[FM18] 3 Lions on the shirt but 11 apes on the pitch, life as the England manager

[Makoto Nakamura]

Undone by Mbappe and just outplayed. Shocks as Croatia qualify for the Semi Final and Italy and Holland see themselves relegated.

[Makoto Nakamura]

England, Scotland, Slovenia and Malta are all together again.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2018 Year Review

A good year saw us make the World Cup Quarter Final but saw us lose twice to France who are quickly becoming our bogey nation.

Our rankings are pretty consistent but not near the top 10.

2018 Best Team

Overall Best Team

[Makoto Nakamura]

Here's the squad for the European Championship Qualifiers against Israel and Scotland, I think it's the first time where every player has already been capped!

And here's all of their current form, Jack Butland being the lowest at 6.89 and Harry Maguire being amazing and averaging 7.71 over 38 games!

[Lenzar]

Why are Russia a bottom seed? 

[metallimuse]

Mon the Portugese! I mean, aww unlucky mate.

#ABE (Anyone But England) #ScotlandBelieves

[deltablue]

Not a bad World Cup.

[Makoto Nakamura]

9 hours ago, Lenzar said:

Why are Russia a bottom seed? 

I honestly have no idea, sorry.

3 hours ago, metallimuse said:

Mon the Portugese! I mean, aww unlucky mate.

#ABE (Anyone But England) #ScotlandBelieves

Ha, thanks not thanks.  

3 hours ago, deltablue said:

Not a bad World Cup.

Could have been worse, we went a round better than I thought we would.

[Makoto Nakamura]

30th March 2019

England vs Israel

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 1

Wembley

[Makoto Nakamura]

A great match which was over at half time, I'm disappointed that we didn't score in the 2nd half.

 

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

I...I don't think I'm really under pressure. This is the English media pushing the story though.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2nd April 2019

(1-0-0, 3 pts, 3rd) Scotland vs England (1-0-0, 3pts, 1st)

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 2

Hampden Park

[Makoto Nakamura]

Another good win and we top the group on goal difference.

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

Here's the squad for Slovenia and Russia, quite a lot of Championship players featuring, in fact, 10 of the 23 ply their trade in the Championship. Hopefully it won't be too detrimental.

[Makoto Nakamura]

14th June 2019

(2-0-0, 6 pts, 2nd) Slovenia vs England (2-0-0, 6pts, 1st)

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 3

Sportni park Stozice

[Makoto Nakamura]

We left it late but we got the win and after 3 games we are the only nation in the group who haven't lost. We also gave debuts to Sam Winnall, Ryan Woods and Matthew Connolly.

[Makoto Nakamura]

14th June 2019

(3-0-0, 9 pts, 1st) England vs Russia (2-0-1, 6pts, 4th)

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 4

Wembley

[Makoto Nakamura]

Horrible game, Ryan Woods was sent off, Aaron Cresswell was injured, Callum Wilson was subbed due to a knock and Harry Kane became injured at the end of the match, great, but at least it's another 3 points.

[Bedese]

What's Russia's world ranking, out of interest?

[Makoto Nakamura]

1 minute ago, Jupjamie said:

What's Russia's world ranking, out of interest?

52nd at the moment, their peak was 32nd in March 2019 and their lowest was 93rd in September 2017.

[Makoto Nakamura]

And here's the squad for matches against Israel and Malta, I've redone the national pool and instead of English players playing in the Premier League and Championship it's now English players playing in the Premier League and English players playing abroad who are valued at more than £700,000. Hopefully we can still get the players in the best form but still of a high quality. This has seen Scott Sinclair and Kaylen Hinds get a call-up.

And the very next day Hinds gets injured and is out for 2 months.

[Makoto Nakamura]

5th September 2019

(1-0-3, 3 pts, 5th) Israel vs England (4-0-0, 12 pts, 1st)

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 5

Bloomfield Stadium

[Makoto Nakamura]

Poor goalkeeping effort, I subbed Jordan Pickford after having a poor rating, we didn't concede once he was subbed, Berahino was Hinds replacement, I think it's fair to say that it paid off! Ben Chilwell, Jordan Pickford and Reiss Nelson all made their debuts.

[Makoto Nakamura]

8th September 2019

(0-0-5, 0pts, 6th) Malta vs England (5-0-0, 15pts, 1st)

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 6

Ta' Qali Stadium

[Makoto Nakamura]

Saido Berahino! 4 caps, 9 goals!  Tom Carroll makes his debut as well.

[Makoto Nakamura]

Here's the squad for matches against Scotland and Russia, Joe Hart gets called up for I think the first time since I took over after some good early form at new club Arsenal.

[Makoto Nakamura]

11th October 2019

(6-0-0, 18pts, 1st) England vs Scotland (4-1-1, 13pts, 2nd)

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 7

Wembley

[Makoto Nakamura]

Celtic's Scott Sinclair comes off the bench in the 67th minute, scores in the 74th and gets an assist in the 79th, it may be hard for him going back to Scotland...

[Makoto Nakamura]

14th October 2019

(3-2-2, 11pts, 4th) Russia vs England (7-0-0, 21pts, 1st)

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 8

Luzhniki Stadium

[Makoto Nakamura]

Another easy win sees us qualify for EURO 2020, Tom Ince won his first cap and Dominic Solanke scored his first goal for the country.

[Makoto Nakamura]

The final squad of the qualifiers for home matches against Slovenia and Malta.

[Makoto Nakamura]

15th November 2019

(8-0-0, 24pts, 1st) England vs Slovenia (4-2-2, 14pts, 3rd)

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 9

Wembley

[Makoto Nakamura]

We got the job done and weren't actually threatened too much, Kyle Walker-Peters made his debut.

[Makoto Nakamura]

18th November 2019

(9-0-0, 27pts, 1st) England vs Malta (0-0-9, 0pts, 6th)

European Championship Qualifying Group E - Matchday 10

Wembley

I'd really like some goals here to finish off the qualification campaign.

[Makoto Nakamura]

Good enough, we're going to....Europe! There's 13 host nations for EURO 2020.

 

[Nobby_McDonald]

How did Berahino get so good?

[Makoto Nakamura]

Just now, Nobby_McDonald said:

How did Berahino get so good?

He doesn't play often and I'm pretty sure he won't play for England again this season, but he scores when he's called upon.

[Nobby_McDonald]

At least virtual Berahino scores.

[Makoto Nakamura]

1 minute ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

At least virtual Berahino scores.

He's scored 20 in 79 for Stoke (16 in 67 league games) which makes it even more confusing.

[Makoto Nakamura]

Here are the World Cup Qualifying Groups and we'll meet Slovenia and Malta. Again.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2019 Year in review

Perfect year with just 5 goals conceded.

We hit new highs as we were briefly 3rd in the world!

2019 First Team

Overall First Team

 

[nie jem frytek]

Typical England, great in qualifications and not so great in tournaments.

[DavidBeckham]

Should be a breeze for you in the World Cup Qualifying Group. Keep up the good work mate!

[Makoto Nakamura]

17 hours ago, nie jem frytek said:

Typical England, great in qualifications and not so great in tournaments.

Some things just never change.

12 hours ago, DavidBeckham said:

Should be a breeze for you in the World Cup Qualifying Group. Keep up the good work mate!

Fingers crossed, I'll try my best!

[Makoto Nakamura]

Here's the squad for the Belgium and Spain friendlies, 3 Scottish based players, Scott Sinclair misses out since he's out injured for 2-4 months.

[Makoto Nakamura]

27th March 2020

England vs Belgium

International Friendly

Wembley

[Makoto Nakamura]

Over at half time, very happy with that performance.

[Makoto Nakamura]

31st March 2020

Spain vs England

International Friendly

Nuevo Mestalla

This is going to be tough.

[Makoto Nakamura]

Gutted Went 2-1 down and decided to go attacking, it didn't work.

[Makoto Nakamura]

I'd say we've been given an easy group here, we should definitely qualify from it!