Kubson
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Posts posted by Kubson
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FEBRUARY-MAY 2024
Our form has been all over the place, with March and May being our best months in terms of results. Of course, we've been competing in the Europa League and the FA Cup, as well as that we had to play a Carabao Cup Final so it's understandable that we would drop some points, but we've had quite a bit of dissapoitning results, like losing to Everton, Bournemouth, Wolves or Villa.
Our FA Cup run came to an end in the 4th round again, as this time we lost to Chelsea which was unfortunate especially as we were able to beat them in the league. The fact that the replay came jut before the Carabao Cup final certainly help. The pressure is now on as we will have to win this cup next season.
That Aston Villa defeat was very costly as we bottled Champions League qualification on the final day of the season
We've been in 4th pretty much the entire year too. We now have to do things the hard way and defeat Atletico Madrid in the Europa League final if we want to play Champions League football, and both sides will be up for it as the Spanish side finished 5th in La Liga.
Elsewhere Tottenham have had an abysmal season as mentioned previously as they finished in 14th, 10 places lower than the previous season. Chelsea have nothing to brag about either as they miss out on Champions League football. Southampton, Blackburn and Fulham have all gone down.
That match against Villa was especially frustrating as we dominated and should have easily won it. We couldn't finish our dinner and Aston Villa scored with one of their few attacks of the match. Not only that but Jayden Bogle got injured and won't be able to start against Atletico in the Final.
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UEFA Europa League 2023/24 Knockouts
Second Knockout Round
As group winner we went straight into the second round where we'd be drawn against an unseeded team. That team turned out to be Galatasaray who were knocked out of the Champions League previously.
Coming into this tie I was confident as we had beaten teams of similar statue (Olympiacos and Salzburg) in the group stages and this was one of the easier teams for us to get on paper. This turned out to be true as we dominated in Turkey and managed to get an important 2-1 win in Istanbul. We won again in England after a closer match to seal a 4-1 aggregate victory.
Quarterfinal
The next round would be much more difficult as we drew Spanish giants and 2004 Uefa Cup winner Valencia who had finished 4th and 5th in the two previous La Liga seasons and were top of their domestic division coming into this tie. With players like Gaya, Soler or an in-form partenrship of Duro and Maxi Gomez they were very strong on paper and they proved it by beating Benfica 6-1 in the previous round.
Despite the Spanish side being the surperior team in both matches we've advanced! The first leg in England has got to be one of the stranger games I've had on FM, we started superbly with a goal from Olise and it looked like we could beat Valencia comfortably. Then Kent and Renan both got sent off in the space of 31 minutes leaving us with 9 men, predictably Valencia then dominated the proceedings but they couldn't finish any of their chances as Raya, Ajer, Konsa, Bailly and Styles put in a superb shift and one of our few attacks resulted in a goal thanks to Cucho Hernandez.
We beat La Liga leaders 2-0 with 9 men! With a 2-0 lead coming into the second leg we played counter-attacking brand of football and went up 4-0 on aggregate after 40 minutes, Duro and Vallejo made it 2-2 but it wasn't enough for Valencia as we won 4-2 and advanced into the semi-finals!
Semifinal
We would come up against a fellow English side: Spurs, the two time UEFA Cup winners and last season's Europa League finalists in the semifinal of the Europa League. Domestically they were having an abysmal campaign, they were 14th coming into this match, a massive downfall considering they finished 4th in the previous season. Spurs were also knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage, but fared much better in the Europa League, they beat Lille, Hertha and Arsenal (!) on the way to the semifinals. I was happy with this draw as we had beaten them before, they weren't at their best and Arsenal would be harder to beat but they were still the favorties.
Tottenham didn't turn up in this tie and they looked much closer to their disappointing league counterpart rather than the team that got them this far in the Europa League. We dominated the match at the White Hart Lane, scoring three but Muriel's 90th minute strike gave Spurs a glimmer of hope coming into the second leg. That hope was quickly gone after Cucho Hernandez's double put as 5-1 up in the space of 19 minutes, Tottenham could only manage one goal through Son and we are through to the final in our first ever European campaign!
In the Europa League final we will face 3 time Europa League winners Atletico Madrid, who will be determined to win the final as this could be their only hope of getting into the Champions League. Atletico were the favorties to win the cup at the start of the competition and have lived up to the expectations by reaching the final.
This match reminds me a lot of Fulham who had a similary sensational run and lost to Atletico in the 2010 Europa League final, hopefully we can do one better than our bitter rivals!
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2024 CARABAO CUP FINAL
Against all odds we find ourselves in the final for the second consecutive season and we have a chance to defend our title. Unlike last time where we faced Aston Villa, this time Liverpool stand in our way and they are very much as strong as you'd think, coming into this match they are 2nd in the Premier League and of course they have a good history in the Carabao Cup, being the most successful side in the competition's history.
The odds reflect that, with Liverpool being the slight favorites. Rico Henry is not fully fit coming into this match which means that means either Styles or Renan will have to slot in as the left back.
MATCH
We've done it! After a tight match in which we came from behind twice, we took the game to penalties and won. I'm not going to lie after Mane scored the second or when Keita was stepping up to take Liverpool's 5th penalty I was sure that it was over for Brentford, but we came back each time to win the cup and defend our title! This has got to be one of our best team performances this season.
Just like last season, winning The League Cup secures our spot in the Conference League, at the very least but with us fighting for the Champions League spot I doubt that we will enter the competition. Still it is nice to be assured of something at the very least.
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JANUARY 2024
This has been one of the, if not the best month of my tenure at Brentford. No defeats in the league with 4 wins in 6 matches including victories against Man City and Man Utd, it's just a shame about that Blackburn result lol Still that run of form is enough for us to keep 4th spot coming into February.
We also did well in the cups, battering Championship side Newcastle and pulling off a comeback against Wolves in the Carabao Cup.
TRANSFERS
We made two additions on the deadline day of the winter transfer window as we needed more depth with both domestic cups and Europa League making our schedule more packed. That meant that we signed 8 players this season, 6 of them coming on pernament deals.
Renan arrives from Brazil for a cheap price of 8 milion and he is able to be both a DC and a LB, especially happy with this as clubs like Milan or Roma were sniffing around.
Veretout joins to provide depth to our midfield and with no loan fees involved this was a no-brainer. He has fantastic technical attributes and if we want to buy him, the permanent transfer fee isn't large.
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2023/24 CARABAO CUP SEMI-FINALS
We were the better side in the first-half and probably should have taken the lead but we were poor in front of goal. Things went from bad to worse in the second half, as Wolves improved in the second half and delivered the sucker punch through Fabio Silva in the 84th minute. Plenty of work to be done ahead of the second leg at Molineux if we are to go through. The fact that Balcombe had to play due to Raya having a minor injury didn't help either.
We found the finishing touch that we lacked at home as we beat Wolves 3-0 after extra time at their ground. Eriksen's goal saw the game head to extra time and the substitutions of Mbeumo and Brereton Diaz had great impact as they scored in extra time to seal our place in the final. Raya coming back made all the difference as Wolves themselves were able to create dangerous chances but our Spanish number one saved all of them and ensured that Wolves' Carabao Cup run would come to an end.
Unlike last year where we were fortunate to play a team of similar strength in Aston Villa, this time the final challenge will be much more difficult as we face one of the best teams in the world and the most successful side in League Cup's history: Liverpool. We will have to play a near perfect match if we are to retain our title.
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2023/24 Season: August-January 1st
One thing that is very apparent is that we're not losing very many games (just one in fact), but instead picking up a lot of draws, 8 draws in 18 matches! Thankfully we've also won half of our games but it could have been more, a lot of these draws were as a result of us either missing key chances or conceding late goals, but this is the difference between a good side and a genuine title contender. Not losing to Man City away twice, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham is a very good sign though.
Our title defense of the Carabao Cup is progressing very nicely, through to the semi-finals where we will face Wolves in a match in you'd think that we will be the favorties. I honestly expected us to be eliminated by Man City in the Fourth Round, but switching to a 3ATB was a masterstroke as we held them off and won on penalties.
Our form sees us in 4th spot at the beginning of the year and if we can keep up that run of form there is no reason as to why we couldn't snatch that last Champions League spot which would be a massive achievement, though Arsenal and Chelsea are very close in pursuit. Still I'm pretty confident that we will qualify for Europe again, whether be it for the Europa or the Champions League.
This season also sees us make our European debut. We got a very kind draw (especially as we were the 3rd seed team) in Salzburg, Olympiacos and Swiss side Servette. 5 wins and 1 defeat sees Brentford comfortably win the group and advance straight into the second knockout round. That one defeat against Salzburg was a result of overconfidence and squad rotation, after the Austrians battered us I didn't rotate the team again lol Olympiacos made it through as the second place team and Salzburg dropped into the Conference League.
As for our transfer dealings this season, here is the list of the players that we've signed. We took advantage of West Brom's and Crystal Palace's relegations to snatch Styles and Olise for cut prices. Olise is a fantastic player and a fantastic prospect and he'll be a great starting winger or a attack minded midfielder, while Styles will provide the depth that we need (he can play at CM, DM, LWB and I'm training him as a LB)
Eric Bailly was transfer listed for just 4,5 milion pounds and for a player of his quality and experience that is a bargain price.
Ezri Konsa returned to Brentford for 29 milion pounds in total and he will be a key part of our defense.
Swedish midfielder Svanberg joins us after impressing at Bologna and I'm very excited about that deal, he is great as both a DM and a CM.
Haller joined us on loan from Leeds after he was transfer listed on the final day of the summer transfer window, we only pay 50% of his wages with no monthly fee so that is a great transfer, we also have an option to buy him for 27 milion. He will be an impact player for the Premier League and a starting forward for most of our cup matches.
In terms of our performances so far, Eriksen benefited a lot from switching his role from a Mezzala to a Central Midfielder on attack with him scoring more goals at the halfway mark than he did last season, not to mention 7 assists.
Brereton Diaz, Henry, Bogle, Ajer, Kent and Raya continue to impress, while Winks and Worral have improved since last season.
Olise, Konsa, Styles and Haller look like great additions already. I'm especially impressed with Olise, he's great as a CM(A) but even better as a winger and that resulted in Mbuembo being benched.
Our top goalscorer is Cucho Hernandez with 9, but it's also worth mentioning how evenly the goals are spread around our attackers.
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END OF 2022/23 SEASON
Since the restart of the Premier League after the World Cup break up until the Manchester United game we were superb, 9 wins in 16 matches with only 2 defeats along the way were an indicator that we'd be in a charge for European spots. This period was topped off with our first ever Carabao Cup win, but it was disappointing to fail in the FA Cup early once again, especially as Leeds at home should have been a winnable encounter.
Since the Bournemouth match, with the exception of the Tottenham game (in which we were superb) we seemed to have ran out of steam, even the Fulham win was not a good performance from us, though we did have a hard end to the season with Man City and Arsenal.
The poor end to the season did not cost us however, as we just about sneaked into 6th with 59 points, securing ourselves Europa League football for the next season. I've got to thank Leeds for beating Manchester United on the final day, as they would have overtaken us with a win!
Aside from Brentford in 6th, there were no real surprises at the top of the table, all of the usual suspects secured themselves European Football in one form or another. Crystal Palace and Burnley were both relegated after having surprisingly poor seasons.
This is how we lined up and performed as a whole. Brereton Diaz came up clutch in the Carabao Cup, being the main contributor to the success. Ivan Toney, Rico Henry, Bryan Mbuemo, Christian Eriksen, David Raya and Kristoffer Ajer all continued their good form from last season. Cucho Hernandez, Jayden Bogle and Ryan Kent all proved to be smart signings as well. Dissapointed with Winks, but I'm sure he'll come around next season.
Our finances look very healthy at 70 milion and as a result of this and our success we've been rewarded with a 79 (!) milion pounds transfer budget for the next season. We'll need squad depth for the next season, as well as upgrades to our midfield and defense so all of this cash will come in handy for sure.
The expectations of our play style and signing policy haven't changed much and I'm confident I'll be able to meet these targets. The board expects us to finish Mid-table in the Premiership and reach the second knock-out round of the Europa League, both are realistic aims and I'm sure I'll be able to do better than that with good transfers.
Our facilities are coming up nicely, Great training facilities and Good youth facilites, I suspect we will able to be max these out soon enough. Sadly, the board is very stubborn in regards to out Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment, so our intakes continue to suffer.
Elsewhere, Manchester City defend their Champions League title to become the Champions of Europe for the second time in a row, Manchester United make up for their poor season by winning the Europa League (after they were grouped in the CL) to secure themselves Champions League football. Barcelona (!) had a terrible campaign last season, finishing in 6th and were ultimately forced to settle for the Conference League after Sociedad won Copa Del Rey. They made the most of it, by winning the cup and becoming the first ever side to have all of the European competitions (CL, EL, CWC and now EC2).
In the Championship Norwich and Watford are both able to bounce staight back up, while Newcastle bottled the play-offs against Blackburn, who later went on to win promotion! The Saudi plan is not going accordingly.
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CARABAO CUP FINAL 2023
Against all odds Brentford find themselves in a final up against Aston Villa. Both teams pulled off an upset in the semi-finals, Brentford defeated Chelsea, while Aston Villa run out winners against Arsenal.
Brentford have the opportunity to win their first Carabao Cup title, as well as their first major domestic trohpy, while Aston Villa have a shot at finally winning the competiton for the first time since 1996. With a Conference League spot on the line as well, both sides will be determined to win the competiton.
THE MATCH
Despite most of the predictions expecting this match to be a closely fought contest, Brentford were on another level in-front of the goal, as they took all of their chances, esentially winning the final in the first half alone. Aston Villa were able to grab one back through Buendia but it wasn't nearly enough as the London side take their first Carabao Cup title!
We were truly the surprise package of the tournament, I would have predicted us to reach the semi-finals at best, but I didn't think we were capable of going all the way this early! A first trophy in just the second season is fantastic, even if it isn't one of the required ones.
Of course the main prize of winning the Carabao Cup is a European spot, no matter what happens we will enter the Conference League, but so far we still have a chance of snatching a Europa League spot. Still it is nice to be assured of European competitions coming to us in the 2023/24 season and the Conference League is a competition we could realistically win.
As I said previously, the Carabao Cup is significant to us. Brentford have finally won a trophy and hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
Don't ask me how the game thinks the Championship is more important though
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Well, I certainly didn't expect that to happen!
After beating Sheffield United in the quaterfinals of the Carabao Cup we were drawn against Chelsea in the semifinal where I thought our journey would end, but as it turns out the semi-finals this season were a singular match at a neutral venue, rather than an aggregate like in most seasons and we took full advantage of that by beating Chelsea for the first time in this save to reach our first ever final.
Aston Villa awaits at Wembley and we're one match away from winning Brenford's first ever major piece of silverware and with Europe on the line stakes couldn't be higher. I'm hopeful that we can pull through as we had beaten them before.
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2022 World Cup Break
Mixed result as a whole. We've had a fantastic start gaining 7 points from the first 3 matches, including a 5-1 win over Brighton, to then go winless in our 9 matches, though we did have tough fixtures along the way (Man City, Tottenham, Liverpool). Thankfully 3 victories in our last 4 encounters saw us go into the break in good spirits.
We're also having a nice cup run, into the quaterfinals of The Carabao Cup and our next opponent is Championship side Sheffield United at home.
We find ourselves safely in 11th after the first 15 games, 7 points above the drop zone and only 4 points off 7th, with great form coming into the World Cup break. Could we actually make a push for Europe?
In other news Brighton build onto their good finish last year (7th) and find themselves in 5th, 2 points off Champions League spots, Wolves are also impressing.
Man Utd having a terrible season so far, stuck all the way down in 12th. Leicester seem to be stuck in a relegation battle, though 3 wins in their last 5 matches suggests recovery is on the way.
Transfers
We've made 6 signings in the summer transfer window. Thankfully it was easier to operate in the market with the board giving me 32 milion in the end. Rennes actually finished bottom of Ligue 1 and we were able to fully take advantage of it by signing Terrier and Aguerd for just above 10 milion, I have especially high hopes for Terrier and Aguerd will be a useful option at CB.
Cucho Hernandez was signed from relegated Watford for a bargain price of 17 milion up-front, he was one of Watford's better performers last season. Jayden Bogle is our long term option at right-back, the fact that Sheffield United failed to get promoted certainly helped.
We brought back SPFL's star Ryan Kent to the Premier League, paying a bargain 13 milion pounds total to Rangers. Harry Winks was transfer listed by Tottenham on the last day of the transfer window and we took full advantage of that, signing a key player for our midfield for a cut price.
Squad:
The key event of the summer was us managing to tie down Christian Eriksen to a new deal and he has performed well thus far as a creative midfielder. Ryan Kent and Jaden Bogle have proved great additions to the squad. Bryan Mbuemo and Ivan Toney continue their good form from last season. Terrier failed to impress thus far but he did have a couple of injuries so I can excuse that.
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END OF 2021/22 SEASON
Our results to end the season were mixed, as you'd expect. On one hand we had a terrible time between the Everton and the Chelsea game, losing 4 of our 6 games, only beating Norwich, but on the other we later went on and finished the campaign with only one loss in our last 8 matches. The highlights included draws against Man City, Liverpool and Man Utd (at Old Trafford!), a double against Spurs and a 4-0 battering of Aston Villa.
This enabled us to finish in a lofty 10th place! Surprsing, considering we only managed to gather 47 points and if you take a look it was a close affair, only 6 points separated 15th place Leicester and 9th place Aston Villa. Undoubtedly, this was down to our good defense, only the top 7 and Tottenham conceded less goals than us, that is something we must use as a platfrom in the next season.
All in all, a great season and if we can get 10th again next year I'll be happy. I'd also love a cup run, as we exited the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup (Not my fault) in the rounds we started in this season, which is not ideal.
Interestingly, both Brighton and Leeds ended up in European spots, while Tottenham had an abysmal season, but not quite as bad as Newcastle who got relegated on the final day
Here is the squad overview. David Raya was the key figure, keeping 10 clean sheets in 31 matches and averaging a 7,14 average rating, the amount of times he kept us in the game is insane. I'd love to keep him but Real Madrid (!) is interested so we'll have to find out. Jansson, Ajer and Janelt were solid parts of the team and Ivan Toney was the top scorer. Brereton Diaz didn't start badly, but we will need to sign more capable forwards.
The expectation for the 2022/23 season is to avoid relegation. I feel like this is something we can accomplish, the main question is can we improve upon this season? It will be hard as the transfer budget we've been given is only 10 milion pounds, so we'll need to sell before we can bring in the necessary quality.
Last thing I'd like to touch upon are our facilities, which are abysmal for a Premier League club, but we are slowly working on them, the training facilities will be improved soon and I will ask the board for more upgrades for sure. I didn't even know this before starting, Brentford had no youth recruitment when I arrived so we have to start working from the absolute bottom lol We did get up to Youth Level 4, but I'm not expecting to get any quality youngsters for the first few years.
As evidenced by the first intake, which is abysmal, no two ways about it lol Interestingly our best youngster to come through is from The Faroe Islands, but I'm not expecting much from him sadly, espeically with that personality. Still I will keep him around the squad for the noveltiy of having a Faroese player lol I mean he DOES have 15 finishing...
In other competitons, the FA Cup was won by Liverpool, Chelsea won the Carabao Cup, Manchester City claimed their first Champions League title, Juventus won the Europa League after being knocked out of the CL and Tottenham won the Conference League, securing them Europa League football despite their abysmal campaign.
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NOVEMBER 2021-FEBRUARY 2022
We've been on a pretty good run in the league I'd say, 6 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses is an exceptional result for a newly promoted sides, with us almost only losing the games where you'd expect us to get battered, though that defeat against West Ham was annoying, but beating Spurs in the first match more than makes up for it!
I was hoping that we'd be able to go on a cup run in the FA Cup and perhaps grab that trophy right off the bat in season 1, but all of my hope and optimism was gone when the draw announced that we'd be travelling to take on Manchester United at Old Trafford. To be fair, we did put up a fight but we were never going to win that match.
These results leave us in a healthy 13th spot, 7 points above the drop zone and if the magic 40 points tally is to be believed then we only need 13 points in the remaining 15 matches to stay up, I'm optimistic about out chances but one bad run of form could see us in serious danger again. Also Newcastle in the drop zone
With the winter transfer window behind us there were bound to be a few changes and I did make 3 new transfers. Brentford made 4 new signings in the summer but out of all of them I really only rate Bouna Sarr, Taider is already gone and Soares, as well as Valdez are merely rotational options. We did loan out a few of our youngsters and sell one of them, as well as giving one of them in exchange to Norwich, but none of them had Premier League potential so I was happy to let them go.
On the ins we signed Joe Worrall from Nottingham Forest, Ben Brereton Diaz from Blackburn and Jacob Sorensen from Norwich, none of the players are above the age of 25, all come in with decent experience, at decent cost and I feel like those are exactly the type of signings that fit Brentford's real-life transfer policy.
Worrall has all the key attributes to compete in the Premier League and indeed the coaches rate him as a decent Premier Division player, for just 5,25 milion we picked up a quality home-grown talent to bolster our defense.
Brereton Diaz was needed as aside from the brilliant Ivan Toney our attack looked weak, with Wissa and Mbeumo not living up to the expectations. He looks decent enough and will be able to provide competition in all attacking areas, I plan to start him as an Inverted Winger on the left, hopefully he provides the spark that Wissa has lacked.
Sorensen was the last of my signings, coming in on the transfer deadline day. I needed a good squad player and he will be exactly that, with decent passing and defensive stats and the versatility he provides (being able to play as a CM, DM, CB, RB and LB) I feel like this is a good pick-up, especially with the transfer fee not being large. Not to mention he's Danish and Brentford love their Danes
This leaves our squad looking like this and I'm pretty happy with it, Toney, Raya and Ajer have been the main stand-out players so far and with Canos and Eriksen coming back things are looking up. Also, Balcombe is there to resolve the academy issue, Alvaro didn't play anyway, with Raya being the clear number 1 so I recalled Balcombe and made him the number two for this season.
Also talking about Brentford's academy (or lack of) I've actually managed to convince the board to give us academy coaching, I'm not expecting anything in the first few seasons but at least that's a start, hopefully I can convince the chairman to give us more upgrades in the future. Not sure if it will come into play this season though, as we had no intake preview in December.
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I'm re-doing this challenge because I realised that I forgot to disable a custom database on my Watford save and now we're here, over at Brentford. I'd say that this will be around the same level of difficulty as Watford.
Not to mention, the history of both of these clubs is very similar, as netiher have ever won any major trophies so there's a cabinet waiting to be filled! Those facilities need a lot of work though, on the flip side the transfer budget is higher than it was at Watford, but I have a feeling that our lower reputation will not be helpful to start with.
The board expects us to play attacking, entertaining, possesion based brand of football while we're a newly promoted side, now that's a recipe for a disaster if I've ever seen one lol I will do a squad overview once the winter transfer window is up.
The league standings are as follows, 19th place and 2 points off safety, not the worst position to find ourselves in but out first two fixtures are up against Spurs away and Man Utd at home, not great.
And here is the manager profile, again it closely follows the main points in the manager profile section.
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May 2022
We came into the last month of the season 5 points behind Arsenal in 4th, so if we were to get that last Champions League spot we knew we'd have to play perfectly and more than likely get 15 points and hope for favorable outcomes elsewhere in order to overtake Arteta's side. That wouldn't be an easy task, we had some favorable matches like relegation-threatened Burnley and Watford away, but on the other hand we still had Liverpool, Spurs and Leicester left to play.
To being with we travelled to Burnley to take on the host who desperately needed any points they can get and with the first fixture between the two sides being a draw this game had the potential to be a slip-up. Thankfully this time around we came through, Wilson and Willock gave us a 2-0 lead in the first half, but Burnely did manage to score through Cornet later on but thankfully his goal was disallowed and that was how the game would finish. Overall we were the better team and deserved our win.
The next match would be much more difficult than the previous one, Liverpool need no introduction and they were desperate for a win here to bolster their title bid. We fell behind twice, firstly through a Jamaal Lascelles own goal which was cancelled out through a Callum Wilson penalty and then a 90th minute Brozović strike looked to have given The Reds an important win, but another penalty from Callum Wilson, in what was the last kick of the game gave us a point in a dramatic match. Both sides had given their all here and looking at the stats a draw is a fair result, but neither of us will be happy considering each side's situation in the league table.
With the previous result being a draw there was even more pressure on us before facing Leicester as we knew that anything other than a win would more than likely kill our Champions League bid, and while the visitors have had their woes this season, their quality was still undeniable. We took the lead early on through Marcus Edwards and for a majority of the game it looked like it would be enough before Iheanacho tied the score in the 80th minute and when it looked like we would drop points again, Martin Terrier came to the rescue with a stoppage time goal! This could be the most important goal of the season.
Watford didn't provide nearly as many twists and turns as Leicester and Liverpool did as we recorded an easy 2-0 victory with another goal from Terrier and Shelvey who came on off the bench. It was clear to see why the hosts had struggled all year as they didn't provide much of a threat and we were able to control the game as a result.
The final fixture of the Premier League season was vital as both us and Spurs need a win if we were to achieve our goals and this resulted in a hard-fought contest. Overall we were better than Tottenham that day, as proved by goals from Saint-Maximin and later Shelvey who gave us a 2-0 lead in the 95th minute, but when it looked like the game was over, Son scored to cut the deficit to one in the 97th minute but thankfully that was the last goal in the contest. The final 3 points of the season and overall that means we managed to secure 13 points out of 15 possible, but would it be enough for 4th place?
Sadly not
We finish May just where we started it in the 6th position, our good form coinciding with Arsenal's and Manchester City's late bid for the Champions League. Had we beaten Arsenal away earlier on in the season we would have been in 4th at the end of the season, it kind of hurts when you think about it. But getting Europa League football is still a good achievement in the first season, especially if you consider the large turnover of players
Good to see that our win over Tottenham actually mattered in the grand scheme of things as Brighton take the Conference League spot on the last game of the season
On a whole this season has been bizzare, Tottenham and Chelsea both missed out on Europe in favor of Brighton while Leeds finished in 3rd and Champions League is coming back to Elland Road for the first time since 2002 I think!
At the other end of the table Watford and Crystal Palace both had abysmal seasons, with 19 and 16 points respectively saw them both comfortably relegated to the Championship and Burnley's awful form saw Southampton pull off a great escape and stay up on the last game of the season with just 30 points.
Season review:
Squad overview:
Overall when it comes down to the squad I'm pretty happy when it comes down to the starting 11, where we need work is the depth of the squad, I'm confident that players like Edwards, Wilson, Tolisso or Pavard for example will do just fine, but when they get injured we don't have that many great rotational options, with the new signings aside most of the players are Championship quality at best, so I'd expect another season with quite a bit of changes. I will also be looking to sign a new starting goalkeeper, Dubravka is good but he's not getting any younger and this could be one of the final moments where we can get good money for him, not only that but he's also been a pain to deal with in the dressing room, starting may arguments over me not starting players like Joelinton or Lewis lol
Leagues around Europe and European Competitons:
Bournemouth win the Championship, Fulham finish second to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking, while Sheffield United get promoted through the play-offs after beating Coventry 1-0 in the final.
Real Madrid win the league with 90 points, debt-ridden Barcelona come in 2nd while Atletico and Sevilla grab the remaining Champions League spots. Athletic Bilbao and Valencia get Europa League and Celta Vigo qualify for the Conference League. Poor performances from Real Sociedad, Betis and Villarreal as they miss out on Europe.
On the other end of the table Mallorca, Rayo Vallecano and surprsingly Granada all get relegated.
Juventus recover from their disappointing 2020/21 season as they become the Champions of Italy once more, while Roma, Milan and Atalanta get Champions League football. Dissapointment for Lazio and Napoli as they only get Europa League while Inter Milan have a shocking attempt at defending their title, only getting Conference League in the end.
Newly promoted Salerintana and Empoli get relegated with Spezia joining them in Serie B. Sampdoria and Torino came dangerously close to going down, with Torino only staying up on the final day.
Bayern have an invincible season and win the league with 92 points
Dortmund, Wolfsburg and Leipzig get the remaining Champions League spots much like last season! Gladbach and Leverkusen get Europa League football and European football is finally happening for Hertha Berlin with the Conference League on the cards. You may have also noticed Eintracht Frankfurt qualifying for the Europa League, I'll get into that soon.
At the bottom of the table Bielefeld and newly promoted Furth get relegated into the second division with Union Berlin pulling off a great escape and staying up only after winning a relegation play-off.
Unsurprisingly PSG are the Champions of France, finishing 18 points above the second place. Monaco get Champions League, while Lille's title defense fails with the former champions finishing in 3rd. Lyon and suprisingly Nantes get Europa League, while Nice has to settle for the Conference League after the Crowd Disorder point deduction let Nantes overtake them
. Rennes and especially Marseille will not be happy with their respective seasons.
Brest and Clermont get automatically relegated, while former French champions Bordeaux are just shadows of their former selves with them losing the releagtion play-off and getting relegated to Ligue 2.
PSG lose the second Champions League final in a row against Bayern Munich
Barcelona win the Europa League after a dissapoitning Champions League campaign, defeating Atalanta (who also got knocked out of the CL) 2-1 in the final.
And Eintracht Frankfurt are the surprise winners of the first-ever Conference League, beating Jose Mourinho's Roma 1-0 in the final. A good season for the German football, I have to say!
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February, March and April 2022
Since the end of the season is coming soon I decided to just combine February, March and April into one rather than make 2-3 seperate posts, that way the final posts will be May and the season round-up and squad overview.
Premier League
The month of February started off with an away trip to struggling Chelsea. Despite their woes in the Premier League we came into this game expecting a tough match, especially at Stamford Bridge and it proved to be the case for the vast majority of the game as we were dominated relentlessly and looked quiet up-front. Martial's and Ziyech's goals looked to have secured the 3 points for the hosts with absolute certainty, but thanks to the supersub in Terrier this was not the case, first he set-up the goal for Callum Wilson and then got on the scoresheet himself in the 84th minute snatching a dramatic equalizer and giving us a vital away point!
Our only home league fixture of the month saw us face off against newly promoted Brentford. We had previously managed to defeat them at their turf 4-0, so I was pretty confident heading into this match and we did so yet again. Goals from Edwards, Saint-Maximin and a brace from Wilson gave us the win, which we deserved having dominated this game but annoyingly enough two mistakes at the back enabled Mbuemo and Toney to score, ruining our clean sheet.
The final game of the month can only be described as an dissapointment. We travelled to Southampton who have struggled all year, yet we came away empty handed which has been the story of our season: Doing well at home and being not good enough away. Che Adams gave them the lead in the 1st (!) minute before a Charlie Taylor own goal doubled their advantage, we got one back through Saint-Maximin but that wasn't good enough. Dia had actually managed to equalize later but VAR ruled it out. Frustrating.
The beggining of March saw one of our best games of the season where we beat Arsenal 3-0 at home! The match itself was quite even actually but unlike in the last game we were ruthless up front and goals from Lascelles, Dia and Terrier gave us a victory to remember!
Our second and final fixture of the month saw us travel away against Manchester City. We always knew fixtures like these would be tough so we went into the game using our 4-1-2-3 system hoping to catch them on the break and just hold onto a point and that worked all the way until the second half when Jesus and Ferran Torres finally gave hosts the advantage, Tolisso did manage to pull one back for us in added time but it was too late to come back.
Our away woes continued in April, as David Moyes' West Ham got revenge for the loss at St. James' Park beating us 2-0 and handing us our second successive loss. Despite going with an attacking system we were unable to create any good goal-scoring chances and late goals from Rudiaz and Vlasic condemned us to an defeat.
The next away fixture was even harder on paper as we were taking on the surprise package of the season Leeds, away at Elland Road. And indeed the match proved to be quite difficult as we fell behind early on thanks to a goal from Junior Firpo, but unlike in the other games we came back strong as Martin Terrier gave us the equalizer and scored the last goal of the game, setting the final score at 1-1 as both teams had to share points, and out of the two I'd say it's us who are more satisifed here.
We then followed it up with a 3-2 win against our rivals Aston Villa at St. James' Park ending our streak of 3 matches without a win. But this game was not easy by any means as they Villians took the lead twice, first through Ings and later on Watkins, but we came back strong both times, Saint-Maximin scored the 1st goal for us and late strikes from Almiron and Edwards secured the three points.
Our last game of the month saw us get a 2nd win a row where we beat struggling Wolves 2-1. Just like in the Aston Villa match we fell behind to start off with a Willy Boly goal but we showed character once again, the captain Lascelles equalized and Wilson gave us the win with a 64th minute goal. That's the Newcastle I want to see!
That leaves us in a 6th and 5 points away from the last Champions League spot. While that may be difficult to achieve now, in more positive news not onlt do we have a 3 point lead over Spurs and Chelsea, but we also have games in hand so getting into Europa League is actually a realistic possibilty, but I still have my eyes on the main prize though!
FA Cup
Of course while the Premier League is the main selling point of the English game we were also playing in the FA Cup, let's see how we got on:
We exceeded the board's expectations who were only expecting a QF apperance and we made it a step further into the semi-finals where we sadly lost to Arsenal. As I said we are struggling away this season, I'm pretty sure if this match had been played at St. James' Park we would have won, but oh well lol This wasn't my main priority and we can focus on the league.
We've also had news off the pitch, mainly the youth intake:
I am not going to lie, I'm pretty dissapointed with that. The intake preview may have been below average as a whole, but I was promised a good AM and a good GK, and the midfielder is 3* while the GK was 2,5* lol I suppose it was to be expected with our facilities not being perfect, but still.
Here are the best young players we got, in my opinion:
Mace looks fairly average, nothing ground-breaking but he's solid enough, with the right tutor and the right development. I do like the fact that his defensive attributes are fairly well-rounded but I've seen better youth players.
Hawkins has some potential as well, he already starts out as right-footed on the left side so he could be a great fit for our formation hence why he's being trained as an Inside Foward right away. He has good dribbling and decent-ish pace, but the rest needs to improve quickly if he is to ever make it here.
Gallagher is my favorite player of the intake even though his potential is just 3*, compared to Mace's and Hawkins' 3,5*. He already has some great mentals, physicals and technicals and he could really make it if he grows well, he's by far the best player we got in terms of CA and while he does start out as an AM and a LW, I think he could be a great Box to Box (yes I said that
) providing his defensive attributes improve quickly which I've already set as a main focus. If they stall he could always be a good Advanced Playmaker, I just pray that the coaches are wrong and that he has more potential that that, and it could be the case if that media description is anything to go by.
With that out of the way the next post will be the season finale. Let's hope we can grab that 4th spot, come on Newcastle!
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January 2022
On the outs I mainly sold off some youngsters who did not have a good enough potential for the Premier League, I did include sell-on fee percentages so in case I've turned out to be wrong the added money will soften the blow
Out of our main squad Murphy and Dummett have been sold, Darlow, Clark and Joelinton did not manage to secure themselves moves away despite interest in them and I also terminated Fernandez's deal after he refused to go to France.
As for the ins, we weren't exactly super busy, only bringing in 2 players. I did have more targets that I was interested in but with this being the January transfer window other clubs aren't as exactly as willing to let go of their players as they are in the summer and I didn't want to overpay. But I am happy with the players that I did manage to bring in.
Our first signing of the window was the Senegalese international Boulaye Dia. Despite his good 2020/21 season in Reims, Villarreal chose to utilise Paco Alcacer and Gerard Moreno over him and he soon found himself on the transfer list, just 6 motnths after joining the Europa League champions. With that we manage to secure a really good deal for a decent foward, we only pay his wages until June (21,000 a week) and we have a buy-out clause of 8,25M which is well below his value. He's a very similar striker to Callum Wilson, which makes him the ideal option #2 with our system.
Our last signing came on deadline day and it certainly wasn't one I was anticipating. Despite Dummett leaving I was happy with the balance of the squad and signing a CB wasn't a priority, but that all changed when James Tarkowski suffered a broken lower leg which will see him out for the rest of the season. With the season heading into the decsive phase we need a quailty replacement and in fact I believe we have even made an upgarde with signing of Bayern's Benjamin Pavard. The defender joins us for 17,5M which can rise to 20M and for a player of his quality I couldn't resist. He's an experienced international, is at the perfect age for a defender and can still grow as well as being natural both as a CB and a RB, so he can even take over Manquillo's posistion should the need arise. The perfect signing and a real show of intent from us. Also I realised this after the transfer was complete, this was the second French player we signed from Bayern, in just 2 windows! Coman and Hernandez in the summer?
Results:
January didn't look as difficult on paper as months prior (aside from the away fixture against Man Utd) so I was pretty confident heading into this month and we did about as well as I'd expect, nothing spectacular but solid enough.
Our first fixture of the month was a match at Old Trafford up against Manchester United. This is never an easy match, especially in FM but I was cautiously optimitstic that we may pull of an upset, especially with our form so far and the fact the first fixture against Man Utd ended in a draw. And things started off wonderfully, Callum Wilson put us 2-0 up with a brace in the 29th minute and it looked like our counter-attacking brand of football will pay off, but sadly in the second half Man Utd made their domination count and a goal from Van de Beek (which annoyingly is his only goal this season so far, typical
) as well as a brace from Rashford secured a 3-2 win and an amazing comeback for the hosts. Not the best start quite frankly.
The perfect opportunity to get back to winning ways presented itself in the form of a FA Cup Third Round tie away at Craven Cottage against freshly releagted Fulham. This was a game where I let many of my rotational players get some minutes under their belts and the gamble paid off as we beat the Championship side 2-0 with goals from Longstaff and Willock, but this was nowhere near as comfortable as it looks, Fulham put up a massive fight and quite frankly were unlucky not to get through here. We need to do better than that. Also in the 4th round we will take on Derby County at home, so quite a good draw.
The next Premier League match saw us take on struggling Crystal Palace in yet another away fixture. We've decided to switch things up and go back to the AM system, as our 4-1-2-3 didn't do particularlly well against Manchester United and Fulham and it worked well as we dominated the game, comfortbaly winning 3-0 with goals from Saint-Maximin, Rice and Tarkowski securing the victory for us. Not only was our attacking play superb, but our defenders also did well greatly limiting Crystal Palace's attacking play.
The home game against Brighton was nowhere near as easy however, with us only winning by a margin of one goal, although the difficulty was greatly increased by our lack of a finishing touch and a mistake at the back. Things were going well in the first half for the most part, despite Callum Wilson missing a penalty in the 2nd minute, Marcus Edwards gave us the lead 21 minutes later and we looked comfortable until the 35th minute where a clumsy tackle in the box led to a penalty which Trossard converted, tying the game once more. The second half was frustarting, Brighton sat back and we couldn't break them down until Tolisso's long range effort and his first goal for the club gave us the lead once again and this was how the game would finish. Always nice to get revenge as well considering Brighton beat us earlier this season
The Norwich result can be only described as dissapointing. We started off really strong, with new man Boulaye Dia scoring a brace on his debut and giving us a 2-0 lead and up to that point Norwich didn't really do much. I made the mistake of switching to a more counter-attacking system too early and Norwich punished us thanks to goals from Gilmour and Williams tying the score once more. We were the better side once again in the second half, but we were unable to break Norwich down any further and we had to settle for a point in this frustrating game.
After these results we come into February sitting in the 4th place and more importantly the last Champions League spot. We look unlikely to catch the top 3 and our priority should be keeping ourselves in the top 7 which could be tricky if you consider that 9th place Tottenham are only 3 points away from catching us. Exciting season for a neutral but a nervous one for the supports of one of these teams
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November and December 2021
The end of the year, which is also one of the most exhausting periods in a Premier League season proved quite fruitful for us, once again.
To begin with however, things weren't exactly looking up for us. A trip to Anfield, especially when Liverpool are in a hot patch of form is never easy and things can go sour really quickly in a fixture like this, so the key to getting a good result would be a good defensive performance and that's what we went with, a Cautious system where we looked to hit them on the break. Things worked well all the way until the 68th minute when Tolisso got sent off for a second yellow card which then enabled The Reds to capitalise through Thiago's long range effort in the 72nd minute and Oxlade-Chamberlain then put the final nail in our coffin in the 86th minute. This result was to be expected, but it's always frustrating when a sending off ruins all your efforts
Our next away visit proved to be just as devastating as the previous one, where Aston Villa managed to defeat us 3-1 in front of their supporters. We tried to be more positive, switching our formation back to the 4-2-3-1 which gave Joelinton a rare opportunity that he took with open hands, giving us the lead early on in the 7th minute. That, sadly was as good as it was going to get in this fixture for us, we held our lead heading in the second half where we completely faltered and Douglas Luiz's strike coupled with Ings' brace gave Dean Smith's side an important win.
The final match of November was thus very important for us, another loss could kill off the morale and up against West Ham things wouldn't be that easy, despite them being quite average this season. Thankfully my gamble towards the game, where I kept the 4-2-3-1 and gave some fringe players a chance paid off and we bounced back to winning ways defeating David Moyes' side 2-1. Callum Wilson opened the scoring and Almiron later doubled our lead thanks to an assist from Joelinton, before Antonio gave West Ham a glimmer of hope in the 74th minute, but thankfully we managed to keep our advantage and rightfully so as we were the better team on the day by far. It also has to be said that Joelinton was the MOTM in that fixture, could we see a turnaround from him?
Our December fixtures began with a match at St. James' Park up against this season's surprise package Leeds United. Bielsa's man proved their quality in the first half through a Harrison goal, before we turned it around in the second half with Callum's Wilson goal giving us an important point. It also has to be said that looking at the match stats we actually should have won here, but I'm more than content with a point against a team in the Top 4.
The second game of the month saw us take struggling Wolves away at the Molineux. Despite their lowly standing, this was not going to be easy with the quality in their squad and our recent away woes. And indeed I was proven right, Callum Wilson's penatly miss in the 9th minute enabled Wolves to take the lead themselves in the first half with Choupo-Moting's strike giving them a slim 1-0 lead. We were still behind at the start of the second half, but Saint-Maximin tied the score at 1-1 in the 61st minute, before Wilson made up for his blunder from the sport, scoring a brace and giving us important 3 points.
Then, we took on Burnley back at home and I was confident about this match after beating Wolves, especially since Burnley find themselves in the drop zone. Sadly we underestimated Sean Dyche's side, with Czech international Vydra giving the visitors a shock lead in the 35th minute. We did find a way back through Marcus Edwards in the second half, but we were unable to break down Burnely any further and in the end both sides had to settle for a point. Dissapointing.
The 15th of December saw us take on another releagtion threatened side at home, this Claudio Ranieri's Watford. Since we had a match coming up against Leicester away right after this fixture, I chose to give some rotational options like Manquillo, Almiron and Woodman a go which could have ended poorly for us, but thankfully this time we met the expectations and Edwards', Saint-Maximin's and Wilson's goals gave us a comfortable 3-0 win.
Said Leicester fixture came just 3 days later and I have to admit I was a bit nervous before this match. Rodgers' side may have started slowly like West Ham, but there was no denying Leicester's quality and at home the Foxes were actually considered to be the favorites. We played cautiously, waiting for the right moment to counter and forcing Leicester to try and dictate the tempo of the game. This strategy worked perfectly, Saint-Maximin gave us the lead in the 32nd minute and later on in the second half, Santiago Munoz who made his debut off the bench, doubled our advantage despite being on the pitch just for a few minutes prior! The hosts couldn't respond and in the end we made it out of there with vital 3 points.
Our next fixture saw us travel to London to take on Tottenham at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Travelling away to take on a member of the "Big 6" is never easy so we adpoted, much the same tactic as we did against Leicester, only this time more defensively, looking to frustrate the hosts. This worked and we even had more quality chances that the hosts, but in the end it finished as a boring 0-0 draw. I think this is our first 0-0 draw in fact!
The last game of December saw us get revenge against Everton for our previous fixture, which was a 2-1 loss in the Carabao Cup. Everton are struggling this season and they are nowhere near Europe at the moment, which clearly showed in this game, their defense offered no resistance as we were able to create chance, after chance, after chance. Saint-Maximin, Wilson and Joelinton took said chances giving us a 3-0 lead, before Calvert-Lewin pulled one back ending the match 3-1 to the hosts. This was also the fixture which saw Benitez get fired, right after he said he was looking foward to beating us again before the game
These 10 matches leave the table looking like this. We moved up to be 5th and we are only 2 points behind Arsenal who are occupying the last Champions League spot so I'm chuffed about this
It has to be said however that the gap between 10th and 4th is very slim, only 10 points in fact so we have to keep foucsed at all times! Also look at Leeds, are they about to do a Leicester? Squad Report
Also since we are entering the January transfer window period, I'd thought I'd share the performances of the players thus far. Most of the summer signings are doing well so far, but Tolisso has been well below expectations and Terrier can't stay fit to save his life... The lads are doing well however so I think my only main target for the window will be a striker as I actually play Terrier and Joelinton mostly as an AM or a LW, rarely do they play upfront (despite the screenshot saying otherwise lol). That and Darlow and Dummett are looking to leave so I will also be looking at possible CB and backup GK options. No reason to upgrade on the GK's as I'm really happy with Woodman and Dubravka so far. Of course we'll be looking to offload the transfer-listed players as well and maybe Fraser too, he hasn't been getting too much love with Edwards and Saint-Maximin ripping it up and Almiron, Joelinton and Terrier doing more for the team as rotation options.
Upgrades and youth intake:
We've also had plenty of upgrades both to our facilities and junior coaching and recruitment
Bless you Saudi owners!
Not only that but we've also had a preview of the youth intake, hopefully the little upgrades taken beforehand help out a bit but the intake itself is described as Below Average. However I am quite happy with potentially a good young goalkeeper (The AM too but not as much considering we don't play with AM's all the time lol) coming through, a homegrown first-team keeper would be a dream to have! Shame about the rest but I'm sure they'll improve once more upgrades are on the way and potentially better staff as well.
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September and October 2021
In what looked an extremely tough set of fixtures we managed to get 13 points in 7 games!
Things however did not start well for us. We opened September with a 2-1 away loss to Brighton and looking at the match stats we shouldn't have too many complaints about the fact that we lost. Brighton managed to get around 1,84 xG and we couldn't stop them from creating quality chances and this was very much a case of our defense being shambolic, Manquillo especially. They opened the scoring through Trossard after which Gross doubled their advantage in the 36th minute. We did get one back through Longstaff but it wasn't enough.
We bounced back however with a confident 2-0 home win against newly promoted Norwich and Dest coming back from his minor injury certainly helped our cause here, Norwich managed to muster just 2 shots all game, with only 1 of them being on target. The rotational trio of Hayden, Longstaff and Shelvey controlled the play superbly in the midfield and Callum Wilson's brace left us with all 3 points.
Our last game of September saw us take another promoted side in Brentford at the Brentford Community Stadium. Coming into this game I wasn't sure what to expect, on one hand Brentford are on paper the weakest side in the division, but on the other they had managed to gain 10 points in their opening 5 fixtures, even drawing against Chelsea, but we left little room for doubt in this one winning 4-0! We were 2-0 up after the first half, and early on in the second half Ivan Toney saw a red card in a match against his former side, killing off any hope of a comeback that Brentford might have had and we took advantage scoring 2 additional goals. I actually experimented with a 4-2-3-1(Wide) here, as opposed to 4-1-2-3(DM) that we usually play so nice to see my gamble pay off! Almiron played superbly in this match as an AM, however he had suffered an injury and will be out for 3 weeks as of November 1st... In more positive news Terrier finally scored his first goal for the club!
After taking on two newly promoted sides our first fixture of October was gearing up to be a much harder fixture, the Champions of Europe: Chelsea at home. Following the demolition of Brentford I persisted with the system with an AM, hoping to catch Chelsea on the break and perhaps snatching a hard-fought 1-0 victory. That however did not happen, instead we were the dominant and the rampant side thrashing Chelsea and gaining a 4-0 victory! This has got to be the result of the season so far and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the best result we'll get altogheter. Everyone played perfectly in this match! Joe Willock also opened his scoring charts for the season as our AM of choice in this game.
The good times didn't last long sadly, with a 2-1 away defeat against Arsenal. Considering this was an away fixture against one of the "Top 6" I decided to go with a more cautious approach and revert back to our DM system, but that was not a good tactical idea as Arsenal dominanted us and settled things in the first half with Nicola Pepe's brace putting us to the sword. A second half goal from Terrier gave me some hope but we were unable to follow it up and create more quality chances.
Our next fixture at home against Southampton provided us with a break from the Top 6 and a good chance to bounce back to winning ways which we did, beating the Saints 3-1. We exceeded out xG by more than 1 goal, but nothenless we were the better side and looked good value for the win, bar a minor nerve-wracking Salisu goal which was cancelled out by Shelvey's late strike. Nice to see new signings Rice, and especially Terrier getting on the scoresheet once again.
The last match of October saw us at St. James' Park yet again, this time taking on the league champions: Manchester City. Coming into this fixture City had a pretty slow start, languishing at a lowly 9th place, yet I knew better than than being too optimistic against a side of this quality, so we went back to our cautious 4-1-2-3 and it paid off as we managed to gain a credible 2-2 draw. Ironically enough, despite us relying on a counter-attacking brand of football, we were the ones who managed to equalize twice, through Wilson and Saint-Maximin. The last goal was a masterstroke, Shelvey who just came onto the pitch played a wonderful ball over the top for the pacy Frenchman who capped off the move to secure the draw. And for most of the second half Saint-Maximin was playing as a striker, perhaps this is something we ought to do more often in the future!
Our efforts see us rise up to 6th at the start of November and with just 3 points seperating us from the surprise package Leeds who occupy the last Champions League spot. Things are looking up for certain!
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In what has been a pretty busy transfer window we managed to strengthen each area of the pitch I pinpointed at the start of the season.
The big transfer is obviously Declan Rice, who've signed for 58 milion, which could rise all the way to 86 milion. It's a lot of money, but for an England international who's only 22 and fits our style of play perfectly, I'd say it's well worth it. Him being able to cover as a CB, DM and CM is also one of the reason why he was one of the main targets this window.
Our second signing of the window is Sergino Dest from the debt-ridden Barcelona. He has the makings of a perfect offensive wing-back at just 20 years of age and he covers both the right and the left side of the pitch. For just 31 milion I'd say it's money well spent!
Marcus Edwards makes his return to his native England, signing from Vitoria Guimaraes for 16,5M. He has improved much since his Tottenham days and combined with Saint-Maximin he will provide us with a very explosive pair of wingers and he has already started well with 3 assists in his first 2 games of the season.
2-time England international James Tarkowski finally makes his move away from Burnley and after refusing to sign a new deal he joins us from a cut-price of 10,25M and he will be sure to provide us both quailty and experience at the back in a CB pairing with Jamaal Lascelles.
Martin Terrier makes his first move away from his native France joining us from Rennes for an initial fee of 8,5M with the potential to rise up to 12,5M. He's going to be an understudy to Callum Wilson at first but with his solid-enough stats I'm sure he will be able to the job when called upon. He also provides depth out on the left and as an AM.
Perhaps the biggest name to join us this transfer window is Corentin Tolisso who joins for a bargain fee of 3,8 milion which could rise up to 5,5 milion, which is largely down due to his contract being 1 year away from expiring at Bayern. This is a bit of a risk considering how injury-prone the French interantional has been in the past few years, but considering the small fee involved and his quality when he's fit I was more than willing to take a shot here, hopefully it pays off.
Charlie Taylor is our last signing and the only player to join us on the deadline day. Originally I was looking foward to giving Jamal Lewis a chance as a first-choice but he has been less than impressive to begin with, so I felt that I needed an upgrade and more competition in that area of the pitch. Taylor is a really well-rounded wing-back and for just 7,25 milion to begin with the Englishman is a great addition to the squad.
On the outs we managed to get rid of Krafth, Gayle, Schar, Ritchie and Gayle with Joelinton, Fernandez and Murphy still remaining at the club. Sadly their wages were either too high for other clubs to consider them or they just didn't want to move (Fernandez rejected a potential move away 3 times!
). Still that's a majority of our transfer-listed players gone and I'm confident we'll see some movement in January.
This leaves our squad looking like this at the end of the summer window. I'd say we've invested quite well, with each area of the pitch having been improved both with first team choices and rotational options. And we also have 65 milion left to spend should the need arise in January! (Also don't worry about Dest's injury, he'll be back in about 6 days-2 weeks
)
As for the results on the pitch:
Our pre-season has gone quite well, one slip-up against our Second XI aside. Big wins against minor oposition in Hougang Utd, Linfield and Warwick Knights follwed up by a credible 1-1 draw with Villarreal and a solid victory against Espanyol. Couldn't have asked for much more there and some of our fringe players actually stepped up, with the most notable example being Jonjo Shelvey.
In the main competitions the results have been quite... mixed to being with.
We began our season with a 1-1 home draw against Ole's Manchester United in a game that we should have actually won if you believe the xG stat (1,90 for Newcastle vs 1,11 for Man Utd). Still though you can't really complain about a point against the Big 6 and Wilson's late goal was a joy to see. New signings Dest, Edwards and Rice all had solid games as well.
We then followed it up with a slightly more disappointing away draw against Everton. Another game where we dominated in xG (0,76 vs 1,70) and Everton's only real highlight of the game was a Doucoure long-shot that went in. We did manage to come back through Shelvey's penalty but we didn't do enough to get a first win of the season.
Our worst performance yet came in the Carabao Cup. We opened up the scoring early through a fabolous long-range effort from Declan Rice, but Everton came back strong with Calvert-Lewin's and Tosun's goals knocking us out of the competition. We can have no real complaints here, Everton were by far the better team this time and it was an abysmal showing from out rotational players.
We bounced back however with a first win of the season, beating Crystal Palace 2-0 in what was a very convincing display as we finally made our dominance count (1,97 vs 0,28 in terms of xG). Goals from our pair of substitutes in Wilson and Longstaff ensured that 3 points would stay at St. James' Park for the first time this season. Also lovely to see our new boy Edwards being the Player of the Match with two assists
These results leave the table looking like this:
We're only in 11th place, but we're unbeaten
But in all seriousness this has been a solid enough start, with us having tricky fixtures to begin with, that and there are only 2 points seperating us from 3rd so if we keep playing as we have been, we will challenge for the Top 7 with absolute certainty.
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Squad overview:
Goalkeepers:
This is one of the positions where I actually think Newcastle are looking solid at.
Dubravka is a good experienced goalkeeper that is more than capable of doing a job at in the Premier League. Shame that he starts out injured however.
Darlow is a solid number 2 and Woodman is a hot prospect, what is great is that they are both homegrown. Both should be behind Dubravka when he comes back injured, but for the moment I'm willing to give Woodman the chance ahead of Darlow.
I'm probably not looking to invest in this area, but if the right player is avaiable at the right price I might go in for him, otherwise this is a good core of players.
Right-backs:
Both of our right-backs look average at best and I'm not conviced if they are good enough for this division.
Manquillo is better going foward and can play as a left-back, while Krafth is better defensively and can play as a centre-back.
I'm looking at more complete full-backs so between the two Manquillo is probably better.
I will be looking to bring in a new face here, Manquillo will be useful as a rotational option, while Krafth will be sold.
Centre-backs:
Again, much like with out full-backs this area of the pitch is pretty average.
Lascelles is our captain and I will be looking to keep him and build the defense around him, while Dummett will be a useful squad player with his solid-enough ability, home-grown status and versatility.
Between Clark, Fernandez and Schar, Clark is the best option of the three so I will look to sell Fernandez and Schar.
I will be looking to bring in a new centre-back to partner up with Lascelles for sure. I might even sign two new faces in this area dependning on how the window pans out.
Left-backs:
We don't look too good in this position, depth-wise.
I like the look of Lewis and I will be willing to give him a shot as our first choice, but Dummett will not play as a full-back as I think he'd be more suited to being a centre-back. Manquillo can fill in here, but it's not ideal to play a right-footed player out on the left.
So again, much like with our other areas of defense, signing a new defender will be needed. If I can find a player who can play both as a RB and a LB it would be great, and that will be one of our main targets this window.
Midfielders:
Willock is the obvious stand-out here. He has been fantastic last season out on loan at Newcastle and this has been reflected in game and he'll be a starter and a hot prospect that we will look to build around.
Shelvey will be kept around for this season at least. His physcial attributes aren't the best, but he's good technically and he'll be a useful roation option to Willock. Always nice to keep home-grown players around as well.
Longstaff and Hayden can both play as our defensive midfielder. Between the two, Hayden is the better DM while Longstaff is better as a CM. Neither of these will be a star, but they both will provide useful cover once I bring in somebody better in their position. Longstaff will be especially useful as he can still develop.
Hendrick is not good enough for the top flight and I will look to sell him as soon as possible.
Obviously there is some work to be done here, but Willock is fantastic and once I get one or two better midfielders this will be a good area of the pitch with decent depth.
Wingers:
Saint-Maximin is the best player at the club and thus the best winger at my disposal. With his incredible dribbiling and pace he will be a menace out-wide and being able to play out on both wings is great news as well.
Fraser and Almiron both provide versatility as well and are more than solid enough for the top flight. Between the two of them I prefer Fraser but both will be useful this season.
Ritchie, Murphy and Joelinton are the other options at our disposal. Ritchie and Joelinton both start out transfer-listed and I quite agree with that assessment and I will also add Murphy to that list. Joelinton is more of a striker (albeit one that has scored 6 times in 69 games...) but I thought I'd include him here as he can play out on the left.
This is probably our strongest area of the pitch, if we can move on Ritchie, Murphy and Joelinton and replace them with higher quailty players we will be all set.
Strikers:
Wilson is a fantastic player that is considered the best player at the club alongside Saint-Maximin. With his great pace and finishing, as well as great experience in the top flight he'll be a joy to have this season.
The problem however is the lack of depth in this area of the pitch. Gayle is a Championship quality striker at best, while Joelinton is an expensive flop so both of them will be placed on the transfer list.
We really need to sign another striker and this will be one of our highest priorities this transfer window.
And to sum it up:
Gayle, Joelinton, Ritchie, Krafth, Murphy, Fernandez, Schar and Hendrick will be added to the transfer list.
And as for our targets we will be mainly focusing on a new: CB, RB/LB, Winger, DM, CM and a Striker.
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Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End. The team plays its home matches at St James' Park in the centre of Newcastle. Following the Taylor Report's requirement that all Premier League clubs have all-seater stadiums, the ground was modified in the mid-1990s and currently has a capacity of 52,305.
The club has been a member of the Premier League for all but three years of the competition's history, spending 89 seasons in the top flight as of May 2021, and have never dropped below English football's second tier since joining the Football League in 1893. Newcastle have won four League titles, six FA Cups and a FA Charity Shield, as well as the 1968–69 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup, the ninth highest total of trophies won by an English club. The club's most successful period was between 1904 and 1910, when they won an FA Cup and three of their League titles. Their last major trophy was in 1955 and more recently the club have been League or FA cup runner-ups on four occasions in the 1990s. Newcastle were relegated in 2009, and again in 2016. The club won promotion at the first time of asking each time, returning to the Premier League, as Championship winners, in 2010 and 2017.
Despite their rich history however recent times have been hard for Newcastle under the ownership of Mike Ashley, one 5th place finish aside the club has not been challenging for Europe, instead floating around mid-table or fliriting with relegation, even going down twice. This however has changed:
With the long-awaited Saudi takeover finally happening in 2021 Newcastle now find themselves in a much different position. While the lack of investment has held them back in recent years, this will be no longer an issue with the club being granted 200 milion to spend and after a long time the fans finally have something to look foward to. And this is where I come in, at the start of the season with all the money being avaiable to spend in the summer hopefully we can avoid the nightmare start that Newcastle has had in real life. With all the positivity, the expectations have changed and the board now expect a mid-table finish in the first season so there will be a lot of work ahead of us.
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Congrats on the promotion to the Football League and good luck in League Two!
Those 3 Arsenal youngsters look class, especially Kilman, getting a former England U19 player in League Two is impressive and suggests he still might have some potential left in him. Cleaver is a really good set-piece taker, either footed too! He might be actually worth retraining as an Attacking Midfielder, his only real weakness in that position would be passing, but then again at such a young age he could easily make up for it with enough development.
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How's the Cook Islands NT doing btw?
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17 minutes ago, Rikulec said:
Not necessarily, you're not guaranteed a place in the cup in the first season after the promotion to the central level, but you can still get it if you're lucky enough. You should definitely enter it next season though.
If I'm not mistaken when it comes down to 3 Liga and below, only the winners of the regional cups enter the Polish FA Cup and only teams from 2 Liga and above entering it automatically
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We've been in 4th pretty much the entire year too. We now have to do things the hard way and defeat Atletico Madrid in the Europa League final if we want to play Champions League football, and both sides will be up for it as the Spanish side finished 5th in La Liga.
Dortmund, Wolfsburg and Leipzig get the remaining Champions League spots much like last season! Gladbach and Leverkusen get Europa League football and European football is finally happening for Hertha Berlin with the Conference League on the cards. You may have also noticed Eintracht Frankfurt qualifying for the Europa League, I'll get into that soon.
). Still that's a majority of our transfer-listed players gone and I'm confident we'll see some movement in January.
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2024 EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL
May 30th, Aviva Stadium, Dublin
In their first ever season in Europe Brentford have defied all the odds to reach the Europa League final, while pre-season favorites Atletico Madrid prepare for their 4th appearance in the competition's final. This match will have extra significance as neither of the finalists qualfied for the Champions League through their domestic league (both finished in 5th).
Atletico Madrid have never lost a Europa League final, winning all of their three previous attempts and with their quality and vastly surperior european experience they will surely be the favorites for this match, while Brentford will look to cause one final upset to win what could be the most important cup in the club's 135 year old history.
On route to the final Brentford won a group containing Servette, Salzburg and Olympiacos, and defeated Galatasaray, Valencia and Tottenham Hotspur in the knockout stages, Atletico also won their group (Partizan, Dynamo Kyiv and St. Gallen) and overcame Gladbach, Porto and Lyon in the knockouts.
The Match
We've gone and done it! Europa League comes to Brentford at the very first attempt and what a story this has been! We started out brilliantly with two quick goals from Ryan Kent and our Europa League hero Cucho Hernandez to put us 2-0 up within the first 5 minutes. Our 4-3-3 formation was effective in controlling the match and keeping Atletico at bay and we could have had more in the first half. Trincao's penatly in the 77th minute brought Atletico back to life and gave them a glimmer of hope, but we held on for the remainder of the match and survived their attacks to win the match and the cup itself. A deserved win after a fantastic performance.
This result caps off a fantastic season where we've won the double consisting of the League Cup and the Europa League. This is our first ever European trophy and indeed our finest achievement ever.
Before the season I was hoping that we would reach the quater finals and gain some experience, but I certainly didn't expect us to win the cup when there were teams like Atletico or Arsenal and the media certainly agree that we were the overachievers and the most beautiful story of this season's Europa League.
I will cover the season as a whole soon, but what a game this has been! We most certainly made up for that final day blunder against Aston Villa in Premier League's final match