warlock

Too easy! Well, maybe not too easy Congrats on another good season, though.

Always tough to go away needing a result, but a solid season nonetheless. Better luck next time! Sympathies, but it looks like you were one goal (to turn one of those draws into a win) shy of the playoffs. Hope things pick up.

I fear I'm becoming predictable in my old age

What it's all about, right? I'm just getting a new save underway... I had a mind to do a Man Utd rebuild similar to the challenge facing Eric Ten Hag. Rather than tediously holidaying through the first season, I added the Swedish league to the save, which allows you to pick a start date at the end of April 2022. What caught my eye was that Brentford looked doomed to relegation back to the Championship, and that had a lot of appeal. But then, with my manager unemployed and just watching for the end of the season, I was invited to apply for the job at Forest, who had sacked Steve Cooper when Forest were themselves relegated to L1. Forest in the 3rd tier seemed like an excellent basis for a save, so I interviewed for the position and was duly appointed as new manager I think I'll do the United save at some point, if only for the pleasure of being able to sign some top-quality players that are rarely - if ever - available to us EFL managers. But for now, I'll be securely in my comfort zone of cheap bargains and free signings

Yeah, that's not too shabby. Very close to European qualification, too

I take it your laptop is still limping on?

Always happy to advise, if I know the player. And Williams will be fine as a rotation option - he was very good for me in an Exeter save last year.

Going well, and some useful business. I've never managed Coleman but he always seems to play well against my sides. If Williams can help you to promotion he'll be a good buy, but I found him very hit and miss in the Championship with Hull.

Oxford United, May 2022 The season is over and after battling with Ipswich for the title down the final straight, how did we do? Despite the rigours of a packed fixture list - and continuing injury problems - we were unbeaten in February, dropping just a single point in a goalless draw with Crewe. But things went a bit Pete Tong in March: The FA Cup loss to Brentford was expected, but the home draw against a Burton side we should have beaten was a disappointment. Worse was to follow with a league defeat to struggling Shrewsbury. That allowed Ipswich to open a 3pt lead at the top of the division so our home game against the Tractor Boys became hugely significant. A fantastic 3-0 win took us back to the top on goal difference but we ended the month with a defeat to promotion-chasing Plymouth that allowed Ipswich to overtake us once again. We opened the final month of the campaign with a morale-boosting win over Wednesday to claim the Pizza Pot. It looked to have at least been good for finances with a £100k reward- until we promptly paid out £103k in player bonuses. As we arrived at the last two games, we still had a chance to claim the title, especially when Ipswich lost their penultimate game - unfortunately, we had already secured promotion and it seemed that everyone simply switched off. We never looked like winning either match. So we finished the season in 2nd - a fantastic performance from a squad never expected to do better than top-half but which produced the best attack and second-best defence in the league. Mark Sykes's performance as top scorer was a credit to him - and a black mark against our strikers who were horribly inconsistent all year. Luke McNally emerged as our most important player, as the 22-year-old earned the highest average rating and most PoM awards. Brannagan kept up his production of assists (although he did fall away badly in the latter stages) and, despite his poor disciplinary record, Seddon overcame a poor start to the season to become a solid, reliable presence at LB. I'm not yet sure I'll continue the save in the Championship - there's a huge rebuild to be done with 5 loans expiring, plus another 5 players on expiring contracts. The latter group includes new signing Billy Bodin, who missed most of the season with injury and was abysmal when he returned. It also looks likely we'll go into the summer with only Matty Taylor as a striker, and I'm far from convinced he can perform in the Championship. The same is true of another 3-5 first team regulars. Time will tell...

That's about right, I think. Really thought you could make the playoffs but no shame in coming up just short. Great start to season 2 as well - one defeat in 20 is promotion-chasing form indeed!

Some compensation for a "disappointing league campaign" . And European football secured for another season. Yeah, the winter months are a grind in the EFL. I thought things would ease off a bit after January, but they haven't - 7 games in February, 7 games in March. I've got a conveyor belt of injuries - as soon as one player returns, another goes out injured for weeks, and I've had to playi 17-year-old in central defence.

Looks like the tactical tinkering is working, and I agree - not too much to worry about in those results. I wouldn't be surprised to see you finish in the playoff spots.

It's a fair exchange - I've learned a lot from your posts this year and last

Can feel your pain in this post . Late goals are certainly a thing, as Pep found this week. But I've never found it to be a particular problem - sometimes there's nothing you can do (they want it more than you), but mostly I've won more games in the last 5 minutes (and added time) than I lose. In recent FMs I've played mostly on a "positive" mentality; this year it's been more "balanced". Typically, I play "shorter" passing and either standard or higher tempo, standard or higher LoD/LoE (those are general tactical settings). If I'm defending a lead, or holding on for a draw, I make the following changes: * lower tempo, to control possession. * time-wasting to "sometimes". * tick on "pass into space", to keep the AI honest at the back or hit them on the break when they've over-committed. It doesn't always work, but I can honestly say my feeling is we score as many late goals as we concede. Sometimes I might change an attacking role to support, or a support role to defend, but usually the above is enough. If we're really under the cosh I find "shoot on sight" to be helpful as lashing the ball into "row Z" can be a good time-waster. On the other hand, I never drop mentality below "balanced", and never drop my LoD to "lower" - just seems like you're inviting a huge amount of pressure/shots that way. My opinion, and worth exactly what you paid for it

Agreed . Your players could be completely traumatised by that schedule, but if they do better than 1 win out of 5 it could be great. As for tactics, I wouldn't be playing with lower lines /and/ a 'cautious' mentality, but I've been wrong before. I just think you're setting yourself up to be under pressure for 90 minutes every game. But I hope it goes without saying that I wish you all the success in the world

Unbelievable, Jeff! Imagine the scenes at Shrewsbury - not just a Champions League debut but absolutely owning the competition. And the PL, too. Amazing season - congratulations

New save incoming?

I've been delighted with him - stepped straight into first-team action and acquitted himself well. Can also play the AMR role, too. Ipswich have been relentless - best attack, best defence, most clean sheets. My board is being typically board-like... Expectation: top half; "A+ delighted" when we were overperforming massively in first; "B+ pleased" now that we're only overperforming massively in second .

Oxford United, February 2022 In my last update I said we were heading into the tough winter schedule. Actually, I had no idea how tough it was going to be: having played 7 games in each month of October and November, it turned out we had 7 games scheduled in December and 8 games in January . For the first time in an FM save I had to rest players for 1 or 2 additional days between games, even when that meant no training was possible. And even so, we suffered a string of injuries that meant we were operating on the slimmest of margins. Between the end of November and the end of January we lost AM Mark Sykes for a month; AM Ryan Williams for 5 weeks; and AM James Henry with a hip injury that will keep him out for the rest of the season. And those are on top of earlier injuries that have kept out AMs Billy Bodin and Marcus Browne since before the season started and who are unlikely to make a return before March. But despite that litany of woe, we managed to continue our good form on the pitch: At least in part, the fixture congestion was caused by our continued success in cup competitions, made worse by the fact that it took us two games to see off MK Dons in the FA Cup. The January window saw two departures from the club: hopeless striker Sam Winnall went to Gillingham for a princely £9k, and DM Jamie Hanson (who missed the opening months through injury) went to Peterborough for £26k. Those small fees gave us the budget to think about a couple of signings. With our injury troubles at AM, that was my first priority but I failed to come up with a likely target. Instead, we had been playing Anthony Forde, a natural AMR, at FB where he had done very well. But we had an opportunity to bring in youngster Taylor Gardner-Hickman, a natural FB, on loan from West Brom and he joined for a £1.4k weekly wage contribution, allowing Forde to revert to his best position. Second priority was to find a more reliable source of goals but strikers who we could afford and who were willing to join proved elusive and we ended the window with that need unfilled. On the pitch, the cracks started to show - although it's probably fairer to say we perhaps reverted to the kind of performances that were expected from the start of the season: I certainly expected us to exit the cup competitions this month but we saw off Spurs u23s in the Pizza Pot, and then produced a fantastic result to breeze past Wolves in the FA Cup. The draw against Lincoln was disappointing but they are fighting for a playoff spot. The defeat to Wycombe was easily our worst result - and worst performance - of the season, particularly having taken an early lead. Worse still, we surrendered our hold on first place to Ipswich. And although we did very well against the Owls, the draw against struggling Gillingham means we now trail the Tractor Boys by 7pts. The only disappointment has been the patchy form of our strikers - both Taylor and Baldock have reached double figures but both have had long dry spells. Fortunately, the midfield have filled in spectacularly with Mark Sykes leading the scoring chart, Brannagan leading the league in assists, and Nathan Holland producing 9 goals and 10 assists from the wings. The latter, incidentally, will be joining permanently in the summer - Motherwell popped up with an end-of-contract transfer bid which alerted me to the possibility. Would parent club West Ham be willing to let him sign with us on a free in July? Happily, they would! If only we can avoid a further injury crisis, it could be a very good season.

Excellent! Three good possibles there, all with different strengths and weaknesses, I think.