FM 18 - It'll be al-Brighton the night - SAF Challenge

[Callum12365]

Welcome!

So hello there readers! This is my first thread on here after a year or so of lurking, I felt it was about time I tried my hand at this.

What is 'this' then? It's my attempt at a Sir Alex Ferguson challenge on FM18 where, simply put, I sim to the 6th November and take over the team that are second from bottom in the Premier League and lead them to success*. For me that team was Brighton, so poor Chris Hughton suddenly lost his job to a 20-something year old who's never done this before. Sorry Chris!

*Absolutely cannot guarantee success

 

Here's a look at the fixtures before I arrived at the club. 1 win! Oh dear.  At least a point against City is something to be proud of. Got some work to do here so might as well start with the staff.

So a few ins and outs here, got rid of some less than stellar staff members and now have 3 1/2 stars + in all areas. 

With the transfer window disabled there were no moves at the club before I arrived, except for a few youngsters departing on loan which is no big deal.

Here's the tactic I'll be lining up with, a 4-4-1-1. Keeping things relatively simple, playing out from the back rather than hoofing the ball. I've been a fan of inverted wingers so far on FM18 and with Knockaert and Izquierdo being 'wrong' footed I have a good chance to use them here. 

 

Thank you for checking this out and more updates will follow soon!

[Dan McCullough]

Good luck mate, I'm following.

[Callum12365]

16 hours ago, Dan McCullough said:

Good luck mate, I'm following.

Thanks man! 

[Callum12365]

November/December Update

Here we go then, first couple of months here with a tough run of fixtures. Kicking off with a visit to high flying West Ham, followed by 2 must win games against Newcastle and Huddersfield. Then the scary bit, Tottenham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Manchester United with Swansea and Manchester City to take us into the New Year. I'll have to admit, this had me worried and I was fully expecting some bad results accompanied by rock bottom morale to make things really difficult.

West Ham (A)

Started out with the 4-1-4-1 and the first half did not go well. Switched to the 4-4-1-1 in the second half and we looked a lot better. Not the best start but something to work with.

Newcastle (A)

This game was fading into obscurity, despite some good chances from both sides. That was until the 95th minute when Dale Stephens burst into the box and drilled home to give us the 3 points.

Huddersfield (H)

I'll admit, conceding in the 1st minute wasn't my idea of a good start. Fortunately Hemed brought us back into the game but after Danny Williams ghosted into the area to score again before half time we were trailing at the break 2-1. I gave the boys a bit of a grilling and told them to prove a point in the second half and boy did they. March evened things up and we used that momentum to keep pushing for the rest of the match. Stephens gave us the lead before Hemed bagged his second to secure the W.

Tottenham (H)

I did not see this coming. Unsurprisingly Harry Kane put Spurs 1-0 before Knockaert drew us level. Again we headed down the tunnel trailing after Son Heung Min scored from the edge of the box. I can't take any credit for the second half but the lads came out and blew me away. Hemed wiped the deficit and then became my new favourite man by giving us a 3-2 lead. Spurs committed men forward and left space for us to hit them on the counter and Izquierdo gave us a fourth.

Chelsea (A)

Chelsea have been struggling a little bit this season, I think they were 12th at the time but that shouldn't take anything away from our performance. Most of the big guns were there, with the exception of Kante. It wasn't a particularly convincing win but a clinical one. Knockaert and Hemed proving their worth for the club giving us a first half lead, before seeing things out in the second.

Liverpool (H)

At this point my mind was blown. This wasn't as sketchy as the Chelsea win but still a complete surprise, a 9th minute opener from Pascal Groß added to by Hemed in the 68th. Mental.

Bournemouth (A)

Bump. That's the sound of us being brought back down to earth. After seeing the fire in the bellies against Tottenham, the nerves of steel against Chelsea and standing toe-to-toe with Liverpool, I foolishly thought we'd be a match for Bournemouth. This was a bad game for a couple of reason. We got dominated by them, with Jermain Defoe putting away 2 of their 20 shots. Bad thing number two occurred in the 55th minute where Hemed went down and had to be taken off. The physio's assessment? Shin splints, 2-3 months out. Damn.

Manchester United (H)

After our previous big game exploits I still felt a glimmer of hope even without Tomer Hemed and when Herrera got himself sent off the optimism foolishly grew. Playing with 10 men seemingly had no effect on United and they still controlled the game. Matic and Martial gave them the points and Ulloa proved to be a poor replacement for Hemed.

Swansea (H)

A sub-par performance from the Swansea defence coupled with a 9 minute 3-goal blitz gave us a big enough buffer to resist a late rally. Propper, Dunk and a previously disappointing Locadia scored his first goal for the club to give us another important 3 points.

Manchester City (A)

Another game against a big club, and one City controlled from the start. Bernardo Silva scored in the 2nd minute and that set the tone for the rest of the game. Knockaert levelled things for us but David Silva restored their lead. 

This run of games left the table looking like this:

A nice enough buffer from the relegation places but I'm not going to get carried away. The January window is now open and I have my eyes on a few targets and some players I'm not too happy with. The results in this run of games has blown me away a little bit, I was genuinely expecting to not get any points between the Tottenham and United games so to come out with 18 points overall is something I'm really happy with.

So that's it for this update and I know it's a long one which I do apologise for. The next update will be split into two, one covering the transfers during the window with the other covering the games. I'll try not to make them as long as this one!

 

Thank you for checking this out and hopefully see you next time

[Slipky]

Hemed <3 Great player. Also great progress!

[Callum12365]

17 hours ago, Slipky said:

Hemed <3 Great player. Also great progress!

Thanks mate

[Callum12365]

January Part 1 - Transfers

After a great start to my time at Brighton the January transfer window rolled around. Going into the window I had some areas of the squad I was looking to improve:

- Defence - Another CB and possibly full backs if any were available, Hunemeier was making noises about first team football and at 31 I wasn't looking to give it to him. This left Goldson as my only CB cover so another option was needed. 

- Strikers - After the injury to Hemed I was left with an ageing Glenn Murray and Ulloa who wasn't happy with his game time while on loan. I terminated his loan during the window so I needed some more options.

- Midfield - There's no real out and out AM at Brighton so I'm looking for someone to compete with Pascal Groß.

 

The board gave me a budget of about £30ish million pounds. More than enough I felt to have an effective window. 

Sturaro - A quality CM transfer listed by Juventus. At £6 million it was too good to pass up.

Rugani - Another player transfer listed by Juventus but carrying a £30 million price tag which was out of my range. Luckily they were willing to let him go on loan and he has a few months to see if he's worth pursuing in the summer, I'm happy with this deal.

Perez - Competition for that AMC role, and a player with room to improve I feel.

Carrillo - Listed by Southampton after they bought him from Monaco in the summer. With Hemed out I'm looking for him to have a similar impact.

Khaloua - Brought to my attention by my scouts and with a £2.9 million release clause it was worth a punt.

 

Overall I'm pretty pleased with my business, there were a couple of players I was looking to be rid of but there weren't too many suitors. I think these guys fill the gaps and provide able support to the team.

That's the first part of my January update covering the transfers, the next will have all the match action as we look to build on our positive start with Brighton. Thanks for reading and see you next time!

[Callum12365]

January Part 2 - The games

While the business was going on we did actually play some games in between. After our terrific start things sort of fell flat, 4 games in the league and 3 games in the FA Cup.

Southampton (H)

A bore draw really, nothing in particular to mention.

Nottingham Forest (H)

A chance for a break away from the pressures of the League against Championship strugglers Forest. I put out a fairly strong side and expected a lot better than we got. We were in control for a large part of the game until Goldson turn the ball into his own net and earned them another chance in a replay.

Watford (A)

Watford are having a terrific season at this point, flying high in 3rd place. That still doesn't excuse this performance however, conceding 6 goals is never acceptable. We were blown away in the first half by their forwards and were trailing 3-0 at the break. Any hopes of a comeback were dashed after we brought it back to 3-2 when Andre Gray, Deulofeu and Doucoure finally put us away.

Nottingham Forest (A)

We managed to put away Forest at the second attempt, Solly March doing the business for us eventually but it was still a very disappointing performance against a poor performing Championship side.

Burnley (H)

A massively frustrating game. 2-0 up at half time before throwing it away in the second. I don't know if we ran out of steam in our 3rd game in 7 days but it still wasn't acceptable and could come back to bite us in the long term.

Leeds (H)

Another similarly frustrating game. 2-0 up after a fast start but let it slip almost straight away. An own goal from Dunk after the half sealed ourselves another replay.

Leicester (H)

We dominated this game but fell behind to an Okazaki goal in the 62nd minute. A way back into the game looked likely after Ndidi got himself sent off and Solly March evened things up in the 69th minute. We continued to press forward but were unable to bag a winner.

 

Only 1 loss in the league seems alright but I think it's appropriate to see the points we lost rather than gained, particularly against Leicester and Burnley so overall it was a disappointing month. The gap between us and the relegation places has gotten smaller, down to only 4 points, we need to pick things up again next month and increase that gap. 

Thanks for reading again, see you next time!

[Callum12365]

February + Youth Intake

Only the four games this month, with another FA Cup replay to contend with. Could we pick up our form after January?

Arsenal (A)

While some of the games last month felt as if we had thrown away points, we definitely showed guts to pick one up here. 2-0 down after 55 minutes, a late rally spearheaded by our new signing Khaloua gained us a very credible draw.

Leeds (A)

Very disappointing performance here against the Championship side. An even game but we were put away by the more efficient side. Matthew Ryan did suffer a broken arm in this game as well, just to make things better too. On the other hand, it does allow us to focus solely on the league. 

Everton (A)

Yet another away game, this time against Everton whose poor season led to the departure of Big Sam but were still a solid team regardless. Tosun gave them an early lead and they controlled controlled the game from then on. Coleman's red card could have made for an interesting last 15 minutes but yet again we fell short against 10 men.

Stoke (A)

Starting to forget what home looks like at this point, pining for that sea air. After Ndiaye's red card in the 6th minute Stoke decided to shut up shop, batten down the hatches, park the bus etc. They essentially just told us to **** off and we failed to, yet again, bother them too much with the man advantage and came away with a very disappointing draw.

 

After a promising start things went downhill. We need to find a way to press home the advantage when we have it, and it's becoming obvious that we miss Hemed. Looking ahead we have a run of very important games against other struggling clubs before a very difficult run in to the end of the season.

 

Youth Intake

 

In another news, we had our youth intake. Not a great deal to shout about but Egan looks like he could develop nicely, but the other two might need a bit of work.

 

Thanks for reading, see you next time!