[FM22][Network Game] Aston Villa vs Leeds United - Marathon to the Top | Seasons Complete: 3 | Trophy Count: 1-0

[santy001]

So another year of FM and another save game for @oliscott and myself to sink our teeth into. This time we had a few debates about where to go, Scandianvian leagues being a thought again as well as a lower level start in England. Ultimately though, we settled on a premier league start. Eliminating the top sides it was then pretty much a free for all but to get two clubs who were fairly similar and as Oli is a Leeds fan he naturally opted for them. I've gone for Villa and another race to the top as begun. At the time of starting the thread we're closing in on the end of our second season so the first couple of posts will be recaps to show how we've progressed so far.

[santy001]

Season One: Contrasting Fortunes

The first season started impressively for Aston Villa, coasting in a top 4 spot come Christmas meanwhile Leeds were floundering around the relegation zone and mention of the sack was frequenting the news for @oliscott. Our first head to head at the end of August concluded with a 3-2 win for Villa, racing to a 3-0 lead in 28 minutes. Leeds were able to pull two back before half time but the game petered out and Villa saw it through. Our second game finished 3-0 to Leeds, just a solid performance which my Villa side could not get anywhere near. 

Post-Christmas for my Villa team the wheels fell off a bit, wins became few and far between and I hobbled across the finish line lucky to secure what I did. Leeds rallied saving Oli's job and getting a lower half finish.

I benefited from the cash rich Newcastle throwing some money my way, but also offloading some other players who just didn't fit into my 3-5-2 formation. I picked up some reliable players I know from Stoke in Tyrese Campbell and Harry Souttar. Oli looks to have have gone more down a route of buying for the future while I've gone with a little less future prospects and more ready to go now. 

Pre January Results:

For Villa:

For Leeds:

The League Table:

Transfer History:

Aston Villa:

Leeds United:

 

 

[santy001]

Season One: Best Elevens

Aston Villa: 

Leeds United:

[santy001]

Season Two:

With the second season I decided it was time to arrest my declining form in the second half of the season. I'd been playing the quite defensive formation above, it was quite good early on but injuries and a lack of depth to play it meant I did run out of steam. The Villa squad to start with is quite wide player heavy, and while I had brought a number of players into the centre (Bailey, Traore primarily) it was a lack of specialists for positions that was holding me back while also being too conservative.

Pre-season I looked at a couple of formations and eventually settled on dropping the DM and going with 3 up top. Oli also mixed it up with Leeds, and doubled down on his youth strategy when it came to transfer signings. 

To quickly catch the thread up on our current progress in the second season I managed to mount a top 4 bid. At Christmas it was looking rather bleak but a strong second half of the season brought it home. @oliscott floundered in the lower half flirting with the relegation zone once more before having a chance to rally for European football himself. However, it petered out and a midtable finish was in order.

Leeds Transfers:

Aston Villa Transfers:

Leeds Best XI:

Aston Villa Best XI: 

[santy001]

Aston Villa - Season Three:

Now that the thread has been caught up with where we are presently, I can look at things prospectively. Coming into the third season there is heavy turnover in the squad, following the Champions League qualification a lot of clubs were interested in ageing players. While they certainly still had years on the clock their values were at a premium because of the success and so it made time to prepare for the future. 

Letting John McGinn, Danny Ings and Emiliano Martinez leave for a combined £115m reinforced the war-chest to begin some new era purchases.

I revisited Stoke for young keeper Joe Bursik, while also picking up experience head Esteban Andrada to provide competition. Up front I went for Darwin Nunez, I'd almost procured his signing in the first season when realising the wheels were coming off. Deadline day deprived me and then come the summer my attentions turned elsewhere as Danny Ings started to look promising. 

A particular problem last season had been in the Europa League I had to leave 4 blank slots owing to a lack of homegrown and so I've moved the team in the direction of securing high-value (to gain work permits) talents who are 18 in the hopes of making them homegrown. 

Therefore I've signed:

Wilgot Marshage - £20m

Roberto Castro - £1.9m (surprised he got a WP)

Eyup Aydin - £9m

[santy001]

Season Three - Finalising the Summer Window:

Big offers continued to come in for players. Milan came in for Axel Tuanzebe and Man City for Harvey Elliott. These two weren't players I particularly wanted to let leave, but I figured as the squad is going through a big change by selling them now it lets me continue the targeted rebuild.

In came Ben Godfrey and Eyup Aydin, with Dahoud on loan to see how he works out. With responsibilities for U23 signings delegated, my staff have elected to make a number of free signings to strengthen that squad.

[DefinitelyTaylor]

Thanks for the tidy round-up to bring us up-to-date. The fortunes of you both have been quite contrasting. Hopefully we’ll see an improvement for @oliscott this year. Losing Elliott is tough but as you say, it should allow you the funds to continue your rebuild.

[santy001]

Season Three - Leeds Line-Up

Oli switched to a highly aggressive tactic towards the end of the second season, it's a 4-3-3 with a DM in the middle, but the wide defenders pushed up to the wingback strata. This continued into season three and he had begun embarking on a series of strong transfer activity himself. In his usual manner he has pumped a lot into the youth, with a number of the signings not really being first team material just yet.

This was offset by some considerable sales, already cutting ties with one younger signing Barco and letting a number of others head out the door for good values.

[santy001]

Season Three's Run-In

The third season has seen an awful lot of inconsistency in form with both sides. My Aston Villa side initially dipped quite low in the league, struggling horribly with the rigours of a Champions League campaign. The year before I had been able to delegate the Europa League group games to a good mix of reserves/youngsters. The Champions League, being seeded 4th and in a group containing Dortmund, Valencia and Porto required my full strength. The team weren't capable of this and the league suffered. Leeds were in the stronger position for quite a while and looked to be in contention for a Champions League spot for themselves. 

Coming into January Leeds encountered three back to back defeats, including one against my Villa side and this was the beginning of things getting closer.

A little later in the season and the gap between the two sides had closed, the race for 4th had become a 5 team challenge. Leicester held 4th place, with Villa and Leeds a point behind. Tottenham sat 2 points behind Leicester and West Ham 4 points behind. 

It was poised to be a tightly run thing, and Leeds did quickly begin to claw back the goal difference... however, they had dropped points:

West Ham were beginning to get cut adrift, and Leeds were struggling to maintain their solid form over the final run-in:

Eventually it ended up quite a distance between the two sides. An 11 point gap and a comfortable return to the Champions League next year for Aston Villa.

[santy001]

Season Three - Aston Villa's European Campaign

The group stage was tough, but with a result against Dortmund in the final game my side progressed to the knockout rounds. This was really about all I expected, it had been a struggle to get this far and the money would be useful to continue building for another assault next year. 

My first knockout game got off to a good start, but the usual problems emerged. Once tiredness kicked in and teams began to attack my side weren't fully capable of resisting.

A late collapse had seen the tie level going into the second leg and I was confident we could get through, and with a strong 4-0 win in the second leg it was easier than expected. The rest of the European campaign always felt like it was going to end, but the club just kept chugging along.

Roma and PSG fell by the wayside, setting up a finale with Liverpool. In our save Liverpool have signed Lewandowski and Haaland. This has given them a rather terrifying front line-up, and one that is incredibly potent with Salah and Mane still in the mix. They had a bit of a habit of slapping my team around a bit on the pitch, we just couldn't counter the press well enough in most games.

Naturally this is setting up for a completely out of the ordinary result. Upon beginning the final I found myself ahead early, and by a number of goals. Despite it being a closely fought game, it ended up massively lopsided and Aston Villa secured the Champions League at their first attempt in our game:

[santy001]

Season Three - Best Elevens

Following the completion of the third season, here are the best XI's for both of us:

Leeds:

Aston Villa: