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

[Galvanize]

Bloody hell, 7-2?! My biggest defeat over four seasons was 2-1 each season against Barcelona twice and FC Bayern.

With regards to formations etc, i've found a lot of success with a flat 4-4-2 with Lukaku/Cavani as a Target Man and Perret (regen) as a Poacher. Also play with two defensive wingers which does seem to help the fullbacks and it can be shown with five clean sheets in a row.

How good is everyone else with their finances? As of the 24th September 2015, my finances are as follows:

Balance: £144,342,348 (yes, £144m)

Wage Budget: £2,287,004 p/w (currently spending £1,361,373 p/w)

Transfer Budget: £175,793,483

A lot of it obviously comes from winning competitions, but how i've gone about my transfers on this save have helped considerably:

2011/2012: In - £53m; Out - £30m

2012/2013: In - £72m; Out - £19.5m

2013/2014: In - £60m; Out - £148m

2014/2015: In - £21.5m; Out - £48m

2015/2016: In - £46m; Out - £32.5m (Current Season, up to September 24th)

TOTAL: In - £252.5m; Out - £278m

The gap between transfers in and out isn't that big, however it has resulted in similar standards of players as were there at the start on lower wages.

[koolaz]

Bloody hell, 7-2?! My biggest defeat over four seasons was 2-1 each season against Barcelona twice and FC Bayern.

With regards to formations etc, i've found a lot of success with a flat 4-4-2 with Lukaku/Cavani as a Target Man and Perret (regen) as a Poacher. Also play with two defensive wingers which does seem to help the fullbacks and it can be shown with five clean sheets in a row.

How good is everyone else with their finances? As of the 24th September 2015, my finances are as follows:

Balance: £144,342,348 (yes, £144m)

Wage Budget: £2,287,004 p/w (currently spending £1,361,373 p/w)

Transfer Budget: £175,793,483

A lot of it obviously comes from winning competitions, but how i've gone about my transfers on this save have helped considerably:

2011/2012: In - £53m; Out - £30m

2012/2013: In - £72m; Out - £19.5m

2013/2014: In - £60m; Out - £148m

2014/2015: In - £21.5m; Out - £48m

2015/2016: In - £46m; Out - £32.5m (Current Season, up to September 24th)

TOTAL: In - £252.5m; Out - £278m

The gap between transfers in and out isn't that big, however it has resulted in similar standards of players as were there at the start on lower wages.

who did you sell to get 148 mill in the 13/14 season. nice income from transfers!

[Welshace]

anyone managed to make anything out of the youngsters at chelsea?

thinking of Chalobah, Blackman, Ake, Aditi, Kalas, Deen-Conteh and co?

any screenies?

[JackJCFC]

I've had Mata sent off twice in the first 10 games and on top of that he only has 3 assists. Such a letdown

[holmaz]

want to see what tactics you're using bracken. Really like how you got a really attacking minded team.

[JackJCFC]

Anyone managed to get Jacob Mellis to a good standard? Been playing him in the league cup and off the bench and he seems to be bossing the game everytime.

[Galvanize]

koolaz; here are all the outgoings from the 2013/2014 season. Regens are in italics.

Ashley Cole - £6m

Frank Lampard - £2.3m

Lassana Diarra - £7.75m

Petr Cech - £28.5m

Branislav Ivanovic - £17m

Xaropinho - £1.7m

Josh McEachran - £2.5m

Ryan Bertrand - £1m

Sidney Sam - £7.25m

John Obi Mikel - £12.25m

Lucas Piazon - £2.3m

Ramires - £14m

Juan Mata - £17.5m

Nika Kvekveskiri - £1.3m

David Luiz - £15.5m

Jeffrey Bruma - £2.8m

Lorenzo Crisetig - £3.2m

Adam Campbell - £975k

Mauro Dissegna - £1.4m

A couple of players went out on loans too, but they were minimal. Basically sold off all of the original players as they started to decrease in talent.

[JackJCFC]

Torres out for 3 months in december. Drogba off to african cup of nations so im left with Lukaku in a very busy period.

[Benoit2]

Torres out for 3 months in december. Drogba off to african cup of nations so im left with Lukaku in a very busy period.

First season I assume? Anelka, Sturridge and Mata can also play as striker

[Bracken]

Torres out for 3 months in december. Drogba off to african cup of nations so im left with Lukaku in a very busy period.

Wouldn't worry too much about it mate, Lukaku is superb, even in the first season, and with experience he only gets better.

[JackJCFC]

First season I assume? Anelka, Sturridge and Mata can also play as striker

I had a big argument with anelka so now hes rotting in my reserves. Sturridge and mata play out wide so unless i replace them with malouda, kalou or kakuta ill play lukaku up front. He'll be fine anyway, i just hope i dont have any big games.

[Welshace]

dont think ive ever been in a team thread that ignores so many posts and questions lol

[joe__the__man]

dont think ive ever been in a team thread that ignores so many posts and questions lol

I would have answered you but I'm still in the first season myself. Once I've played a few seasons (which will be ages at this rate) I would answer questions like that.

I think someone up the page posted their Chalobah, think he can turn out well quite easily. Kalas and Ake are probably more of a challenge, not seen anyone post any screenies of them. The other three I wouldn't bother with tbh, don't think they can become good enough.

In fact, posts 815 and 836 have Chalobah screenshots.

[Hingis]

I see that some of you have loads of success but what training schedule are you using and what tactics ? It would be great if some of you could give me your tactics and training schedule so I'll be able to test them in my Chelsea game : I've used some that you find in the tactics and training schedules download forum section : loads of them don't work ! I'm getting desperate.

[Bracken]

anyone managed to make anything out of the youngsters at chelsea?

thinking of Chalobah, Blackman, Ake, Aditi, Kalas, Deen-Conteh and co?

any screenies?

I've posted 2 sreenshots of Chalobah on this page, (posts 836 and 846), McEachran is in there too if you're interested. Sadly Ake, Aditi, Deen-Conteh and Blackman never made anything of themselves for me, however Kalas did, so I'll post a screenshot of him for you soon as I can.

I see that some of you have loads of success but what training schedule are you using and what tactics ? It would be great if some of you could give me your tactics and training schedule so I'll be able to test them in my Chelsea game : I've used some that you find in the tactics and training schedules download forum section : loads of them don't work ! I'm getting desperate.

I've made my own schedules, but I'll be posting my tactics in a post I'll be writing later on to explain what's happening in my save. I think 4-2-3-1 seems to be the most popular formation among posters in the thread, I'd also make sure you don't play too high a defensive line (listening AVB?), as we don't really have the pace to do it. Hope that helps a bit for now

[Welshace]

thanks for the replies guys... i apologise... i clearly missed the screenies already posted.. i'll go take another look

[JackJCFC]

Transfers

Only one major signing this season with Gary Cahill coming in for £10million. Alex the only player of note leaving at a fee of £7million. I plan to make my mark on the squad more this summer.

Transfers

League

Aimed for a top 3 spot and got it quite comfortably in the end with a decent gap between the next team. In terms of winning the league, it was never in question really, United completely ran away with it.

League Table

League Cup

3^rd Round: Blackburn (H) 3-2. Lukaku (2), Cahill

4^th Round: Sunderland (H) 2-0. McEachran, Kalou

Qtr Final: Man City (A) 0-6.

Played a mix of reserve and youth players in the cup and we were doing well until we were completely out classed by Man City.

F.A Cup

3^rd Round: Nott. Forest (A) 1-1. Cahill. Replay (H) 3-1. Lukaku (2) Cahill

4^th Round: Everton (A) 2-2. Kane, Kakuta. Replay (H) 3-2. Cahill, Lukaku, Own goal.

5^th Round: Aston Villa (A) 0-1.

Similar kind of story to the League cup in terms of team selection. Narrowly beaten by Villa in the 5^th round.

Champions league

Had a difficult group to get through but topped it by 2 points with Napoli in 2^nd.

Group Table

1^st K.O round: Udinese (A) 0-1 (H) 3-0. Ramires, Drogba, Mikel

Qtr Final: CSKA Moscow(: A) 0-1 (H) 4-0. Luiz, Sturridge, Lampard, Kakuta

Semi Final: Inter (A) 1-2. Drogba (H) 1-0. Cahill

For the final I was without Bosingwa and Ashley Cole due to suspension. As well as this Terry, Mikel and Sturridge were missing through injury whilst Mata only recovered from injury 2 days before.

United were missing Rooney and Evra.

Final: Man United (N) 1-1. Pens: 4-5

United took the lead early on after Bertrand gave away a penalty. The game was pretty even until Luiz equalised in the second half. We were still level after 120 minutes and went to pens. McEachran had the chance to win the game with the 6^th penalty but it was saved. Luiz missed the following penalty which gave Man United the treble.

Match

[joe__the__man]

Ugh, Gary Cahill.

[JackJCFC]

Ugh, Gary Cahill.

He was the cheapest option out of the options available :o

[MattieCoopz]

Hi guys, seen the progress that you guys have made on here and it's been really impressive, keep it going.

Back from Uni for a few weeks now and I've deleted my test save in readiness to start a new one on the 12.1 patch, I'll play as much as I can over the holidays before I return to Uni and go back to little to no playing time at all. First update will be out in the next few days.

[tomtuck01]

Ugh, Gary Cahill.

Very good performer in game. Not glamorous, but does the job.

[bbuullddoogg]

want to see what tactics you're using bracken. Really like how you got a really attacking minded team.

Me too. Especially as 4-2-3-1 is my favorite formation. Cough it up, Bracken!!!

[joe__the__man]

He was the cheapest option out of the options available :o

Very good performer in game. Not glamorous, but does the job.

Yeah he's not that bad in the game actually, reasonably quick and good on the ball on top of being an alright defender. It's just depressing that we're linked with his real life counterpart.

[SeanH91]

I've been playing as Chelsea for a while now, almost halfway though my 3rd season in charge. In the first season I won the Premiership and Carling Cup double, having gone out of the FA Cup in the 5th round to Arsenal and losing in the Champion's League Final to Barcelona.

After a reshuffle of tactics and a few fresh faces introduced, we went on to retain our 2 trophies from the previous season, and nabbed the other 2 that eluded us to celebrate the quadruple.

Into season 3 now and so far so good, 6 wins out of 6 in the league and 4 points from 2 matches in the Champion's League. This year has seen quite a clearout and reshuffle of the squad with some big names leaving. Here's my transfers for all seasons, and then my current squad (* denotes regen):

Season 1

In: Landon Donovan (£4m), Lucas Piazon (£7m), Junior Hoillet (£18.5m), Mario Fernandes (£13m)

Out: Paulo Ferreira (£1m), Nicolas Anelka (£5m), Jose Bosingwa (£5m), Milan Lalkovic (£3m)

Season 2

In: Sidney Sam (£2.4m), Angel Di Maria (£15.25m), Dejan Lovren (£11m), Martin Montoya (Free), Mateo Kovacic (£5.5m), Gerard Deulofeu (£9.5m), Alex Sandro (£11m), Brice Brossard* (£1.6m), Marek Hamsik (£25m)

Out: Salomon Kalou (Loan fee £2.5m), Patrick Van Aanholt (£1.4m), Yossi Benayoun (£2m), Alex (£8m), John Obi Mikel (£19.5m), Florent Malouda (£1.5m), Branislav Ivanovic (£10m), Raul Meireles (£12m), Ross Turnbull (£1m)

Season 3

In: Livio Valente* (£2.2m), Nicola Sarnataro* (£2m), Marc-Andre Ter Stegen (£4.5m), Shinji Kagawa (Free), Edinson Cavani (£28.5m)

Out: Fernando Torres (£30m), Ashley Cole (£15m), Salomon Kalou (£5m), Sidney Sam (£2.5m), Petr Cech (£30m)

Squad

GK: Courtois, Ter Stegen, Delac

DR: Fernandes, Montoya

DL: Sandro, Bertrand

DC: Terry, Lovren

DC: Luiz, Chalobah

MC: Ramires, Essien, Romeu

MC: Hamsik, McEachran, Lampard

AMR: Hoillet, Deulofeu, Donovan

AML: Di Maria, Kakuta, Sturridge

AMC: Mata, Kagawa

ST: Cavani, Lukaku

[Natedog17]

Well thats its come to the end of the season. Not the best season but my team in transition from the old chelsea to the new chelsea.

Champions League-Out of the Quarter finals to Real Madrid- were winning on away goals to lose it in the last minute 3-2

Premier League-2nd to Manchester City

League Cup-Won it beating Manchester City 1-0

Fa Cup- out at the beginning of the Comp with youngsters not getting us through

Awards:

Footballer of the year of award: Torres and Mata came 2nd

Young player of the year award: Thiago came 2nd

Fans player of the year award: Mata

Transfers in:

Kyle Walker-12 million from Aston Villa

Bertolacci-9.5 million from Roma

few young regens too

Transfers out:

Kwadwo Asamoah- 5.5 million -Didnt impress me and just didnt get time to play with the way ramires and Bertolacci

Doumbia- 10 million-Just didnt score enough goals compared to the other strikers

Essien-2.9 million-just never made back

Bruma-2.5 mill- not good enough

Muniesa-4 mill-got him on a free and sold him for a profit so pleased, also had loads of good youngsters coming through who can play in the central of defence.

Will try and get some screenies of regens and some of my more impressive players up when i can.

Started off well end of january lost our only game against City who on fire in my game. Aston Villa and Blackburn seem to have put together some petty good teams this season too.

Ugh, Gary Cahill.

Gary has done well for me. Nothing wrong with him and i joins us in real life too.

[Bracken]

Me too. Especially as 4-2-3-1 is my favorite formation. Cough it up, Bracken!!!

Some people are so impatient

Here's the basic formation I used last season, my 4-2-3-1 with wingers, with the team instructions

Old Tactic

However, I've had a slight change in the formation this season. The reason being I had to let a couple of players go, to keep the wages down mainly, and I haven't been able to find quality regen Winger/inside forwards. However, there are a large number of fantastic regen attacking midfielders, so I've shifted my formation to something that looks like this:

New Tactic

The emphasis is much the same, but I thought I'd show you both anyway. Here's a roundup of my transfer dealings and such over the summer.

Transfers

In:

Jean-Jaques Kone - £14m

Juan Manuel Torres - £5.5m

Afrim Hasa - £1.2m

Other assorted regens into the youth team

Total: £40m

Out:

Petr Cech - £25.5m – Barcelona

Daniel Sturridge - £28.5m – Real Madrid

Alex Sandro - £16.5m – Valencia

Mbaye Niang - £19.5m – Barcelona

Total: £90m

Very pleased with the business overall, it was time to let Petr go and that offer from Barca was superb. I didn’t want to let Danny go, but he wanted a ridiculous wage (£205k p/w!!) and I wasn’t going to stretch to that, and with his contract running out, it had to be done. Still got a good offer for him. Niang had never really done it for me, and again a great offer. Sandro was good but that was great money for him too, so very pleased with the outgoing deals bar the necessary letting go of Sturridge.

Coming in we had a couple of first teamers, Jean-Jaques Kone I’d had my eye on since last summer but he’d only just joined Marseille so I couldn’t get him, had to pay a decent some for it but he’s worth it, natural right across the backline and my new first choice RB. Juan Manuel Torres was also a player I’d been wanting to sign for a while, I’d been developing a good relationship with him but he had a move arranged with Barca, had to wait for him to sign for them and then wait 6 months to make my move. Luckily, he had a release clause of just £5.5m which I was delighted with. Hasa is a strange one, my scouts really rate him, so I’m hoping he has a low CA and high PA, he needs a lot of work but I think he can get there.

Here’s the first team for this season:

GK: Courtois Vale Nava

DR: Kone Basham Hasa

DCR: Luiz Chalobah

DCL: Reed** JT*

DL: Heredia Hannigan

MCR: Asamoah Miranda

MCL: McEachran JensenLampard

AMCR: Mata Kakuta

AMC: Kovacic J Torres

AMCL: Muniain Le Guerroue

ST: Lukaku Torres Nethercott

*Captain

**Vice-Captain

The first name is the first choice player in each position, though I will be rotating quite a bit. There’s also been a change in the Vice-Captaincy, with Reed taking the role to prepare him to take the full captaincy when JT retires.

Pre-season results

Chelsea 2 – 1 Oxford

Chelsea 1 – 0 Colchester

Southamption 0 – 1 Chelsea

Chelsea 3 – 1 Shakhtar

Derby 0 – 2 Chelsea

Chelsea 7 – 1 Atletico

Started slowly, really took them time to adapt to the new formation, but we ended pre-season with a fantastic result.

Community Shield

Chelsea 2 – 1 Liverpool

Luis Suarez 1’

Lukaku 28’, 31’

Decent win against Liverpool who won last years FA Cup and came second in the league.

Premier League

Chelsea 4 – 0 Newcastle

F Torres 7’, 61’

Santon OG 19’

Le Guerroue 90’

Good win to get the league underway

Liverpool 0 – 5 Chelsea

Muniain 2’, 52’

Juan Torres pen 38’, 49’

Fernando Torres 47’

We showed them who’s boss, great victory against last years runner up

European Super Cup

Chelsea 3 – 0 Liverpool

Lukaku 34’, 75’, pen 82’

Played a lot of the youngsters in this one and Lukaku stole the show with a great performance.

Conclusions

A great first month to the season after a moderately disappointing pre-season, the new formation seems to be working nicely, and the team are gelling well, I hope I can keep it going all season!

[buckyohhare]

That's what I love about this game, How it can be so different from manager to manager.

Bracken said Niang doesn't do much for him, Where as in my third season once he got game time he ripped teams about for me, But Lukaku scores by the bucket load for bracken, Yet for me he can't hit a cows a*se with a banjo

Just food for thought

[Bracken]

Niang looks like he's doing superbly for you buckyohhare, nice work! Never worked out for me, trained him as an AML too to provide cover there, but when I stopped using wingers I just had no need for him.

Weird about Lukaku for you though, he's been superb for me throughout, how are you playing him?

[buckyohhare]

Weird about Lukaku for you though, he's been superb for me throughout, how are you playing him?

Mostly on the bench He plays as a Target Man, as the tip of my spear playing a 4-2-3-1 with wingers, For me he seems to be hit or miss, I rotate Niang and Sturridge and also have Jamie Nelson coming through, Whom needs game time to reach his potential.

[Protocol]

Started a new Chelsea game.

In:

Hazard - £21.5 million.

Out:

Anelka - £3 million - Real Madrid

Malouda - £10 million -PSG

Kalou - £5.75 million - Valencia

Alex - 8.25million - Bayern

Pre Season:

Chelsea 3 - 0 Chelsea Reserves

Cruz Azul 0 - 3 Chelsea

Vitesse 1 - Chelsea 3

Torquay 0 - 6 Chelsea

America (MEX) 0 - 3 Chelsea

Chelsea 4 - Schalke 1

Dagenham & Redbridge 0 - 8 Chelsea

Hercules 0 - Chelsea 6

Team:

Gk: Cech/Turnbull

DL: Cole/Bertrand

DC: Luiz/Ivanovic

DC: Terry/Ivanovic

DR: Boswinga/Ivanovic/Ferreira

DM: Mikel/Romeu/Essien (when fit)

CM: Ramires/Meireles/Lampard

AMC: Mata/Hazard

ST: Torres/Drogba/Sturridge

Currently line-up in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

[bbuullddoogg]

How did you get Hazard for £21.5M????

[Protocol]

Unsettled him and offered the amount straight up.

[Protocol]

August results:

Chelsea 4 - 0 Aston Villa

Norwich 0 - 3 Chelsea

Chelsea 3 - 0 Sunderland

Nice easy start to the league. Danny has made a good start, 3 goals in 3 games with a rating of 8.07. Bizarrely Bolton, of all teams, are level with me on points and goals scored after three games.

[bbuullddoogg]

Unsettled him and offered the amount straight up.

How did you unsettle him? Just say you'd do everything in your power to sign him or...?

[Protocol]

Admire him, declare utmost to sign him. Probably a huge amount of luck involved and it took the entire pre-season period to unsettle him fully so that he was determined to leave. Last time I was able to sign him was FM11. In my previous Chelsea save I signed Ganso but could never get him to perform so wanted to try different players and formations this time round.

[tomtuck01]

The January transfer window has come to a close so it's time for an update of how my side have performed since the end of November. We are now 23 games into the Premier League season.

December

Premier League - Birmingham (A) 1-1 (Lampard (p))

Premier League - Arsenal (H) 1-0 (Kalou)

Champs League - Anderlecht (A) 0-2 (Torres, Sturridge)

Premier League - Liverpool (H) 3-2 (Sturridge 2, Terry)

Premier League - Fulham (A) 0-3 (Sturridge, Lampard (p), Kalou)

Carling Cup Qtr Final - Everton (H) 3-0 (Torres 2, Kakuta)

Premier League - Man City (H) 3-0 (Appleton (og), Ramires, Hart (og)

Premier League - Wigan (H) 4-1 (Sturridge 2, Lampard, Torres)

Aside from the draw with Birmingham at the start of the month, it was a great December for us. The three tough home games were handled excellently, albeit we got slightly lucky against City as they scored two own goals. We also won our Champions League group winning all six f our group games. The only real downside in the month was an injury to Branislav Ivanovic, ruling him out for five months.

January

FA Cup 3rd Round - Middlesbrough (H) 3-0 (Torres 3)

Premier League - Newcastle (A) 0-2 (Sturridge, Lampard)

Premier League - Blackburn (A) 2-4 (Lampard, Dann (og), Cahill, Willian)

Carling Cup Semi-final 1st Leg - Blackburn (H) 3-0 (Terry, Torres 2)

Premier League - Blackpool (H) 5-0 (Sturridge 4, Lukaku)

Premier League - West Brom (A) 0-2 (Mata, Lampard)

Carling Cup Semi-final 2nd Leg - Blackburn (A) 1-1 - 1-4 on aggregate (Torres)

Great month for us, winning all four of our Premier League game and extending our lead at the top of the table to seven points. And as you can see we progressed to the next round of the FA Cup and got thrugh to the final of the Carling Cup for a second season in a row.

Thoughts Going Forward

Though we are leading the Premier League by a decent margin, the remaining months of the season will be tough - we have to play most of the top teams away from home. I would expect to progress in the FA Cup fifth round as we face Stevenage in the next round. And we really should lift the Carling Cup this time around.

We have been drawn against Barcelona in the Champions League 1st knockout round. Not ideal, but it offers us a chance to avenge last seasons final defeat.

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

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.

[xDieArdUk]

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

Thanks for that bud (Y)

[xDieArdUk]

Niang looks like he's doing superbly for you buckyohhare, nice work! Never worked out for me, trained him as an AML too to provide cover there, but when I stopped using wingers I just had no need for him.

Weird about Lukaku for you though, he's been superb for me throughout, how are you playing him?

Niangs been fantastic for me but because of the ammount of strikers ive had hasent played a massive ammount last 2 seasons hes scored 8 in 13/14 which is a pretty good return.... Lukaku on other hand spends more time injured, Tried lowering his training schedules but still not much luck.

[JackJCFC]

Transfers

Got rid of some of the useless players such as kalou, Malouda and Benayoun for free or small fees. Made Neymar my summer marquee signing for £35mil, replaced Essien with Asamoah for £9mil as well as some young players including a few newgens.

Fell out with Ivanovic in December so I sold him for £7.75mil to Porto and replaced him with Lichtsteiner for £4mil plus clauses.

Transfers

Loans

League

Had a great start to the league going 15 games unbeaten which saw us 10 points clear at new year. Second half of the season was not so good with injuries hitting our strikers badly which resulted in a big end of season dip in form. Despite this we won the league with 2 games to spare having been in 1^st place since week 7.

League Table

League Cup

3^rd Round: Burnley (A) 2-1. Muniesa (2)

4^th Round: Leeds (H) 0-0. 3-5 Pens

Played a mix of reserve and youth players again this year, going out against last years winners narrowly in penalties.

F.A Cup

3^rd Round: Rochdale (H) 3-1. White (3)

4^th Round: Huddersfield (A) 1-3. Drogba.

Played the backups and youngsters in the early round expecting them to be good enough but we went out early. Particularly let down by the better players such as Drogba, Cahill and McEachran in the 4^th round.

Champions league

Had an easy group, topping the table with 15 points.

Group Table

1^st K.O round: Shakhtar (A) 2-0 Terry, Lukaku. (H) Terry, Lampard.

Qtr Final: FC Bayern (H) Neymar, Sturridge (A) 0-2

We were pretty poor in both legs, giving away 2 goals making the task difficult. The team was struggling in the second leg with only 2 fit first team strikers but the defending was shambolic enough to ensure we didn’t progress.

[Bracken]

Good going so far tomtuck, good luck for the rest of the season. xDieArdUk, glad Niang is working out for you but shame about Lukaku, it is great how the game varies from save to save. Here's my update for September

Premier League

Aston Villa 1 - 4 Chelsea

Agbonlahor 31'

Mata 51'

Kovacic 62'

Muniain 81'

Lukaku 86'

Absolutely delighted by the response in the second half after I gave em a rocket at half time, and pleased with the spread of goals, one each for the AMC's and the striker (though Torres started, Lukaku came on and grabbed one). So, despite a very poor start, a good win.

Champions League

Chelsea 2 - 0 Sporting Lisbon

Muniain 45+3'

Lukaku 57'

Good solid win at home, not spectacular but got the job done.

Premier League

Chelsea 3 - 2 Man City

Lukaku 7', 88'

Milner 10'

Mata 79'

Aguero 84'

A great match this one, really good attacking stuff from both teams (though not too impressed by our defending), we kept going and got the winner in the end. Lukaku is one hell of a beast.

League Cup 3rd Round

Chelsea 3 - 1 Man Utd

F Torres 14', 79'

Rooney 30'

Kakuta 42'

Played mostly youngsters here, though it was Kakuta and Torres that did the damage. Sadly, with the form of Lukaku, Torres is now firmly second choice, his contract is up at the end of the season too, so I've got a real decision to make there.

Premier League

Bolton 1 - 3 Chelsea

Lukaku 3', 35'

Elyounoussi 86'

Kakuta 87'

Kakuta's goal was a beauty, we completely dominated them but just didn't score enough.

Champions League

AC Milan 0 - 5 Chelsea

F Torres 10'

Kovacic 24'

Muniain 30', 61'

Mata 36'

BOOM! That's the way to end the month! A fantastic performance and win over the toughest team in our group, again a lovely spread of goals. We completely dominated, could've had more (Muniain missed his hat trick penalty and their goalie was superb), but a great win nonetheless.

Conclusions

A very good month, some great performances, particularly Milan and Villa in the second half. Muniain and Lukaku have been excellent as always, Kovacic is doing very well in his first season as first choice too. Also pleased that Mata has started scoring more, never used to get many for us in previous seasons, but now he's becoming a very useful weapon in the box. Looking forward to October!

[Bracken]

Apologies for the double post, just flying through the months at the mo

October 2015 Roundup

Premier League

Chelsea 2 - 0 QPR

Muniain 8'

Le Guerroue 77'

Probably should've had a couple more goals here, but a win's a win

Swansea 0 - 7 Chelsea

Lukaku 7', 39', 42', 46''

Kovacic 22', 32'

Juan Manuel Torres 73'

Stunning performance, especially from Lukaku who's just immense

Champions League

Chelsea 6 - 0 Rapid Wien

Nando Torres 12', 22', 58'

Le Guerroue 42', 90+1'

JM Torres 66'

Nando showing he's still a beast as well, and both Torres's scoring in one game, gotta be a commentators nightmare. Liverpool have Erick Torres too, those games would be hilarious.

Premier League

Fulham 0 - 1 Chelsea

Mata 81'

Terrible finishing in this game, luckily we got the vital win.

League Cup

Chelsea 5 - 0 Huddersfield

JT 10'

Nethercott 31'

JM Torres 31'

McDonnell 81'

Kakuta 90+1'

Great performance from the kids, first goal for Nethercott who I'm hoping will become a great striker in the future.

Premier League

Chelsea 5 - 1 Reading

F Torres 28', 54', 73'

Mata 30'

Reed 58'

A good solid win over Reading, Reed's first of the season and another hat trick from Nando.

Conclusions

One important thing to take from this month, Nando's hat trick in the game against Reading made him our all time leading League Goalscorer, now standing at 167 goals, a great achievement when he joined us so late in his career. However, I'm hoping to have Lukaku beat that

[Protocol]

Just lost my first game in the league after previously being unbeaten (16 wins, 2 draws). Team I lost to? Man City? No. Man Utd? No. Liverpool? No. Arsenal? No. Wolves. Bloody Wolves. Completely outplayed them. 24 shots to their 6, 9 of which were on target. 2 clear cut chances to their 0, 57% of possession. 7 half chances as well as the woodwork.

edit: lost 2-0 btw.

[Protocol]

Asked Mr Abramovich to sign Hamsik and he has joined the club for £27 million.

[MattFlan]

First time posting. Found this thread very entertaining to read so thought I'd join in

Anyway, my situation is this:

In my second season, in November 2012. In my first season scraped the league by one point on the last day of the season, knocked out of both domestic cups early on and made the Champions League semis, only to be beaten by Bayern.

I'm hoping for at least two trophies this year.

My team has changed a little since day one, here is my squad in full:

01 P Cech

19 T Courtois

22 R Turnbull

21 J Vandam

17 J Bosingwa

02 B Ivanovic

26 J Terry (Captain)

04 David Luiz

14 G Cahill

29 Dani (regen)

03 A Cole

34 R Bertrand

12 J Mikel

06 O Romeu

05 M Essien

07 Ramires

08 F Lampard (Vice Captain)

20 J McEachran

10 J Mata

39 J Hoilett

23 D Sturridge

15 F Malouda

18 R Lukaku

09 F Torres

I've been playing a traditional Chelsea 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1 or 4-5-1, whatever you say. Mata and Sturridge predominantly on the wings and Torres on fire upfront.

I started the season well. Lost in the community shield on pens against Man City, but I won the first 6 league games, with Torres scoring 5. Mata scored a hattrick in a 5-0 demolition of Norwich in early September. Injuries to Terry and an Off-form Frank Lampard has meant Ashley Cole leading the side through, and he has done brilliantly. Cahill has been really good, and McEachran has taken a major role in the centre of the park, scoring twice and setting up 7 goals.

Dropped my first points away at Arsenal in a 1-1 draw, a good score I'm sure you'd agree. A Lampard penalty cancelling out RVPs opener. Then I had a good October, getting 4 more wins, over Wigan, Bolton, Everton and West Brom.

Unfortunatley, I have just lost to West Ham 1-0 at Upton Park. We did everything in our power to win, it would just not go in for us, it was one of those days. Still, sitting 1 point clear, Man Utd have a game in hand, though.

My player of the season so far would have to be Juan Mata, creating havoc down the left wing and suppling 10 goals so far.

In the champions league, got put in Group A with PSG, Sevilla and OB (who? ). In order, I beat PSG 2-0, Beat OB 1-0, beat Sevilla 1-0, and drew with Sevilla 2-2. In the 2 each draw I had Michael Essien playing at Cente back, so you're probobaly aware of the injury crisis I had for a week or two.

Got through to the Quarters of the Carling Cup, after beating Stevange 3-1 after an early scare, and proffesionaly dispatching of Burnley 3-1.

Looking for more of the same. Will give you an update around new year (in game)

Merry Christmas.

MattFlan

[Protocol]

Has Lucas Piazon developed into a decent player for anyone? His stats aren't great for the price Chelsea pay for him. Although he is only 18 when he signs.

[J.T]

Lucas Piazon has never come good for me. Seems like a waste of money

[JackJCFC]

I've got him loaned out at leeds in the championship in season 3, hes not great and has 8 goals in 18. Strangely his wages are 33k too so im getting rid asap.

[J.T]

Bracken, would be interesting to know what you did with Lucas Piazon?

[Bracken]

Bracken, would be interesting to know what you did with Lucas Piazon?

Flogged him for as much as I could get (can't remember the exact amount but it wasn't much), I don't think he's got the PA to really make it for us.

I'm going to be playing a few other saves for a bit, so fed up with Chelsea irl that I just can't keep going on my save. I'm sure I'll come back to it soon enough, but for now, I'll be playing some African league football or something.

I'll still be reading the thread though, so don't expect me to disappear completely

[J.T]

Did you manage to recoup the £7MIL or however much we signed him for?

Good luck in Africa