FM12 - Chelsea F.C. Thread - A Mix of Youth and Experience

[POG]

Koolaz - Can i just ask why did you sell Sturridge for 3M and Ashley for 10M?

Bracken - Another good month with plenty of goals as usual, I wish I could get Chelsea scoring that many!

Tomtuck01 - based on that result against Spurs I'm sure you'll have no problems bringing the title to it's rightful place at the Bridge.

I'm going to restart my Chelsea save today as I miss playing with Chelsea. It's just a shame I have to go through all the staff again. I'm probably going to get rid of Di Matteo this time, as much as I love him I think a better assistant is needed. I may even spend a bit more money in the first window if I can bring myself o do deals over 48 months, I don't like doing it normally but it should make a nice change

[tomtuck01]

POG - I know what you mean, but at times we have some really strange results that pop up. Such as a 3-3 draw at Everton after leading 2-0 then 3-2, a random home draw with Wolves, and other results like that. Add to that that City can be so random!

As for your save, I got rid of Di Matteo and brought in Ray Wilkins. Maybe not superb attribue wise, but he has been great for me, especially when I've had him do press conferences.

[koolaz]

Koolaz - Can i just ask why did you sell Sturridge for 3M and Ashley for 10M?

Bracken - Another good month with plenty of goals as usual, I wish I could get Chelsea scoring that many!

Tomtuck01 - based on that result against Spurs I'm sure you'll have no problems bringing the title to it's rightful place at the Bridge.

I'm going to restart my Chelsea save today as I miss playing with Chelsea. It's just a shame I have to go through all the staff again. I'm probably going to get rid of Di Matteo this time, as much as I love him I think a better assistant is needed. I may even spend a bit more money in the first window if I can bring myself o do deals over 48 months, I don't like doing it normally but it should make a nice change

He didnt get many games in my team as i had mata who just couldnt stop scoring and assisting and cavani and torres and ayew were upfront so second season i just sold him, best price i got was 3mill. And ashley couldnt take it that i fined him for a RED card so flogged him to city for as 10 mill as no one was willing to pay more.

[AlexCRONALDO]

Okay so i just finished my first season with chelsea winning the premier league by goal difference against city, it all game down to the final game of the season where i had arsenal and city had norwich, to my delight de jong gets sent off in the 23rd minute and i win 2-0 . My team plays with alot of freedom and attacking play, i like to play the ball out from defence, and work it into the box hassling opponents consistently and staying on our feet to prevent counter attacks. Unfortunately we lost heavily to real madrid in the champions league final which will be our main aim this year as we won the treble domestically

Squad- http://steamcommunity.com/id/nyceee/screenshot/632985035391999954

Javi Martinez and Iker Muniain have been revelations since joining along with mata.

Javi Martinez- 39 apperances 9 goals 9 assists( Ball Winning Midfielder)

Juan Mata- 38 apperances, 18 goals 28 assists(Trequarista)

Iker Muniain- 40 apperances 28 goals 19 assists( Advanced Forward)

Fernando torres was my star of last season contributing in almost every single game with 39 apperances 39 goals and 18 assists.

Youth Prospects- http://steamcommunity.com/id/nyceee/screenshot/632985035334914149/? This guy looks like he'll become my star player in years to come at 16 years old hes already available as more than adequate backup should jovetic and lampard get injured!

[lacoste8030]

I think the game is wrong, Man city have made an offer to tottenham for luka modric for £31.5m nd i made a £32m offer but mine got rejected and theres got accepted and tottenham are telling me they want £50m for Modric which is wrong. Just because i aint the computer.

[AlexCRONALDO]

I think the game is wrong, Man city have made an offer to tottenham for luka modric for £31.5m nd i made a £32m offer but mine got rejected and theres got accepted and tottenham are telling me they want £50m for Modric which is wrong. Just because i aint the computer.

I agree, its disgusting.

[Benoit2]

I think the game is wrong, Man city have made an offer to tottenham for luka modric for £31.5m nd i made a £32m offer but mine got rejected and theres got accepted and tottenham are telling me they want £50m for Modric which is wrong. Just because i aint the computer.

Its because Tottenham and Chelsea are rivals. Furthermore, Modric wouldnt be interested in joining you anyway, again, because of the rivalry. This last part is obviously not realistic, lets hope that gets sorted sooner or later.

[Intercept]

Season Round-Up.

• English Premier League
  

Played 38 - Won 35 - Drawn 2 - Lost 1 - Scored 127 - Conceded 32 - Aggregate +95 - Points 107

A near perfect season again. I went with a "anything you can do, we can do better" mentality given the quality of the squad I had and it paid dividends. The quality especially proving in the 10-0 win against Sheffield United, the 9-0 against QPR at home followed by a 7-1 away (getting the better of QPR twice felt so fulfilling). We really did run riot in a few games which towards the end of the season allowed me to play the youngsters at points, mostly in games I was comfortable winning. I was also having an issue with morale for some reason so I couldn't play the younger guys in as many games as I wanted as Vrasljko, Romeu and a few others would go from Superb to Good morale if they missed even a single game. The game we lost was against Arsenal at the Emirates 2-1 (RVP scoring a double with Torres getting our only goal in a disappointing game) while the two draw's came at the hands of Man City at the Etihad 0-0 (very very boring game to have to watch, nothing was created and between both of us we only managed 9 shots on target) and then West Brom away at the Hawthorns 0-0 (a rather frustrating game where Torres missed a penalty and three clear cut chances). Overall was very happy with how my reason played out.
League Cup
Third Round

• Chelsea 3-1 Derby
  A pretty straight forward home tie against a lesser opponent. Lukaku scored his first Hat-trick of the season as we dismantled them in the first half. The second half proved to be alot tighter with them coming out on top slotting home their consolation goal after going through one-on-one against Courtois.

Fourth Round

• Chelsea 2-0 Southampton
  One again I got lucky with the draw managing to pull Southampton at home. Was a plucky performance from the Saints as they decided to cause us problems defensively time and time again, however Courtois was standing up strong against the onslaught and managed to keep a cleansheet while Sturridge and Lukaku scored one each in the second half to take us into the Quarter Finals for the third year in a row.

Quarter Final

• Wolves 1-4 Chelsea
  The yearly stumbling block it seems. The last two seasons we have stuttered in the Quarter Finals against relatively weak opposition. The first year we managed to overcome it with Torres coming off the bench to score a hat-trick in extra time and the second year we were dumped out by Blackburn in horrifying fashion. This year however we managed to ride out the early waves to good effect before an error from Chalobah allowed Wolves to take the lead through Fletcher which let Wolves take a first half lead into the break. Cue the fight back as Sturridge came back from injury to score four goals in the second half after coming on in the 60th minute allowing us to go through to the Semi-Finals.

Semi-Final

• Chelsea 6-2 Blackburn on Aggregate.
  Into the Semi-Finals and drawn against Blackburn (who are still under Steve Kean and are impossibly hard to beat in my save) meant I was a little bit worried going into the Semi's. Given the fixture congestion that was thrown at me over the course of the two legs it definitely meant that I would need to play my second string in the two legs to keep everyone fit, however this was the only trophy that I still hadn't managed to win. Two years of asking, going into the third and I really didn't want to lose out on it again. The first leg was at the Bridge and it proved effective to our hopes as Lukaku continued his impressive form for us this season as he netted twice in the first half before Rochina responded just before the half-time whistle. Sturridge and Costa combined twice and scored one each in the second half to give us a 4-1 lead in the tie going into the second leg. The deficit proved to big a mountain for Blackburn to overcome as they threw men at me over the 90 minutes of the second leg, even managing to grab a goal in the process but it was the pace of Sturridge that proved the difference as he scored twice in the last 10 minutes to give us a 2-1 win and a 6-2 aggregate win to take us into our second League Cup final.

Final

• Chelsea 2-1 Man City
  The League Cup Final. The one trophy I had yet to win and the one I wanted to win most of all to complete my cabinet before possibly moving onto new pastures. After getting the message that Man City had progressed through to the final alongside us I thought I would have to wait another year to taste success in the competition. The only consolation I could take was that the previous two seasons I had drawn Man City I had won both games with relative ease. It was also the debut of Jamal Blackman in goals for us after the sale of Petr Cech (to Barcelona for £30.5m). The game didn't start particularly well with City taking the lead after 23 minutes with Silva linking with Aguero to release Balotelli (scary how that played out similarly to yesterday) to score and audacious chip over the on-rushing Blackman. Things went from bad to worse when Lukaku had to be brought off after 40 minutes with a minor calf strain however bringing Torres on seemed to be the key to winning as he scored within 2 minutes of coming on to level things just before the half-time whistle. The second half was a pretty rough-en-tough affair with neither side wanting to lose the game but the winner eventually came through McEachran who scored an outrageous curling shot from range to beat the stationary Hart and win us our first League Cup under my reign.

Champions League

Group Stage

Played 6 - Won 6 - Drawn 0 - Lost 0 - Scored 27 - Conceded 10 - Aggregate +17 - Points 18

• Once again we were drawn into a fairly annoying group consisting of Fenerbahce, FC Twente and AC Milan. It wasn't easy enough to rest players but it wasn't strong enough to need my first team out all the time. So once again it was a case of mix'n'match with first teamers and youngsters playing alongside one another. The only difficult tie was the away game at the San Siro where Milan decided to play the same as I did with the game ending 7-5 to us. It was a really awesome game to watch but one I really got annoyed at because we conceded so many goals in a single game. The other games weren't of much note the only annoying part being that we didn't keep a single cleansheet through the group phase.

First Knockout Round

• Chelsea 4-2 FC Porto on Aggregate.
  So the game was a pretty dogged first round with Porto being stubborn and Hulk deciding to go all... well... Hulk on us scoring twice from about 25 yards. Courtois I must admit didn't cover himself in glory for either goal as he could have and probably should have saved both of them but alas he didn't. Torres got one of ours and Silva got the other in a fairly good 2-2 draw in the first leg away from home. Cue the second leg at the Bridge and Ramires decided he wanted to stretch his legs as he ran the length of the field twice to convert two counter-attacks into two goals as we won 2-0 to take the tie 4-2 on aggregate. A mostly uneventful tie with seemed to pass without much notice.

Quarter Finals

• Chelsea 7-1 Sevilla on Aggregate.
  The start of the fixtures against the Spaniards. Round One was against Sevilla which proved to be something to wet my apatite on before the two main courses. Torres scored a hat-trick in both rounds with Mata grabbing the other goal in a 7-1 rout over two legs against a Sevilla who had no answer to our attacking instincts. Negredo scored their only goal as they exited the competition with a whimper. It was a bit of a surprise to draw them and beat them so convincingly as they dumped out Bayern in the First Knockout Round.

Semi-Finals

• Chelsea 6-3 Real Madrid
  The Second Round against Los Merengues and oh my what a Semi-Final. Everything you expect from a game against Jose Mourinho. Counter-attacking football, pieces of individual brilliance, the goal of the tournament from Ronaldo and an all out warfare in the middle of the park between two teams who have power and energy. The first leg was at the Bridge and to set up the tie it was probably for the best as we managed to scrape past them 2-1 with the goals coming from Benzema for Madrid while Ramires and Lampard scored the two for us. Onto the second round and just wow. The game started off with fire and energy from both teams with no team really getting the better of the opening skirmishes. That was until Ronaldo picked the ball up on the half-way line beating Lampard for pace, dribbling past Cole, Romeu and Terry before firing a curling effort into the top corner of the net in the 30th minute. From the restart we went close only to fire the shot at Casillas who quickly kicked the ball upfield into the path of Di Maria who beat Montoya before sitting a perfect cross into the box for Benzema to head home taking Madrid to a 2-3 Aggregate lead at the half-time whistle. Once again, cue the fightback. Silva and Mata combined on the left to set up Lampard before he returned the favoured to set up Silva within 10 minutes of the restart taking us back onto level terms. Madrid never seemed to recover from that as Silva ran riot in the second half setting Mata up for his first and Lampard once again for his second of the game taking us to a 4-2 win at the Bernabeu and 6-3 aggregate win.

Final

• Chelsea 4-1 Barcelona
  Round Three. The third and possibly toughest of the three Spanish teams I had faced proved to be the easiest and most relaxed game I played. Sevilla even though they were toothless were able to create chances and put me up against the wall a few times where-as Barcelona were just a bit clueless in the game. They had 59% of the possesion but they only managed 9 shots in total with only 3 of them on target (Messi scoring the only goal they got). Torres, Lampard, Ramires and Mata all scored for us as we strolled to our second Champions League title in three years. It was a bit of a let-down given the previous round to play a rather boring and predictable final, but I'm still glad we managed to get the job done and win our second Champions League.

FA Cup

Third Round

• Chelsea 7-0 Dover
  An extremely favourable first round draw saw us host Dover. It was a fairly straight forward game with Sturridge grabbing a Hat-trick, Lukaku getting himself two, Douglas Costa and Weiss getting one each.

Fourth Round

• Chelsea 4-1 Brighton
  Another favourable draw which saw us host another lower league team in Brighton and welcome back to the Bridge Gus Poyet. It wasn't a very welcoming return as within 5 minutes Lukaku ran clear to score the first goal of four. He managed a second half hat-trick using his pace and power to just overwhelm the Brighton defense who couldn't handle him. They did manage to get a consolation goal through Mitja Viler (who?) though just after the 70th minute.

Fifth Round

• Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham
  The first of the tough draws and one we dealt with fairly well. Tottenham played a near full-strength side but couldn't manage to over-come the defensive pairing of Chalobah and Muniesa (who have done really well when called on). Goals from Weiss and Douglas Costa saw us through to the Sixth Round safely.

Sixth Round

• Burnley 0-2 Chelsea
  Another relatively favourable draw saw us travel to Burnley. McEachran scored his fifth of the season with a well placed finished after Muniesa scored his fourth from a set-piece. Burnley battled fairly well but ultimately ran up against the same brick-wall partnership that Tottenham had in the previous round.

Semi-Final

• Chelsea 0-1 Liverpool
  The end of our cup run for another year at the hands of a very poor 12 man Liverpool side. The referee was actually horrendous. The game itself was messy with countless fouls and the like and to top things off they ended up breaking Lalkovic's leg and the player in question didn't even get a yellow card. He didn't manage to win the ball either as Milan had gotten a pass off to Lucas Anderson just before the tackle came in. It was a really frustrating game to watch and on top of that an injury to a player that has been improving and showing some signs of promise was all the more disappointing. Happily though they ended up getting battered 5-1 by City in the final.

Key Players

• Fernando Torres - Played 42(11) - Scored 55 - Assisted 21 - MoM's 21 - Average Rating 8.24.
  Romelu Lukaku - Played 28(15) - Scored 29 - Assisted 11 - MoM's 3 - Average 7.78
  Juan Mata - Played 41(7) - Scored 18 - Assisted 27 - MoM's 4 - Average Rating 7.78
  David Silva - Played 42(9) - Scored 14 - Assisted 29 - MoM's 7 - Average Rating 7.70
  Frank Lampard - Played 38(3) - Scored 21 - Assisted 11 - MoM's 2 - Average Rating 7.43

Pretty much the stand-out players for me this season. Lukaku was devastating whenever he was called on while Torres just can't stop scoring. He is also an unbelievable tank for me in this game having only had small week long injuries at worst. Mata and Silva were incredible behind the frontman (whoever it was) and created chance after chance while Lampard seemed back to his best (at the age of 35) scoring an amazing 21 goals from midfield of which 18 were in the league. Overall really happy with just about everyone in the team.

Conclusion.

Incredible season again winning the league with ease while maintaining good form in the cups. Going to be a bit of an overhaul in terms of personal this closed season as I look to mirror what Bracken did in having a very strong first 11 and the backups being high-class regens that are coming through the team.

GK - Courtois, Blackman.

RB - Vrasljko, Montoya.

LB - Bertrand, Cole.

CB - Terry, Luiz, Chalobah, Muniesa.

DMC - Romeu, Crisetig.

MC - Ramires, Lampard, McEachran, Costa.

AMR - Silva, Weiss.

AML - Mata, Sturridge.

ST - Torres, Lukaku.

Need to decide who to trim from those in accordance to my regens coming through!

[J.T]

I'm starting a new Chelsea save

Deleted my old one so I don't go back to it.

[Bracken]

Fantastic season Intercept and I really enjoy reading your updates mate. Good luck with the overhaul, if you feel like showing off some of your youngsters or regens it'd be great to see em.

Here's a two month update from me, with few details but all my games:

December 2014

League Cup Quarter Final

Chelsea 4 - 0 West Ham

Lukaku 13', 41'

Kakuta 45+1'

Reed 83'

Premier League

West Brom 0 - 2 Chelsea

JT 40'

Sturridge 43'

Champions League

Chelsea 7 - 0 Maccabi Haifa

Muniain 26'

Lukaku 44', 56', 64'

Kakuta 71'

Niang 77'

Le Guerroue pen 90+1'

Premier League

Chelsea 2 - 0 Man Utd

Lukaku 16'

Mata pen 62'

Blackburn 1 - 1 Chelsea

Muniain 31'

Steven Davis 39'

Liverpool 1 - 4 Chelsea

Muniain 21'

Krasic 45+2'

Mata 52', 82'

Torres 85'

Chelsea 5 - 0 Fulham

Muniain 2', 18'

Torres 45+1

Chalobah 49'

Niang 67'

December Roundup

A great month, despite our first dropped points of the season. Muniain was on fire, as was Mata, both provide goals and assists galore.

January 2015

FA Cup 3rd Round

Chelsea 3 - 1 Derby

Cunningham OG 23'

Eddie Hillier 36'

Niang 57'

John Brayford 86'

Premier League

Stoke 0 - 3 Chelsea

Niang 16'

Lampard 24'

Lukaku 35'

Chelsea 3 - 1 Newcaste

Mata 6', 37'

Muniain 11'

Vossen 61'

League Cup Semi Final 1st Leg

Stoke 0 - 2 Chelsea

Niang 18'

Kakuta 90+4'

Premier League

West Ham 0 - 5 Chelsea

McEachran 6'

Torres 22'

Muniain 41'

Sturridge 51'

Lampard pen 86'

Chelsea 5 - 2 Arsenal

Hazard 7'

Torres 15'

Mata 40'

Muniain 44'

Van Persie 60'

Sturridge 72'

Lampard 90+2'

League Cup Semi Final 2nd Leg

Chelsea 5 - 0 Stoke

Lukaku 1'

Le Guerroue 31', 53'

Kakuta 45+1'

Niang 68'

FA Cup 4th Round

Chelsea 4 - 2 Stoke

Lukaku 15', 44', 86'

Le Guerroue 28'

Buljat 58'

Courois OG 88'

January Conclusions

Another really solid month, mainly composed of wins over Stoke for some reason. Pleased with the progress we're making, lots of goals flying in everywhere, looking good for a very successful season.

I got a little curious and decided I'd find out the PA of my favourtie regen, Anthony Reed, my CB who came up through the youth ranks. I expected to be disappointed and find my coaches were wrong when rating him with a 4.5 star PA, but I wasn't. His PA is 199! Can't wait to see him at his peak.

[tomtuck01]

Tomtuck01 - based on that result against Spurs I'm sure you'll have no problems bringing the title to it's rightful place at the Bridge.

I wish you hadn't said that. The word "collapse" doesn't begin to describe what has happened since the Tottenham win.

[tomtuck01]

My season has been completed, but before I post my full end of season review it's time for a run down of my results since my last update.

February

Premier League - Blackburn (H) 2-0 (Torres 2)

Premier League - Arsenal (A) 2-1 (Ramires)

FA Cup 5th Rnd - Morecambe (H) 5-0 (Sturridge, Kalou 3 (1 pen), Luiz)

Champs Lge 1st KO Rnd 1st Leg - FC Kobenhavn (A) 0-3 (Lampard 3 (1 pen))

Carling Cup Final - Arsenal (N) 0-2

Not the greatest of months really. The defeat against Arsenal in the league came after they scored in the 90th and 93rd minute, and to add insult to injury they comfrtably beat us in the Carling Cup final. The final defeat foretold of much worse to come later on in the campaign.

March

Premier League - Everton (A) 3-3 (Mata, Ramires, Lampard)

Premier League - Swansea (H) 4-1 (Lampard, Meireles, Sturridge, Lukaku)

Champs Lge 1sk KO Rnd 2nd Leg - FC Kobenhavn (H) 1-2 - 4-2 on aggregate (Sturridge)

FA Cup 6th Rnd - West Ham (A) 1-3 (Lampard, Willian, Cahill)

Premier League - Wigan (A) 1-3 (Lampard 2, Ramires)

Premier League - Wolves (H) 1-1 (Strurridge)

Champs Lge Qtr Final 1st Leg - Bayern Munich (H) 1-0 (Sturridge)

Premier League - Sunderland (A) 1-3 (Mata, Meireles, Kalou)

Not a bad month, but sloppyness creeping into our defending that would prove to be our downfall in the final couple of months. Awful result at Everton after leading 2-0 and then 3-2. And also poor against Wolves as we let in an 88th minute equaliser. We finished off well though with a solid win at home to Bayern and a comfortable win at Sunderland.

April

Champs Lge Qtr Final 2nd Leg - Bayern Munich (A) 1-2 - 1-3 on aggregate (Mata, Kalou)

Premier League - West Brom (H) 3-1 (Meireles, Kakuta, Kalou)

Premier League - Fulham (A) 1-1 (Lampard)

FA Cup Semi-final - West Brom (N) 3-1 (Kakuta, Kalou, Coleman)

Champs Lge Semi-final 1st Leg - Man City (A) 0-2 (Kalou, Hart (Og))

Premier League - Tottenham (A) 0-7 (Kalou 2, Mata, Willian 2, Lukaku, Meireles)

Champs Lge Semi-final 2nd Leg - Man City (H) 0-1 - 2-1 on aggregate

Premier League - Man City (H) 1-2 (Torres)

Five out six wins to begin the month has us in great shape. Man United had krept up on us in the league after a storming run as we dropped points here and there, but we were keeping our noses infront. The massive win at Tottenham gave me confidence we could have a fine finish to the season, but if the defeat in the Champions League to City was disappointing, (we still went thrugh of course), then loss in the league 3 days later was the beginning of the end of our season.

May

Premier League - Liverpool (A) 0-0

FA Cup Final - Man City (N) 0-0 - City win 4-3 on pens

Premier League - Bolton (H) 0-1

Premier League - Man United (H) 1-2 (Lampard) - Man United are Champions

Premier League - Stoke (H) 2-0 (Kakuta, Lukaku)

Champs Lge Final - Barcelona (N) 0-1

A horror finish to the season. The draw with Liverpool wasn't too bad, but the cup final loss against City killed us. It didn't help that the game against Bolton was on the Monday just two days later, and then the United match just two days after that, but still we collapsed miserably. We put up a decent performance against Barcelona in the Champions League final, and were a bit unlucky as David Villa got the winner in the 92nd minute.

To end the season withut a trophy though was unbelievable.

------------------------------------------------

As I said at the top of the post, my full end of season update will follow shortly - either tonight or tomrrow.

[Intercept]

tomtuck01

That looks like a pretty horrific end to the season. Looks like you got beaten around pretty badly by City in the final few months. Unlucky! But it gives you a bit of determination to bounce back and win it all next year!

Bracken

Here you go. All the youngsters from my line-up.

Oriol Romeu, Daniel Sturridge, Gael Kakuta, Josh McEachran, Lorenzo Crisetig, Marc Muniesa, Martin Montoya, Romelu Lukaku, Ryan Bertrand, Sime Vrasljko, Thiabut Courtois, Nathaniel Chalobah.

And for the best of the lot. I can take no credit in his development but I stole him on a free which deserves credit! Allow me to introduce - Albin Ekdal. His attributes are insanely good in the right area's. He can play defensively and is perfect going forward. Physically is brilliant for the position he plays. He is just overall a massive plus. So happy with him even if I haven't had anything to do with him till I stole him on a free.

[tomtuck01]

tomtuck01

That looks like a pretty horrific end to the season. Looks like you got beaten around pretty badly by City in the final few months. Unlucky! But it gives you a bit of determination to bounce back and win it all next year!

I know. Strangest thing of all was that the only victory we got over City in that run of games against them came away at their ground!

On anther note, how did you get those Chelsea youngsters from your screenshots to improve so much? I know you're a fair bit further into your save than me, so is it just about patience and giving them games, or have you got some cracking training schedules?

[Bracken]

Bracken

Here you go. All the youngsters from my line-up.

Oriol Romeu, Daniel Sturridge, Gael Kakuta, Josh McEachran, Lorenzo Crisetig, Marc Muniesa, Martin Montoya, Romelu Lukaku, Ryan Bertrand, Sime Vrasljko, Thiabut Courtois, Nathaniel Chalobah.

And for the best of the lot. I can take no credit in his development but I stole him on a free which deserves credit! Allow me to introduce - Albin Ekdal. His attributes are insanely good in the right area's. He can play defensively and is perfect going forward. Physically is brilliant for the position he plays. He is just overall a massive plus. So happy with him even if I haven't had anything to do with him till I stole him on a free.

That's some fantastic development on those youngsters there mate, really superb work. Interesting to see how differently they've developed for you than me, especially Sturridge whose attributes have never improved much for me (though his performances are outstanding so I don't mind). Keep it up mate, got yourself a superb young team there. As tomtuck said, did you use your own schedules or download?

[bbuullddoogg]

Is anyone using a 4-2-3-1? And if so, what kind of team settings and players roles? I took a break from the game for a while but now I'm back and looking to start a long term save with the mighty blues. Don't wanna download a tactic but had some problems creating a decent 4-2-3-1. The one I made and had success with in 11 doesn't work very well on 2012.

[Intercept]

tomtuck01 and Bracken

I used Fabio MVP's training schedules from day one. There is a link to the training schedules at the bottom of the first post in here. They really did wonders for my players. Between those schedules and constant gametime in matches I could afford to give them they have progressed to that point.

By the way. With regards to Sturridge, I had him tutored by Torres right at the start of the game to raise his professionalism which is absurdly low if you leave him alone.

[xDieArdUk]

Bit of a problem now Ive let Terry ,Lampard and Ashley Cole all go on free's as im in 2014 and they were aging and being fazed out but i never thought about homegrown rules argh and i bought in Papadopoulous ,Hamsik and Alex Sandro to replace them :/ Ive had to cut players like Kagawa out etc which has kinda forced my team to be abit down on numbers with very few youths ready to make the step up barring Niang ,Vadillo and POSSIBLY chabalabah who im unsure out bigtime. Im not really producing much top youth right now was wondering how you guys have? ive invested heavily on every youth option in the board bit for example Junior Coaching etc just havent come up with anything yet really :/ Could really do with a CB as i only have 3 Seniors them being Papadopoulous ,Otamendi and Luiz :S

[xDieArdUk]

Is anyone using a 4-2-3-1? And if so, what kind of team settings and players roles? I took a break from the game for a while but now I'm back and looking to start a long term save with the mighty blues. Don't wanna download a tactic but had some problems creating a decent 4-2-3-1. The one I made and had success with in 11 doesn't work very well on 2012.

Im using 4-2-3-1 i found Ramires was pretty crucial in a box to box role and Mata in AMC as a treq behind Torres poaching.

[Intercept]

Closed Season Update

So I'm finding it alot harder to overhaul the squad then I thought. I'm not getting the offers for players that I would consider adequate so quite a few are staying. That means that Kakuta has just been sent out on loan again alongside a few regens that are poking their way into the first team setup. The only two players I have gotten rid of are David Luiz and Douglas Costa both for £20.5m (meaning I've made £41m so far). Construction is starting on our new stadium as well now so the loan repayments are going to start kicking my ass financially meaning it's all the more important to ensure we sell more then we buy.

So far the squad looks like this but I'm expecting one or two more changes before we finalize the team.

GK - Courtois, Blackman.

RB - Montoya, Vrasljko.

LB - Bertrand, Cole.

CB - Terry, Muniesa, Chalobah, Herve (regen), Getachew (regen).

DMC - Romeu, Crisetig.

MC - Ramires, Ekdal, McEachran, Lampard.

AMR - Silva, Weiss.

AML - Mata, Sturridge.

ST - Torres, Lukaku.

The first name in each position is the "first choice" player there. In regards to the my DC and MC it's the first two (obviously playing a 4-5-1 here ). Lampard, Cole and Terry are all being phased out gradually with only Terry still holding onto a First Team spot due to his insane mental attributes and the fact Chalobah still isn't 100% ready to take the reins. Ramires is still an absolute monster for me and with Ekdal being so damn perfect it means McEachran is again resigned to the bench and second string. Torres I'm having heart-string issues selling as I absolutely love him IRL (even when he played for Liverpool) and I want him to break the all time scoring record which he should do in the next season or two.

[xDieArdUk]

Closed Season Update

So I'm finding it alot harder to overhaul the squad then I thought. I'm not getting the offers for players that I would consider adequate so quite a few are staying. That means that Kakuta has just been sent out on loan again alongside a few regens that are poking their way into the first team setup. The only two players I have gotten rid of are David Luiz and Douglas Costa both for £20.5m (meaning I've made £41m so far). Construction is starting on our new stadium as well now so the loan repayments are going to start kicking my ass financially meaning it's all the more important to ensure we sell more then we buy.

So far the squad looks like this but I'm expecting one or two more changes before we finalize the team.

GK - Courtois, Blackman.

RB - Montoya, Vrasljko.

LB - Bertrand, Cole.

CB - Terry, Muniesa, Chalobah, Herve (regen), Getachew (regen).

DMC - Romeu, Crisetig.

MC - Ramires, Ekdal, McEachran, Lampard.

AMR - Silva, Weiss.

AML - Mata, Sturridge.

ST - Torres, Lukaku.

The first name in each position is the "first choice" player there. In regards to the my DC and MC it's the first two (obviously playing a 4-5-1 here ). Lampard, Cole and Terry are all being phased out gradually with only Terry still holding onto a First Team spot due to his insane mental attributes and the fact Chalobah still isn't 100% ready to take the reins. Ramires is still an absolute monster for me and with Ekdal being so damn perfect it means McEachran is again resigned to the bench and second string. Torres I'm having heart-string issues selling as I absolutely love him IRL (even when he played for Liverpool) and I want him to break the all time scoring record which he should do in the next season or two.

Im contemplating shipping Torres off myself :/ Damiao ,Neymar and Lukaku all sat there aswell lol

[Bracken]

tomtuck01 and Bracken

I used Fabio MVP's training schedules from day one. There is a link to the training schedules at the bottom of the first post in here. They really did wonders for my players. Between those schedules and constant gametime in matches I could afford to give them they have progressed to that point.

By the way. With regards to Sturridge, I had him tutored by Torres right at the start of the game to raise his professionalism which is absurdly low if you leave him alone.

Cheers for the schedules mate, think I'll give some of those a go. Wish I'd had Sturridge tutored, he plays great for me but his attributes really haven't changed much. Could be I got unlucky with his PA I suppose.

xDieArdUk

I just got lucky with Reed I think, haven't had too much else to speak of through the academy yet. Best recommendation I can give is just to go hunting as soon as each batch of newgens appear, snap up the best and they'll be homegrown within a few years.

Dates for the newgen creations can be found here:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/116539-Newgen-dates-chronological-list/page3

[tomtuck01]

Well my opening season with Chelsea has come to an end, so it is time for an end of season review. After a season that promised so much, frankly it has turned out to be a failure, with no trophies won at all.

Hope you enjoy the read.

Premier League

Somehow we managed not to win the title, despite leading the race by nine points with just thirteen games to go. With fixtures piling up at the end of the campaign, we managed just four points from our final five games, and even three of them came on the last day of the season after Man United had already won the title. We may have had the best goalscoring record (91), but our defence wasn't good enough in my opinion (31 conceded). Eventually we finished on 85pts, five behind United.

Premier League Awards

Football Writers Footballer Of The Year; Juan Mata - Chelsea

PFA Player Of The Year; Wayne Rooney - Man United

PFA Young Player Of The Year; Sergio Aguero - Man City

Barclays Premier League Golden Boot; Edin Dzeko - Man City (24 goals)

Barclays Manager Of The Year; Sir Alex Ferguson - Man United

PFA Team Of The Year; Frank Lampard, Juan Mata and Petr Cech (Subs)

Domestic Cups

We got through to the finals of both domestic cups this term, but failed to win either of them. In the Carling Cup I began picking back-up and young players, and this policy served the team well. We beat Bolton (3-0) and Burnley (4-1) both at home, then hammered Cardiff (4-0) away from home in the quarter finals. In the semi's we faced Stoke, and lost the opening leg away from home (0-2), but won the second (3-0) after extra time after I had recalled some first teamer's.

We played Arsenal in the final, and I put the full first team back into the side. It didn't do us any good, and we went down 0-2.

In the FA Cup we had some good results playing a mix of first teamer's and younger players, well that was after the third round! We drew with Rochdale at home (1-1), but ran out 3-0 winners in the replay. In the fourth round we traveled to Sunderland and ripped them to pieces (5-0). In the 5th round we played Morecambe at home and beat them by the same scoreline. The quarter finals saw us defeat local rivals West Ham (3-1) at Upton Park, and we followed that up with another 3-1 win, this time against West Brom in the semi's.

In the final we faced Man City, a team who we had played alot recently due to meeting them in the Champions League and Premier League in close proximity. Due to our crazy fixture list late in the season most f the players who did start weren't anywhere near fully fit, and we did pretty well to take them all the way to penalties. However we didn't tuck our penalties away, and City won the shootout.

As much as what we didn't lift either cup, we still did very well to make it to both finals in my opinion. It was also good to give games to some of the younger boys aswell. So maybe not successful, but productive.

Champions League

We did pretty well in our Champions League group, winning four and drawing two of our games.

CSKA Moscow (H) 3-0

Lille (A) 1-1

Napoli (H) 3-0

Napoli (A) 1-1

CSKA Moscow (A) 0-3

Lille (H) 3-1

In the 1st Knockout round we got what was the easiest draw possible - FC Kobenhavn. We won the first leg away from home easily (3-0), but we lost the return leg 1-2 after a poor performance by the back-up players. Still, we progressed 4-2 on aggregate.

A tough draw awaited in the Quarter finals in the shape of Bayern Munich. However, we made relatively light work of them, beating them 1-0 in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, then 2-1 away from home to give us a 3-1 aggregate win.

We faced English opposition in the semi-finals - Manchester City. In the first leg at City we were brilliant and won 2-0 with Saloman Kalou the standout man. We did lose the second leg 1-0, but it still meant that we progressed to the final, 2-1 on aggregate,

The Final - vs. Barcelona

After the disappointing end to the season domestically, this was a chance to end the season on a very high note. To do so we faced the toughest test possible. Players were still tired from the grueling end of season schedule, however we did have everyone available except for Daniel Sturridge and Ryan Bertrand. Barcelona were at full strength with the exception of Andres Iniesta.

We sat back and allowed Barcelona possession, playing on the counter attack. For the first half this worked - we limited their chances and created some of our own when we did break forward. In the second half though we tired, and they put more pressure on us. We weren't helped by the fact the we didn't have anything to defend as Torres had had a bit of a shocker infront of goal. He was withdrawn after 66mins.

As much as Barcelona had more of the ball and created more chances, Petr Cech stopped everything that came his way. Unfortunately we finally came undone in the second minute of injury time as David Villa whipped a freekick into the top corner. We had no time to reply, and that was that. Defeat in a third final of the season.

We put up a good fight against them, but in the end we couldn't quite resist. Who knows how things would have gone had we just held on until extra time.

Top Scorers And Other Info

Come the end of the season we had six players who reached double figures goals wise. Frank Lampard was the standout performer in this department.

Frank Lampard - 53 starts, 0 sub apps - 26 goals

Fernando Torres - 33 starts, 3 sub apps - 21 goals

Juan Mata - 49 starts, 1 sub app - 21 goals

Daniel Sturridge - 36 starts, 5 sub apps - 14 goals

Saloman Kalou - 25 starts, 11 sub apps - 12 goals

Romelu Lukaku - 10 starts, 13 sub apps - 11 goals

Lampard was just unreal, as was Mata from wide left. Torres didn't perform well after coming back from injury, scoring just once in his final six appearances. Daniel Sturridge's return wasn't that bad because he also managed 17 assists.

Sturridge was infact our top assister this term, and Juan Mata god 16 assists to add to his 21 goals. Frank Lampard layed on 14 goals for his team mates, as did Raul Meireles. Willian got 13 assists and eight goals.

Juan Mata got the sides top seasonal rating, (7.48), from his 50 appearances. From the 64 games the team played we scored 148 goals and conceded 47. We collected 84 yellow cards and four reds, and the average attendance at Stamford Bridge was 40,832.

What Next?

In terms of signings, I don't see much happening unless some players depart. Maybe another central defender will come in to try and sure up our defence up a bit. Some of our returning loan players will be sold, but Thibaut Courtois and Tomas Kalas will remain at the club next season.

As for other players departing, given that both Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel are both unhappy with me, they could be on their way out.

------------------------------------------

Comments and suggestions are welcome. And I'll be happy to upload any other screenshots you wish to see.

Thanks to those of you who took the time to read this.

[koolaz]

CL semis season 2: 3 english 1 spanish teams Hopefully I can win it

http://imageshack.us/f/443/clsemis2un.jpg/

[lacoste8030]

am happy brought a club favourite back in January second season as back up for navas and he just scored in Fa cup fifth round for me.

Good old Joey Cole

[TF]

Do any of you guys know of a good training schedule for Chelsea? I'd make my own but it will probably be useless.

[Benoit2]

There isnt much into making schedules tbh. The overall intensity is the most important. Most people have it somewhere at medium, I have it at the highest of heavy, to no detrimental effect. Assigning all other sliders is a matter of where you want to put emphasis, but as long as the overall intensity is good, a player will make progress anyway.

[TF]

Thanks Benoit, i'll have a go at making my own schedules then.

[Mr Bungle666]

Good news for Chelsea on the new patch, long term injuries do not make players stats decline so rapidly.

[Benoit2]

Good news for Chelsea on the new patch, long term injuries do not make players stats decline so rapidly.

I can confirm Essien isnt nearly as useless as he was pre-patch. He still declines unfortunately, but you can still use him as a squad player

[Bracken]

Really unlucky with that season tomtuck, good luck with the second, let us know how you get on

February 2015 Roundup

Premier Devision

Chelsea 4 - 0 Man City

Torres 4', 23', 28', 32'

Nice one Nando, great win

Aston Villa 0 - 3 Chelsea

Torres 41', 74'

Muniain 45'

Another solid away win, another great performance by Torres

Bolton 0 - 2 Chelsea

Muniain 53'

Niang 83'

A good solid win considering I'd rested a fair few players for this one.

Champions League 1st Knockout Round, 1st Leg

Inter 2 - 1 Chelsea

Cech OG 14'

Torres 43'

Dusan Tadic pen 60'

Bit disappointing, but we got the away goal and that could prove vital

FA Cup 5th Round

Man Utd 2 - 3 Chelsea

Niaing 7'

Lukaku 29', 74'

Berbatove 45'

Hernandez 51'

A very good attacking performance by the youngsters but they weren't great at the back, Utd's 3-4-3 formation always causes me problems

Premier League

Chelsea 6 - 0 Wolves

Torres 1', 48', 67'

Sturridge 10'

Muniain 20'

Le Guerroue 85'

A lovely way to end the month, surprisingly we had 33 shots but only 8 on target, but of those 8, 6 were goals, so could've been worse but could've been a lot better if we improved our accuracy.

Conclusions

A pretty solid month, a little disappointed by the result at Inter but we can turn it around. Some very good clean sheets and a great victory over City were the highlights.

[Intercept]

Bracken

Unlucky with the lose to Inter but with an away goal you never know how important it can turn out to be! The league seems to be plain sailing like usual. KTBFFH!

As for myself. I've just been handed the reins of the Spanish National Team. So getting busy for me. Just lead the Spaniards to a 2-1 win over Italy and a 5-0 win over Bulgaria in my first two Friendlies. Followed that up with a 3-1 win over Albania in our first European Qualifier. On a club note I've had a rather tricky start to the season but thankfully we have rolled with the punches and managed to come out the other side un-scathed and in a prime position. Had the Community Shield to defend against City followed up by games with Man United, Blackburn and Arsenal (twice, once in a League and the other in the Euro. Super Cup). Managed to win all 5 games, although the game against Arsenal in the Euro. Super Cup was a very very tense thing.

I'll probably give a big update come the January transfer window!

[holmaz]

can we get a screenshot of Le Guerroue, mceachran and chalobah bracken? really excited to see how good they've become under your watching eye.

[Bracken]

can we get a screenshot of Le Guerroue, mceachran and chalobah bracken? really excited to see how good they've become under your watching eye.

No problem mate, here they are:

Josh McEachran

Nathanial Chalobah

Correntin Le Guerroue

[tomtuck01]

The summer transfer window of 2012 has slammed shut, so it is time for my post summer transfer window update.

Please enjoy the read.

Transfer Activity

The transfer window proved to be quite busy in the end, despite me not wanting to make changes to the squad. We were so close to winning everything last season that I didn't think the first team squad needed adding to all that much, so the players I brought in weren't going to be immedate starters.

As for depatures, not too much happened really besides loans.

Players Out;

Yossi Benayoun - £3.5million - Everton

Conor Clifford - Loan - Derby

Lucas Piazon - Loan - Levante

Matej Delac - Loan - Real Madrid

Jamal Blackman - Loan - Swindon

Ulises Davila - Loan - Vitesse

Nine players have also been released, including Hilario.

A decent enough fee for Benayoun, and hopefully the young players who have gone out on loan will get game time. Matej Delac would have been third choice at best if he had stayed, so atleast at Real Madrid he'll be second choice and maybe get the odd game.

Players In;

Mbaye Niang - £11million (£5million upfront, £6million over 24 months) and £3million more in add-ons - Caen

Gerard Deulefou - £5million and £2.5million more in add-ons - Barcelona

Jason Lowe - £2.9million - Blackburn

Mohammed Abu - £2.4million - Manchester City

Sekou Tidiane Yao - £1.5million - Le Havre

Tarek Maziz - £1.3million - Marseille

A fair bit of money spent in the end, but we have got some cracking prospects in for the future.

First Team Squad

The main formation I am using is still the 4-2-3-1 system. But I have a 4-5-1 formation that I use in big away games, and I do also have 4-3-1-2 and 4-4-2 systems well develoed aswell.

Goalkeepers;

1.Petr Cech

13.Thibaut Courtois

22.Ross Turnbull

Defenders;

2.Branislav Ivanovic

3.Ashley Cole

4.David Luiz

17.Gary Cahill

26.John Terry - Captain

27.Seamus Coleman

34.Ryan Bertrand

Midfielders;

5.Michael Essien

6.Oriol Romeu

7.Ramires

8.Frank Lampard - Vice captain

10.Juan Mata

12.John Obi Mikel

16.Raul Meireles

19.Willian

20.Josh McEachran

44.Gael Kakuta

Forwards;

9.Fernando Torres

18.Romelu Lukaku

21.Saloman Kalou

23.Daniel Sturridge

Reserve/Young Players;

25.Mohammed Abu

28.Jason Lowe

31.Leonard Bittencourt

33.Gerard Deulefou

35.Tomas Kalas

38.Patrick van Aanholt

45.Nathaniel Chalobah

36.Mbaye Niang

52.Jacob Mellis

Some of the reserve and younger players will get their chances at times, but for most of them this season is mainly about getting good tuition from my more experienced players.

The Season So Far

Eager to make up for last seasons disappointments, I have made sure we started this season well. We have won all three of our league games so far, scring ten goals in the process.

August

Premier League - Wigan (A) 1-2 (Cahill, Willian)

Premier League - Blackburn (H) 5-1 (Lampard 2, Sturridge 2, Cahill)

Premier League (Actually September 1st) - Blackpool (A) 0-3 (Sturridge, Lampard, Willian)

A good opening three games of the season. A few goals put away and some good early seasn form from Daniel Sturridge. And not that it is important at this stage, but we currently sit top! Our next game after the international break is West Brom at Stamfrd Bridge.

The Champions League group stages have been drawn, and we have been given a group we should certainly progress from relatively easily. Along with us in the group there is; Villarreal, FC Kobenhavn, and Anderlecht. Our opening group game is what should be our toughest - Villarreal away.

------------------------------------------------

Any comments or suggestions are welcome, and I'll post any screenshots you want. Cheers to those of you who took the time to read this.

[Bracken]

Great start to season two there tomtuck, looks like a very good squad too.

March 2015 roundup

League Cup Final

Chelsea 3 - 0 Liverpool

Reed 45+2

Skrtel OG 55'

Lukaku 66'

Good win to bring this trophy back home, nice performance by the youngsters and backups.

Premier League

Chelsea 6 - 0 Everton

Torres pen 13', 22', 46', 85'

Sturridge 36', 55'

Fantastic performance, Muniain got 4 assists in this one, the front 4 were superb

Watford 0 - 5 Chelsea

Muniain 11'

Le Guerroue 52'

Lukaku 60', 86'

Sturridge 73'

Team is on a great run of goalscoring form here

Champions League 1st Knockout Round, 2nd Leg

Chelsea 5 - 1 Inter

Torres 9', 43'

Muniain 18'

Jose Sosa 33'

Sturridge 81'

Kovacic 86'

Great win to turn around the first leg 2-1 deficit, and we go marching on

FA Cup 6th Round

Tottenham 0 - 4 Chelsea

Van der Vaart OG 8'

Lukaku 26', 69'

McEachran 51'

A great cup in at Three Point Lane

Premier League

Chelsea 6 - 0 Swansea

Muniain 10', 90'

Lukaku 13', 24'

Vorm OG 53'

Sturridge 71'

Another great goal scoring performance in the league.

Conclusions

A really good month, the league form was particularly excellent, we just couldn't stop scoring. I've drawn Benfica in the next round of the Champions League, but it'll probably be Barca if we get past them, so should be an interesting end to the season.

[Galvanize]

Stopped my Chelsea save for a little while (which is why I haven't really been in here), but i'm back because I just can't leave it alone! Just started the 2014/2015 season with a win over Man City in the Community Shield.

First Team Squad - (4-5-1 with DM)

GK: Thibaut Courtois / Luís Guilherme

RB: Sime Vrsaljko / Matthew Jones

CB: Alvaro Dominguez / Piotr Wieckowski

CB: Yaroslav Rakitskyi / John Terry

LB: Martin Olsson / Roberto

CDM: Sergio Busquets / Lionello Cappai

CM - Attacking: Milan Badelj / Manuel Graziano

CM - Defensive: Jack Darby

AMR: Antonio Valencia / Valentin Perret

AML: Angel Di Maria / Vaclav Kadlec

ST: Edison Cavani / Romelu Lukaku / Carlos Fierro / Scott Kane

Note: Regens are in blue.

This, however, isn't my full squad in terms of who plays regularly. My reserves is stacked of twenty players who have three stars or more potential. A few of them are on loan to see how they fair in the lower leagues at the moment, which generally gives them some more game time too. With a number of my players, i've had offers in for them. For example Guilherme, Vrsaljko, Roberto, Cappai, Perret and Kane have all had offers from Real Madrid and Barcelona. Lucky to be able to hold onto them so far.

[holmaz]

I'm managing chelsea and are currently in my 2014/2015 campaign and been waiting for the option to build a new stadium but it hasn't come up. somebody know what this depends on?

[Natedog17]

Hey guys havent had much time to play fm12 due to Uni but back and looking to play a lot.

Im in January of my second season. Havent really worried that much about my staff and training as its my first Chelsea save. I am playing a 4-3-3 formation and a 4-5-1 formation.

Squad:

Goalkeepers:

Cech

Courtois

Delac

Fullbacks:

Left:

Cole

Bertrand

Muniesa

Right:

Bosingwa

Azpiliqueta

Central Defence:

Terry

Luiz

Cahill

Youngsters:

Chaloboah

Elston-big prospect

John Dorian-big prospect

Midfielders:

Defensive minded:

Mikel

Romeu

Attack minded:

Thiago

Lampard

McEachran

Lewis Baker-Tutored by Meireles and now Lampard, he is starting to look good

All rounders:

Ramires

K.Asamoah-May look to sell, has not impressed me at all!

Bertolacci(on loan from Roma)- really like this player and has performed better than Kwadwo and on par with Ramires

Strikers:

Torres

Mata-my creativity up front

Doumbia

Lukaku

Sturridge-Took a while for him to develop but now he is looking a good player.

Kakuta-awesome on the right hand side of attack before getting injured. 10 goals and 3 assists in 18 apps with 2 MOMs

Youngsters:

Kande-home produced regen

Dongou-from Barcelona

Playing Team:

GK(quick throws to DCR)-Cech/Courtois/Delac

DL(FB attack)-Cole/Bertrand/Muniesa

DCL-Terry/Chaloboah/Elston(regen)

DCR-Luiz/Cahill/Elston

DR(FB attack)-Bosingwa/Azpilicueta

MCL(APlaymaker)-Lampard/Thiago/McEachran

MC(BWM)-Mikel/Romeu/Ramires

MCR(B2B)-Ramires/Bertolacci/Kwadwo

STL(AF)-Mata/Sturridge

STC(Poacher)-Lukaku/Doumbia

STR(AF)-Torres/Sturridge

Won prem first season and 2nd in league atm with 1 point behind league leaders Man City. In League Cup final against City. Smashed Group in Champs league and now for the knock out stages.

[Bracken]

Good to see you back here Natedog, looking forward to seeing more of your updates

April 2015 Round

Premier League

QPR 1 - 1 Chelsea

Le Guerroue 75'

SWP 86'

Disappointed by the draw, we dominated but didn't finish them off and paid the price

Champions League Quarter Final 1st Leg

Benfica 1 - 1 Chelsea

Franco Jara 7'

Israel Zaguri OG 86'

McEachran sent off 56'

Really got away with one here, we were awful, no idea how we managed a draw with an away goal.

Premier League

Chelsea 3 - 0 Reading

Muniain 1', 70'

Torres 12'

Nice to get back to winning ways

Champions League Quarter Final 2nd Leg

Chelsea 2 - 0 Benfica

Torres 84', 88'

The away goal proved vital, we dominated but couldn't break them down, and as they started to attack us and try and find a goal of their own we went more defensive, hit them on the break and secured passage through late on.

FA Cup Semi Final

Livepool 1 - 0 Chelsea

Milos Krasic 31'

Very poor performance and very poor result, need to improve

Premier League

Tottenham 0 - 1 Chelsea

Sturridge 46'

Ground out the win, but the win is what matters

Chelsea 1 - 0 West Brom

Mbaye Niang 44'

Another ground out win, the goals are deserting us at the minute, need to improve for the next game, a big one.

Champions League Semi Final 1st Leg

Chelsea 4 - 0 FC Bayern

JT, 39', 44', missed pen 90+2'

Torres 54', 75'

Back to our old selves, a brilliant win against a Bayern side who are walking it in the German league right now on my game.

Conclusions

Not a great month, poor performances in a few games and poor results to match, but we managed to hang on for a few wins to keep us at a very nice distance at the top of the league, if we win the next game, the league is ours. We really picked it up for the last game, fantastic home result against Bayern, next game is Man Utd away for the title, hopefully we pick up where we left off against Bayern.

[joe__the__man]

August/September '11 Update

Transfer Activity

The major signing of the window was the arrival of Iker Muniain from Athletic Club for just shy of £21m. He hasn't had the best of starts though, picking up a knee injury in a friendly that's kept him out for all of the season so far. Heading the other way was Alex, leaving for Man City for £12m, being replaced by a familiar face in Jeffrey Bruma returning from his loan straight away. Sime Vrsaljko also came in to add bulk to the squad.

I tried to offload Kalou and Ferreira but couldn't get any offers, whilst Clifford and Lukaku stick around despite me attempting to loan them out.

Team of the Month

Cech

Ivanovic Luiz Terry Cole

Mikel Lampard

Sturridge Mata Anelka

Drogba

The back five picks itself, particularly with Bosingwa being injured for the first half of the season, whilst Drogba edges it ahead of Torres, but neither have been great.

Results

Premier League

Aston Villa 1-2 Chelsea

Chelsea 2-0 Sunderland

Fulham 0-3 Chelsea

Chelsea 2-0 Wolves

Champions League Group F

Dinamo 0-4 Chelsea

Premier League

Swansea 2-2 Chelsea

League Cup 3rd Round

Derby 0-3 Chelsea

Premier League

Chelsea 5-0 Norwich

Champions League Group F

Chelsea 1-1 Ajax

The three August league games went without a hitch, three comfortable wins, if not massive margins of victory, and the start of September was the same with a satisfying win over Dinamo. Then came a few more challenging games, with Swansea doing well to defend for 90 minutes, restricting me to just nine shots and scoring twice themselves from one shot on target. Derby also provided a tough challenge, although I didn't field my strongest XI, but they hung onto a draw for 90 minutes and it took three quick extra time goals to kill them off. The Norwich game was a slaughtering, we created nine clear cut chances and they didn't get a shot off. The final game was probably the toughest of the two months, with an early Cech mistake gifting them the lead. From there Ajax kept the ball well, and fully deserved the draw.

League Table

Won't bother with a screenshot yet, but we're top by a point ahead of our next opponents, Man United, and also Arsenal. City are two points behind.

In Europe, Lyon top the group with two wins whilst we have four points.

Statistics

Monthly Statistics:

65% of possession.

Chelsea - 139 shots taken, 58 on target, 21 clear cut chances, 24 goals.

Opposition - 56 shots taken, 21 on target, 5 clear cut chances, 4 goals.

Avg. % of passes completed - 85.

Avg. % of tackles won - 68.

Best Performers:

Most goals: Nicolas Anelka (8)

Most assists: Juan Mata (4)

Best pass complete ratio: John Obi Mikel (94%)

Best headers won ratio: Branislav Ivanovic (100%)

Best tackles won ratio: David Luiz (93%)

Most dribbles per 90 mins: Salomon Kalou (3.04)

Most distance run per 90 mins: Ramires (11.3km)

Most cards: three way tie (2 Y)

Player of the Month

Without a doubt, the surprising player of the month is Nicolas Anelka, chipping in with eight goals, three assists and numerous great displays. David Luiz and John Obi Mikel come in second and third place respectively.

Goal of the Month

A tough one with no stand-out goals. Mata scored a nice individual effort against Dinamo, and Lampard goal against Derby was well worked with a good finish. Also Sturridge scored a good goal on the break against Wolves.

But my goal of the month was a simple team goal ending with a tap-in for Anelka, partly because Chelsea rip the Fulham defence apart with great movement, and partly because of the amount of times similar goals have been scored in the two months. Not a great goal I know

[video=youtube;fhD3M4U9LWM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhD3M4U9LWM

[Bracken]

Great month Joe, nice update to read too. Here's my final month of the 2014/15 season

May 2015

Premier League

Man Utd 0 - 1 Chelsea

Muniain 23'

And with that, the league title is ours. Nice way to win it too, at Old Trafford, in a game where we should've had more goals early on, but then stood firm and held out for the win despite a late onslaught.

Champions League Semi Final 2nd Leg

FC Bayern Munich 0 - 4 Chelsea

Torres 6'

Mata 13'

Kakuta 65', 90'

What a win, to round out an 8-0 win on aggregate, pretty impressive I think. And on to the final we go, to meet a certain Mr. Mourinho, and his League and Cup winning Real Madrid team...

I'll show you the last few games without scorers as they didn't matter

Premier League

Chelsea 3 - 0 Blackburn

Fulham 0 - 5 Chelsea

Chelsea 2 - 0 Liverpool

And now..

Champions League Final

Real Madrid 1 - 2 Chelsea

Benzema 41'

Torres 79'

Anthony Reed 116'

And so we brought home our 3rd Champions League title in 4 seasons, a great end to the year, with our new young star Anthony Reed getting the winner in extra time, nodding home at the near post from a corner. Real started the game very well, and probably should've been out of sight, Benzema took his goal well, but was wasteful with other chances. I made changes in the second half, and was considering taking Nando off as he wasn't having the best game, but he popped up with the equaliser late on and so I kept him for extra time. He drew the save the gave us the corner leading to Reed (Man of the Match) nodding it in. He was only starting because of JT's suspension, but he's now on the favoured personnel of the club, and may well be first choice next season. I'll do a round up of the players and such in a bit, and then update you on transfers, there's going to be a fair few.

[tomtuck01]

I have arrived at the end of November, so now that I'm thirteen games into the season it's time for a bit of an update of how my second season in charge of Chelsea is going.

September

Premier League - West Brom (H) 5-0 (Mata, Sturridge 3, Kakuta)

Champs League - Villarreal (A) 0-2 (Rubin (Own goal), Sturridge)

Premier League - Aston Villa (A) 1-3 (Sturridge 3)

Carling Cup 3rd Rnd - Wolves (H) 3-1 (Torres, Kakuta 2)

Premier League - Tottenham (H) 0-0

A solid month, winning all but one of our games. Sturridge had a superb month, as did Kakuta who performed well from the bench in the league and had a superb game in the Carling Cup against Wolves. The draw against Tottenham wasn't great, but atleast we didn't slip to defeat.

October

Champs League - Anderlecht (H) 3-0 (Bertrand, Sturridge, Proto (Own goal))

Premier League - Nottm Forrest (H) 3-0 (Lampard 2 (1 pen), Torres)

Premier League - Everton (A) 1-5 (Mata, Willian 3, Torres)

Champs League - FC Kobenhavn (A) 1-2 (Ramires, Lampard)

Premier League - Man United (A) 1-1 (Torres)

Carling Cup 4th Rnd - Sunderland (A) 2-3 (Lukaku 3)

A very good month. Five wins from six, and the only game that wasn't a win was a draw at Man United, which is a credible result. We also made it three wins from three group games in the Champions League, and we progressed to the quarter finals of the Carling Cup.

November

Premier League - Sunderland (H) 3-0 (Luiz, Lampard, Essien)

Champs League - FC Kobenhavn (H) 3-0 (Kalou, Mikel, Kakuta)

Premier League - QPR (H) 3-0 (Sturridge, Mellis, Chalobah)

Premier League - Stoke (A) 1-3 (Lampard, Kakuta, Terry)

Premier League - Wolves (H) 2-0 (Sturridge, Torres)

Champs League - Villarreal (H) 2-1 (Terry, Torres)

A top month for us with six wins out of six. Progression in the Champions League was assured after the result against Kobenhavn, and the group won after we defeated Villarreal. Four wins from four games in the league meant we ended the month with a four point lead over Manchester City.

Thoughts Going Forward

December could be tricky with games against Arsenal, Liverpool, and Man City to come, although they all are at home. Besides that though we have Birmingham (A), Fulham (A), and Wigan (H) to face, all of which are very winnable games. By the end of the month we could be in a very commanding position at the top of the league - fingers crossed!

------------------------------------------------

Any comments or suggestions are welcome, and I'll post any screenshots you want. Cheers to those of you who took the time to read this.

[Bracken]

Good three months tomtuck, looks like the foundation for a fantastic season. Here's my end of season roundup.

2014/15 Season

Premier League

As you can see, a great league season for us, winning 36 and only drawing 2. It was also our record points haul, and record number of goals scored. Very pleased with the performances in the league, the goal haul was certainly boosted by the awful defences of a few clubs (Watford in particular) but still a great league season. Here are the League Player Stats, demonstrating just how dominant we were. They make great reading I have to say.

League Cup

We won the final against Liverpool 3-0, a good win by my youngsters.

FA Cup

Lost in the Semi Final 1-0 to Liverpool, they got revenge for losing out in the League Cup and went on to win the Final. Still, I suppose they had to win something eventually. The FA Cup has so far been the most difficult competition for me win or retain.

Champions League

A fantastic achievement, winning the final against Barca 2-1 after extra time. A great way to end the season, delighted by bringing back my 3rd CL in 4 seasons.

The Team: First Eleven

Cech

Basham - Luiz - JT - Sandro

Asamoah - McEachran

Sturridge - Mata - Muniain

Torres

The Backups

GK:Courtois

GK:Vale

DC:Reed

DC:Chalobah

DL:Heredia

MC:Lepretre

MC:Lampard

AMR:Kakuta

AMC:Kovacic

AMC:Le Guerroue

AML:Niang

AML:Lukaku

There are the attributes and stats of almost all of the players used this season (a few only played on game here or there, or came on in cup games for a sub appearance or two). The star men were Muniain, Torres, Lukaku and Sturridge, fantastic season from the main goal scorers. Muniain in particular was sensational, scoring and creating at will, he's now really the lynchpin of the team, delighted with his development. If anybody checks these and finds any links don't work, let me know and I'll correct them.

As you can see, a few of the players have already got transfers arranged for the start of July, I'll update you on what's happening for next season, with a few fairly big name changes, a change of formation and a lot of youth bring brought through. Come on the Chels!

[JackJCFC]

Just got the game and have started with Chelsea as per usual. Any tips for starting off this year in terms of players to go for etc?

[joe__the__man]

Considering a formation change myself, to something like this:

GK

RB CB CB LB

CM DM CM

AM

RS - - - - - LS

Mainly because I want to get the most out of Mata whilst keeping a more solid midfield, plus I'm not a particular fan of Torres or Drogba right now (in game or in real life). Plus it would suit Sturridge and Muniain I think.

Anyone tried a strikerless system like this?

[joe__the__man]

Got to love this game

Warne's tactical gamble fails

Chelsea manager Joe Warne brought his team's unbeaten run to an abrupt end today with his decision to gamble on a previously untested 4-3-1-2 formation.

etc.

Maybe the formation change wasn't such a good idea

[koolaz]

WORST DEFEAT EVER - CANNOT BELEIVE THIS

http://imageshack.us/f/20/crappt.jpg/

Same amount of shots but they manage to get that ridiculous scoreline!!

Great it just became a record aswell dammn

[JackJCFC]

Thats really bad. I've got Lille in my group, hope the same doesnt happen to me!

[koolaz]

My keeper only conceded 2 in the 5 games before that but it wasnt his fault only as my whole defence switched off. didnt help lille had hazard!

some sort of redemption as we beat arsenal 1 - 0 at emirates with them having 15 shots compared to our lowly 5