[FM20] All That's Left is to Find Out the Colour of the Hair Dryer

[Mandy42]

January 2024

Game Week 19

200th reply! which is probably the most I have ever written in a thread (unless someone gazumps me and replies before I finish this update!) Also I am pretty sure 2024 is the furthest I have gone in a save for a LONG time! So progress on all fronts! First game of the new year sees us take on Norwich at Carrow, which means we play my arch nemesis Nuno Santo, otherwise known as "The Beard." Also now it is January, the transfer window is open, though we play Norwich on the 1st so there is no time for anyone to come in and try poach. However, our prearranged transfer goes through, and Luca joins us from Juventus.

With free kick taking of 18 and long shots of 15, he might very quickly become Luca "The Bazooka" but we will see. I have gone straight to the individual training page and set him on the road to being a shadow striker. Also (another 1st for me) I have discussed a new trait for him with one of the coaches, or rather removal of one of his current ones. Why someone with dribbling of 18 doesn't run with the ball often is beyond me, so that is going. One last thing before we get to the 1st action of the new year, and that is the monthly review:

I didn't stay at an A for long, and once more it is match performance that drags me down, the worst culprit being the 0-0 Arsenal draw, which the board graded as an F. Well to be fair I used a lot of Fs as well during that game. Speaking of Arsenal:

Not happening at the Emirates

The shock here is Ben Chilwell actually not being injured!

Man City leave it late to get the win, and then pad their goal difference.

This was a game we grew into, Tommy Tavares driving down the right side won us the penalty and we never looked back. Well I made sure of it by demanding more the second the penalty went in, and the Captain lead by example. With Naci out with a cold, Maddison plays at inverted winger, which means the Captain gets a day in the 1st XI in midfield, he definitely doesn't squander that opportunity. However Yari Verschaeren missed the memo about keeping the ball off the floor.

2 goals up we had a cushion and looked comfortable, so comfortable I didn't even use my usual spiel of don't get complacent at halftime, just told them they were playing well and they could keep going. We restricted Norwich, and it was nice to see us be so clinical, scoring 4 goals from 6 attempts and 5 of those being on target. Youri's 2nd is a fantastic team goal, that shows we have gone beyond relying on a long through ball to move up the pitch. Feel slightly sorry for Youri as I subbed him just after his 2nd goal, replacing him with Sidnei, which means he could have been on for a hat trick if he stayed on the pitch. Another length of the pitch goal, which we execute like a well oiled machine. Which is a point that stuck in my head during the game. Our new signing Luca, who has gone straight into the 1st XI in the place of Mason Mount was the worst player on the pitch. In my younger FM days I probably would have worried why he hadn't lived up to his price tag / stats and played well, I was always wanting an instant impact. However, he needs to grow into the team, the system and it really isn't a surprise he had the lowest player rating on our team. I will look to him improving in the 2nd half of the season as he finds his feet. Then the last game of the day:

Man Utd trying to keep touch with the top 3, and helping create a gap to everyone else.

It is 10 points back to minimum board expectation, and if we win our game in hand we extend that lead and go second! Up next is our FA Cup 3rd round tie against Forest.

 

[Mandy42]

We are at the halfway point of the season, and I did say I was going to do some @_Ben_ inspired analysis comparing my two separate XIs Now I'm no spreadsheet wiz (though hopefully that will improve) And I only have half a season's worth of data to look at, this will definitely improve as I come up with both different ways to compare the squads (and more data with which to do it.

So lets start off very basic:

This is the number of games, points and points per game each XI has accrued in the Premier League. As the 1st half of the season drew on I made a conscious decision for the 1st XI to play more Premier League games, as we need that 1st title within the next 3 seasons to stay on track with the challenge. However it is the 2nd XI who are picking up more points per game in the Premier League, having played 7 and won 7 for a total, that I didn't really need the spreadsheet to work out for me, 3 points per game. The 1st XI has drawn 3 games and lost once, meaning they have only 2.25 points from 12 games. Now lets do the same comparison with the Champions League.

Here the difference is more marked, double the games, more than double the points. Even with a frustrating late loss away to Lyon, the 2nd XI has 2.25 points per game to the 1st XI's 1. What the graph doesn't show is that both those single points were 0-0 draws against Real Madrid, a result I am very happy with. Finally, lets compare some other stats.

These figures are taken from all competitive games played so far this season.  You might be thinking hang on, surely every goal scored requires an assist, so why aren't the bars the same? You would be correct, the above chart is by player, as in, if a 2nd XI player comes on as a substitute in an 1st XI game, their stats still in the 2nd XI column and vice versa. So while it doesn't show which game the goal was scored in and which players combined to score it, there can be no doubt that 2nd XI players score more goals, provide more assists and have a slightly higher average rating.

So why? The short answer is I don't really know, the 1st XI has better relationships across the entire formation. The back 3, the central midfield 3 and finally between the left wing back and left winger. This would suggest they have more chance of performing better than their 2nd XI counterparts but they don't. One possibility for the improved assist and goal numbers (which would enhance player rating) is that due to the rotation system all of our players are in better condition than opponents. Thus not only are 2nd XI players having an advantage late in their own games, but are also appearing as substitutes late in 1st XI games. Conversely, I try not use 1st XI players as subs for 2nd XI games unless we need to chase the game.

It could be the calibre of opposition the two XI's have faced, as the 1st XI has played Arsenal twice, Man City and Man Utd. Losing 1 of those games, drawing 2 and winning 1. However, they have also lost to Watford, and drawn with Brighton, teams they would be expected to walk all over. 

My final thought is, while the 1st XI has the better stats individually, and better relationships as a team, both captain and vice captain were 2nd XI players. Perhaps the perfect mix of young players and on the pitch leadership is more effective than just more talented players. Will see if this changes into the 2nd half of the season, as Nathan Wood takes the vice captain role and is a 1st XI player.

 

[Mandy42]

January 2024

3rd Round

We start our bid for the oldest cup competition with an away trip to our rivals Nottingham Forest. There's really no reason why the 2nd XI shouldn't take care of this without making it out of 1st gear, but then the joy of the FA Cup is in the upsets.

No upsets, but big clubs needing to work hard and ride their luck in order to reach the next round.

No such problem for us, we dominated and came out comfortable winners. I've seen stutter step penalties, but never a stutter step corner, but it did the trick in flummoxing the opposition keeper and allowing Nemanja to get in for only his 2nd goal of the season. Then The Captain finishes off a nice team move just before the half to give us a cushion. After which I brought the kids on and saw out the game to put us into the next round.

Another nice draw, or potential banana skin, depending on your outlook

[Mandy42]

January 2024

Semi Final 1st Leg

So it seems that the change to a single legged semi final was due to the Qatar World Cup, yet another sacrifice (forget about the lives lost building the stadiums!) losing domestic fixtures in order for Qatar to play 3 games as hosts and get knocked out, priceless. Anyway, order has been restored and this year we are back to 2 legged semi finals.

And all I can say is, it's a flaming good job! We dominated, until a back post volley put them ahead, with what turned out to be their only attempt all game. We continued to dominate, hit the post and bar, but mainly we just hit the 8 players they put behind the ball after they had scored. Very frustrating, looking forward to a return leg of pretty much the same thing....

[Mandy42]

January 2024

Game Week 20

So back to the league, after our 1st XI couldn't find a way past Championship opposition in the Carabao Cup (I forgot that West Ham had been relegated) it was the turn of the 2nd XI to play 15th placed Villa at home. 

We had 5 players in the team of the week from playing Norwich, that seems a long time ago now after the West Ham game.

And whatever ailment struck the 1st XI it hit the 2nd as well, with us unable to convert any of our numerous chances, leaving me not very happy at all! Thus seeding the advantage to our rivals. I don't want to say this is the beginning of the gap forming this season, but I don't see them dropping as many points as we will. 

Point proven...

There is a gap forming between the top 3 and the rest, (though you will have to take my word for it as I forgot to screenshot a table!) Man Utd are attempting to bridge across, helped by us only drawing against Villa, we have a game in hand but they sit only 3 points back. We play them next, at Old Trafford, not exactly the game I would hope for after we've just gone 180 minutes without scoring against much weaker opposition. 

 

 

[Mandy42]

January 2024

Game Week 21

As much as I am worried about the lack of production in the final 3rd recently, I only really have myself to blame. bringing in Luca and putting him straight up front was always going to slow things down. His come deep trait, coupled with does not run with the ball, means he is going to be stuck out of position in certain situations. He does also have, gets into the box, but he doesn't seem to have been doing much there of any influence in the games he has played so far. I was hopeful that he could still contribute, IE dropping deep to collect the ball and then playing one of the mezzala's in as they go beyond him, but no such luck so far.

Usually an away draw against a big team would be a result I would be happy with, however 270 minutes since our last goal, the fact we beat them 7-2 at home and that we cannot afford to keep shipping points if we intend to chase City and Liverpool down, and it becomes a rather jaded point. If and it is becoming an increasingly big IF we manage to win our game in hand over Utd, then we will move 6 points clear of 4th place, however the damage might have been done by then and we might not climb much higher. Oh and we play City next.

Chelsea also continue to struggle with back to back draws.

I remembered the table this time! It's frustrating to have only lost a single game but be 8 points off the top of the table, albeit with a game in hand. I would much rather have the points on the board than have to rely on us closing the gap.

 

[Mandy42]

January 2024

Game Week 22

We are  the 1st game on Saturday, and this right here is our season. That might seem a bit negative, and while I have learned my lesson from last year and I will not be giving up, I feel that if we lose today then even with a game in hand, 11 points would be too much to make up. When we played at the Etihad we threw away a lead, and needed a 90+5 minute equaliser to take something from the game, if the Utd game wasn't the one I wanted after not scoring for 180 minutes, then this is definitely not the game for when you are 270 minutes since your last goal.

LUCA! This demonstrates both the best and worst of his play. The 1st ball out to the right wing to Tommy is from Luca, he is almost back on the halfway line, which means when Tommy gets into a position to cross he has nobody to aim for. However, once we press the ball back with Maddison, there is no doubting Luca's ability to create and influence the game in and around the area. He has been involved in 4 games since he joined, and that is his 1st goal, he is learning a new position in playing as a shadow striker rather than an attacking midfielder, and he is also learning to lose his does not run with the ball trait. All in all I am happy with his progress I just hope it is the start of things to come. As while at Juventus he only scored once, in 6 years and 32 appearances.

Spurs are the only London team with their shooting boots, although Divock Origi has now scored 3 in 2 for Arsenal.

Due to us playing 1st we had jumped to 2nd until Liverpool kicked off, it wasn't long before we went back to 3rd. Then on Sunday:

I thought this might have been our game in hand, but we still have that to come! Man Utd slip up and a gap is definitely forming now.

What a difference a weekend makes! Win our game in hand and we are only 2 points off the top of the table, and 9 points in front of 4th.

[Mandy42]

January 2024

Game Week 23

From top of the league to bottom, we go from playing Man City to going away to bottom side Fulham. Is it strange that both games fill me with equal dread, as nerve wrecking as grinding out a 1-0 win against the top of the league was, the idea of slipping on the banana skin that a lesser team represents is scary.

The joys of being able to rely on your 2nd XI, although we had an early scare when Fulham took the lead, until it was chalked off for offside. After that, we didn't look back.Not convinced that Scott Mckenna will be thanking Sidnei, for tapping in his header at goal in the 22nd minute, and as the video shows, a goal that lifts us to the lofty position of 2nd! Five minutes later we bag our 2nd,Mason Mount choosing to surge forward, before playing in David Kirby. I am unsure whether he shows maturity in waiting for the ball to come to him, or he gets lucky with the defenders slight touch playing it into his path, either way he finishes coolly. Then just before halftime, Jesus Vallejo with a beauty that had me punching the air from the sofa, you don't save those!

Second half, and Fulham had their best spell of the game in the first 15 minutes after the restart. I did begin to wonder if they was one of those games where the team would be unstoppable in one half, and then tepid at best in the other. That is until Captain Youri , decided that anything Jesus could do, he could do from further out. Harvey White came on in the 70th minute, and scored within 2 minutes of crossing the touchline, he also missed a penalty in the 85th minute. Hang on! the more astute of you might shout, Harvey is a 1st XI player, what is he doing coming on in a 2nd XI game when the score is already 4-0? 

Well, it's January, is the short answer, the month when, it seems, that if someone comes in for a player that the director of football feels is "surplus to requirements" then they accept it even if the player isn't transfer listed... So Luke Thomas, the 2nd XI left wing back went in the 1st week of January. Hannes Wolf has also been sold, and Ruben Neves is discussing terms with Napoli. I had approximately £16M in the transfer kitty and £11M of that would be required to pay Alex Meret's £10M 50 games played clause that the chairman so deftly negotiated. Thus when Chelsea informed me they wanted £108M for Ian Maasten I laughed manically and went to look elsewhere. I have someone reviewing a contract, but until then Harvey, Tommy and Justin (sounds like a 3 man boy band) are rotating between the 2 positions.

Norwich's hard work just seems to come undone when they play Tottenham.

Though shared honours here mean the gap to the top 4 is growing. That was it for Saturday, meaning we would spend the evening in 2nd place.

No upsets on Sunday, which saw Liverpool climb back to 2nd, but at least they took yet more points off 4th place Utd

At this rate our late season game against Liverpool is going to be massive, though we will need some help to catch City

 

[Mandy42]

January 2024

4th Round

With the league action done for this month, we still had two games to play, one in the FA Cup and our 2nd Carabao Cup Semi Final leg. The easier of the two games would come 1st, away to League 1 Wigan in the FA Cup. For the 1st time this season, both teams will have played back to back games, the 1st XI against the two Manchester clubs, and now the 2nd XI against Fulham and Wigan.

You shouldn't recognise the 1st name on the score sheet, at least not as a Leicester player in this save. He is my emergency backup left back, he cost me all of £350K. and the board hate him, like E rated transfer hate him. So when he scored within 3 minutes of his debut I was elated! He's already much more value for money than Naci Unuvar.

Here he is in all his glory, and here, is his debut goal. 11 minutes later, he is charging into the area,resulting in David Kirby scoring his 2nd goal in 2 games. I am unsure why the assist goes to Jocic, perhaps because his was the last pass, while Vashon's touch was a blocked shot? Also as an aside I love how the crowd cheers for the passes mix in with the music in this clip! We had no interest in slowing down as Henrique Jocu capitalised on Mason Mount's air shot, in order to head home for our 3rd. No assist recorded at all on that goal, probably as the last two deliberate touches were by the same player. Though just before the end of the 1st half Mount did manage to connect with the net. Very similar to one of our goals against Fulham, the press wasn't necessarily on the player making the pass, but we pounce on the lateral ball and take full advantage, Nice to see Kirby and Mount making intelligent runs to compliment each other. Also am happy to see Mount on the score sheet, as he's been moved from the 2nd, to 1st, then back to the 2nd XI so far this season.

2nd half and I brought the kids on, Oli Ewing, Damien Lally, unfortunately Tom Clarke was cup tied, but no matter. We converted our penalty this game, to round off a fantastic display and ease us into the hat for the 5th round.

 

We were the 1st name out of the hat and would play Championship Huddersfield at the King Power.

This has the potential to be our year, with a lot of big Premier League teams squaring off in the 5th round draw. We don't have to beat the best teams to win if half of them knock the other half out!

 

[Mandy42]

January 2024

Semi Final 2nd Leg

I thought the 1st game was the most infuriating I had ever played, a typical FMing where my team dominated but the opposition took a 1-0 1st leg advantage from their only attempt on target. The only saving graces, that it wasn't an away goal and there was indeed a 2nd leg in which to repair the damage. However, the 2nd leg was even more infuriating! And here is why.

23 attempts, 4 on target, which is what happens when your opponents play 5-4-1, with 5 across the width of the penalty area, 2 defensive midfielders sat just on the edge of the penalty area, and the 2 wide midfielders tracking our wide players to the byline to try and deflect crosses. The infuriating thing is that I don't know what more I could do in order to break down their defence. From the kick off I set our attacking width to extreme, to try spread the play as much as possible. I moved our passing to more direct and upped the tempo to higher in an attempt to get the ball switched quickly in order to try catch the defence out. No dice, 14 fouls and 3 yellow cards is a joke, as most of those fouls seemed to be from Emerson at right back against Naci Unuvar our inverted winger, most of them after he had already been yellow carded. Which is another thing I tried, the second he was carded I switched focus from "distribute to centre backs" to "focus play down the left" in order to either get Emerson sent off, or put him in a position where he couldn't make a tackle and thus create a chance. That didn't work either.

In the end we got a soft penalty for a supposed push in the back in the box in the 67th minute. 1-0 to us on the night, 1-1 on aggregate. Some how, West Ham managed to suddenly switch gears and create 3 clear cut chances in the last 23 minutes, two of them on target and requiring good saves from Alex Meret, all this without making themselves even a tiny bit more open at the back. Luckily neither on target attempt went in, and we would go to penalties. They would go 1st.

Vincent Aboubakar, who apparently had scored 3 goals in 3 games against us when they were in the Premier League.

He scores to give the Hammers the lead.

Up 1st for us, James Maddison, he scored the penalty that got us to this point, would he be able to beat the keeper again?

YES! He goes the same way, double bluffing the keeper and puts it in exactly the same place as the 1st.

Matt Grimes for West Ham next, it says he looks calm.

Very calm, sends Meret the wrong way and back to West Ham ahead.

Our 2nd penalty is Harvey White, who only 2 games ago screwed a penalty wide left against Fulham.

Perfectly into the bottom left corner, all of our penalties have gone down the left side so far.

Emerson, who is very, very lucky to still be on the pitch, is up next for West Ham.

Absolute boomer, could have taken the net off!

Yari Verschaeren is up next for us, he is currently our only almost 5 star rated player, a rating he doesn't consistently live up to in my book, can he improve my impression of him here?

oooooppph! Straight down the middle, emphatic and ballsy gives us parity.

Sergiy Kryvtsov is the 4th penalty taker for West Ham.

He goes to Meret's right and the Italian gets a big hand to it and pushes it away! It's taken 180 minutes and 7 penalties but for the 1st time in the tie we have the advantage!

Naci Unuvar, our record £84.4M signing this summer has the chance to put us 1 big foot in the final.

Ave it! West Ham have to score now to have any hope.

It's Diogo Dalot....

It will go down to the last kick. The script is written, our January Signing Luca Mortellaro, playing only his 5th game for the club.

He sends us to Wembley! For the chance to try retain the trophy!

I know as a penalty in a penalty shoot out it doesn't add to his stats, but he has now scored twice in 2 starts, a feat he was unable to achieve in 6 years whilst in Italy

Where we will play

Never really in any doubt, after they took a 3-0 1st leg lead against Chelsea.

 

 

[Mandy42]

February 2024

Game Week 24

After progressing in both cups (one by the skin of our teeth!) we return to the drama and tension of the league, every game feels like it is a must game, or more accurately, a must not drop points game. As City and Liverpool just keep taking maximum points every time they play. This weeks challenge is Bournemouth, who City beat 1-0 last weekend, but the weekend before managed to convincingly dispatch Utd 3-1. Before that however, the end of last month round up.

With it being the end of January, we saw the wage and transfer tables, I was less interested in the transfer screen this year as I spent all of £26.3M. However wages, we have made that 7th spot our own as that was where we sat last year. Yet while the gap to 6th has increased in terms of money spent (or in our case not spent) the difference in quality we are squeezing out of that expenditure is marked compared to everyone above us except City and Liverpool. Moving on to individual awards, we featured in 2 out of 3 this month:

Captain Youri claimed top spot in the player of the month award, which his performances this month definitely deserve.

Thomas Beil our loanee picked up the player of the month for Palace, with Luca coming in 3rd in his 1st month in the competition. With both Youri and Thomas playing in the same position, the future looks bright for us in midfield. Now onto this weekends action, we play Sunday, which means a whole Saturday with baited breath wondering if either of the teams above us would slip up.

Liverpool come from behind, and Norwich's woes continue

As do Chelsea's

No such problems in Manchester, and once again, our only reward for a win tomorrow will be treading water and staying where we are on the coat tails of the top 2.

Perhaps it was some sort of residual effect from the West Ham second leg, but I found myself grinding my teeth in this game as well, which seems strange when we went ahead early, thanks to a James Justin back post header. Vashon Neufville providing the assist to maintain his better than E performance rate. Well, that might be a bit biased, he is providing a contribution at the sharp end, however his defensive work is much less impressive, and we do look much more vulnerable down the left than we did at the beginning of January. Also, coupled with Alex Meret being sidelined at home for up to 3 weeks with a virus, I am not comfortable with Freddie Woodman's ability to produce the same performances in goal. 

All that said, Bournemouth hardly threatened and the really annoying moment came at their end of the pitch. After a slick 1-2 between Mason and Youri we are in 1v1 against the keeper. He manages to parry Mason's shot, but the two players are that close together that he can't claim the ball before Mason is upon him. The ball ends up beyond the Bournemouth keeper and Mason and Michael Keane tussle for it on the goal line. The ball rolls into the net, but VAR calls the play back for a penalty deeming Keane's tackle to be a foul. Mason has his penalty saved, and Keane, who was already carded earlier in the 1st half is left on just a yellow card. Very frustrating all ways round, as while I understand the double jeopardy rule of not conceding a penalty AND having a player sent off, surely a foul from behind / stopping a clear cut scoring opportunity AND being the last man all add up to at least a yellow card? 

Still frustrated, and not comfortable with only a 1-0 lead I introduced Naci for a lacklustre David Kirby at half time. Now, while the jury is still out on the value for money of spending £84.4M on a 20 year old, I think it is a clear fact that the expectation of any record signing is that they improve your team and make them better. As this goal shows, that doesn't automatically have to come from a stunning individual effort, but can be as simple as being in the right place at the right time. The number of times in my FM career, both this save and previous saves, that I have seen a good attempt on target be parried behind for a corner when an intelligent player could have tapped in the rebound is beyond count. Quality players make a difference, long may it continue.

Still with a game in hand both above and below, can pull within 2 points of the top, and extend our advantage over 4th. Just keep going and try to keep believing!

 

[Mandy42]

February 2024

Game Week 25

It is time to play our game in hand, however, it appears that game in hand is against 6th placed Chelsea, a team who have spent large sums of money, and we still have to play twice this season. Of course, the game in hand is at Stamford Bridge. One positive before we get going, their recent form has them as low as 12th place, hopefully they don't find any resurgence against us.

Yari must read this column! as it is about time he almost single handedly took over a game and lead us to victory. Not that I want to be reliant on any one player, but his stats and my backroom staffs opinion of him suggest he should be able to contribute more. His 1st goal couples very direct running with the vision to wait for the best moment to take his shot at goal. While his second demonstrates his good technique and ability to shoot from range. It is also nice to see us score a goal which falls into (my personal list) of annoying goals to concede, where the 1st attempt is blocked, but puts the keeper in a position where they are helpless to stop the follow up attempt.

 

Liverpool obviously take maximum points from their game in hand.

12 points back to 4th, and only 2 points separate the top 3, we are slowly chipping into Man City's superior goal difference but will need a miracle to catch Liverpool's 

[Mandy42]

February 2024

Game Week 26

The Champions League is back this week, on top of the Carabao Cup final and the FA Cup 5th round, it means a lot of rearranged games and teams playing at strange times. More imminently we look to get revenge on Watford, the team we played and lost to on opening day, currently our only defeat of the season. But, before we get into that, this happens. The unthinkable as Liverpool lose at the Hawthorns to West Brom.

Now a win against Watford will see us go top.

Job done, with a free kick exactly how we practised it on the training ground, the difference on the score sheet. However, as no good result can go unpunished, Luca is injured for 2-3 months with a torn hamstring, great... 

So at the end of the day, we sit top! Just after that the rumours begin about Yari's future.

This is a definite no.

Now this could be something I might consider. As the last video showed, Yari has scored 4 goals this season, 3 in the last month, and I have been concerned about his production for a while. He cost us £27M, so an offer of 4 times that seems too much to turn down. On top of that, Maddison, Youri, Sidnei are all playing well and producing more than Yari in the same position. The final nail in the coffin might be Thomas Beil, our 18 year old loanee at palace who is playing out of his skin, and at a whisker of the price tag and wage bill has scored 3 goals this season. So as long as he doesn't go elsewhere in the Premier League I might be moving him along.

No surprises on Sunday which leaves the table looking like this:

When City finally do get round to play, this happens:

Still no surprises, so now the table looks like this:

Tighter than a chastity cage, or so I've been told!

Final games don't have any bearing on the top 3 but Thomas Beil scores again!

In other news I saw this on the social feed and it amused me:

I agree for Meret, who holds our highest pass completion percentage. I feel Naci is a little hard done by being roped into the same group.

 

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

February 2024

Game Week 27

I hate this game sometimes, we play 17th placed Burnley who have won all of 3 games all season, and this happens.

Now while drawing a game against such a team is annoying enough, I accept that it happens, hell this is our 6th draw of the campaign so I am well aware it happens. It is however the manner in which it happens. We were poor in the 1st half, we didn't create a shot on target, and I felt Burnley had ample chance to score, but they didn't. They created chances, but played like a team in 17th place who have only won 3 games all season and have a -26 goal difference. Then 2 minutes into the 2nd half David Kirby commits a foul having already been booked in the 1st half. I take the hint, subbing him, which forces me to switch the formation, putting the inverted winger on the right side, rather than the left. Damien Lally seems to like playing in this position more than down the middle, as he has a hand in the build up to the 1st goal, and scores the 2nd (which the video for has explicit lyrics!) but also shows how poor a side they are, a goal kick under no pressure leading to us doubling our advantage.

Now it's not like Burnley suddenly decided they were 2-0 down and would hammer us for the remaining 15 minutes to get a point. No, they changed nothing, and were poor until they scored a bullet of a long drive on 89 minutes. Which I though might make the last couple of minutes interesting but nothing more (as they had been so poor) I even told the players they needed to concentrate, just to make sure, but that didn't make any difference either, as suddenly Burnley put together a great flowing passing move and are level with pretty much the last kick of the game. If they had scored when they were on top then I would have been annoyed but not fed up with the game, this fixture just felt like a huge f*ck you from the game engine. Whatever you do, your not winning this game.

Liverpool compound our frustrations by needing a penalty to get past bottom side Wolves, but it is enough to send them top

Then on Sunday:

City are held to a draw, but once again it is enough

11 games to play and 2 points once again separate the top 3. Flaming fuming

[Mandy42]

February 2024

1st Knockout Round 1st Leg

I've purposefully kept quiet on the Champions League until the next round of games came up, nothing wrong with adding a little bit of suspense and intrigue into the thread, or maybe you thought I was being annoying or had simply forgotten, either way works. But now the next round is here I best get on with unveiling our opponent. I contemplated going with the fashion and getting some coloured confetti, much like a gender reveal party for a newly pregnant family member, but then I thought, that is a lot of potential colours to find, plus it only means me having to clean it up afterwards! 

With us finishing top of our group, and the rules of not being able to face a team from the same domestic competition as yourself in the next round it could have limited our potential opponent pool considerably, it did last season when our draw was pretty much made for us by the way the groups finished. However, this season only Arsenal finished 2nd in their group leaving 6 of 8 teams available for us to be drawn in this round.

Barcelona, Man Utd, Man City, ourselves, PSG, Juventus, Liverpool and Althletico Madrid all won their groups.

Borussia Dortmund, Porto, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Napoli, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Arsenal were group runners up.

It could have been much worse and everyone seems to think we have been drawn against a comparable side, which I take in a very complimentary fashion.

It is safe to say I was in a huff last night after the Burnley result, and I played a fair few other games without thinking about updating because I wasn't in the mood. After a calming nights sleep and some interesting discussion in the general discussion thread about the state of the game engine (both positive and negative) I feel better about it and ready to continue with the game that I love. I am also thinking about how my attitude towards the match engine might be affecting the thread and will be implementing some changes starting next season. This result did help balance out my thinking (after I had calmed down) because as much as I hated a 90+3 equaliser from Burnley when it changed 3 points into 1 when we need every point we can get in the title race, I couldn't really justify where 5 minutes of added time had come from in this game.  In previous posts I have said that the mark of a great player is sometimes as simple as being in the right place at the right time. In this clip, it is however all about the individual effort, a brilliant solo run by Naci, what makes me even more proud is the text at the bottom indicating the ref thought the challenge on the touchline was a foul. Validating for my player to trust his ability and drive on, not take the easy option and take the free kick. I have no idea what Maddison is doing, getting in the direct line of the shot, lucky he is not offside as that might have undone all of Naci's hard work.

While it is frustrating to concede, even more so right at the end of the half, we are more at fault than anything else. Torres takes advantage of the space we let him have, and though Meret gets a hand to the shot it squirms under him and rolls in, quite poor all round really. The same could probably be said for our 2nd, with time running out in injury time and Mason Mount's forward run stopped with the ball going for a throw in, perhaps the Dortmund defence thought the game was over. I certainly did, I was hoping we would launch the ball into the box, but definitely didn't expect Alvarez to squeeze between two Dortmund players and his weak shot would beat the keeper to give us a definitive advantage going into the return leg at the King Power.

 

 

[Mandy42]

March 2024

Final

Our chance to retain the cup we had won the previous year, also a chance to play Liverpool another time this season, hopefully sowing some seeds of doubt in their head ready for the league game showdown coming up in April. It also felt like a free hit in the sense that the board had no expectation for this competition. The later kind of went by the wayside, with the former two reasons meaning I would field the 1st XI to try and get the win. But before that:

Those teams not still in the competition would have standard Premier League games to play

Probably both ourselves and Liverpool had hopes for Utd in this fixture, but not to be.

Meaning once more Man City stretched their lead and tested our ability to turn games in hand into points. On Sunday before the final:

Spurs lifted themselves above Chelsea into 6th place. With it being the start of a new month:

Not a Klopp in sight, which gave us some hope ahead of kick off.

I think a B for club vision and C for matches is slightly unfair, what with us being a place and 14 points above where the board expect us to be, but oh well.

This game left a bitter taste in the mouth, which could have been somewhat left over from the Burnley game. It didn't feel Liverpool beat us with their quality, but more by luck with both their goals coming in strange circumstances from rebounds off their own player. While at the other end Allison got his hands to everything we threw at him. Hopefully we can do better in the league game.

[Mandy42]

March 2024

5th Round

From cup to cup to cup, feels strange to play 3 games in a row none of them in the league. This however is a cup the board do want progression in, they want Semi Final at least, hopefully playing Championship side Huddersfield can see us through to the next round. I am unsure why these games are played Tuesday and Wednesday but that is the case, we play Wednesday, so we can see how to other games go on before we take the pitch.

Top 2 in the league are out! if we progress we will be the highest placed team left in the competition.

Good 2nd XI performance and never really in any doubt, it is always good to see academy products on the score sheet. I was slightly concerned with how long it took to get a foothold in the game, and having spent the whole Carabao Cup final watching our long throw ins go straight to Allison in goal I didn't like the look of this set piece, shows how much I know as the keeper fluffs it to give David Kirby a simple tap in. Kirby is involved again in the 2nd goal, but in a negative way. I feel he strays offside when the ball comes to him, he certainly gets called offside enough in most games as it is! If he is offside, then the defender shouldn't have to challenge the pass through to him, which means Sidnei wouldn't receive the ball back and wouldn't score. So maybe we got lucky there.

Kirby and Sidnei are involved in the 3rd goal as well, this time great direct running and decision making from Kirby, he has the chance to play Mount in earlier on in the move but Mount's run looks to take him offside. I am not sure what Sidnei is doing, having scored one surely he has the confidence to shoot from where he receives the ball. Plus his onward touch to Mount is definitely forward with the Huddersfield player in the top left position only just level with the eventual scorer. Once again fine margins. Huddersfield deserved a goal back for their endeavour and spirit, however I never like to see Meret concede goals, not after his imperious performances in his 1st season at the club, Our reward?

An away trip to conquerors of Liverpool, Spurs

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

March 2024

Game Week 28

After 3 cup games with varying success it is back to the league. Every game feels like a 1st XI game now, but unfortunately as much as I want to focus solely on the league the board has expectations in other competitions. Plus there is the slightly complication that not all Premier League games are created equal. Thus away to our next opponent Everton, middle of the road in 10th place, is that a 1st or 2nd XI game, it is a 2nd, mostly due to the position of the Chelsea game up after it which is definitely a 1st XI game. Before we play at Goodison:

A back and forth for Liverpool who are too strong for Watford in the end

Spurs can't build on seeing off Liverpool in the FA Cup. Man Utd continue to capitulate

Going into the 2nd half with the game still goalless it felt like I had made the wrong decision. It is all well and good saying game A is a 1st XI game and game B is 2nd XI but if you don't get the required result in game B then what happens in the other games is pretty irrelevant. I don't always post direct free kick goals, but this one was sweet for a number of reasons. Firstly I was quite shocked to see David Kirby standing over the ball, even more shocked to see him put it in the net! So much so I went to check and he has a free kick taking of 13! Can only improve as he is still only 17 years old. Secondly this goal comes only minutes after he had delivered a free kick into the box that Damien Lally headed home, only to ruled out for offside, it was great to see this goal go in so soon after what felt like a wasted chance.

Thus at the end of Saturday the top 3 are still separated by only 2 points, and Arsenal have displaced Utd into 5th place. On Sunday:

West Brom battle back from 2-0 down but can't hold on to take anything from the game

A familiar story, City strike first and both ourselves and Liverpool have to pick ourselves up to respond.

 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

March 2024

Game Week 29

It's down to crunch time, 10 games left to go, we host Chelsea at the King Power, we beat them only 4 league games ago, but since then they have won 4 games across all competitions, scoring 15 goals and not conceding. However, we play Sunday, so there is Saturday's action to watch with fingers crossed.

Man City blink 1st and open the door a slight crack. Liverpool don't hesitate, we have to take advantage now tomorrow. In the other game, Man Utd take back 4th spot from Arsenal straight away.

On Sunday:

I feared the worst when Mateo Kovacic waltzed into our area as our defence parted like the red sea to see the visitors take an early lead. Yet we steadied the ship and gave as good as we got. I began to worry that it wouldn't be enough as we closed into the back end of the 2nd half. I had made the bold decision of bringing off Naci Unuvar, switching James Maddison out to the inverted winger position and bringing on young Damien Lally in the shadow striker position. I also bring on James Justin in an unfamiliar left wing back role for the flagging Harvey White. Ten minutes later we scored, I love how the Chelsea fans are cheering the consecutive passes, until we win back the ball and push down the other end to score. I think I am rethinking Yari Verschaeren, he might not score often, but when he does he secures points. This is his 2nd stoppage time goal this season, the other was to rescue a draw against City. He is making noises suggesting he wants a new contract, while I am worried about how much he might want, and that he will get a new loyalty bonus which I might have to pay if he decides to leave in the summer, I do think it might be worth keeping him, and trying to add a HUGE minimum release clause into the new contract to either ward off, or absolutely cash in on potential suitors.

Still 2 points the separation, however now we both hold a game in hand over City. I'm not sure I will be able to cope with how tight this could get!

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

March 2024

1st Knockout Round 2nd Leg

We hold more than just a slim advantage over Dortmund from the 1st leg, we can in fact lose this game 1-0 and still progress. They need to come and take their chances in order to advance, which hopefully means we can exploit space as they chase the tie. 

A close fought tie, Dortmund gave us more respect and played much more defensively than I expected. Naci Unuvar and their keeper held their own private battle with the keeper making multiple decent saves to deny our young Dutchman some pretty special goals. At the other end Dortmund looked dangerous in sporadic patches but we managed to channel their runs into poor positions on the pitch and Meret had little to do in terms of keeping us in the game. 

Bah! Probably what I get for wanting Inter in the post game press conference.

[Mandy42]

March 2024

Quarter Final

I can't believe I am admitting this, hope the board don't read this, because for the 1st time in this save I am contemplating playing the 2nd XI in a game that I am expected to win to meet minimum competition expectations. The board want a Semi Final place, which while I do as well, I have crunch games in the league at home to Arsenal and Spurs coming up. After that there is Liverpool twice in the Champions League and Liverpool in the league showdown. There are already 8 games in April and the 1st XI can't play them all. I am loathe to admit that even the Champions League needs to take 2nd fiddle to how close we could be to our 1st domestic title under my reign.

Pretty much the best result we could have asked for.

That pretty much settles it, if we win our games in hand we will be in the box seat, if we also manage to see off Liverpool in the league game we take a huge leap towards the title. Sorry board and the FA Cup but I can't risk it

I had hoped I had an outside chance depending which Spurs team showed up, but they were definitely up for the cup and played like they did to put out Liverpool in the previous round. Troy Parrott especially was unplayable and could easily have had a hat trick. One slight annoyance at 1-0 down we had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside, but no red / yellow line replay was provided and the goal in real time didn't look offside. I doubt it would have swung the game in our favour, but I wonder if we were the subject of an officiating mistake. I guess now as well I really have to deliver in the league or else I will look like a fool for tanking the cup for nothing.

Man Utd try valiantly in the league to keep Arsenal (who played in another FA Cup Quarter Final) at bay

[Mandy42]

April 2024

Game Week 30

The FA Cup is gone, into the new month of April and we have our 1st big test as to whether the sacrifice in 1 competition might lead to giving us a boost in the league. We host Arsenal at the King Power. But before that with it being a new month we have some off the pitch stuff to wrap up 1st. I offered Yari Verschaeren a new contract after the FA Cup loss and it seemed to be the perfect time to do so.

I had completely forgotten that there was an international break, and representatives from Man Utd and Real Madrid went to try woe him by watching him play for Belgium. If I had delayed the offer and they had turned his head, might have been a different story.

It feels like an exceptional amount of money! As I've basically doubled his weekly wage, though I got rid of the appearance and unused sub fees which I have a general dislike for in contracts full stop. I increased the minimum release clause from £113M to £160M, will see if anyone still wants to come in at that price tag. If they do, then I will be pretty conflicted, it is daft money, especially as I paid only £27M for him. The goal bonus stuff I don't have an issue with and find amusing, as he has never scored more than 5 goals in a season for us, if he kicks on now, then it will be worth the money to get more goals.

Being April it was youth intake time, and it looks pretty poor to me, my head of youth development said he felt he had produced a noteable influence on this crop of players, which promptly led to me sacking him and bring in a new head of development.

Patrick Kliuvert, better stats for judging potential, ability, and working with youngsters, plus he costs less in wages. Lets see what he can do.

Although this confuses me, as Ampadu and Jesus are both rated as likely to hit 3.5/4 stars, but the screen on the youth intake shows the players who are predicted to be as good as have less stars. Hmmm...

David Kirby is in lofty company here, with Paul Pogba's free kick only beating him to top spot because it is 1 yard further away. That's my story anyway!

Another B, which I have to be happy with seen as I purposefully fielded a weakened team  and got us knocked out of a competition before we met their expectations. And now to the action on the pitch.

A back and forth at Anfield which had us hoping Liverpool would drop points, but they proved too strong at the death.

Man alive! Wherever we finish up in the run in to the title I  think I might have to change my managers appearance to indicate how much this season has aged me. Both teams could have broken the deadlock on numerous occasions but a combination of last ditch defending and poor finishing kept the scores level into the second half. The game looked destined to be decided by one brief flash of quality, but that could have come from either team. When Harvey White received the ball I did wonder where he was going, but his incisive through ball and Maddison's 1st time shot were exactly the direct, high tempo play that was needed to catch the Arsenal defence out. We hung on, not really creating any more chances, and Hector Bellerin could have ruined our hard work with a flashing shot just wide of the post with only 5 minutes left to play,

We edge closer, 8 games to play and on paper we have the advantage, Liverpool to play still, and a game in hand over both the teams above us.

[Mandy42]

April 2024

Game Week 31

1st test passed, however the games don't get any easier as we host Spurs next, fresh from our 2nd XI not being able to get near them only a week ago in the FA Cup. The 1st XI plays back to back games for only the 2nd time all season and we play 1st this weekend which means all eyes will be on us.

Spurs weren't as good as they had been in the FA Cup, but they were good enough, Tanguy Ndombele's long dipping drive was a beauty, and going deep into the 2nd half I feared this would be the point we dropped the points that would be the difference in the title race. On 75 minutes we had the ball in the back of the net from a throw in, but the ref was checking VAR. Edson Alvarez was in an offside position but that doesn't matter from a throw in, however, the ball comes close to Maddison and I was wondering if he had touched it, which then would have placed Alvarez the scorer in an offside position. But no, Maddison hasn't touched it, he has however been ruled to have impeded Ndombele from being able to clear it. However, there is no doubt when we do score, Alvarez being just too quick and aggressive in his desire to get on the end of the corner and powering his header home. It feels like 1 point saved more than 3 points lost come the end of the match, but the rest of the afternoons action will determine whether it is a costly slip.

That is the table after our game. a draw bumps us up above City for now.

After City's win mid afternoon they climb from 3rd to 1st, all eyes to Goodison Park for the Merseyside derby in the late game.

Liverpool score twice but come away with a draw!

Once again it is so tight that a draw is enough to send them back to the top, and we are still in the hunt!

[Mandy42]

April 2024

Quarter Final 1st Leg

Away in the 1st game, so it's the long long trip to Anfield. I struggled long and hard with this game, contemplating if I was going to do the same here as I did in the FA Cup, and in the end it was a quite simple decision. If I had been willing to put the wrath of the board to the test in the domestic cup by not meeting board expectation, then having already reached required expectation in this competition, I would roll the dice once again and put all my eggs into the Premier League title basket. Before we get to the game however:

Chelsea look in real trouble, as they seem set to miss out on Champions League money yet again. I have no idea what they are selling in Birmingham! At least we are beating Liverpool at something! And hopefully we can reinvest some of this into facilities! Saw this before kick off:

Shows that anything could happen! Though by fielding the 2nd XI I reckon I have lengthened our odds.

Having conceded to Sadio Mane getting round the back from a deep free kick in only the 10th minute I feared we were in for a long afternoon. However we held firm, well Alex Meret held firm. We defended rather narrow and limited them to chances from poor angles or through a packed box. Those they did get on target Meret was able to keep out with increasingly impressive stops. We aren't out of the tie, but we do have it all to do at the King Power

 

Edited July 4, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

April 2024

Game Week 32

Sandwiched between 3 games against Liverpool is an away trip to St Mary's. Still feels strange playing the 1st XI in the league and not in knockout football, but we have started down this path now, for better or worse we will see it to the end.

No Idea what Villa did to Utd! But no surprises in the two games I most had my eye on. Down to win simply to keep up with the pace.

We had control during the 1st half, and Naci's counter attack goal just before halftime had been coming. Interesting, it seems since he has learned the "cut in from the left wing" trait, his starting position has been much more central. I hope this is just in situations where the shadow striker (in this clip Maddison) comes deep for the ball, otherwise they might end up treading on each others toes. At halftime I told the lads to not be complacent, and they seemed to take it onboard. However Angel Gomes scoring pretty much from kick off suggested that no they had been listening to something else! 

Luckily we kept plugging away and Southampton seemed to be expending all their energy trying to contain us. Until they got it all wrong inside their own box. A long throw in, is nodded down by Alvarez, the two Southampton defenders seem so intent on blocking Naci's route to goal that they don't pay attention to where the deflected ball is, and Edson Alvarez pounces on it to scramble it over the line. Scrappy, but I don't care! 7 points from 9 in the league since we decided to make it our main focus. 

6 games to go for us, it's as simple as win them all and be crowned champions, yeah, just like that! Meanwhile during #LondonSunday:

Chelsea are fading without a trace, and the "other" Spurs turned up against Watford

Which means there are now 3 distinct competitions coming into the final stretch. 1st to 3rd, 4th and 5th, and then 6th to 9th. Though that might be being a bit optimistic for the pack chasing Chelsea and Spurs, as the London teams have a game in hand

 

[Mandy42]

April 2024

Quarter Final 2nd Leg

Home at the King Power for the 2nd leg and we trail 1-0 from the 1st outing. The 2nd XI gets rolled out again to face yet more punishment at the hands of the current Premier League champions. 

Similar story to the 1st leg, Meret kept the game respectable for the first 60 minutes. After that we grew into the game, whether Liverpool didn't feel we could get the 3 goals required to progress, they maybe began to tire, or we just got better. Either way we created chances, a lot of them were over the bar or wide, and the few that were of decent enough quality Allison saved without much trouble. However it gave me hope for the league game, though the other side of that argument is that if and when we are expected to compete on multiple fronts rather than having the luxury of picking a single competition to focus on, we are lacking in the required depth. Hopefully such a time is a bit of a way off yet!

 

[Mandy42]

April 2024

Game Week 33

Liverpool again, Anfield again, though this time hopefully it will be different, for this 3rd game we field the 1st XI, a completely different team, well Meret still plays in goal, but you get the idea. However for them they are forced into changes. Trent Alexander Arnold is replaced by Joe Gomez, Roberto Firmino only makes the bench, and Salah, Mane and Dybala all start the match in the mid 80's for condition. 

Amusingly, you in the 1st half you can't tell. Liverpool have 15 shots, although only 5 of them are on target all of those 5 need decent saves, in a way the ones not on target are worse, they fly just past the post or just over the bar from every angle, Meret either confident they are going wide, or just immobile as the ball smashes into the hoarding either side of the goal. We hit the bar just before halftime but it still hasn't been an even contest, we are hanging in, the main positive that we have made it further than the previous two games without conceding.

The second half is markedly different, we come out of the gates flying, the 1st 15 minutes and only Allison has kept the score level, Liverpool make all 3 of their changes by the 68th minute, going to a back 5 in an attempt to stem the tide. Don't get me wrong they are still very much a threat as they still manage 8 more attempts on goal, 3 of which need Meret to keep them out. Perhaps it is the Liverpool subs, or the change of system, but our tide of chances seems to have peaked and be receding again, I give it 5 more minutes and make changes of my own. However, unlike Liverpool our system doesn't change, and I can switch players based purely on performance not fitness. Tommy Tavares and James Maddison make way, James Justin and Mason Mount replacing them respectively. 

Mount comes on in the 79th minute, and as much as I hope fresh legs in the final 3rd might make a difference, I would snap your hand off for a draw, this isn't our game in hand, so if we draw here we still have the ability to go top if we win the other games. Then the unthinkable happens, we are defending a corner, instead of trying to counter, we uncharacteristically clear the ball long up field. Ki-jana Hoever has his pocket picked by his fellow countryman Naci Unuvar, the next moment Naci is screaming up the pitch 1v1 one with Allison and it's 1-0. There are 10 minutes to go! 

90+2 minutes, I've never seen so much space in the box this season when we have a throw in within the opposition half. Liverpool look absolutely knackered and have just switched off!

This isn't just a result from the past 90 minutes, it took 270 minutes of football and two full teams of players, but we wore the current champions down and that win sends us top

Which also means:

By guaranteeing a top 3 finish we will be in the Champions League for 3rd year running.

I probably have said this every year, but I don't intend to spend a lot in the coming window, just nurture and develop what we have.

As it wasn't our game in hand City put us off top spot in the late game, but! For the 1st time in what seems like forever we haven't finished the day in 3rd!

[Mandy42]

April 2024

The Run In

That is what the end of the season looks like for the top 3 teams, in place order, so City on the left, us in the middle and Liverpool on the right. Our toughest tests are Brighton and West Brom, 13th and 14th respectively. Palace are trying not to get dragged into the relegation places, while Wolves and Birmingham are already there. From a quality stand point we have the easiest run in, however 3 of our opponents are going to be playing to stay in the division so we will see.

Man City have potentially the hardest set of games, having to find a way past Barcelona in the Champions League while also having to host Arsenal and go to Stamford Bridge in the league. Chelsea might not be the force they would like to be this season, but the axe is definitely hanging over Senol Gunes and it only seems a matter of time until he is sacked. All that quality in the Chelsea squad might be playing for their position with a new manager watching in the wings.

Liverpool's league games shouldn't cause them much if any trouble, although they have had an uncharacteristic blip against West Brom a few weeks ago, also both of the last two seasons they have dropped off alarmingly in the run in. Last year they dropped out of every cup competition they were in over a 10 day period and just about survived to win the league. Where as the season before they capitulated in the league to almost let City pip them at the line. Being the reigning domestic champions and with the chance of a triple they are unlikely to take any game easy, which hopefully might be enough to be their downfall.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

April 2024

Game Week 34

Palace at home, 3 days before City and Liverpool play their respective games, we've had to keep up while City have relentlessly laid down win after win, now we have the chance to make them have to keep up with us.

Well we set a pace, snails pace! Though to be fair we played pretty well, just their goalkeeper rightly earned himself a player of the match performance saving 7 shots. Now, a few nights ago when I was suffering from being pegged back by Burnley in the last 4 minutes of the game I might have thought this was another example of the game toying with me or making sure I didn't win the league. However, having come on here to rant in the general discussion forum and ending up having a great conversation with some pretty decent people I was able to appreciate a different perspective. That simply isn't the case, any narrative, good or bad is in my head. Did Palace play out of their skin to show the manager that they could perform without our loanee Thomas Beil in their side? Did my 2nd XI have a slight hump with me because I didn't play them for the important league game against Liverpool? Did Daniel Bentley, a name most likely being toasted in pubs in both Manchester and Liverpool this evening, find out he was going to be a father for the 1st time the night before kick off? And thus absolutely smashed it on the pitch today because he was full of the joys of life? All of the above are possible, however the match engine doesn't care about any of it. The story, as the FM twitter feed constantly keeps saying is the one that I write, and after my discussion on the general forums I have come to the realisation that I would much rather tell a story about the ups and downs of players, instead of a wild conspiracy theory regarding the shadowy workings of the game itself.

No idea why I forgot to take our result off the bottom of this shot, but no matter.

We haven't completely shot ourselves in the foot, we still have 2nd place in our own hands, however we will require some help in order to peg back Man City. Then Chelsea played again:

They are undone by bottom of the table Wolves

Which leads to the inevitable, you don't sped over £400M in the transfer market and expect to be in danger of playing in the Europa Conference League.

Be interesting to see who comes in. In other news, other strange news:

Whoever the Portugal manager is they need a slap, If you aren't picking someone with that average rating over that few games, scoring well for an attacking midfielder, then I hope you have an abundance of better options as an excuse. And while we are on about players:

As Yari Verschaeren is at 5 stars, I'm not sure Kirby can actually get better than he can! But I won't complain if he does!

 

 

[Mandy42]

April 2024

Game Week 35

We pick ourselves up and we go again, at home to Brighton, it now feels that every game is a must win game. We have 2 points on Liverpool, which if we slip up is not going to be enough, and City sit above us only by a point. All we can hope is pick up the maximum number of points we can and it be enough to overhaul City.

In the early game City make sure that we won't be overhauling them this week.

Liverpool win to go above us before we played. Man Utd show Chelsea how to beat Wolves.

We got off to a quick start when Naci took advantage of Yari Verschaeren making a nuisance of himself in the penalty box, to stroke home a lovely low curling shot into the far bottom corner. However, all our hard work was undone by a well worked Brighton free kick routine just before the half. Reiss Nelson stood over the ball, took it short to another Brighton player, who gave the ball back to him as he advanced 10 yards forward. It was from there that he took a shot at goal, basically moving the position of his direct free kick attempt 10 yards forward. 

We had created chances, but not been that clinical, the same was the case in the beginning of the 2nd half, however we were handed a bit of a lifeline with a horror tackle on Yari Verschaeren as he drove into the box, luckily he wasn't injured. James Maddison stepped up to convert his 4th penalty of 4 in the league this season and we held on to take 3 points and maintain 2nd place for another week.

The competitions are very much on, The top 3 can still all win the title. Man Utd in 4th can be caught by anyone as far down as 7th, and mathematically Southampton as far down as 12th place can still force their way into the Europa League or Europa Conference League. There is still very much to play for at the top, at the bottom, even though nobody has been confirmed as relegated yet, there are less teams involved. Bottom club Wolves can get as high as 16th placed Burnley if results go their way, however they would need to overcome a -19 goal swing in order to overhaul them. Palace in 18th can get as high as 13th placed Brighton if the stars align for them, meaning that with the right string of results, every team in the league has some small candle of hope left in the final weeks of the season. But before we deal with the end of the season, we must deal with the end of the month:

This is ominously in current league position order, I do not approve.

This I do approve of, as they have been responsible for most of our goals this month, so doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

And this is obvious, if you are number 2 in the player of the month award, and the player above you is too old to be in the young player competition then you better be wining that one yourself!

 

[Mandy42]

May 2024

Game Week 36

With a week since the last game, and a weeks gap between all remaining league games this month, due to us only being left in that one competition, the 1st XI will play an unprecedented 4 games in a row, lets hope this is the last nail in the coffin of City and Liverpool's domestic hopes as they have to fit in at least 2 extra Champions League games. We are the 1st game on Saturday which once again gives us a chance to exhort some pressure.

After a somewhat slow start, slowed further by West Brom's constant fouling, perhaps it is apt that we took the lead with a Harvey White free kick, from there we never looked back. I was annoyed at this build up, as the pass back to Meret came from us having a corner, and I am always loathe to not see us press the advantage when we are around the other teams box. However, with a bit of good fortune, (Wood could have lost the ball in midfield) and Alvarez has a much easier pass to Tommy on the right wing before he decides to try the much lower percentage cross field ball to Naci, we find a way to get the ball in the net. Then before halftime it's a case of score one, assist one, as Tommy and Harvey White are both involved in the build up until all 5ft 7 inches of Naci Unuvar expertly worms himself between two West Brom defenders and scores his 1st headed goal for the club, his 13th league goal of the season. After that I pull the players all the way back to a cautious mentality and bring on 2nd XI and reserve players to see out the game. After that we waited to see what would happen in the rest of the afternoons fixtures

Liverpool see off Villa to stay hot on our heels, while Arsenal attempt to chase down Utd, relegating Fulham in the process.

City come from behind twice to salvage a point at Stamford Bridge but cannot find a winner!

A valiant attempt by Wolves, but a point is not enough to continue their Premier League fight and they too are relegated. While Man Utd labour to a draw, they must be able to feel the heat of Arsenal breathing down their necks.

What a difference 3 days make, while all of the top 3 clubs can still win the title, our win coupled with Man City's draw has put our destiny back in our hands. Two wins against bottom club Wolves and 17th placed Birmingham and we will be home dry as champions. Man Utd can still be caught by both Spurs and Arsenal, though the later is much more likely. Chelsea's draw means they now can only hope to overhaul Spurs to upgrade from Conference League to full fat Europa League action next year. However, neither competition is likely to fill the hole in their finances. Though even Conference League football is not confirmed, as Watford have an outside chance of passing them for the 7th spot. At the bottom of the table and a lot of dreams have been crushed this weekend. Both Fulham and Wolves have been relegated, while Palace's draw against Utd keeps them in the fight, though they need at least 1 win and hope Birmingham slip up, in order to survive. The picture becomes only slightly clearer on Sunday:

Spurs emphatically beat Bournemouth to keep their slim hopes of Champions League football alive, while Birmingham come from behind to put some distance between themselves and Palace

Burnley fall into the firing line, while Palace can get as high as 15th with some luck and a change in goal difference.

 

 

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

May 2024

Game Week 37

Bottom side Wolves at Molineux, for their 1st game since it was confirmed that they had been relegated. I am under no illusion that it suddenly becomes an easy game, they still have their pride and the chance to spoil our party, plus  they managed to see off Chelsea 2-0 only a fortnight before. But before that lets take a look at the extra games our title rivals had to play mid week.

City blow a 2-0 1st leg lead to see them bow out against Barcelona.

A reverse of the 1st leg score at Anfield sees the game go all the way to penalties before Liverpool finally prevail. Nice extra amount of time in the legs and stress for everyone involved! Before the game this happened:

Good to see at 20 he's already got enough of a personality to put his head above the parapet. I checked and his leadership is low teens, perhaps as top scorer it gives him the confidence to speak out. I approve, however this next one I don't approve of:

There is absolutely no comparison between Naci and Ndidi, except the starting letter of their name. One is a an £83M record signing who has transformed the club going forward, the other a mediocre defensive midfielder who I shipped out ASAP. I definitely wouldn't pay money to see Ndidi. On that note, we play 1st on Saturday, time to lay down a marker!

Oooooooph! Great time to pick to get our 1st player of the season sent off, Maddison seeing yellow twice within half an hour to see us dropped to 10 men. I switched Naci from the left wing to the right, not an ideal position for him, but I hoped Harvey White on an attack duty could provide a threat down the left on his own, Naci provide a threat on the right and we be ok. Henrique Jocu smashed in from the edge of the area to give us something to hang on to just before half time. 

At halftime I told the players that they could still get a result even though they were down to 10 men. I subbed off Yari Verschaeren and Ethan Ampadu who both were sat on a single yellow. Nemanja Jocic and Sidnei Tavares came on in their places. We defend narrow anyway, but I reduced our mentality to cautious, told the players to regroup and hold position in transition and informed Alex Meret that anytime he had the ball he was to slow down play. Perhaps we were fortunate to be playing bottom side Wolves, as they lacked the quality to punish us, with the majority of their shots being wide of the mark. Anything on target was quite routine for Meret to save, but the heady combination of a team having the majority of the ball (nothing new there) actually creating chances with that chunk of possession AND the chance to be crowned champions depending on results later in the day, had me decidedly nervous.

That's how it stands at the end of our game, a loss for both of our rivals and the title is ours!

Arsenal are pegged back late to keep Man Utd in 4th but only just. City have no problems adjusting to being out of the Champions League, and forces the title challenge to the final day. Liverpool however lose out to Birmingham, who manage to secure top flight football for next year with their 3 points against the defending champions.

Man Utd can't take a firmer grasp of 4th spot and Palace take a massive step to staying in the Premier League with Thomas Beil leading the way.

 

And then there were 2, Liverpool's loss removes them from the running and it is between us and City on the final day. Burnley are leapfrogged by Palace and now need a favour to stay a top flight club. Then on Sunday:

Both teams leave it late, but Spurs can't hold on to put pressure on the teams above them, they also leave Chelsea with the chance of still catching them.

Everyone plays next weekend, which means the games in hand must come midweek, that will likely clear the picture up considerably.

 

 

 

[Mandy42]

May 2024

Game Week 38

And so, battered, bruised and with many more grey hairs than we started they season with, we reach the end, the pinnacle, well, if we match City's result that is. We could falter at the final hurdle and slip into the runner up spot halfway round the final lap. We are however, getting ahead of ourselves as there are games in hand to play before we approach the final day of the season.

Chelsea, now managerless, continue to struggle.

Not only that but they have allowed Watford to close to equal points with them, meaning they are in danger of missing out on any continental competition next season.

Palace don't get anything to help their relegation battle against Arsenal.

Man Utd finally give up 4th spot going into the final day. Which now takes us to the final day!

We put Birmingham to the sword straight from kick off, going for the jugular early to settle the nerves (mostly mine I think), We have a goal ruled out for offside, we hit the post, the ball is cleared off the line, and we've only played 8 minutes. I am unsure if I can take this pace, though after how tight this season has been, I shouldn't be surprised.

The screenshot is a bit late, as I was messing with Gyazo to get the replay. I had gone for a late morning / early afternoon nap to ensure I was ready both physically and mentally for the final day, it seems when left open and unused for a protracted period of time Gyazo struggles to actually do anything  when you tell it to capture, and thus I had to restart it. This back post finish from Tommy gives us 1 hand on the trophy, now we move to clock and other game watching!

Burnley want to stay in the Premier League, they aren't leaving it to Liverpool to see off Palace for them.

It looks increasingly that if Palace want to stay up, they will have to take all 3 points at Anfield.

Though shortly after and Liverpool give Palace the Burnley treatment, they look sunk now.

Spurs go ahead against bottom club Wolves, meaning as it stands they push Man Utd down to 6th.

Brighton pile on the misery for Utd, looking more and more like Europa League for them next season.

News from the Etihad, it isn't a goal! but it is a decision in City's favour, Everton down to 10 men, surely now it is only a matter of time until City make their advantage count.

With Chelsea still struggling to find form, Bournemouth do them a huge favour by halting Watfords advance on 7th place.

We have been comfortable, but I would definitely not say no to another goal. Our early flurry dissipated with the relief of getting our 1st goal.

Into the 2nd half and Spurs want to cement their 5th spot

While at Old Trafford, Utd slip further behind

It took 58 minutes to score 1, but only 2 minutes to double the lead. Now it is imperitive that we don't slip up, the gap back to 2nd place is 1 point, a Birmingham goal would see City go above us.

Palace have resigned themselves to their fate it seems

Chelsea decide to take it upon themselves to get a result, least their bevy of expensive talent could do

City bag a 3rd, but if we don't slip up against Birmingham it doesn't matter

Late surge of goals at Watford but with Chelsea now winning the result here doesn't really matter

Man Utd have left it too late surely?

They pull a Burnley (yes that is going to be what I call it from now on) and salvage a draw on the day, but inferior goal difference will keep them in 6th.

 

Final scores are in, which leaves the final day table looking like this.

We did it! And we ended the season with the same gap back to 3rd place as Liverpool did to us last year! Man Utd went from 4th to 6th in the last week of the season and Palace had 2 games to get a win to save their season, but those games came against Arsenal and Liverpool, where they shipped a total of 11 goals without reply.

Board is happy! though probably not happy enough to give me an A! Also going to post this shot in the bug forum, as I have no idea why I have appeared twice at the top meaning that the text cannot calculate Liverpool's streak correctly.

Awards, season roundup, analysis and challenge progress to follow, though I may have another nap!

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

May 2024

The morning after the night before.

Maybe a few mornings after, we partied hard after winning the Premier League by a single point, for only the 2nd time in the clubs history. We have both external and internal awards to go through.

Winning three from three isn't exactly the greatest achievement ever but I'll take it, not sure I've actually won many of these.

Never ever won one of these before, so 1st one in 5 years, hopefully there might be more to come!

Meret won the golden glove last year, though I am pretty sure he will be happy with his Premier League winners medal and 3rd place. 

5 Players make the team of the year, interesting that Meret, although 3rd in the golden glove contest gets picked 1st in the team of the year. If the system goes on average rating, then the system is slightly biased in our favour, as all of our players played less games so their average will be calculated over a smaller number of fixtures. Now onto internal awards and records.

Our defeat in our 1st game of the season is a new record.

1 upped himself from last year.

Well deserved and beats a record set by someone who played in the same position as him.

Interesting there is no Ampadu, or Verschaeren in that line up.

Wonder how they came to their young player of the year award, as Naci Unuvar was our top scorer, however he also cost over 5x more than Nemanja.

Never understand this one, Alvarez didn't make the supporters best XI for this year, but he's into the all time XI? Meret set back to back clean sheet season records, won the golden glove last year, 3rd place this year, and won a continental goalkeeper award, but Kasper Schmeichel keeps him on the bench? There is no place for Naci, which shocks me as he scored more in a single season than a number of players in that all time XI. Oh well.

Also don't understand this one, I was at A- for a week when we went top of the league, but having won the league when you asked for Champions League qualification I thought that would be worth more than a B...

While we are on a lack of understanding, we are Champions, and now you are going to settle for a 5th or 6th placed finish the year after, I'm not complaining mind! But seems odd.

However at least they have seen sense on some upgrades, they said no to recruitment range improvements, but as the fat man from Fight Club says, two out of three ain't bad. In other news:

Arsenal win the FA Cup, which will make the Community Shield the same tie as last years Super Cup (which we lost) However....

4th place finish and a trophy was not enough for the bald headed wonder.

Liverpool get the job done. While in the Europa League:

I don't have a logo, and won't get one until I end up in the competition!

Chelsea back door their way into the Champions League by winning the Europa League, resulting in another English clean sweep in Europe.

 

[Mandy42]

@WillHoward42 asked for a comparison with where I was compared to Sir Alex Ferguson's career. Below is the list of all the trophies he won, and my progress in each category so far.

Challenge Progress: Year 5

Domestic Titles

1/13 Premier League Titles

1/5 The Emirates FA Cup Titles

1/4 Carabao Cup (League Cup) Titles

0/10 English Community Shield

 

European Titles

1/2 UEFA Champions League

0/1 UEFA Europa League 

0/1 UEFA Super Cup

0/2 FIFA Club World Championship

The challenge also has lists the following milestones:

Milestones

Win the FA Cup within 4 seasons - Ferguson won his first cup, the FA Cup vs Crystal Palace in 89/90
Win the Premier League within 7 seasons - Ferguson won his first Premier League in 92/93
Win a Premier League/FA Cup double within 8 seasons - Ferguson won his first Double with United in 93-94
Win Three Premier League/FA Cup Doubles within 13 seasons - Ferguson's Treble Included His Third League/FA Cup Double
Win the Premier League/FA Cup/Champions League Treble within 13 seasons - Ferguson Won the Infamous Treble in 98/99

 

I won my 1st FA Cup in my 1st season, and my 1st Premier League this season my 5th season. Thus the next milestone is a League / FA Cup double within the next 3 years in order to continue to stay on track with the fixed objectives. I also have a total of 22 more years to haul in all the other trophies, which basically means I can not win the Premier League 10 years out of the next 22.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Tremendous effort Mandy.

[Mandy42]

1 minute ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Tremendous effort Mandy.

Thanks very much Nobby, I'm spending a bit of time analysing all the data from the Premier League team stats, and my own player stats, mainly because I want to calm down after that tight finish so I'm hiding in the spreadsheets until I can find the nerve to start the next season!

[Mandy42]

As I did at the halfway stage I'll take a look at some statistical analysis, once again this will probably come with a pinch of salt, as I'm not very good at it! And I only have a single season's data to look at. Though it is something I'm enjoying look at, numbers are soothing! First up is a look at 1st XI vs 2nd XI games played:

1st point of interest, I made a decision to focus on the league as the title race ran down and the gap between the top 3 became tighter and tighter. However, the 1st XI played 13 league games in the second half of the season, only one more than they played during the first half. This might suggest that my fixture list was front loaded with "big" teams. As during May, when we played 3 games a week apart, West Brom, Wolves and Birmingham, they would likely have been 2nd XI games if the fate of the season didn't hang on them. Which I guess begs the question, when does the fate of the season not hang on the result of a game?

Next point, to say that board expectation didn't care about the Carabao Cup and wanted at least a FA Cup Semi Final finish (which we didn't provide) it is interesting to see that for the "lesser" competition we fielded the 1st team, in the two legged Semi and then Final. While the FA Cup was a 2nd XI competition throughout, with third and fourth round games against lower league opposition, and then my conscious effort to field the 2nd XI to improve my league form.

Champions League was split, the two games against Dortmund to achieve board expectation were 1st XI, the two games against Liverpool at the same time we were focusing on the league were 2nd XI.

Points per game, 1st XI came out with 2.69, with 35 points from 13 games, which means they won eleven and drew two. 2nd XI came out with 2 points per game, with 12 points from 6 games, winning three and drawing three. That is a total of 47 points, one less than the 1st half of the season where we took 48 points. The 1st XI played one more game, but took eight more points than in the 1st half of the season, possibly because they played lesser teams with more time between each game? Conversely the 2nd XI played one less game but took nine less points, as they didn't lose in the 1st half of the season . This could be because, in the 1st half they were playing the lesser teams, and got on a roll so morale was high, however in the 2nd half of the season they played games that I didn't really expect them to win (Liverpool in the Champions League for example,) which could have disrupted their flow and dented their morale.

 

 

 

[Mandy42]

Moved from analysis of our 1st and 2nd team to teams in the league as a whole, starting with possession and passing stats. Now as you might imagine, for a manager managing a team whose focus is on a vertical, direct system which allows us to have maximum impact on the game without relying on having the ball all the time, I don't overly rate possession and passing stats.

However some of it has given me pause to think, the teams along the bottom of the chart are in final league position order. So while you might expect the number of passes completed to fall off as you drop down the league, it isn't a linear progression, nor is the top half of the table full of teams who complete the most passes, which shows something I am sure most people know, there are many ways to skin a cat, and a varied number of tactics can be successful without having to pass the other team to sleep. Now, these numbers don't include crosses, that is a completely different statistic (I have no idea what FM defines as a cross), it also makes no indication of the length of any of these passes, they could be full length of the pitch hoofs or five yard taps between the keeper and defenders. 

Numbers of passes completed could indicate style of play, ourselves, Liverpool and Arsenal all sit below 15,000 passes, in the same sort of ball park as Brighton, Aston Villa and Birmingham respectively, but with a massive difference in league position. Now this could simply be that we do a lot more with those passes than teams further down the league, or it could suggest the way we play. A high pressing tactic  that wins the ball back high up the pitch is going to require less passes  to be effective than a team that builds from the back. Same with counter attacking teams or direct long ball teams.

There is also a question of quality, the most passes completed is from Watford in 8th place with 18,106, this might suggest they are too patient in their build up, or attempt to keep the ball as a way to stop opponents from hurting them. Man City, with 17,601 passes finished 2nd, now while they still might be keeping the ball for the sake of keeping the ball, they are obviously doing more with it than Watford to have completed only 500 fewer passes but finished six spots further up the table.

At the opposite end of the spectrum we made only 12,016 passes the lowest in the division, and we finished 1st. That indicates just how direct we were, compared to Brighton who made only 14 more passes than we did, but struggled to 14th spot. Could be our players had better vision, more quality, or simply we won the ball back further up the pitch which means we needed less passes to be so much more effective.

Interestingly there is only 6,090 passes between Watford at the top, and ourselves at the bottom, which equates to just over 160 passes per game over the span of the season for the full spectrum of 20 teams. Spread that evenly over the whole league and for a team to move up a place in the passes completed "table" they would need to complete an average of eight more passes per game, which doesn't seem like a whole lot to me.

Again this chart is in league order down the left side, it shows average % of possession and pass completion % for each team in the league. first thing that strikes me is that the lowest pass percentage is 78%, meaning even the worst teams complete three out of four passes. Obviously this is over the course of an entire season so they could be bang average in one game and completely on it in another, and they could be pressed into completing hardly any passes one game, and left alone to do what they wanted with the ball in others. This is just my opinion (well all of it is just my opinion) but it would suggest that extreme pressing is either not widespread, or not executed well by the majority of teams if it is widespread. As I would hope the percentages would be lower if every team in the league were pressing like their lives depended on it week in week out.

That doesn't mean teams don't make mistakes, take our stats, 81% completion with 12,061 completed passes, which means the 19% we didn't complete is equal to 2,292 passes, on average 60 misplaced passes per game. I don't know if FM calculates it, but in real life football there is a suggestion that the ball is only really in play for just over an hour in any given game. Thus every minute of every game that the ball is in play one of my players misplaces a pass. Compared with Brighton, who only made 14 more passes than we did all season, it becomes more clear why their league position is worse, they were less accurate than we were only completing 78%. That 3% difference equals 354 extra misplaced passes for a total of 2,646 uncompleted over the whole season. That's 9 more in every single game all season, and whether they go straight to an opponent or just out of play and turn over possession, it is definitely a factor that explains why Brighton finished 13 places lower than we did.

Average possession and pass completion percentage are much more linear than amount of passes completed, five of the lowest completion percentages are in the bottom seven teams in the league. No team in the bottom half had more than 50% possession, amusingly the only team who had exactly 50% possession is Birmingham in 16th place. In the top half, only two teams had less than 50% possession, ourselves with 43% (the lowest in the division) and Arsenal in fourth with 47%. Once again this can probably be attributed to the directness of our play, which is why we could be so successful with considerably less of the ball than say Chelsea, with 58% possession the highest average in the league. For comparison, Chelsea completed 17,115 passes, at a pass completion percentage of 88%, that is over 5,000 more passes than us and an increase in 7% in accuracy. However, averaged out over the season that leads to 54 misplaced passes per game, which is only six less than us per game. That would suggest that while they hold the ball longer than anyone else, have a lot more passes than most teams, they still make enough mistakes to attribute to a lower league position

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

I was wondering, as I tinkered with more stats, other than just spotting trends and pointing out features, what is the actual application of any of the stuff in the above post, is there any? Well once again, this is anything but genius, but here goes. 

If on average a team completes at least 75% of it's passes and within any given game makes a certain percentage of mistakes, then it's not rocket science to suggest that you want the completed passes to be in areas of the pitch that do not hurt you, and the uncompleted passes to be in the areas that provide you with the most benefit, such as in the final 3rd at each end of the pitch. IE a misplaced pass that rolls out for a goal kick rather than finding their striker in a position to shoot, or a misplaced pass that rolls to your striker just outside their box, these are both much more beneficial than a cross field ball ending up in the stand on the halfway line for a throw in. So how, in very simple terms do you attempt to accomplish this?

All this is completely theoretical, I have done no match practice on this but it is something I will be tinkering with as I move forward. If you want to benefit from misplaced passes and mistakes around your opponents box then you want the ball to be rolled out around your opponents box, this would suggest that you don't want to prevent short goalkeeper distribution, you want the ball to be around the opposition box for you to win it back. Now, whether instructing your players to prevent short distribution actually dissuades the goalkeeper from doing so a significant amount of the time I am unsure, but every time he goes long with the ball, then by default you can't win the ball around their box. Now in order to win the ball back, you will need to have your pressing intensity as high as your players physical attributes can sustain, and as high an engagement line as you dare to ensure you are in their faces as soon as the ball is in play. Accompanying this is having as high a defensive line as you can dare as well, as the higher your defensive line, the more players become available to press in the opposition half. Obviously the double edge of this sword is it creates more and more space behind your defensive line to be exploited. 

Letting the opponent complete passes that will not hurt you has some similarities but some major differences. Once more, letting the goalkeeper distribute short is an option, if they pass the ball between centre backs and goalkeeper they aren't going to score many goals, however the balance to this is you might struggle to get the ball back. Having a high defensive line with no pressure on the ball is a big no no, there is a huge difference between gambling that a ball playing defender can play a long through ball while under pressure, compared to sitting your defensive line on the halfway line and giving your opponent all day to pick out quarterback passes into the space behind you. This approach could work when you setup in your own half, your line of engagement is on the halfway line, your defensive line is back on or in your own box, your opponent can have the ball all they want in their own half, completing passes that don't hurt you all day. The second they cross the halfway line though you are at them like a pack of rabid dogs. Pressing intensity has nothing to do with how far up or down the pitch your players will travel, they will only press to your line of engagement. You can see this because just by moving the engagement line back you reduce intensity because your players don't press any less, they just press as hard in a reduced space. 

Now this allows your players to press hard for longer, as they have less ground to cover, and it may even force more opposition mistakes due to the increased number of players you have in that reduced space in which to press with. The balance to this is that, those mistakes are by definition going to be in your half, which means your team will have more work to do in order to turn them into goals. Plus, unless the opposition come into your half, you are likely to just let them have the ball, which might mean getting the ball back becomes a problem. It then becomes a battle of wills between you and the AI, do you extend your press and go looking for the ball in your opponents half, or does the AI stop playing it around in their own half and try and come win the game in the pressure cooker that is your half of the pitch?

All this might just seem like the ramblings of (a still fairly young) man, I might be suggesting things  that you have known for ages, or attempted and dismissed, but they are new to me. So I figured I would share my thought process with you, and help myself at the same time by having to go through it in my head in a way that made me able to articulate it (fair badly) onto this thread. 

So yeah, you have more of my rambling on other topics to look forward to! Lucky you! 

[Mandy42]

With that we are onto crosses, which seems the logical place to go after passing stats.

Once again, in order of league position down the left, this shows number of crosses completed over the season, and number of goals. Now 1st thing to stress is, these are total goal numbers, definitely not numbers of goals scored from crosses. The game gives you goals, goals from corners, goals from free kicks but no goals from crosses that I can find. But lets for a second say that it is, that for some reason, the only way to score a goal in the league is to cross the ball into the box, like a game of headers and volleys when you were in school PE class. That would mean that it took Man Utd the team with the most completed crosses 375 attempts to score 70 goals. That's 5.3 crosses per goal. At the other end of the spectrum Aston Villa have the lowest number of completes crosses with 125, they scored 32 goals, so again in this strange crosses as the only way to score goals world, they needed 3.9 crosses to score their 32 goals. As I am curious about our stats, we completed 237 crosses, scored 78 goals, 3.03 crosses per goal. 

So what you say, teams who have the ball more often in the opponents half, or around their box can deliver more crosses, teams with poorer wide players are going to complete less crosses. So lets add in another stat, cross completion percentage.

As luck would have it, Man Utd, the team who completed the most crosses, also have the highest cross completion percentage at 26%. That means they attempted just under 1,500 crosses in order to complete 375. Villa with a success rate of 13% needed 1,210 attempts to complete 125. Ourselves, 20% success rate meant that 237 successful crosses came from a total of 1,185 attempts. So now our figures are 1,500, 1,210 and 1,185 crosses required for 70, 32 and 78 goals respectively. Which means Man Utd need to put in 24.5 crosses per goal, Villa, 37.8 crosses per goal, ourselves 15.19 crosses per goal. 

Which again you say is complete rubbish, because not all goals are scored from crosses, to which I say, that is exactly my long winded point. An unknown proportion of these goals are scored from crosses, so the best case scenario for crossing efficiency is the one laid out above, in reality even more crosses would be required to score that many goals. Which has interesting ramifications for they way our teams play both with and without the ball. I am sure there are ways to maximise gains from crosses, get players with good crossing, strikers with good heading, overlaps on the wings to create space for a better potential delivery. But unless your team has these things then to me the above stats suggest that if the best team in the league in this metric only completes 26% of it's crosses then there could well be better areas to focus on in order to score goals and win games.

Conversely if the best team in the league at crossing needs 24.5 crosses per goal (in a perfect crosses only world) more in the real world, then that says to me that if I am going to give up space anywhere on the pitch around my box it is going to be out wide. I'd rather defend narrow, have defenders who can head away all these required crosses to score goals. That said, a lot of the goals I concede from crosses come against my wingback at the back post or beyond it, which suggests I need wingbacks with better heading, as defending narrow places them in danger of being responsible for an area of the pitch inside the box that opponents could exploit. 

Now couple defending narrow with the engagement line ramble in the last post. If you are giving up space out wide, then it should surely dictate that your press is always from inside to outside (when the ball goes wide) meaning you are automatically limiting the opponents options by pressing them against the touchline not away from it. If you are only pressing in your own half, then it might entice teams who like to keep possession and you aren't pressing in their own half, to bring the into your half in wide areas. The sense of a safe out ball meaning they are more likely to come forward and at least give you the chance of winning the ball back. The balance with this is that your players defending narrow means that they will likely have to up their intensity again, as giving the opposition space out wide will inevitably lead to them trying to use the full width of the pitch, thus increasing the area your players have to cover. This is hopefully offset by the potential of being able to draw them down cul de sacs out wide and trap the ball there against the touchline in order to turn over possession.

Or it might just result in marauding wingers crossing over and over again until they finally connect with their striker to put the ball in the net. As always it needs to be used appropriately depending on your opponent and like anything in this game, the beauty of it is nothing will work all the time.

[Mandy42]

Off Season 2024

Don't worry I have all the screenshots I need for my stats spreadsheet, I just figured I would spread them out a little bit, rather than wade through it all in one go! Which means once more, we strip down the engine, take a look at the component parts and decide in what order we are going to rebuild the machine to tackle the start of the new challenge.

Before we go much further, I would like to admit that with the restart of real football, the current transfers and transfer rumours surrounding my team Chelsea, I am very much looking forward to the newest version, and am already coming up with ways in which to make my FM 21 save a little more complex than just a Chelsea domination thread. Thus, in the interim before the new version, I will be dipping my toes in the water of some of the ideas I have, using this career as a practice. Hence my decision to take over the U23 and U18 teams as of this year, and the change in pace of my activity in the transfer market. Which I guess is a good enough place to start:

Ruben Neves has gone! for a fraction of the cost that we signed him for, however, his wages are off the bill and his negative attitude out of the changing room so all in all it's a positive. Vashon lasted one transfer window at the club, but then when you are classed as an emergency backup, you can't be expected to stay after the emergency has passed! Amusingly the fans gave me stick for signing him, but he won their goal of the season award with his only goal for the club, oh well. The only other thing to take note of is the drastic reduction in the number of loans. With our facility upgrades ongoing and a massive drive this off season to improve coaching staff at all levels it struck me, why am I sending my players out to clubs with worse coaches and facilities? Why not keep them at the club and play them in the U23s etc under my direct management. We shall see how this works out, as depending on where the loan was to, I guess they might receive more of a challenge away from the club. However I am hoping this will be offset by me trying to run the U23s as I do the senior squad, with 2 separate XI's which would mean any players who make it and break into the senior squad will already have developed relationships from playing with the same players for a while.

Thus the change of direction in the transfer market, not so much around quality, although there are some potential gems in here, but more on quantity. If I want to afford the U23s the same level of rotation as the senior squad, then I need more players. The top four free transfers are all players released by their clubs at the end of their youth contracts. Now these players might not make it all the way into my 1st team, but they signed with some value behind them and they will be able to do a job in the U23s to give my future stars a rest. The bottom 3 are more like it, Adrian Rodriguez was a 16 year old Argentinean winger that my scouts told me to sign regardless of the price. I've waited pretty much 18 months for him to join the club due to rules restricting the movement of players under 18. Mariano Gonzalez joins his countryman Adrian, he's a right wing back with more South American flair than grit, which I will admit excites me. Speaking of grit, Clement Olaizola comes to us with the hope of giving us another dimension at the base of midfield. he's basically a Spanish Roy Keane with great tacking, determination and aggression. I want to tinker with that mentality of player in such a position in the U23 squad before I make the changes to the senior setup.

Further reinforcements will be added throughout the season, basically when these whelps reach 18 then we can snatch them up! I've also made a concerted effort to not be seduced by anymore attacking midfielders! as we have more than we could possibly need. Thus why five of the six players I paid money for are either defenders or a goalkeeper, will have to see what happens. Sticking with transfers:

It is fair to say my model isn't the one being followed by the other big teams in the league. However both those teams have new managers this season (again for Arsenal) so I guess they are trying to stamp their personality on the squad. However that now makes it at least £200M spent by Chelsea in each of the last three windows, with them peaking last year at over £400M.

This could be interesting!

This less so, but nice to see him getting his chance at least in FM. So moving into the new season how does everyone think we will fair? Well I am so glad you asked!

The board upped their league expectation from Europa League to Champions League qualification, which is fine, seen as I told the players I wanted Champions League in the end of team meeting  anyway. In comparison to Sir Alex, I've won my 1st league title three years earlier than he did, however he backed up his maiden league title with a league and FA Cup double the year after. I am very glad that the board don't seem to see us as challengers just because we got our head over the line on the final day.

The bookmakers don't see us as winning it, which is fine, though they haven't exact;y written us off. Also if that is to be taken seriously, they expect there to be a huge gap between the top seven and the rest of the competition, which wasn't the case last year.

The media doesn't think we will win it either, however they have us higher up the pile than the bookies. Perhaps this is a safer bet, as we have finished 3rd twice already under my management.

This amuses me, and is a good sign. Three of our players on the list for potential young player of the year. The other three are players I have shorlisted to keep an eye on! With all that out of the way it was time to get into preseason, however there were just a few snags as the season drew closer. Namely International football! European Championships, and then the Olympics, which meant at it's peaks I had 25 players away from the club. As it stands, on the eve of the Premier League opener, I will only just have gotten Naci Unuvar back, and Edson Alvarez will still be away with the Mexico U23s, though at 26 I presume he is there as a chaperone! 

It wasn't the most auspicious start with us being held to a draw by Dynamo, however we had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside late in the second half, but I couldn't really go too ballistic after telling the players it was all about the performance and fitness, not the result. Thomas Beil stepped straight into the team and played as though he had been born there, providing a wonderful through ball assist for David Kirby to get on the end of and slot home. I had made some tactical changes to the Mjolnir formation and this was the 1st game in which I rolled them out. I am coupling a narrow defensive structure with a much lower line of engagement to attempt to make us more compact against better teams, while enticing lesser teams to bring the ball into our half as we won't chase it as hard in their half. I must admit I wasn't over awed by it in this game, however I put some of the disappointment down to the very poor match sharpness of the lads.

We looked better, much better against Roeselare, Thomas Beil continued to impress, while James Justin stepped up to lay claim to the first XI wing back role. As Tommy injured himself in the fourth minute against Dynamo. He did his cause no harm at all with a goal in the next game against Mallorca, while academy prospect Reece Freestone came off the bench to score from a corner while giving some senior players a chance to rest their legs.

In our only real benchmark test of preseason we lost to PSG in unlucky circumstances, their strike hit the post and bounced into the six yard box for a tap in halfway through the second half. By that point I had substituted what first XI players I had available and they were taking advantage of our kids! In the first half it had been a much more even game, we had hit the post twice and looked good at both ends of the pitch. In the second period we still created chances, we just lacked the quality to convert any of them against such prestigious opponents. Amusingly with this game being at home, we paid for the privilege of being beaten.

Final game against Udinese and the formula was much the same, we would make our supremecy count in the first half, then concede as we rotated players in the second. Tommy began the road back to fitness with a goal, Reece got his second goal in two sub appearances which supports the whispers from my backroom staff who say he could be as good as Ethan Ampadu. With regards to the tactical changes it doesn't feel like I have broken the system, we see a bit more of the ball and the chances we create seem to have a higher chance of being on target. I feel I will persevere with it, as interestingly, despite the pressure of being defending champions I feel in no way required to perform as well as last season.

Which is why I suppose I was so upbeat coming into the Community Shield. Late last season we limped to a 1-0 win over Arsenal on our way to the title, though back at the beginning of the season they started faster, recording a 1-0 win in the Super Cup. When they won the FA Cup last year I was looking forward to squaring off against them in another early season opener to see what difference a year had made.

Last season's Super Cup had been a ding dong affair, very open and very even which saw them win through an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain goal on the counter. This years Community Shield was much different, they put us under sustained pressure for the majority of the first half, we had a few opportunities to counter, but not many. They saw the majority of the ball but struggled to do anything of an real quality with it. We grew in ascendancy in the second period but were unable to use our increased share of the ball well enough to find a winner. In the end, for the second time in his fledgling career, Luca Mortellaro put his penalty away to give us the win. Last season we waited until the final day to capture our first piece of silverware, this year we have our first on the first time of asking! Squad review for the coming season up next. 

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by Mandy42

[Mandy42]

August 2024

Senior Squad Review

Such a top flight problem to have, but deciding who would go where in the four different starting XI's I was going to be in charge with was quite a quandary. My first thought was to do it on age, having everyone under 18 in the U18s and then go from there. However I quickly realised I had some very young very talented players, and I didn't see how having Thomas Beil at 18 in the U23s when he had played for Crystal Palace's first team all last season. So I scrapped the age plan, well not entirely, and went with something else. I've creamed the best players off for the senior squad (which should have been obvious), however last year the first XI was the best XI players at the club (in my opinion). This season, while it will still be full of good players, it will be majorly the best young players, the aim is that this team might not be at it's peak this season, or even next season or the season after, however this team will grow and play together for (hopefully) many years to come. It will allow me to see where (if any) the weaknesses are in this crop of players and address them on a season by season basis, while (hopefully) keeping the core the same. The second XI will be made up of the older (though no one is truly old) players in the squad, who will be phased out as and when they begin to decline or better prospects come through from the academy. This means that initially the second XI might be the better team, however over time they will likely not improve as much as I hope the first XI will. We will see!

First XI

Goalkeeper

 

Alex Meret begins only his second full season with us, in that time he has played 58 times and conceded 24 goals. When he is on form he is unbeatable.

 

Defenders

Harvey White came to us from Spurs, they played him as a mezzala in the 29 appearances he made for them. When I saw he could play as a wing back I thought he would fit perfectly into our system as our more attacking wing back on the left. He never scored at Spurs, but in 41 games for us has netted five times.

Our left sided centre back is Ethan Ampadu, he is probably our most gifted central defender with the ball at his feet. I contemplated having him in the libero slot but his player trait of "stays back at all times" makes him perfectly suited for sitting on the left side of our defence and providing security for Harvey White to maraud forward.

Instead the libero position is taken by our Vice Captain Nathan Wood. To my horror I somehow convinced myself to get him to train "gets forward whenever possible" which while it still makes me a little queasy probably makes @ManUtd1 proud.

The first player to make the swap from second XI last year to the first XI this season, firstly as he compliments the other two, with his strongest attributes being his aerial presence, something the other two lack by comparison. Secondly, he is of similar age so the partnership can develop and they can prosper together for (hopefully) many seasons to come.

Rounding out our first XI back five is James Justin, he has been at the club since before I took over, and has played second fiddle to Tommy Tavares since I signed him in my first season in charge. However, having smashed the assists record last season and continued this preseason in the same vein with two assists and a goal, I have decided to give him his chance. Which, completely without knowing it means I have put together a home nations back five!

Midfielders

Choppa sits at the base of our midfield, well he roams around following the further forward players to provide support in order to offer a recycled ball, and be able to do something with it when he receives it. He also moves up the pitch providing space for Nathan Wood to come into, either as another passing option, or to bring the ball out from the back.

Yari is a natural at the mezzala position, he is still the singular most talented player in the squad and I hope he continues to grow on last season where he made much more of an impact than in his first season.

Thomas Beil takes the step from out on loan last season to into the first XI this season. He performed well for Palace last year and has impressed me in preseason with his range of passing and work rate. He appears to be the perfect foil for Yari, hardworking and always looking to play a 1-2 means he will link up the rest of the midfield.

Naci Unuvar will be our first XI inverted winger for his second full season with us. When we signed him he had broken ribs and missed the first month, having played at the Olympics he is in need of a rest so will be introduced to the season slowly. He is our leading league goalscorer from last season with 13 goals, and our record signing at £84.4 million. He fits the mould of young talented player who will grow with the team around him perfectly. In the off season he has been working on and is now able to round keepers whenever he feels like it!

Luca is our first XI shadow striker, an injury at the back end of last season put pay to him removing his trait for "runs with the ball rarely" he is back to working on maximising his dribbling of 18 in training. In preseason he was charging up the field with the ball so I am hopeful it won't be too much longer.

Second XI

Goalkeeper

Woodman is more likely to play in the cups, than in every second XI game, but we will see, he is happy with his current playing time as a backup, but that is probably just a goalkeepers mentality. I consider him my insurance policy that cost me £5M

Defenders

Tommy has slipped into the second XI due to James Justin out performing him, while his play on the left isn't as polished as on the right he is the better attacking option compared to the other players in the second Xi.

Edson took us two attempts to sign, and is a well rounded defender who can make a difference in both boxes. He moves to the second XI to make way for the younger Jocic

Jesus Vallejo is the second XI libero, he doesn't get forward like Nathan Wood, instead he tries long passes and his composure of 17 means I trust him stepping out of defence with the ball.

I picked Scott McKenna up on a free at the end of his contract as a backup or emergency option, he has been worth every penny I didn't spend. Much like Jocic in the first XI, he provides a much needed aerial, no nonsense presence which dovetails with the more forward thinking of the other two players.

Sean was snapped up when he was released from Chelsea, he's ok, if I was being honest he is probably the weak link in the whole senior squad, but hopefully he will do a job. If not then Mariano Gonazlez will likely get a chance from the U23 squad.

Midfielders

Henrique Jocu brings a bit more grit to the deep midfield role, he is quite capable of putting the ball about, however he also has no problem with putting himself about and mopping up for those in front of him.

Club Captain Youri spent all of last season in the second XI and didn't complain, so he can do it again. He put in some good performances and relished the chance to step into the first XI at the end of the season when we needed him in order to cover injury.

Sidnei Tavares scored eight times last season and benefited massively from having a full season partnership with the captain playing alongside him. He is also currently our only confirmed academy player in the senior squad, which means when he isn't playing in the second XI he will make the bench for the first XI due to the challenge requirements.

Maddison brings some much needed experience and talent to the second XI winger position as David Kirby has dropped back into the U23 squad. This also solves the problem of how to get him to fit into a mezzala slot in either XI when I have four players I want to play there more.

Mount was the second XI shadow striker at the start of last season, he moved up to the first XI when Hannes Wolf faltered. If Luca doesn't gel in his new position, or becomes injured again, he will likely make the same transition again. 

And that is it! we have a very, very talented U23 team, a real mix of purchased players and top quality academy prospects, depending on how the season goes and injuries they may make the odd cameo to help out with the challenge requirements for always fielding one academy player in the match squad.

 

 

 

 

[Mandy42]

August 2024

Game Week 1

1st game of the season time! The game that this time last year we lost, our only loss of the season! Not losing here means we've matched the invincibles! however, I don't really want that title, not that it counts spread over two seasons! but to go almost unbeaten and only scrape the league by a point on the final day, that doesn't feel very invincible! So without further rambling lets get on with the season

The curse of the big spenders continues! Watford do to Arsenal what they did to us on opening day last year. 

The 1st Saturday of the season, Chelsea put down an early marker against City. While Liverpool start like Liverpool start! No idea why I didn't crop our result off! but no matter.

Well just like the Community Shield win was an improvement on the loss in the Super Cup last season, this is an improvement on the opening day loss to Watford last season. If we continue with this small consistent improvement then this should be a good year! So.... I wanted it to be a long way into the season before I introduced this new feature for the new season, but oh well. Instead of just describing them and moaning about conceding I am now going to link opposition goals as well, that way instead of just skipping past them and getting on with the game I can take a better look at them and try stop them from happening again! Plus adding in a more rounded feel to the save. We had dominated until this point, and this was Brighton's first attempt on goal. But they work it well, I have my players set to "stay on your feet", and it pays off, we consistently have one of the best disciplinary records across the season, and do very well in tackling stats. However, if a team manage to move the ball around then they can have some joy against us. Must say the movement of Neal Maupay is impressive, he finds a pocket of space between all of our defenders and my only grudge is that having had nothing to do nothing all game to this point, Meret could have done more. 

It felt like the half was just running down until James Maddison finishes across the keeper at the end of the first half, after we won the ball back. Nemanja Jocic in the side doing what he is good at, with what looked like the most aggressive clearing header I have ever seen! The second half we created some decent chances but couldn't get through to win the game, hopefully more competitive fixtures and we will improve. Three more games to go this week:

No surprises in the other games in week one which means the obligatory pointless table looks like this:

Amusingly, Arsenal went from first to last with their loss to Watford. Hopefully Liverpool don't sit top from day 1 all the way to the end.

 

[Mandy42]

August 2024

Game Week 2

No other competitions have even been drawn yet let alone are  set to be played, so it's back to back Premier League games. Another change from last season, as the games are a week apart, I am rolling out the first XI two games in a row. But before we play:

Watford keep up their opening day momentum

Hasn't taken long for the league to show that anybody has the ability to beat anybody else. Our 1-1 draw against Brighton looks better now.

 

It took the better part of a month for the first XI to record a win, good to see them get it in only their second outing this season. Plus last season we threw away a 2-0 lead to Burnley which pissed me off right royally! In a more even game than I would like, it took a Burnley error for us to open the scoring. Luca getting off the mark early in the season, as somehow the ball finds him from the long throw and he taps home. 

We continued to push into the second half, Burnley spending the majority of their time fouling us in order to break up the game. They ended up with 12 fouls and 3 yellow cards to their name. Yari Verschaeren made it two with a lovely curling drive from just inside the area. Couple of things I liked about this goal, how quickly Luca drives forward once he lays the ball off, and the position that both White and Maddison take up which creates the little pocket of space for Yari to cut inside and exploit. As I said, we had been here before last season, this time I shut up shop immediately after we scored the second, retreating to a cautious mentality and trying to see the game out. In the late game :

Newly promoted Bristol have had a rough start against Spurs and then City. While on Sunday:

Utd start quick with two wins from two, however they did this last season before fading drastically.

Arsenal and City in the bottom half, Liverpool and Chelsea outside the top 6, long may it continue!