smp20 Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 MK Dons, Ipswich and Norwich would all have been closer (oh and Peterborough, but we wouldn't share with them...) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Cambridge in the big time but not in Cambridge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 14, 2017 Author Share Posted November 14, 2017 12 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said: Cambridge in the big time but not in Cambridge. We still somehow managed to sell 18,000 season tickets; probably more than Watford!!! Also more than the 16,500 capacity stadium that's being built - expansions will happen early on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deego619 Posted November 14, 2017 Share Posted November 14, 2017 Great career so far! Having the best attack and worst defence in the league in the 1st Championship season must've been fun Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 14, 2017 Author Share Posted November 14, 2017 2021/22 Mid-season Update: Premier League Debut Transfers Paterson ~ McGee ~ Low ~ Major ~ Tisserand Our first signing was a new right back, and new captain, Callum Paterson. He's a physical full back with a long throw and great mentals so he fits the bill for Beck. Our biggest spending went on a new keeper, McGee, although its money over 4 years. He looks a class act and has fitted in to the PL well. We secured the permanent signings of Mings, Williams and Murgia and I opted to bring in two young target men. Low has been on loan in the Championship but struggled to get in Portsmouth side while Major has had injury after injury, crippling his potential. Verlinden joined us for a second stint on loan and we secured Alexander-Arnold as well but he's being sent back on 1st Jan after suffering a damaged spine. Tisserand signed on deadline day to add another strong, pacy option to our backline. Results We got off to a fantastic start with two convincing wins. A disappointing loss to QPR followed, but we then salvaged a point at Anfield and bar a strange 6-2 home loss to Burnley we had a run of good form starting with a 4-2-2 record. Alas we couldn't keep it up and succumbed to 4 straight defeats which saw us fall down to 15th in the league. An injury time winner against Everton sparked the catalyst to a run of good form; our only defeat since being at Old Trafford to a Utd side that are running away with the league. For some reason, I assume a bug, the League Cup 2nd round was never drawn so the competition is in limbo. League Table I'm very happy to be sitting 7th at the half-way point. We're looking well clear of relegation, so I hope we don't have a woeful 2nd half of the season and slip into the bottom end. Man Utd are unstoppable, their two draws were away to Man City and Newcastle. Our loss against QPR looks even worse considering we're the only side they've beaten. Player Stats Kamara is 2nd top scorer in the PL with 15 goals, just one behind Eden Hazard. We've pretty much got a clear first 11 now. Our back 5 of McGee, Paterson, Tisserand, Cooper and Mings is settled, as is the midfield duo of Gbamin and Murgia. Aarons has been performing on the left, while Verlinden started well and his form has petered out. Kamara is the first name on the team sheet, but Carroll is not the player he was and injuries have kept Major from getting into the side. In January we will be signing a top target man and another right winger. We've got £15m to spend, so we can afford to splash out a bit. In Cambridge terms at least. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2017 Share Posted November 14, 2017 That's really good for the first season in the Premier League. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 21 hours ago, JDeeguain said: Great career so far! Having the best attack and worst defence in the league in the 1st Championship season must've been fun Haha, pretty much been the story of the career! Score bucket loads, concede bucket loads. Been plenty of tearing hair out moments that's for sure. 19 hours ago, Rikulec said: That's really good for the first season in the Premier League. Cheers, I'm very happy with it as well. We were predicted rock bottom. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tajj7 Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Yeh that is a fantastic start, only 12 to go until the magic 40 points. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 2021/22 Season Review Transfers Traore ~ Kleindienst ~ Edouard ~ Sell ~ Welbeck ~ Kohr A much busier January transfer window than I normally have. Our first arrival was Adama Traore - brought in for one thing. Pace, and loads of it. With the departure of Andy Carroll, who had failed to meet expectations, we needed to bring in a strike partner for Kamara. We went a little bit overboard, bringing in 4 strikers. The first was Kleindienst, who fell down the pile very quickly. He's good in the air, but lacked pace to chase down long balls. Odsonne Edouard came in on loan with a future fee of £5m and he became the best partner for Kamara. Danny Welbeck was floating around on a free transfer and did well but suffered a broken ankle and will not have his contract extended. Christoffer Sell was a bargain buy at £250k; the youngster has a lot of pace and is pretty good in the air too. Our final January signing was dominant midfielder Dominik Kohr - he's already agreed to join permanently for £4m. Results With the exception of a very good win against Liverpool, January was not a good month for us. We lost heavily to Newcastle, Southampton and Leicester, went out of the FA Cup to Birmingham and only picked up a point against struggling QPR. February was a mixed bag, winning at home and losing heavily away. We tweaked our formation and team shape from the Norwich game onwards and it proved to be very successful. We destroyed Norwich, picked up valuable draws against Chelsea and Man Utd, beat Arsenal and thrashed Spurs. We're looking much better defensively and we're still scoring goals. League Table With our late surge of form we climbed from mid-table obscurity above holders Liverpool into 7th position. We finished with the 3rd best attack behind Man Utd and Arsenal, but the joint worst defence. We racked up some important wins along the way and I'm very proud of our finish. As you can see, it was very tight at the bottom with lots of teams going into the final game fighting for survival. Meanwhile, Man Utd stormed the league by 24 points! Youth Intake I haven't really focused on our youth intakes but I had to fit this one in. Lloyd Smith-Dearnley is touted as one of the best of his generation! Facilities Not long now until we move into our new ground . Finances Hell, that's a lot of money! The coffers are looking very healthy and the board has backed the manager with a huge budget. Is this Cambridge United? Player Stats Let's start with Kamara - he just can't stop scoring! 24 PL goals, second behind Utd's Hazard. Gbamin and Kohr formed a fantastic defensive midfield partnership in the latter stages of the season and Rolando Aarons was our assist king. Our defence on the whole really struggled rating wise, but there was a big improvement in the latter stages of the season. Tactics We've switched to very fluid, given the full backs a little bit more freedom, and created a deeper defence with two banks of 4. Beckball has not been compromised, but we are a little more solid. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 8 minutes ago, tajj7 said: Yeh that is a fantastic start, only 12 to go until the magic 40 points. Magic 40 wouldn't have been enough Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tajj7 Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 11 minutes ago, smp20 said: Magic 40 wouldn't have been enough lol apparently not, congrats on the finish, did you sneak Europa league because of the cups? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 Just now, tajj7 said: lol apparently not, congrats on the finish, did you sneak Europa league because of the cups? Cheers. I'm not sure, no news, but because of the league cup bug and that Man Utd won the FA Cup you'd assume we'd get a place. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tajj7 Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Just now, smp20 said: Cheers. I'm not sure, no news, but because of the league cup bug and that Man Utd won the FA Cup you'd assume we'd get a place. Doesn't the FA cup place go to the runner up if the winner is already in Europe? I think it's the league cup where the Euro place goes back into the league rather than the runner up. Weird the League cup never happened, I presume you can still continue etc. That bug might have cost you a European place. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 Wahay Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 We're back in Cambridge and no doubt we'll sell out our ground every game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 4 hours ago, tajj7 said: Doesn't the FA cup place go to the runner up if the winner is already in Europe? I think it's the league cup where the Euro place goes back into the league rather than the runner up. Weird the League cup never happened, I presume you can still continue etc. That bug might have cost you a European place. I think that rule was taken out a couple of years back - need to win it to get Europe. Meant that Southampton missed out! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tajj7 Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 3 minutes ago, smp20 said: I think that rule was taken out a couple of years back - need to win it to get Europe. Meant that Southampton missed out! Maybe, who did Utd play in the final of the FA Cup? Also the game might have just dumped the League Cup place into the league because of the bug, but congrats either way! Old school ugly British football of to the continent! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Great progress in the save. I can't believe Beckball worked in the EPL. The change to very fluid has brought back shades of your trusted Sacchi tactic. Could you post a screenshot of Kamara if it wouldn't be a problem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Fantastic season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 17, 2017 Author Share Posted November 17, 2017 On 11/15/2017 at 15:17, tajj7 said: Maybe, who did Utd play in the final of the FA Cup? Also the game might have just dumped the League Cup place into the league because of the bug, but congrats either way! Old school ugly British football of to the continent! Cheers @tajj7. Utd played Southampton, but the ruling changed in 2015 which means that clubs must win the fa cup to get a place in Europe. As there was no League Cup the place automatically went to us in 7th . Beckball on the streets of Rome...who'd have thought it!!! 9 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said: Fantastic season. Thanks @Nobby_McDonald On 11/16/2017 at 05:15, kidthekid said: Great progress in the save. I can't believe Beckball worked in the EPL. The change to very fluid has brought back shades of your trusted Sacchi tactic. Could you post a screenshot of Kamara if it wouldn't be a problem. Cheers @kidthekid. I'm a little bit dumbfounded too as to how it's still working. Yeah the change to Very Fluid and 2 DMs is very Sacchi-esque, but I've made sure we still hoof it long . Here's Kamara in Jan 2023. Unfortunately he picked up an injury early on in the season and lost his place in the first 11, but still a great squad player and club icon: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 17, 2017 Author Share Posted November 17, 2017 2022/23 Mid Season Update Transfers Wilson ~ Cornelius ~ Mebude ~ Grabara ~ Alexander ~ Strootman ~ Markaj ~ Iorfa ~ Poulsen We'd been given a huge budget and I wasn't going to turn the opportunity down to turn Cambridge into a real PL quality side. The first one in was Harry Wilson and what a signing he's turned out to be. Unfortunately he broke his ankle, but he will be back in a few weeks. I delayed the transfer of Cornelius several times but I'm very glad I finally brought him in. He has lead the line superby and linked up very well with fellow new signing Mebude; now an England International and room to develop. We brought in competition for McGee in Grabara for a bargain £2.6m, while Verlinden and Kohr joined us on permanent transfers. The likes of Adarabioyo, Rose and Noble were brought in to add depth to the squad. Our best free signings were Strootman and Alexander-Arnold. Markaj joined us on loan from City and he has been very good, keeping Verlinden out the side. Our last summer signing was Dominic Iorfa, smashing the club record. Unfortunately he has been a bit disappointing. Poulsen had been on my radar for years and I was glad to finally sign him in January. Europa League A very good Europa League campaign so far. We eased through qualifying and we were handed a favourable group. We thrashed Krasnodar in the opening game and followed up with a sneaky win in Rome. We only just beat Rijeka away after a poor draw at home and we collapsed against Krasnodar in Russia. But, we had already qualified and it all came down to the final game as to whom would finish top. An excellent defensive performance against Lazio and a couple of late goals was enough for us to leapfrog them to top of the group and we were rewarded with a good draw against Heerenveen in the knockouts. Premier League We had a magnificent start to the season and for a while we were top of the pile. Our first loss of the season came at home to West Ham, who were high flying at the time, but still disappointing. Our only other losses have come away to Man Utd and Arsenal. We're now sitting in 4th place, which I am very, very happy with. The 3 above us are on top form and will be hard to catch, while Chelsea and Arsenal have hit some form and will be chasing us down for the CL spots. Here's hoping we can maintain our form next season. Domestic Cups The league cup returned . Though we were out pretty soon... Facilities We're back in Cambridge and into the new stadium . Our facilities on the whole have been improved and we've managed to max out our junior coaching and youth recruitment. Here's hoping for some golden generations. Club Information Beck makes it to Legend status. Piero Mingoia, who was the star in our back-to-back promotions to the Championship, ranks highly among the club Icons, while record goalscorer Kamara also features. Nice to see our chairman on favoured personnel too. Player Stats Mebude and Cornelius have formed a marvelous partnership up top, forcing Kamara out the first 11. Harry Wilson was superb before his injury and on the other wing Markaj has been a key creator. Gbamin has been played very well as a ball-winning midfielder, keeping the likes of Strootman out the side. I am however disappointed with the form of Iorfa, Mings, Paterson, Williams, Verlinden and Rose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 18, 2017 Author Share Posted November 18, 2017 An outstanding season. More to follow. But this was bloody brilliant. Transfers It wasn't a manic January transfer window but we did make a few additions. We already know about Poulsen joining but we also added centre-back Adilson, a 22 year old Brazilian regen. Matthew Wood, the player we sold to Liverpool, joined us back on loan. We sold Tisserand to fund the Adilson transfer and our other outgoing was Gbamin. He had been superb for us and we certainly didn't want to lose him but he had a £13.5m release clause to CL competing clubs. I decided to use the cash to sign Jordan Lukaku, after Tyrone Mings had picked up a 3 month injury and he'd been poor anyway. Premier League *Disclaimer - I rage quit vs Man City. We were 3-0 up at half time, but went 7-3 down in the 75th minute. I just lost it and turned off my laptop. Not proud of myself, as you can see we lost the 'replay' 4-2* Now after that shameful disclaimer, let's move on. Overall a very good second half of the season. We're a very determined team and I loved the fact that we won back to back games in injury time. We also managed to beat the best team in the world, Man Utd, 1-0 at the New Abbey (my name for the Stadium). FM Karma came back to bite us; a 3-3 with Chelsea from 3-0 up and being by far the better team, as well as losses to struggling Watford and Stoke and a 0-0 draw with Brighton. So, how did the table shape up? A superb 3rd place finish. We played our game in hand against Arsenal, quite strangely, after everyone else had played 38 and had already confirmed a top 4 finish and a 1-1 draw was enough to see us move up to 3rd. Had we won some of the games against Stoke, Watford, Brighton and/or Chelsea we would have been competing for the title with Man Utd but it wasn't to be. Unlike last year with 42 points going down, Forest managed to stay up with just 30!!! FA Cup Despite needing a replay against third tier Cardiff, we ended up having a great run in the FA Cup reaching the final beating Man City and Chelsea on the way. It was a very even final vs Arsenal until Mings forgot how to be a footballer. Last nail in the coffin for him. Europa League Cambridge United's first ever major silverware came in the Europa League! A 0-0 away draw meant we needed to be cautious to the counter at home. Two late goals flattered us as we went through 3-0 on aggregate. We absolutely destroyed CSKA Moskow but it looked like our time would be up when we were drawn against Juventus. We won 2-1 in Italy, but they won 2-1 back at our place taking it to extra time. Verlinden scored a goal in the 99th minute and we maanged to hang on and made our way to the Semis. Lyon were going to be tough, but we were confident after beating Juventus. We got a last minute equaliser at home which may have proved crucial. 3 goals in the first half against Lyon meant that they had to go searching for the win, but we managed to defend well and pick off a 4th goal on the counter. We faced Atletico in the final and despite conceding early on we got two back, only to concede very quickly after. We were equally quick on the trigger and scored 2 minutes later and held on to win the game 3-2!! Facilities We're once again sharing a ground, this time while ours is being expanded. This time we find ourselves in roundabout land: MK. We've made some good improvement to our facilities and we have further increases in the making Player Stats With 66 games in all competitions, squad rotation was key. Although, some was forced upon through injury as we were regularly had the highest injury table in the league. All four of our main strikers reached double figures comfortably, with Cornelius the 3rd best in Europe. Our ratings in defence are getting better . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 Nice season indeed Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 Amazing win in the Europa League! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deego619 Posted November 20, 2017 Share Posted November 20, 2017 Congrats on winning the Europa League! In regards Beck ball, are there any changes you'd like to make to your system to make it more efficient at the expense of losing the philosophy? Or do you feel that the current setup is the best possible way of setting the team up? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 20, 2017 Author Share Posted November 20, 2017 Cheers @kidthekid and @mjaferrie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 20, 2017 Author Share Posted November 20, 2017 36 minutes ago, JDeeguain said: Congrats on winning the Europa League! In regards Beck ball, are there any changes you'd like to make to your system to make it more efficient at the expense of losing the philosophy? Or do you feel that the current setup is the best possible way of setting the team up? Cheers . Interesting you should ask this as I have recently, well over the last couple of seasons, been making some tweaks. The philosophy is still in tact; we play direct football focusing on getting it down the wings and delivering to POMO and making the most of set pieces. However, it has been 'toned down' a little as I now have better players that can handle a little bit of freedom. Not too much though...I will include a tactical section in my next update. *Edit* as well as being a Cambridge Fan, John Beck was the assessor for one of my coaching badges, hence my fascination. He highlighted flexibility/adaptability as one of the key assets of a top class coach. I guess he may have done things slightly differently and adapted his ways towards the end of his time at Cambridge. Hindsight is a wonderful thing... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tajj7 Posted November 20, 2017 Share Posted November 20, 2017 Wow nice season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GylfiAsCharged Posted November 20, 2017 Share Posted November 20, 2017 Seeing you beat Reading in the play-off final with ex-Royals Federici, Blackett, Cooper, Ikpeazu and Ugwu is a little bittersweet. Very impressive work so far. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 20, 2017 Author Share Posted November 20, 2017 7 hours ago, GylfiAsCharged said: Seeing you beat Reading in the play-off final with ex-Royals Federici, Blackett, Cooper, Ikpeazu and Ugwu is a little bittersweet. Very impressive work so far. Haha I hadn't even put two and two together with that link! Makes up for you getting Kitson off us on the cheap (our board was rubbish at the time). Cheers Gylfi! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 20, 2017 Author Share Posted November 20, 2017 2023/24 Mid Season Update Transfers Full squad update to come soon but here's an overview of our transfers up to my current date of 3rd Jan. We brought back Matthew Wood from Liverpool and he's been class so far; Tymon was our other early signing giving us a better left back option. Pickford is the ideal keeper for our system and I was delighted to bring him in. Torunarigha is a very physical centre back and has the bonus of being left-footed, while an experienced Oxlade-Chamberlain joins us from the Bavarian wilderness. We heavily strengthened our defensive midfield area with the addition of Stepanenko on a free after his release from Spurs, the re-signing of Gbamin who had been TL at City just a few months after leaving us for them and a record signing of Weston McKennie. I In January we've added young striker Tim Crabb, who had been on my radar for a long time but was finally available for less than £100m after Brighton's relegation. I was delighted to sign the in form Burke and Ngoy to add pace and strength to our attacks, with the inconsistent Verlinden going the other way. With our squad heavily strengthened, fringe players such as Mings, Blackett, Adarabioyo, Traore, Paterson, Kleindeinst were sold on. We got great money for Grabara, Murgia, Kamara and Cornelius who were replaceable players. Kamara was class in his time here, but the U's are heading in a new direction. Premier League We got off to a fantastic start with 7 straight wins, with some high scoring games thrown in. We first faltered against Man Utd, who had also achieved a 100% record at that point and before Torunarigha's goal hadn't even conceded. Losses away to Chelsea and Spurs can hardly be criticised, but it was disappointing to lose our great record against Spurs. I was disappointed with the home draws against Villa and Stoke though, especially as we needed an injury time equaliser in the latter. Ngoy did score 77 seconds into his debut against his former club though (he also scored Stoke's two against us in the opening fixture). We're sitting at the top, but we've got Chelsea chasing us down and Man Utd have 4 games in hand due to playing in the CWC. Arsenal are having a poor season and recently sacked a 73-year-old Wenger . Beck and Mourinho (and hopefully the two clubs officially soon) have developed a bitter rivalry and absolutely hate each other. We beat them 3-1 in the European Super Cup, but they've knocked us out the league cup and beat us at Stadium: MK. Looking forward to Old Trafford!!! Champions League Incredibly we topped the group ahead of Barca on away goals scored. The only goals we've conceded have been at the Nou Camp and two 6-0 wins to finish off the group was dreamlike. We've got a tough draw in the knockout round against Atletico who will be after revenge for the EL final. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 20, 2017 Author Share Posted November 20, 2017 Squad Review January 2024 Goalkeepers Pickford ~ Lozano ~ McGee I'm extremely happy with our depth in goal. Pickford is just perfect for our system. Lozano, now equiped with a work permit, is a great number 2 but unfortunately picked up a 3 month injury meaning that McGee, our first choice keeper for the previous two seasons, was called back from his loan at Crystal Palace. Right Backs Alexander-Arnold ~ Iorfa Alexander-Arnold has broken into both our lineup and England's making the right back position his own. Iorfa was brought in as our first choice there originally but is now a competent backup for TAA. Gbamin would be our 3rd choice if needed, with Wood more suited to central areas. Left Backs Tymon ~ Lukaku Josh Tymon joined us from Stoke in June to be a solid full-back, balanced between defence and attack. Lukaku is his understudy, though due to injuries elsewhere he's spent more time playing left wing than left back. Torunarigha can fill in at left back if needed. Centre Backs Wood ~ Torunarigha ~ Adilson ~ Williams ~ Cooper I've never looked at it in isolation like this before, we've got 8 players capable of playing centre back . Tremendous depth; 5 of them are considered as centre-backs outright. Wood, under the tutorship of Torunarigha, has been developing exceptionally well and has even formed a first choice partnership with his tutor ousting Adilson from the starting 11. Our former pace and giant partnership of Williams and Cooper have been consign to being backups, but they're still decent. Ball Winners McKennie ~ Kohr ~ Stepanenko ~ Gbamin ~ Craddock ~ Ashton Our ball winners are in the DM strata and we've got plenty of them. McKennie is one of our standout players. He's an absolute beast and he can hurl a ball with his arms too (as can Gbamin and he's had long flat throw trained into him). Kohr, Stepanenko and Gbamin are all great potential partners for Weston, while HG at club Craddock and Ashton may not be ball-winners by trade but are hot prospects I'm hoping to turn them into useful players. Right Wingers Burke ~ Oxlade-Chamberlain I've been interested in Burke since the beginning of the save but I must have taken my eye off the ball when Everton pinched him from Leicester on the cheap where he has been the single light in a poor Everton campaign. He's the ideal Beck player, and although I was originally planning to sign him and convert to a striker, I'm going to use him as a winger and an additional aerial threat. The Ox has been superb so far, so it's going to be very hard to pick between the two of them. As you can see, we have a multitude of players capable of cover... Left Wingers Wilson ~ Aarons Harry Wilson is rated as the best player at the club and his performances back that up. He's either a bit injury prone or just plain unlucky though as he's missed a lot of games since joining us. We first had Rolando Aarons in League One on loan which he tore apart and then we signed him in our Championship promotion season. He's been injured pretty much the whole of this season so far, good job Lukaku has been able to fill in at left wing when needed! Strikers Mebude ~ Ngoy ~ Poulsen ~ Crabb Prior to January we only had 3 strikers - Mebude, Poulsen and Cornelius. All 3 of them spent time out injured and even Jake Cooper started a game up top! Now with the additions of Ngoy and Crabb, as well as Burke who can cover, we have excellent depth and quality. Mebude is the form player of the side, averaging over a goal a game, while Ngoy and Crabb made very promising debuts against Stoke on the day that they signed. Poulsen is sometimes great, but sometimes woeful. Ngoy doesn't have great passing or heading ability, but he's one of the fastest players in the World and comes to us as 2nd top scorer in the PL. Crabb is the next 'Dion Dublin' and then some. Overall, I am very, very happy with the squad now. Physically dominant and we can actually play a bit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted November 20, 2017 Share Posted November 20, 2017 Cambridge conquering Europe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 21, 2017 Author Share Posted November 21, 2017 13 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said: Cambridge conquering Europe. Europa League down, Champions League to go! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deego619 Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 That's a scary team, so much physicality! A lot of good attacking talent coming from Preston of all teams in Mebude and Aarons. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 21, 2017 Author Share Posted November 21, 2017 Tactical Evolution So this is where we stand with our tactical evolution. We're now very fluid, allowing more freedom and movement for our better standard players. The strikers are no longer limited to being Target Men as they are now more equipped as complete forwards and our full backs even have more freedom. We're not route one, but we are still very direct and aim to get the ball out wide looking for corners, throw-ins or opportunities to cross to POMO. We will never lose our high pressing, aggressive nature. That's ingrained through the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 21, 2017 Author Share Posted November 21, 2017 1 minute ago, JDeeguain said: That's a scary team, so much physicality! A lot of good attacking talent coming from Preston of all teams in Mebude and Aarons. It'll be the fixture that oppositions will be dreading - plenty of ice baths and rest after playing us that's for sure! They were both on loan there, so Preston certainly had an eye for talent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tajj7 Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 A lot promising young English talent there, is Mr Beck going to be tempted by the England job if it comes up? Aside the wingers there is barely a player there who doesn't have a strength of at least 16! Burke is a weird player, is he actually that strong and good in the air in real life? Odd that he ended up as a winger. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 21, 2017 Author Share Posted November 21, 2017 1 hour ago, tajj7 said: A lot promising young English talent there, is Mr Beck going to be tempted by the England job if it comes up? Aside the wingers there is barely a player there who doesn't have a strength of at least 16! Burke is a weird player, is he actually that strong and good in the air in real life? Odd that he ended up as a winger. Mr Beck has already applied once and been knocked back . It's now Spalletti with a 3 striker system. Yeah our gym is very well used, had to order extra dumbbells!!! I've not seen him play IRL but for at least the last two iterations Burke has been a winger aerial beast. Two assists on his debut, one with his head Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wynter Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 That's a really nice squad you've got on your hands... Here's hoping the season is a good one Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 22, 2017 Author Share Posted November 22, 2017 13 hours ago, wynter said: That's a really nice squad you've got on your hands... Here's hoping the season is a good one Cheers @wynter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 22, 2017 Author Share Posted November 22, 2017 Just pinch me now. The perfect season pretty much. Buzzing. BUZZING. Premier League A superb second half of the season. We only lost two games; one at Anfield and one at the Emirates with the latter being after we'd already won the title. Highlights include the 4-2 win at Old Trafford and a 5-0 thrashing of Spurs in our first PL game back at our newly expanded stadium. We secured the title when Everton beat Man Utd on the Thursday before the final league match in Utd's game in hand. It wasn't enough to keep Everton up though because they lost to Villa in the final game. Oh, how about the 3rd best defence conceding an average of only a goal a game . FA Cup We were fantastic on our travels on the way to winning the FA Cup for the first time in the club's history. The pivotal match was the semi-final against Mourinho's Utd. We got the better of him again, progressing to the final against QPR and duly delivered. John Beck, on his 70th birthday, paraded around Wembley with the FA Cup trophy. Champions League We faced Man Utd once again in another final, after pipping them to the Premier League title and FA Cup. It was a poor game aesthetically; both teams missed a penalty in normal time and there were lots of yellow cards. Ngoy struck home our 5th to secure a 4-2 penalty win after the game finished 0-0. Needless to say, the relationship between Beck and Mourinho is one of pure hatred. Player Stats We developed a core starting 11 over the course of the season; Pickford in goal, Alexander-Arnold, Wood, Torunarigha and Tymon as our back 4 with Wilson, Oxlade-Chamberlain on the wings and McKennie alongside either Kohr or Craddock in the middle. Mebude and Ngoy developed a fantastic strike partnership n the second half of the season, leading to both becoming club icons and Mebude clinching nearly every award possible while Ngoy was named signing of the season. Facilities Our facilities are looking in good condition now with further development on the way. We're back in our own stadium after spending most of the season in Milton Keynes and it's being expanded to over 30,000 Finances We're rich. Just showing off here . Club Information Lots of current players now considered favoured personnel while our front two are icons. Beck, of course, is a club legend and has been for a while now. The most interesting new addition to this screen is that Man Utd are now competitive rivals!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 Wow. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 22, 2017 Author Share Posted November 22, 2017 1 hour ago, Rikulec said: Wow. Cheers @Rikulec Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 22, 2017 Author Share Posted November 22, 2017 Retirement Beckons In a short statement released to the press, John Beck announced his retirement from club football management. He stated that he had achieved everything he had set out to at Cambridge and taken the club as far as he could. Having just turned 70, he would now only consider less hands-on, day-to-day jobs and that in fact the England job would be the only one that would force him out of retirement. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 22, 2017 Author Share Posted November 22, 2017 New Era Dawns On Cambridge United Lead By... Move over Herrlich, Marcelino and Simeone! Charlie Adam, who spent the last few years of his playing years at the club and was a pivotal part of the side that got us to the Premier League, takes on the hot seat at Cambridge United. After his retirement he set his sights on completing his coaching badges and managing in the Premier League. "We will aim towards playing beautiful, technical football but of course keep the graft and desire from Beck's legacy. I aim to turn Cambridge into the next Barcelona, both on the pitch in style and with our youth academy." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tajj7 Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 What a season congrats, especially beating Mourinho's Utd to all 3 competitions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 John Beck has now done it all. Odd that on one screen Charlie Adam has 19 caps and on another he has 26. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GylfiAsCharged Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 Congratulations John Beck, enjoy your retirement! Looking forward to see how Charlie Adam changes things up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smp20 Posted November 28, 2017 Author Share Posted November 28, 2017 Thanks @tajj7 @Nobby_McDonald & @GylfiAsCharged! Unfortunately after the retirement of John Beck I couldn't get into this safe. I will be back with a new career! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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