[This Saint Gonna Be Easy: Ch. V - Endgame]

I have always enjoyed the way you do your updates. I tried to do my monthly updates like that for a while but I’ve been struggling to get writing time without really slowing my actual playing time down so I personally decided to do less detailed, opinion based updates every few months to keep it ticking along but still give the broad view of the development of the save. Whatever you do will be great! 

[This Saint Gonna Be Easy: Ch. V - Endgame]

Amazing intake! Shame about the current form, but you can turn that around! Losing the first choice keeper is never good! 

[This Saint Gonna Be Easy: Ch. V - Endgame]

20 minutes ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

So this happened before our last game of February.

You better have been a good signing, Pau Lopez...

😬

[This Saint Gonna Be Easy: Ch. V - Endgame]

11 minutes ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

September Update:

Watford (H) G. Khouma Babacar   A. Leon Goretzka

As was pointed out above, it's not an ideal result but it's better than the loss we suffered in this fixture last season. We played some nice football and created a fair few chances but we ultimately weren't able to get the breakthrough until the 70th minute. Khouma Babacar, subbed on for Vietto, was played in on goal from a delicious Goretzka through ball and he blasted it home, getting his first goal for the club. We sat back after that, content to see out a 1-0 win. It wasn't to be however, as Cunningham slotted home a close-range effort from a poorly cleared corner. Disappointing to only draw but as I said, it beats what we got last season.

Man City (A): G. Kasper Dolberg (Pen)  A. None (Dolberg earned it)

Away to a team that had Sanchez, Aguero, KDB, Jesus, Sane and Pulisic at their disposal, I can be happy enough with a loss of a one goal margin. We attempted to sit back and hit them on the break and perhaps come away with a 0-0. Aguero undid that plan in 9 minutes, sweeping home from a cross. He had a chance to make it two on 31' after Wllace gave away a penalty for a foul. Forster made an epic save to deny him, diving low to his right. We pushed for goals more in the second half and we got one on the 87th minute. Dolberg scored his third penalty in five matches to give us strong hope for a draw. We parked the bus completely and I thought we'd got away with it until Walker accidentally scored his through ball on 93' after Forster's **** up with a minute to spare. Gutting to concede so late but a creditable result I suppose.

Liverpool (H):

Credit to you, @Ellandroadhero because your tactical tweaks seem to be working. We drew one (this match) and won two (the matches below) since we made your suggested changes. This was the first match I played after you suggested them and I implemented them straight away. Against a very in-form Liverpool side, I expected a loss in this one. Not only did we draw but we were actually unlucky not to win. We had more shots, SOT and slightly more possession. Dolberg was dropping noticeably deeper on his support role and was trying to play in Vietto more but Vietto's finishing was poor. Oh well. I didn't change the full backs for this one as they had Salah and Coutinho on the wings. But we played well and created more than they did so I'm happy with this.

Ipswich (H): G. Shani Tarashaj  A. Khouma Babacar

Carabao Cup so I let the Ass Man, Orlando Trustfull, take this one. A slightly unconvincing win but we played a weakened starting side. Babacar came off the bench around 70' and assisted Tarashaj on 90' to give us a 1-0 win. Not very convincing but it gets us through to the next round which is all I ask for. Good to see Babacar getting involved.

Middlesbrough (A): G. Dusan Tadic, Daniel Ayala (OG)   A. James Ward-Prowse, Kasper Dolberg

With Middlesbrough being newly promoted and our form being a little bit mixed, we really needed to win this one. We controlled the game and started on the front foot and we were getting into their box a lot early on. Our opener would come from outside the box with Tadic scoring a beauty from outside the box on 31' which won him Goal of The Month. They leveled shortly after on 34' with Patrick Bamford getting their goal. We fought back hard and eventually regained the lead just before half time after Daniel Ayala diverted Dolberg's cross/shot into his own net. This goal proved to be the winner as we couldn't find a 3rd in the second half nor could they equalise. A pretty pleasing performance and a decent win.

Tadic Goal:

Key Points:

• We're playing some lovely football.
• We're doing slightly better than last season.
• Goretzka is great.
• Luck was not on our side in the Watford or Man City games with us droping points late on in both thanks to full backs.
• We're a bit too profligate for my liking.
• Following that, Vietto has been quite poor so far.
• We're on course for a top half finish so far.

Tadic GOTM.mp4

Love it! Glad that worked! 

[This Saint Gonna Be Easy: Ch. V - Endgame]

8 minutes ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

Cheers mate. I've not tried him on a support role but in a two striker system, that could be worth a go. He might feed Vietto more as well.🤔 Definitely something I'll consider. As for the full backs, I don't want them to advance too much because I don't want to get blasted on the wings. Maybe I should consider pushing them up a bit more though for support. Thanks for the tactical input.

Yeah, I think you might be alright with them on a support role. Maybe even WB D would work well as it would give you more width, but they won’t go kamikaze. 

Hopefully the support role for Dolberg works well for you! Maybe the Mez could be set to an attack duty behind him and run into space he creates. Alternatively, he may also provide assists for the BBM. Plus he’ll definitely still score as a CF. 

Anyway, good luck with the next season. I read all this today and really enjoyed it. 

[This Saint Gonna Be Easy: Ch. V - Endgame]

Really good stuff and nice team. I’d consider making the full backs wing backs so you have some more natural width in a very narrow formation (I’m using a diamond with Milan with a carrilero and mez with wingbacks, one on support and one on attack and it’s great. Also, I’ve had Dolberg on two different saves and I think he flourishes in a support role. In my Ajax team he played as a lone striker CF s and was top scorer with 34 goals, holding the ball up, playing it wide and getting on the end of crosses. For Milan I have him as. DLF support, he’s not scoring as much, but getting a lot of assists and still a healthy goal tally.