[FM21] BackTheBulls - Jersey Bulls: a charge into the football league

[Jtomsett11]

On 29/04/2022 at 20:42, MWFC_3 said:

We're going to put over ourselves with champagne if we win the Prem!

It's champagne time!!

21 hours ago, Punch said:

Still a better love story than Twilight 

18 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

That’s unfortunate against Sporting Club de Portugal.

The league though is amazing 

Got to say Lopez is probably my favourite of your players, and with Lopez being out  

Two home games is ace, winning it in Jersey 

Lopez is definitely one of my favourite players along with Bah (who doesn't love a homegrown striker?!). Winning it in Jersey, and then celebrating it in the next home game! No better way to do it!

[Jtomsett11]

End of season 2040/41 club progress

21 seasons in and we're Premier League champions. We've made fantastic progress and to win it while competing in Europe is really impressive. Our finances have improved and our new stadium (30k) is due in 2043. We've also made progress financially in terms of sponsorship as you can see below, but we've got a long way to go to catch up with the top teams.

What is disappointing is that for the first time we have no Jersey-born players in the ToTY, and for this year, we don't have any youth products either. I think that's a travesty as Bah has been brilliant in the league, but Gonzalez was sensational in the cups so he won the starting spot up front. I'm hopeful that in 2-3 years we'll have a few more young players featuring regularly, but also accept that our progress this year is down to my signings with the youth products largely making up squad players . One positive sign is a better result for our U23s, who won their division this year, but a number of those players will be leaving this season as they're 18-20 and unlikely to make the grade here. 

 

[Jtomsett11]

End of season 2040/41 player performance review

Goalkeepers

Kubiszyn claimed the record for clean sheets in the Premier League this season. Not bad for someone I wanted to get rid of! I still hope we can upgrade and have a few targets in mind, although it's worth saying that he had the second best save % in the league this year (13th last year). Quansah may get the cup role next year with De Rosa happy in his backup role. 

Centre backs

We did really well to cope without Bazan at the end of the season, with Marshall stepping in really nicely. Statistically Kizito is our best tackler and I need to keep remembering this as he often picks up very average ratings despite not having a bad game. Morillas earned a place in the Team of the Season for the Premier League.

Full backs

Massaccesi wants to leave which is a shame as he did well as a backup to Fontana and displaced him towards the end of the season. Herrero and Fontana both ended up in the Premier League Team of the Season. Pelling didn't really get enough game time, so I either need to trust him next season more in the league, or I need to give him a loan away to gain experience. Harte is a great backup. Herrero made the most interceptions in the league again this year.

Midfielders

Morais made the difference for me this season; he's much better at BWM than CB. Parreiral did well mostly in the cups and has similar statistical output except for headers (he is much shorter). Cortes and Dempsey both has numbers boosted in the cups games but considering how poorly my DLPs have been this save I'm pretty pleased with 10 goal contributions each.

Attacking mids and wingers

All very impressive ratings and some impressive contributions. In my opinion, signing of the season is Schutt. 15 assists and 11 goals from AMC is brilliant and he probably made the biggest difference for us this season. For a player who'd only really played B team football for Bayern until this season he's done really well. Palmer did well as a backup with 11 goals in 21 starts, mainly in the cup games. On the wings, Guyot and Lopez are superb and Scott is a really good backup now at both positions due to retraining. Dilrosun is also a capable player but spent ages injured this season. He has asked to leave which is disappointing as he's a youth product. If we sell him we'll bring in another player of the caliber of Lopez and Guyot.

Forwards

Bah got 25 in the league and Gonzalez got 7 in 22 league appearances (not all from ST), but was sensational in the cups. 56 goals between them is brilliant.

Analysis

We really overachieved this season according to this. I wonder if teams will drop off more against us next season making things more difficult?

Statistics

One record down this year with clean sheets. 26 in 44 games is a testament to our defensive efforts. We're going to struggle to break any of these records going forward I feel!!

Awards

Many, many awards for our players this year.

Team of the Year

Gonzalez instead of Bah isn't right in my opinion. Otherwise, probably fair enough, although we wouldn't play Parreiral and Morais together.

Premier League Team of the Year

We dominate the team of the season.

[Sonic Youth]

5 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

May 2041 Part 2

We've done it!

Jersey Bulls are Premier League Champions 2040/41.

Before the Leeds game, Bah rallied the troops and then duly delivered a sensational performance.

4 goals took him to 24 league goals for the season and sealed the league win. He was absolutely clinical, but his third was a superb chip from the edge of the area. Just sensational! We then rotated for the final game of the season, giving some of our younger players a chance, with Bah scoring the only goal of the game for his 25th of the season.

The final table looks like this. 93 points is an incredible total as we win the league by 7 points in the end. To only drop points in 8 games in our third season in the Premier League since promotion is unbelievable. Our 14 game winning streak in the first half of the season is the main reason for our title win as the 11 point advantage over Man United at the end of January and they never recovered from it despite beating us. Everton, Aston Villa and Newcastle all qualify for Europe as Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal all miss out.

Congrats on winning the league 

Bah’s 4 goals 

You had a good end to the season 

[Sonic Youth]

5 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I just thought I'd show the youth team.

In terms of training, we've got a good base of trainers.

Our HoYD is also very strong.

And we don't have any really negative personalities.

So the biggest negative influence currently is probably our reputation. 

That's 14 English clubs above us who are more likely to get players with higher potential. I'm hopeful we'll be boosted to 4.5 stars which would at least see us in the top 10. 

In terms of depth, there's some players who want to leave and others who probably won't be a good option for Champions League games so we'll take a good look when we analyse the attribute growth.

Lots of effort there 

Balanced personalities though can hide negative traits, especially if couple with Media Friendly (from Ben’s and Jimbo’s threads).

Fourteen clubs ahead of you is quite a lot! I guess they’ve been there historically (top 6) or stayed in the Prem most of the time Jersey wasn’t in the Prem. You’d think winning the League would change your rep especially if your only one of a handful to do that since the beginning of your save.

[Jtomsett11]

20 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Congrats on winning the league 

Bah’s 4 goals 

You had a good end to the season 

Absolutely, a brilliant end, I'm really surprised we've hit this level already although looking at my attribute analysis which I'm in the process of doing, it's no wonder as we have serious quality across the pitch now.

18 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Lots of effort there 

Balanced personalities though can hide negative traits, especially if couple with Media Friendly (from Ben’s and Jimbo’s threads).

Fourteen clubs ahead of you is quite a lot! I guess they’ve been there historically (top 6) or stayed in the Prem most of the time Jersey wasn’t in the Prem. You’d think winning the League would change your rep especially if your only one of a handful to do that since the beginning of your save.

Yes, they definitely can hide negative traits, the thing is most of those staff are physios or data analysts etc. and I'd rather have the good '20' for physio than a good personality I think. It's all a balance isn't it. Let's give current HoYD another couple of seasons as I believe it can take 3 years for them to influence the intake anyway. We have had 3 players through recently who are probably good enough for at least a squad place since 2039 plus one more who's making rapid progress (shown below).

Coelho is now rated 5 star potential and is making great progress.

Webb has a long way to go and might not make it, but he's not far off being an all-round pretty decent midfield prospect. He'll definitely play at Premier League level.

Harbin is physically pretty impressive with decent technicals, although he lacks in crossing and dribbling. He wouldn't need to improve by a great deal to feature at full back as a backup at least. Again, definitely lower Premier League quality at the least.

Lynch is flying in terms of development. A long way to go, and probably not good enough for our first team, but you never know if he keeps developing. 

A 3 star player for us is worth between £20 and £40 million at the moment. Some are wanted by big teams. Obviously we're an ambitious team on the up, so I'd hope our current 3 star players will be 2.5 star or 2 star within a few years, but there is some potential coming through. That said, this years intake was 2.5 star potential maximum, and from my experience that's 2.5 star max, often meaning 1.5 star, which isn't good enough.

[Dong21]

Congratulations @Jtomsett11 - Impressive commitment to take Jersey Bulls to the summit of English football!

[Punch]

Awesome season

Congrats on an EPL title!

Now to conquer Europe?

[Jtomsett11]

7 hours ago, Dong21 said:

Congratulations @Jtomsett11 - Impressive commitment to take Jersey Bulls to the summit of English football!

 

2 hours ago, Punch said:

Awesome season

Congrats on an EPL title!

Now to conquer Europe?

Thanks both!!

Europe is the eventual target, but let's see how we do in the Champions League debut next year first!!

[Jtomsett11]

Attribute growth May 2041

Goalkeepers

I completely forgot to offer contracts to the youth goalkeepers through the intake this year as I'd hidden them to print screen the non-goalkeepers. Woops! Kubiszyn is still our number 1, but Quansah's growth means he'll be our number 2 next year and I'll aim to play him in all cup and potentially European games or easy home games in the Prem, with De Rosa available as a backup in case Quansah isn't up to it. I'm still in the market for an upgrade on Kubiszyn if one is available as he's 30 and on lots of money, but he did have a wonderful season.

Centre backs

Look at all the 80s! Notable growth for Morais who plays at BWM predominantly this season, while Bazan also made great progress in his first season with us. Kizito's growth is a little disappointing. The question now is do I loan him out for a full season in the Championship, or keep him and give him 20 games in all competitions again? Hopkins has a limited potential, but has made superb progress this season. 

Full backs

Fontana remains our best full back. Massaccesi wants to leave which would leave Harte as our only backup, so we have a decision to make here. Hopkins growth here is great (he's a CB and RB). On the left, it's a shame Pelling seems to have stalled a bit with Herrero a clear number 1 choice. Harbin may be able to play for us at full back if he continues his promising growth. He can play both sides but is right footed.

Ball winning mids

Morais is wanted by lots of clubs and doesn't want to sign a new deal. He has 3 years left so I hope he renews as he's world class now. Johnston's loan didn't benefit him greatly it seems; his unambitious personality holding him back perhaps? Parreiral is making good progress while Brown is one to watch in the U23s at just 16 years of age. 

Playmakers

Cortes looks world class, but his performances still aren't at that level for me. Dempsey appears to have his a wall, while Palmer has improved drastically across the board this season as you'll see from his ratings at AMR and AMC. He's well and truly recovered from his horrific injury. Webb has some potential in this position, while I forgot to add we'd signed Polk on a free transfer a few months ago. We've given him a few months training with us, but I hope to loan him out to the Championship next season.

Attacking mids

Schutt is a huge player for us and has made great progress. Lopez has gone backwards possible due to injury, but is still a great players. As I said, Palmer's growth has been superb this season. He still has 'significant' room to improvement apparently. Coelho is our big youth prospect and as you'll see he's improved in all his positions showing all round attribute growth this year.

Wingers

Guyot is now world class in my opinion. Both Scott and Dilrosun want to leave which could be an issue for home grown quotas as neither Nuhu nor O'Hara are really up for replacing them. Coelho may have a role to play next year, while Lynch's growth has been phenomenal. I'm not sure how much potential he has so we'll keep an eye on his development. We could be in the market for both a LW and RW, or potentially someone who can play both if we want to give 15+ games to Coelho to push his development. He is just 16 and pretty raw.

Advanced forwards

Gonzalez should be our number 1, but in reality he plays a really good backup to Bah as they both finished with 28 goals this season. I may sell Santos as he's worth £24 million and unlikely to be used ahead of those two, while Coelho will receive game time in other positions for now I imagine. As said above, Scott wants to leave.

Overall thoughts

We've cut the squad quite a bit recently and we're definitely lacking in youth prospects in terms of numbers. However, our first team are serious quality, with many players rating over 90 or in the late 80s. Bah, Palmer and Johnston are the highest rated of our academy products although Johnston is just OK technically. We now have just 5 Jersey-born players in the whole club which is a real shame, but ultimately when I set out to keep as many of them in the squad 21 seasons ago I knew we might struggle as our youth recruitment improved over the years. If we can at least bring through and give opportunity to every academy product that has reasonable potential then I feel we're keeping the original aims of the save in mind while being realistic about signing players to complement our youth-centred approach.

[Punch]

Loving the amount of light blue you have in there.

Plenty of options and combinations available.

[Jtomsett11]

On 03/05/2022 at 03:09, Punch said:

Loving the amount of light blue you have in there.

Plenty of options and combinations available.

Yeah, definitely loads of options! Really difficult to keep everyone happy though

[Jtomsett11]

June 2041 incoming and outgoings

We're having difficulties improving the first team and squad. I'll show you two of our long-term targets.

As you can see, he's joining Man City. Arthaber would have been a huge step-up for us and didn't want ridiculous wages. Unfortunately, we just don't have the pulling power yet. Another near miss is a LB who I wanted to sign to allow Pelling to go on loan for more first team football. 

Reiver would have been brilliant, but Leeds bid £51 million + when our £35 million bid was being considered and since then Nice want £70 million +. I'm not blowing our entire budget on him. Again, due to our reputation there's a limited number of other options.

One player we have bought in is Dominguez. £40 million is our record signing, his relegation release clause, and we're paying him a fair wack too. However, he's a winger who can play with both feet so we'll retrain him to play on the left as well as the right and he'll fight it out with Lopez and Guyot. He's a different player to both of those guys as he's more suited to cutting in and finishing than crossing, but that's exactly what I want - options to play in a different way. You can see he has 50 goals in 139 games in Spain and he's also able to play up front. He scores 85 on the attribute score for winger.

We brought him in as both Scott and Dilrosun want to leave, in addition to RB Massaccesi. Now, these guys didn't start many league games last season, but I'd rather keep them all as they're reliable with excellent hidden attributes.

Perhaps Scott has the least impressive 'positives' as I'm always looking for consistent players who like big games, but he's also had a huge impact for us. 91 goals in 200 games from RW is excellent. 

I've tried offering all three out, but nobody is biting yet, so I'm going to leave it a little longer and see if there's a chance of keeping some of them. 

 

[Punch]

10 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Yeah, definitely loads of options! Really difficult to keep everyone happy though

Everyone wants to be an important or star player

[Sonic Youth]

Dominguez looks great 

Those two you missed out on where very nice as well. Some good scout on those.

Definitely got a decision to make on those want away three. It’s a pity they don’t want to stay, but part of staying at the top is rejuvenating your squad. Are they still on good terms with you?

[Jtomsett11]

14 hours ago, Punch said:

Everyone wants to be an important or star player

The bigger issue I have is even those happy to be 'squad' players insert stupid non-negotiables in such as Scott who wanted to be played as an advanced forward. Now, I'm the fool who eventually agreed to it, but I get annoyed at the game here as he's done incredibly well at RW and LW for us across his entire 200 appearance for us!

14 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Dominguez looks great 

Those two you missed out on where very nice as well. Some good scout on those.

Definitely got a decision to make on those want away three. It’s a pity they don’t want to stay, but part of staying at the top is rejuvenating your squad. Are they still on good terms with you?

Yeah, I think he'll replace Scott most naturally as a pacy, goalscoring inside forward masquerading as a winger in our formation. On closer inspection, Dilrosun only wants to leave if we find a replacement for him, which we won't do now, so perhaps we can keep him. Scott feels we've broken promises, so that's probably the end of that as we've promised he can go. Massaccesi is one who wasn't happy with playing time, so we'll see with him as I can't seem to find a replacement for RB or LB.

[Jtomsett11]

Transfers July 2041

Well it's taken me a while to get here! There were some moments where I lost motivation, having won the league and finding my targets joining other clubs, where I considered ending the save on a Premier League win. However, after a break I've returned wanting more. We haven't won the FA Cup, we haven't won anything in Europe, and we've got a few youngsters who I'd like to integrate over the next couple of seasons. 

With that in mind, we've completed our transfers baring any last minute exits (Morais has a £89 million bid from Barcelona, but I wanted £100 million and they walked away and it's gone quiet for now).

Transfers out

Significant outgoing include Scott and Massaccesi who were unhappy and unlike Dilrosun, not from the academy so I've let them go. Scott joined for free and Massaccesi joined for £7.5 million so we make excellent profit on both. Nuhu leaves for more football and then it's a series of loans. Notable loans include Kizito and Pelling who are given first team roles in the Championship which I'm hoping will allow them to kick on more than they did last season. Santos and Johnston play in top flight and the latter in European competition too. Nsingi joined us on a free transfer but isn't as good as I'd hoped so he's gone out on loan to develop with a view to a sale most likely. 

Incomings

Dominguez we've already seen, but Smiljanic joins as a DLP and Marcos joins as a LB for competition with Herrero, although he's currently unconvincing in that role. Smiljanic rates 97.79 and Marcos rates 82.75, so both are upgrades on those positions. Big wages, but small fees. Nsingi rates 82 at AF but hopefully will improve on loan.

This leaves our finances looking really strong despite a wage expenditure of £104 million a year now. 

Our squad is also looking really strong now as well.

Our average rating is 84+ and bear in mind I've included Coelho who will get some cup game time this year. I didn't do the average squad score last year, but its 3 higher than 2 years ago.

[Jtomsett11]

Pre-season July 2041

An up and down pre-season with a couple of losses, but overall we've increased fitness and I'm happy. A reasonable first month although the United game will be tough. We're predicted 11th which seems a little harsh; I'd expect a top 4 finish now but we obviously want to compete for the title again. Last season we were predicted 15th so we've improved slightly in the eyes of the media.

We have a couple of players expected to make an impact as Bah is one of the favourites for top goalscorer and Smiljanic is included in the Media Dream Eleven.

[Punch]

I was wondering if you'd called time or were taking a break. Great to see you back into it.

Good luck for the season!

[Sonic Youth]

Smiljanic for 10? That’s great business. Looks really good 

I’d be excited to play just to see how he goes. I almost expected him to break your assist record  

[Jtomsett11]

17 hours ago, Punch said:

I was wondering if you'd called time or were taking a break. Great to see you back into it.

Good luck for the season!

Yes just a break! Thank you!

8 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Smiljanic for 10? That’s great business. Looks really good 

I’d be excited to play just to see how he goes. I almost expected him to break your assist record  

I know, he's serious quality. I've always struggled to get DLPs performing so let's see how he does!

[Jtomsett11]

Home-grown players 2041

I realised that I'd started highlighting homegrown and Jersey-born players in the squad overview and then forgot to finish before posting. So therefore, before we start the season I want to take a look at who we have.

This is the first team squad and includes those who count as homegrown after 3 years of training here since 18, or at another English club. Dempsey and Morais count as the former, Marshall as the latter. Bah is by far our most successful youth product, while Palmer is still a trusted squad member. Dilrosun nearly left but I'm not selling as he can play both sides of the wings and Harte is our only Jersey-born player left in the first team squad. De Rosa and Quansah will fight it out for the reserve GK spot; if Quansah continues to develop I expect him to eventually take the number 1 spot, however his personality will probably make this a real challenge. Then we have Coelho who has gone from a 4 star potential player to 5 star and back to 4 in a month. He's only going to get cup game time this season.

Then let's take a look at the U23s and U18s.

In terms of Jersey-born, we have 2 potential hopes, both of whom go out on loan to kick on their development, Pelling and Kizito. The latter has much more potential to establish himself in our first team and potentially as a first choice centre back, if he can kick on. Polk, Nsingi and Santos are imports, so we can ignore them. Webb looks a player with real potential and he has a great personality. Johnston goes out on loan again to get first team football and hopefully develop a little further to then be a useful squad player next year. Let's see how the others develop, lots of 2.5-3 star potential but we'll need them to develop fully to be useful for us really.

[Sonic Youth]

Not many JErsey born. How about Longelo?

[Jtomsett11]

On 25/05/2022 at 15:33, Sonic Youth said:

Not many JErsey born. How about Longelo?

Missed him - he's got some potential but he's seriously slow. I'll get him working on that now!

[Jtomsett11]

August 2041

A reasonable start to the season with 3 wins from 3 home games in the league. I can't be too disappointed with losing to City and United but I'd like to be a little closer to them within the games as we conceded over 2 xG to each without much in reply.

We've been very good going forward at home, but we are a little leaky at the moment.  We've been sensational down the right wing as both Lopez and Dominguez have scored 7 from there between them in their 5 starts. Guyot has 7 assists so far in his best return in the league after just 4 games! Palmer has also had a really good impact so far this season which is really pleasing as he's kept Schutt out of the team for the most part, while Bah is his usual excellent and reliable self.

I think this graphic shows our leakiness well! I have played Quansah in two Prem games, but he's only conceded 3 of the 9 we've let in so far so it's not really down to his performances. Watching clips we've conceded a variety of goals so it's something I'll just keep an eye on.

Our early season form sees us in the top 4. Chelsea and United making slow starts. 

Elsewhere we've had the draw for our maiden Champions League group. We were top seeds but this is a tough draw anyway. 

September isn't a particularly busy month, but it looks quite tough on paper. I'd like cup progress and a solid start in the Champions League, while we should be aiming for 6 points in the league if we're serious about retaining the title (which isn't really the aim) and 4 if we want to stay in contention for top 4 (which is).

Financially, we're looking pretty solid and although we're likely to make a loss before the end of season revenue comes in, our success in the transfer market is allowing us to spend reasonably big on wages without putting our overall balance at risk. We're probably not far away from a huge sale of someone and we'll always look to replace cheaply if possible, so I'm not concerned about finances at all really.

[Jtomsett11]

September 2041

This hasn't been an enjoyable month as we've really struggled for goals and been suspect defensively. I used Quansah in goal for the Rangers, Arsenal and Newcastle games and while he isn't facing many shots, I worry he's not saving many at all and perhaps his poor organisation of the area is having an impact. He's conceding above his XGA every time as well. Kubiszyn has been injured but De Rosa came in against Liverpool and instantly improved things, so I think he'll be playing now until Kubiszyn is available and then we'll look to loan Quansah out as he's really costing us games. 

Despite just 4 points from the 3 games, we are still 4th in the league. Spurs and Newcastle are the surprise top 2 at this early point in the season. Chelsea are bottom!

In the Champions League we made a great start, beating Rangers away. Realistically, we need to beat them at home and then we're most likely guaranteed 3rd. Lyon are up next, then it's Milan. We're definitely not considered favourites for winning it though!

Financially we lose money as per usual for this point in the season.

Up next in October we have 2 European games and three winnable Premier League games. 

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by Jtomsett11
Wrong year in title

[Jtomsett11]

October 2041

I'm pretty pleased with this month. 3 clean sheets overall and 3 wins in the league, with our solitary loss coming against a very good Milan side in the Champions League.

Guyot and Lopez have been sensational so far this season. 7 goals and three assists for Lopez and 4 goals and 9 assists from Guyot. Neither want to sign beyond 2045, but we do have a one year contract extension option on Lopez. 

They are both world class. Guyot arrived on a free and Lopez for £34 million I think.

Those three wins see us... 4th still! However, it's now really tight at the top of the table with just 1 point separating us from City, Spurs and Newcastle. I'm really pleased with this month. 

We got the update on player development through and we're now 5th, however now all of these players are likely to stay at this level, with just Quansah and Santos not quite at that level yet (Santos is on loan at Burnley and struggling for game time). I'm happy with this but would like more youth coming through.

The Champions league is hotting up. Our loss to Milan means we're in a three-way tie. It's looking like we could challenge for a qualification spot though. Next up, Milan home where we need a point at least as I'd back us to beat Lyon at home.

 

[Jtomsett11]

November 2021

The Rangers game aside, we've forgotten how to score. Brighton might have been our first loss in 7, but we've not really convinced all month long. 

Part of this is down to us underperforming our xG, but realistically a lot of our chances are low quality ones, and we've been really affected by Bah having a pretty dry spell. My thoughts are that most of our goals come from counter attacks and breaking through the lines and as teams drop deeper against us (our reputation has grown) I believe we're now struggling to break teams down. I'm trying to shake up our team instructions a little just to try and tweak our approach, but no success so far. We're obviously not doing badly, but we won the league with 93 points last year, so we should be doing better than we are.

We've dropped to 5th, although it's still really tight. Top 4 was the aim at the start of the season so that's the minimum I want. December at first glance appears okay, but Newcastle are 3rd, Tottenham are 1st, West Brom are 2nd and although Chelsea are bottom there is still a quality side in there. 

In the Champions League we've been more successful, and as long as we get a draw, we should be fine. If we lose 1-0 we'll be tied on head-to-head so I'm not really sure how it's then decided. Any worse than that and we'll be in the Europa League. 

 

[Jtomsett11]

Youth preview December 2041

I'm feeling a little aggrieved about our intakes recently. 'A very poor crop of players' does not sound good this year, but there is some green. A forward and CB of 4* + potential would be fantastic really. There's no negatives about those two positions, so let's see what happens!

 

[Jtomsett11]

December 2041

Taken on it's own, this is a pretty good month. West Brom were 3rd when we beat them, and our only loss is against Chelsea who are much better than their position suggests. Tottenham we conceded two dodgy deflection/ slide tackle goals so I can't complain and at least we've rediscovered how to score. Dominguez, our summer signing, has now got 6 in 8 games with 4 as a striker, including a double against West Brom as Bah continues to struggle.

So, exactly half way through the season (for us at least games wise) we're 4th, well down on our points from last season but at least not too far off top if we won our game in hand. Newcastle's recent form hasn't been good, but West Brom are right up there and Tottenham still lead.

Our Champions League victory over Lyon, coupled with a Milan win, sees us qualify in second place. That's a huge success for our first season in the Champions League and only our second ever European campaign.

We've been rewarded with an incredible tie in the first knockout round. Let's see how we do!

January is always a bumper month, and this one is no different. Two ties against United and several away games in the Premier League before Arsenal and Nottingham Forest. To be honest, I'd just like to be 4th at the end of this month.

 

[Jtomsett11]

Mid-season 2041/42 player analysis

A great season so far in the Champions League, while the Premier League campaign has been perhaps disappointing after last year, but still progress overall if we make the top 4.

Goalkeepers

For the first time in a long time we've used 3 keepers. Quansah was the one I wanted to give more game time, but we had a poor run in his games and I believe his poor communication and command of the area attributes might have contributed to our poor form in that period. He made just 8 saves in 450 minutes, compared to 66 saves from Kubiszyn in 1710. I don't think De Rosa is really up to it either, so this leaves me with a conundrum going forward about our number 2 goalkeeper. 

Centre backs

We went with just 3 centre backs this year as we have plenty of player who can play there when needed, which Morais has done on 3 occasions and Fontana once. Bazan has the best stats and average rating, but has also won less points than Morillas which is interesting. Marshall's drop in tackle ratio is concerning although he's only made 8 tackles in total, so it's a low number to go off. I'm very happy with my two main men even if we've conceded more this year.

Full backs

Harte and Marcos have mainly played in the Champions League so it perhaps explain their better points/ game ratio. Defensively, I'm pretty happy with all of my full backs stat wise, although Herrero is making far fewer interceptions than last year. Offensively we've been pretty poor. Marcos should be contributing a lot more key passes and chances than he has. Perhaps I need to look at the role my full backs play in the side. 

Midfielders

There's not a whole lot between Morais and Parreiral, but it is noticeable that Parreiral is better in the tackle, winning headers and interceptions. However, Morais wins more key headers and key tackles, so it probably evens out. Smiljanic had a torrid start and has improved since with reasonable key passes without taking any set pieces and a couple of assists to his name. Cortes is an able backup/ competitor and Dempsey wants out due to little game time. If we had a ready-made home-grown replacement I'd sell him without a thought, but we don't and getting British players is expensive. I'll try and get him to settle for a bit-part role.

Attacking mids

Palmer has had a really good season for us and is often keeping Schutt out of team due to the latter's injuries this season. Okay, we'd like more goals and assists from both of them, but we're slightly underperforming as a team so the drop is to be expected. 

Wingers

Lopez and Guyot haven't had the best December or November compared to their August-October form, but they're still doing very well this season. Dilrosun hasn't been great in his backup role while Dominguez has started slowly but his 7 goals including 4 from a striker role show he's got a lot to offer once he's fully adjusted. 

Forwards

Our strikers have both had poor seasons this year compared to their 28 goals each last season. I'm concerned about Gonzalez who doesn't seem to be improving and I'm not sure I fully trust him; Dominguez has taken to leading the line better than him. He's worth £57 million and wanted so if we could get £70 million or so I'd definitely take it and bring in someone else. Bah is having his worst season for years and I really hope he can pick up in the second half of the season. 

[Sonic Youth]

Still competing for top four with the table looking like it’s starting to spread. Is Europe affecting your league form?

[Jtomsett11]

7 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Still competing for top four with the table looking like it’s starting to spread. Is Europe affecting your league form?

I'm unsure really. It probably is as we can't just play all the reserves as we did last year in the Conference League. Our striker role isn't performing this year as teams sit back so I'll keep tweaking things until it works! To be fair, sitting 4th while having what feels like an average season isn't bad really!

[DrfcDan]

Just literally started a Jersey Bulls save myself but can’t find logo and kits anywhere, any chance you could help me out please lad?

[Jtomsett11]

On 10/07/2022 at 21:04, DrfcDan said:

Just literally started a Jersey Bulls save myself but can’t find logo and kits anywhere, any chance you could help me out please lad?

Sorry bud, not been playing much recently! I downloaded a kits pack from steam and that added the Jersey logo. Not sure which one now and can't seem to find it in downloads! I didn't download kits as I don't watch the games.

[Jtomsett11]

January 2042

After a period of struggling to play, it took me a few evenings to complete January. Our form hasn't been wonderful up until January, and apart from the first two games, we really struggled with scoring goals and were very lucky to win some of the games, such as Liverpool away. Our strikers just aren't scoring this season, Bah has 6 Prem goals and Gonzalez 4. Dominguez has 7, but only 3 of those are from playing up front. I'm going to see how February goes, but I'm sensing that I need to tweak a few things with our tactics and roles.

Our form is still good enough to keep us firmly inside the top four and within 6 points of the top of the league. 

Transfers

We've had quite an active window. Our midfield has been altered quite significantly, as Morais refused to sign a new deal and with just 2 and a half years left on his deal, Barcelona hit the £100 million asking price so I let him go. I also sanctioned Dempsey leaving on loan as he wasn't getting game time, so as a result I brought back Johnston from his loan spell. It's his chance to try and seal a place in the squad ahead of the summer where I'll potentially look to bring in a new BWM (nobody is available now). 

I am pretty gutted to lose Morais as his season last year, when we won the league, was really impressive. However, it's probably realistic that he's left. Hopefully, he won't immediately come back to haunt us as we face Barcelona in the Champions League in February.

We've faced quite a few injuries this season and I feel the team has been constantly disrupted.

That's a left back, a striker and two key wingers out for chunks of time. What a pain!

So, February looks very winnable in the league, although you never know with our form! That tie against Barcelona looks tough, but a good test of how far we've come!

 

[Sonic Youth]

That’s some fee, and for a centre back at that! And of course he’s coming back to play you   

Too many injuries to key players is definitely disruptive 

[Jtomsett11]

On 22/07/2022 at 11:13, Sonic Youth said:

That’s some fee, and for a centre back at that! And of course he’s coming back to play you   

Too many injuries to key players is definitely disruptive 

Yes, although he's played CM mostly for me, I retrained him to CB as I needed more depth there so he's done well in both roles. I feel we are going to miss him in the long term as there aren't many world class BWM out there. Perhaps we'll need a change in role!

[Jtomsett11]

February 2042

A really successful month and a return to scoring goals! 

I changed things after the Burnley game, yet another one where we had a low output in terms of xG and goals scored.

There's maybe 1 big chance in there is the whole game. I revisited our tactic and decided on a role change from DLP to roaming playmaker for my left-hand side CM, while allowing 1 or both full backs to shift to attacking mentality with the winger on support. I felt this might just vary things up slightly, with a few more bodies from slightly different positions making their way forward. It does seem to have helped as we've had 2 goals from our roaming playmaker and assists from the full backs in the 3 games since the change. Bah has also picked up some goals, which we weren't seeing before.

We are definitely leaving more gaps, and Barcelona took advantage of that to go 2-0 up, so to come back and win 3-2 is a brilliant result, although I feel they'll have too much for us in the reverse fixture.

However, overall I'm happy to leave a few more gaps and just have to defend better against better teams, as before we were drawing and losing lots of games against pretty mediocre sides. 

Finally, we're having an xG of over 1 per game and scoring more than that too (bear in mind the last three games have significantly increased the ratio and they're the ones with the adjusted formation). 

3 wins out of 3 in the league sees us remain in fourth, but the gap is now 7 points. We're only 6 points off top, which is the same as last month, but Spurs don't have a game in hand anymore after losing their last game of the month. 

[Jtomsett11]

Feb 2042 new contact

I missed this from the last post, but thought it worthwhile of a separate one. Contracts for my best players are becoming expensive now as demands shoot up towards £150k a week. I've got the option of an extra year here with Guyot who has been a standout performer this season, so if he then doesn't want to sign a new deal I've got him for a bit longer. I have done similar with Lopez who is here until 2045 with an option of an extra year; he now won't sign a new deal. The real challenge is to balance wage expenditure by occasionally selling a big player - Morais for £100 million this year, for example - without disrupting the squad too much.

I'm finding recruitment much more challenging now as finding players who are better or as good as the ones who are wanted is very difficult. When I do find them, other clubs often poach them, or they want £10 million a year +. I also find post-Brexit rules much more difficult to navigate in terms of having a production line of young foreign talent in the U23s and U18s, and my own youth aren't really much to shout about at the moment (bottom of the U18s league with only 1 win). With success has come new challenges which I will need to overcome in the next few seasons. 

 

[Jtomsett11]

March 2042

I really cannot complain about this month, but the draw to Newcastle with a rotated squad feels like a blow in what could have been a potential late-title challenge, but now feels too difficult. Beating Man City was an excellent start to the month as Kubiszyn had an absolutely brilliant game to keep them out. Leeds and Newcastle were dispatched routinely (Leeds scored a late goal), while we could have played for a month against Brighton and nobody would have scored. While the squad, on paper, has some depth, we are struggling again due to injuries.

Just as our wingers recover, we lose our starting BWM and our backup BWM before the Barcelona game, leaving an untried midfield duo of Smiljanic and Cortes, with the latter playing as BWM for the first time for us. Just a bit annoying! We were comfortably beaten in that one, but in our debut Champions League campaign I can't be too disappointed with being knocked out by a superior team.

Our new tactic seems to be working well!

You can see below why the draw against Brighton is annoying, as we're 5 points off City rather than 3. Tottenham have completely collapsed. 

The run-ins look like this. 

Jersey Bulls run-in

Wolves, Everton and Chelsea are mid-table sides, but Chelsea turned us over earlier this season, so it's not a guaranteed 3 points. Blackburn is winnable, while Tottenham could depend on whether they end their free-fall before we play them. 

Man City run-in

The 3 away games aren't easy at all, but they should win their last two home games. I think the title might be won by 80-82 points here, which is incredibly low. We can only achieve 82 points anyway, so we need City to lose twice to lower their goal difference. I think they'll probably still win it, but it's nice to be in with a shout having felt like we were miles off (performance wise at least) for much of the season.

 

[Punch]

Similar looking position to what I am facing with IoM, a point a game is tough to make up this close to the end.

Still an impressive season so far

[Jtomsett11]

15 hours ago, Punch said:

Similar looking position to what I am facing with IoM, a point a game is tough to make up this close to the end.

Still an impressive season so far

Yeah there's quite a lot of similarities,  although I feel from reading through your season you've been more impressive generally and city are just having an excellent season as seen by their points. I think another year you'd have won the title with the points you're likely to end up on! Still, can't complain about being in the title race my end, perhaps I'm not giving enough credit to how competitive its been this season!

[Punch]

5 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Yeah there's quite a lot of similarities,  although I feel from reading through your season you've been more impressive generally and city are just having an excellent season as seen by their points. I think another year you'd have won the title with the points you're likely to end up on! Still, can't complain about being in the title race my end, perhaps I'm not giving enough credit to how competitive its been this season!

Yeah, it's a little ironic, we finally get in front of United, only for City to go tearing it up

Well it is arguably the best League in the world for a reason.

[Jtomsett11]

March 2042 youth intake

At first glance, this is another unimpressive intake. However, the top 3, especially Faulkner, are all capable of playing in the squad if they meet their potential and they have decent personalities. From then downwards... it doesn't look great! 

Attribute analysis wise, this is actually not a bad team with the highest rating in about 5 years.

I'll probably sign most of them simply for numbers to avoid my U18s being used for millions of U18 games and ending up injured all the time. The best ones:

I like Faulkner as there's no obvious deficiencies in his game and he looks like he'll be pretty decent on the ball. No key attribute is below 9 with the exception of heading, which we can probably sort with some training. To be honest, I often think that as long as they win the ball, I don't mind where it goes. If he ends up a 3 star CB he'd be my joint-best centre back, so at worst he'd be a backup in the future if he makes it (and I don't see why he won't unless his potential has been over-egged).

Ebbrell has had a boost to potential ability already, which is nice. It's a shame about his dribbling and acceleration. He could play an inverted wing back role perhaps, not that we use it. He'd have to be seriously good to change tactics, and he probably won't be, but he could be a decent option one day.

Pearson is an interesting one. I'm not really sold by him, perhaps he'd be better as a winger after all! 

If either of these two had better potential, I'd be seriously excited about them, as they have superb attributes for their roles. I'll keep an eye on both of them and see how they develop as I'm aware that initial ratings can be very wrong. 

[Jtomsett11]

April game 1 

City faced Everton away, a team in mid-table, while we played Wolves at home.

'

This should have been a lot more comfortable. A brilliant Lopez finish from Smiljanic's pass set us up, but we conceded from a goalkeeper kick, both Bazan and Morillas complacent at the back and allowing it to bounce past them. Guyot then set up Schutt for a last minute finish after a great run and cut-back. Schutt has decided he's unhappy I won't meet his demands of £8 million a year wages (he's currently on £2million a year), but since declaring he wants to leave he scored twice and assisted once, so it's not affecting him.

Let's see how City did.

Get in!

The gap closes to 3.

United beat Liverpool, so they're right behind us.

[Jtomsett11]

April 2042 match day 2

This happened just before the Spurs game, which essentially sees Schutt out for the rest of the season.Tottenham won their game in hand, so beat them and we'd be right on City, but lose and we could end up 4th.

I resolved to keep going with the offensive tactics.

Yeah, that wasn't a success. The goals came from two set pieces and one poor piece of positioning at LB, influenced by my tactical instructions. We didn't really compete and I regret not just trying to go more conservative and sneaking a win as we did playing City. United also won their game, as did City, so the table now looks like this.

I think it's highly unlikely we'll retain our title from here. One positive is our recent form, which sees us top of the 2nd half of the season form table with 3 games to play. It won't win us a trophy, but it feels like we've made progress still.

Just in case anything dramatic does happen, here are the remaining games for all 4 top four sides.

City

United

Tottenham

Jersey

We may win our remaining games, but I can't see United beating City, then dropping 3 points (due to goal difference) while City drop another 3 points and have a 10 goal swing with us AND Tottenham drop points somewhere. If we'd beaten Spurs, I'd have put us at a 20% chance and City 80% I think, but we didn't!

[Punch]

Damn that's an incredibly tight table - 4 sides can still win it with 3 games to play...crazy

Edited July 26, 2022 by Punch

[deltablue]

That was a great title win last season.

[Jtomsett11]

7 hours ago, deltablue said:

That was a great title win last season.

Thanks! I couldn't quite believe our form at the time, we were unstoppable for a long period of time. We haven't quite lived up to that this season, but I feel that was definitely an overachievement with this season probably more par with where we are.