Career - Alex Ferguson Challenge

[budiko]

I have taken on the SAF challenge. Here I will document more closely the highs and lows and this career.

When Sir Alex Ferguson took over Manchester United they were viewed as a glamour club who had failed to live up to the standards of their predecessors from the 1950's and 60's. Manchester United were a team that went on the odd cup run but failed to compete against their rivals in Merseyside. Big Ron departed as United slumped into the bottom 4 where the only thing that was on the rise was the senior players drinking culture. The thought of a league title was a distant memory which fathers told sons.

 

It was with great surprise that when I holidayed up to the 06 November 2020 I found myself staring incredulously at the league table. Half expecting a difficult challenge with a newly promoted club or a perennially relegation fighter I didn't expect Tottenham Hotspur to be the second from bottom side (although I thought Man Utd were fourth from bottom, albeit in a 22 team league was SAF took up the job). This is possibly the game repeating history. A glamour club with huge expectations, their best days a distant memory, a talismanic player in Harry Kane (ala Bryan Robson) and a departing manager with a big ego (Jose Mourinho), but not taking the team in the right direction. Clearly the board have had enough and a fiery Scot has been hired to win titles

.

 

To paraphrase Alex Ferguson's first home game in charge  "Taking over a club of the magnitude of Tottenham Hotspur is an awesome prospect. But ultimately a football club is a football club and I shall simply try to run things in what I believe to be the right way.

"I am not really interested in what has happened here in the past. I don't mean any disrespect to the great achievements of Tottenham Hotspur over the years. It's simply that now there is only one way to go, and that is forward. The aim at this club must clearly be to win the championship."

With that ringing in the players and fans ears let's see how far I can take this club in 27 years.

Edited February 17, 2021 by budiko

[budiko]

I'll be following the rule laid out in this post: https://community.sigames.com/forums/topic/433313-in-honor-of-sir-alex-ferguson-reviving-the-sir-alex-ferguson-challenge/

 

[Joe.]

What a team to land on! I’m actually doing the same challenge and was lucky enough to get Everton 

[smplfc123]

Looking forward to this one! Spurs do seem to struggle on my saves as well.

[budiko]

On 16/02/2021 at 11:24, Joe. said:

What a team to land on! I’m actually doing the same challenge and was lucky enough to get Everton 

Good luck with your save. 

 Spurs and Everton aren't known for keeping up with the competition so it'll be interesting to see if we can get them to overtake the teams at the top.

[budiko]

On 16/02/2021 at 14:48, smplfc123 said:

Looking forward to this one! Spurs do seem to struggle on my saves as well.

I hoping for the exact reverse here. I need 27 years of near dominance not the usual bottle-job performances Spurs are renowned for.

[budiko]

Season One - Pre November 2020 

I seem to have taken over a team which is misfiring. Despite the return of fan favourite Bale on loan, results in the league have been poor. Beating poor opposition in the Europa League is one thing but suffering 3 league defeats in October include to North London rivals Arsenal saw the Special One leave.

 

 

With only two days from taking over the team to the next league match there was work to done to establish my first starting 11 and put in place a system which looked to create chances. I stuck with the 4-2-3-1 tactic but pushed the full backs up in support of the attack and utilized the midfielders to win the ball back quickly. My aim is to recycle the ball quickly to remain on the attack for longer.

November 2020 - Results

Alex Ferguson's first game in charge was at home versus Everton. We created 24 shots off target, 8 on target and won 1-0.  In the 76th minute Sergio Reguilon received a pass out wide where he was able to enter the penalty area unopposed. A cross to the back stick was met by a jumping Gareth Bale, who headed home the first goal of Alex Ferguson's Tottenham career. We managed to stifle Everton's creativity but that led to a £25k fine by the Premier League for accumulating 6 bookings in the match.

Fulham away was our next game in the league. They were having a good run finding themselves 4th in the table and were able to take a 9th minute lead through Mitrovic. Fulham were the better side in the first half but we pegged them back just before half time with Son scoring an equaliser. A few minutes later Mitrovic completely collapsed the half time team talk for Scott Parker when he was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle. We were able to take charge of the game in the second half and we were awarded a penalty 7 minutes from time. VAR reviewed the incident and agreed with the ref. Vinicius coolly scored and the away fans celebrated our second league win of the year. 

A routine 2-1 win against Young Boys in the Europa League was remarkable for Harry Kane's first goals in Ferguson's reign. 

To round the month off an away match at Old Trafford saw the team escape with a point with Spurs holding out for a 0-0 draw. United had chances to win the game but we rode our luck at times and Loris had to pull off a  few good saves to keep us in the game. It was a relief when the final whistle was blown.

Up to 15th in the league

 

Overall the result have improved immediately and so has the league position.  In my next post I'll be looking in more depth at the squad, training, and youth development. In the meantime the players have a busy schedule in December but on paper all of these games are winnable.

 

 

 

[Mandy42]

always a fan of this challenge, saw me take over Leicester in FM20. Good luck! However Spurs nearly got relegated in my save as well in their 1st season

Edited February 18, 2021 by Mandy42