guess as to whether or not a player id going to "pop" to M.Pro when he reaches 23. I can tell you that it's not easy. I have taken to creating player notes in game after a player has been tutored by a M.Pro player while at Pro or Res. 

What?  

[noikeee]

With all those orderly, respectful, non-colorful "professional" personalities, your dressing room must be the most boring place to be in, ever.

[Jimbokav1971]

11 hours ago, noikeee said:

With all those orderly, respectful, non-colorful "professional" personalities, your dressing room must be the most boring place to be in, ever.

I certainly wouldn't like to think what it would be like were they not so professional. 

There is a significant amount of unhappiness about me holding players to the end of their contracts, (which always include 3 year options). Because I am unablle to sign replacements it sometimes mean benching a very good player until his morale comes round again and even when they are happy, there is a significant amount of rotation going on to such an extent that although I'm happy with it, the players are not. 

We rarely have a player win the Golden boot and also rarely have players in the Team of the Year, simply because all players really only play half the games each at most because of rotation and significantly International unavailability. 

It's a very unusual save at the moment. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Stadium expansion Dec 2037.

The current capacity is 7,617, (reduced to 6,955 while the expansion is completed). 

The new capacity will be 9,016.

It will be interesting, (for me at least), to see whether we will be developing a corner and if not where and how we will be adding the new capacity. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

I've just been offered an Affiliate club whereby I would be able to have 1st option on players at the club.

I was thinking for a few minutes if it was realistic that I could incorporate this into a Youth save and after some thought I decided that it wasn't a route I wanted to go down. I'm fine having players from other clubs coming through our academy, but to have a player come through an academy at another club, (even that of an affiliate), and then be signed by us just seems outside the parameters that I created for this save. Technically I could sign the player and not play him, but what's the point in that? No, I declined the clubs offered as I don't think it fits within this save. 

[BoxToBox]

You should have accepted. Afterwards you'd have a "negotiate existing affiliation" option with them, and could ask for the clause where they send players through your intakes to be added(and IME the board always say yes).

[Jimbokav1971]

53 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

You should have accepted. Afterwards you'd have a "negotiate existing affiliation" option with them, and could ask for the clause where they send players through your intakes to be added(and IME the board always say yes).

Good point, but in this case they were only other Icelandic clubs, (although when I asked the initial question the thinking was that they would be foreign clubs).

[BoxToBox]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Good point, but in this case they were only other Icelandic clubs, (although when I asked the initial question the thinking was that they would be foreign clubs).

Ahhh, bugger to that then.

[Jimbokav1971]

U19 Champions League. Feb 2038.

The 2038 season has already started, (we have just played the 1st League Cup game), but the youngsters are still participating in last season's U19 Champions League. 

I can't really get my head around the Group stages of the U19 Champions League, but what I think happens is that the big teams have a group stage and then the little teams play against the big teams in the knockout rounds. Ok, hang on. No. What happens is that the 32 entrants of the Champions League who weren't domestic Champions all play in the league format with the winners of each 4-team group qualifying for the last 16 round, (so that's 8 winners from 8 groups). 

Then the 8 Runners up are joined in then First Knockout Round by all the domestic which gives us.... [I'm counting on fingers and toes here]..... look, I don't really know how this stage works. 

We weren't involved in the Group Stages, (I think because we don't auto-qualify for the Group stages of the Champions League), so we come into the competition in the 1st Knockout Round. (Oops. It seems as if it is called the 1st Qualifying Round in the game). 

Then we play the 1st Knockout Round in the game, (which is called the Playoffs in real life).  

After that we play the 2nd Knockout Round in the game, (which is called the Round of 16 in real life).

1st Qualifying Round. (I think we would expect to win this). 

2nd Qualifying Round. (PSV are no Ajax, but this is still pretty impressive). 

1st Knockout Round. (Now this is certainly impressive, although we did have to win on pens).

Although I didn't manage this game, I did at least pick the squad and also made sure that there were no teenagers playing in the Senior squad in the League Cup game earlier that week. 

2nd Knockout Round.

I think that puts us in the last 16. Don't know our opponent yet. 

By the way, I start my goal-scoring GK's young. That 1st goal in the 2nd Knockout Round was scored by 18 yo GK (35b) Rafn Andri (Pro).

 

[Jimbokav1971]

44 Players called up for International duty, (including 11 players called up for the Senior squad). Mar 2038.

It should also be pointed out that we have 2 GK's in the senior squad, (although frustratingly not the starting GK).

(36a) Úlfar (Pro) (2036) * and (35a) Valdi (Pro) (2035) * are both 18 years old. (33a) Björn Berg (Pro)(2033)* and (32c) Joe (USA) (F.Pro) * are both 21 years old. All 4 are already in the Senior Icelandic squad. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm sick to death of bloomin FM17 crashes and laptop overheats. I've just had another crash. 

[Benjoe]

Sorry to hear about another crash. How much did you lose this time? 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Benjoe said:

Sorry to hear about another crash. How much did you lose this time? 

It's not so much the time, but the effort within this time. 

My last save is the "End of Season" on 24th Nov 2037. 

I had got through 3 League Cup games of the new season which takes me up to approx the end of Feb I think. (In fact the International call-up post above is from March 2038). It's only about 3.5 months, and only 5 competitive Senior games I think, but the amount of work I do with individual training and tutoring and the amount of loans I do never mind about the youngsters getting through to the last 16 of the Champions League all has to be done again too, (if I'm lucky). 

My GK had scored 2 goals in 3 games this season and that's also gone. 

It's just rubbish! 

At this save game date I have the last 2 games of the Europa League to play and last season I drew against Trabzonspor, (we had a player sent off), and got beat by Villareal to finish 3rd in the Group. This time we didn't have a player sent off so we won the 1st game and now sit 2 points ahead of PSV with 1 game to play. If I can somehow eke out a draw against Villareal then even if PSV beat Trabzonspor, then we finish above them by virtue of a better head to head record. 

This is great, but I don't want to get out of the Group Stage after a re-load. 

The problem is, that when I have to reload because of a crash or an overheat, then I just accept whatever the next result is, whether it be the same, worse or better. 

I don't want to get out of the Group. I just want the stadium expansion back, the kids in the last 16 and..... can;t remember, oh yeah, 2 GK goals in 3 games. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Scandinavian in the 2037 Ballon D'or shortlist.

Something that I didn't mention last time was that there was a Scandinavian, (a Norwegian to be precise), on the World Golden Ball shortlist.

I'd say he's decent at the age of 24.

He was produced by a little old Norwegian lower league club that I have never heard of. Absolutely love this. 

[Benjoe]

20 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

It's not so much the time, but the effort within this time. 

My last save is the "End of Season" on 24th Nov 2037. 

I had got through 3 League Cup games of the new season which takes me up to approx the end of Feb I think. (In fact the International call-up post above is from March 2038). It's only about 3.5 months, and only 5 competitive Senior games I think, but the amount of work I do with individual training and tutoring and the amount of loans I do never mind about the youngsters getting through to the last 16 of the Champions League all has to be done again too, (if I'm lucky). 

My GK had scored 2 goals in 3 games this season and that's also gone. 

It's just rubbish! 

At this save game date I have the last 2 games of the Europa League to play and last season I drew against Trabzonspor, (we had a player sent off), and got beat by Villareal to finish 3rd in the Group. This time we didn't have a player sent off so we won the 1st game and now sit 2 points ahead of PSV with 1 game to play. If I can somehow eke out a draw against Villareal then even if PSV beat Trabzonspor, then we finish above them by virtue of a better head to head record. 

This is great, but I don't want to get out of the Group Stage after a re-load. 

The problem is, that when I have to reload because of a crash or an overheat, then I just accept whatever the next result is, whether it be the same, worse or better. 

I don't want to get out of the Group. I just want the stadium expansion back, the kids in the last 16 and..... can;t remember, oh yeah, 2 GK goals in 3 games. 

I feel with you @Jimbokav1971.

Losing all that is depressing, and all the work put in the first time - it just doesn't feel the same the second time. And when the results are different I find it best too, to just go with the flow of however the following events unfold. It is frustrating and saddening no matter though, but otherwise it'd eat even more time to recreate the previous results and that'd feel even worse imo.

Melkeraaen looks solid!  

 

[BoxToBox]

These crashes are horrible!

[Jimbokav1971]

It's my own fault.

What I usually do is save at certain points of the season. 

Save 1. (November). The last day of the old Season when you get the message that the board have entered you into the Youth competition for the new season. 

Save 2. (February). At the end of pre-season immediately before the 1st League Cup game. (I have no idea why I didn't save this time. I think I was just excited by the start of the new season).

Save 3. (April). After the Icelandic version of the Charity Shield, (so that I save the progress from the Upper League Cup). 

Save 4. (August) . After I have done the nicknames for the new intake on Youth Day.

Sometimes I will save after a particularly good or particularly bad result, (so that I don't lose it), or if a GK scores 2 goals or scores a free-kick. I have been relatively lucky over the course of the save but in the last 12 months in-game I think I must have had 12 crashes/overheats. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

I got from 24th November to 31st December again last night and planned to save on 1st Jan 2038 and then monthly going forward. 

Laptop overheated on 31st December 2037, literally seconds before I would have pressed save.

I'm starting to think that my laptop is just rubbish and can't cope with the processing in 2037, (which is rubbish seeing as Iceland is the only league loaded). 

I've just gone back and checked and I posted the 1st 2037 Youth Intake 9 days ago on Saturday 8th April. 9 days later I have only managed to move forward 3 months but I would guess that I have played 2.5 seasons in that time if you add everything up. 

Is this the end of the road?

[Benjoe]

5 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Is this the end of the road?

For your laptop it could sound like it - hopefully not for your save though!

[Jimbokav1971]

[Jimbokav1971]

Just shave it all off for God's sake! Mar 2018.

 

[Jellico73]

Goth kids in the future are weirder than they are now....

[Jimbokav1971]

Och Aye, (again). Jul 2038.

That's a lot of money though. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

2038 Youth Intake.

As I've mentioned before, any intake where you get a 5.0 PA player is never a bad intake. When you add in that the best player is a centre-half and I'm certainly not complaining.  

We are a little short in depth from this intake, but the 3rd best player also being another centre-half is another positive. 

We have a couple of casual personalities which is a shame, but at least they are not slack, (which I really hate).

"Kriss" (38a) Alfreð (F.Pro) (2038) *.

As I have mentioned previously, we were long overdue for a decent centre-half. I not really sure he will be better than decent, despite the 5.0 rating. (On that note, I think it's time for my Ass Man to find employment elsewhere).

 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Best result under my tenure. Sep 2038.

We played for an hour with 10 men after (28a) Magnús (Pro) (2028) * was shown a straight red.

I'm pretty sure it's not our 1st Champions League win, but we certainly haven't had many over the years and have still never progressed out of the Group stage.

[Keano16]

Terrific win!

[Jimbokav1971]

Champions League. Game 2. Sep 2038.

Liverpool dominated, but we still lost by just a single goal.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Champions League. Game 3. Oct 2038.

It would seem that a spell of a few years playing in the Europa League has been time well spent. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Back to Earth with a bump. Game 4. Nov 2038.

Well this wasn't what I had in mind. Was hoping for a draw and certainly wasn't expecting this. 

[Benjoe]

That was brutal.   

Been looking promising in the CHL other than that one. 

[kidthekid]

the stats suggest it was not one sided

[Benjoe]

44 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

the stats suggest it was not one sided

But the score line suggests that the keeper from HK received a bag of gold after the game. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Champions League Game 5. Nov 2038.

A point away against Juve has got to be conceded a decent point whoever you are. When you are a little Icelandic club relying on Youth Only then it's better than decent. 

[Jimbokav1971]

With 1 game remaining we are in 2nd position, but we are home to Liverpool in the last game and Anderlecht are at home to Juve who are having a torrid time. I expect Anderlecht to beat Juve so it means we have to beat Liverpool. Away we wouldn't stand a chance, but at home there is just that little glimmer of hope. 

On the plus side, this is our best performance in the Champions League and no matter how the results go, we will at least drop into the knockout stages of the Europa League. 

[Rikulec]

Juve are going to beat Anderlecht, mark my words.

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, Benjoe said:

That was brutal.   

Been looking promising in the CHL other than that one. 

Yeah, to be honest I'm still quite happy at how it has gone with 1 game left, even with that battering. 

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, kidthekid said:

the stats suggest it was not one sided

Our GK also missed a pen so 6-2 would have been a little better than 6-1.

I've just watched the goals back and they actually scored 4 really good team goals and just passed around us. The game itself was even and the stats say that they created just 2 ccc's to our 4, but 4 of the goals were absolute beauts. 

I think when you concede goals like that you just have to take it on the chin. I didn't watch our chances back because who cares. It's done. Our 1st choice striker is only 19 years old at the moment and has significant room for improvement so I'm hoping, (as I've just tied him down to a 5+3 contract), our fortunes will improve as his CA does. We've been lacking a real goal threat for the last few years so it's great to have this bloke come along and even greater that I have been able to keep him at the club. 

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, Benjoe said:

But the score line suggests that the keeper from HK received a bag of gold after the game. 

 Not a chance with any of them I'm afraid, (but the less said about his penalty the better so you could be on to something).

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Juve are going to beat Anderlecht, mark my words.

Juve have an old Spanish SC and a young Portugese SC. If they play the old bloke they will lose. If they play the young guy then they will get a result of some sort. That's my prediction anyway. 

I've just worked out why they have had such a rubbish campaign though....

They are missing 2 key centre-backs, one of whom is our very own youth product (32a) Arnar þór (Res) (2032) * who has missed almost the whole season and is out with a damaged spine. (On the plus sude he will be back in a couple of days, but not in time to face Anderlecht).

[Jimbokav1971]

Champions League. Game 6. Dec 2038.

We didn't win, but we held Liverpool to a draw despite being a man down as early as the 49th minute.

I've got to be happy with that. Better than happy actually. We played with a man less for almost the whole of the 2nd half and still dominated possession. According to our stats we scored 2 from 2 ccc's and they scored 2 goals from 0 ccc's. I don't really pay too much attention to those stats though, (mainly because SI are unable to give us an accurate in game definition of what is and isn't a ccc).

Looking at the game itself, although we were the better team, they had what looked to be a good goal ruled out for a very dubious offside late in the game so I can't really complain.

Now... just to see if a point was enough. (Come on Juve!)