[FM19] A Cold Wet Tuesday Night in Stoke

[santy001]

So, I felt it was finally time to begin my single player save on FM this year and thought I'd go back to Stoke. This will be a significantly slower paced game than the one I have going with @oliscott in Sweden.

Onto the first matter, it is indeed lining up to be a cold and wet Tuesday Night. Here's the weather today:

Initial Squad Assessment

I think its safe to say that its fairly predictable who the good players for Stoke in the championship are. Butland is an obvious big asset that can be sold, or fought to hold on to him in order to have a solid keeper for the campaign ahead. Instead I'm taking a look at the problems presented to the club, and a brief glance at the youngsters for those who may come of age during the tough championship campaign.

The Expensive Problems:

The Stoke squad coming into FM19 is in an interesting place. There are nearly £50m worth of players away from the clubs on loans, all tied down on long term contracts. Gianelli Imbula at nearly £20m, Kevin Wimmer at £16m and Badou Ndiaye at £15m represent a signficant outlay. Worst of all, their loan deals are locked in, you can't bring them back and try to make use of them or flog them for some money.

The Old Age Problems:

Darren Fletcher is 34, Peter Crouch is 37, Charlie Adam is 32, Ashley Williams is 33, Ibrahim Afellay is 32. In addition to this McClean, Diouf, Shawcross, and Erik Pieters are all around the 30 year old mark. 

The Injury Problems:

Ibrahim Afellay is out for the whole season right off the bat. Ryan Shawcross has a predisposition to suffer from back injuries, Crouch has minor hamstring issues that can affect him, and Sam Clucas is out for 6-8 weeks. 

The Youth Prospects:

Finally onto the positives, Stoke do have quite a few players who with the right development could go on to bigger and better things in football. Josh Tymon, Tom Edwards, Thibaud Verlinden, Oliver Shenton, Tyrese Campbell and Julien Ngoy could have premier league careers ahead of them for sure. Furthermore, Harry Souttar, Moussa Niakate & Lasse Sorensen are well positioned to be used and see where they go. 

The First Team Misfits:

Bojan - mercurial and possessing great movement he lacks a position on the field to truly call his own.He works best when you take the shackles off and let him do his thing, but there's an argument that such a free spirit who doesn't also lead the line is hard to accommodate. If performances can be gotten from Bojan though, there's a top premier league ready player there in the waiting.

Saido Berahino - a striker who isn't able to lead the line alone but has spent the last years being used in such a fashion. There's still a good player with great potential to be unlocked lurking, the right manager could even steer him on back on the path he seemed to be on many moons ago. But he lacks determination and ambition, his professionalism is a huge issue too. With the right team talks, the right training and interaction Berahino could still be a force to be reckoned with - but is it worth the effort?

Mame Diouf - he's not an out and out forward, he's not particularly great technically. He's pretty fast, but some of his pace has deserted him over the last couple of years and he's also pretty strong. The mans a grafter, he gave his all at right back in the premier league last season despite never having played there before. The reality is though, where do you put a runner who lacks on the technical front entirely?

Peter Crouch - the man's huge, which is an asset but his acceleration is limited and he's going to struggle to pose any real threat 20+ yards from goal. There is possibly room for him but he doesn't bring what you conventionally want from a forward in football now, someone who has pace to break the line and ability to put pressure on defenders. 

Finances

For the unaware, Stoke City are owned by the Bet365 group, publicly the face of the club is Chairman Peter Coates. In reality the one holding the purse strings and has direct ownership of the club is his daughter Denise Coates. 

The club has a debt to the chairman of £111m. This is a heavy weight for any club to have around its neck, but its owed to the Bet365 group and there are no repayments scheduled at present, nor is any interest being charged. 
- Interestingly, I was only £11m out in my prediction of what Stoke would owe to the Coates family - accounts released on November 19th showed the actual amount at £122m. Cash on hand as well I put at £20m and the accounts showed it as £21.8m

The stadium and training ground are rented from Stoke Holdings Ltd (another part of the Bet365 group) at a cost of £4m a year. 

The club, once pre-season ticket sales and other monies coming in are taken into account has a total of around £60m in the bank. 

Ultimately the financial situation means the club needs to get promoted at the first attempt. The chairman Peter Coates is in his 80's, and won't be at the club forever. 

So Tactics...

I'm coming into the game without a strict plan on how I want to play tactically. 

I've decided on this approach for my first pre-season friendly:

The hope is that in attack Tymon/Martina will push more into the space Woods and Allen currently occupy, while Woods and Allen will then push forward to provide an overload through the middle with options for balls into the box coming from the wings.

[santy001]

First Friendly - Assessing the Tactic

Well, the first game was perhaps a massive let off, securing a 2-0 win.

The headline stats suggest dominance:

But taking a look at the analytics:

I'd say only 2 shots were from 'decent' positions, and both by Darren Fletcher - who looking at all the number 24's there seems to be shooting any time he's near the box.

Considering he's my Ball Winning Midfielder in a support role, perhaps I have him too aggressively engaged up the pitch. I noticed that very often it was forming a line of 3, Segundo Volante - Fletcher - Segundo Volante on the edge of the box and Fletcher would instantly pull the trigger.

I noticed during this game that there was no deeper passing option once we reached this position. Fletcher was higher up the pitch than I thought he would be, and the inverted wing backs were not pushing forward.

Infact, looking at the passing play:

My inverted wingbacks were actually wider than my wingers. so it's not quite doing what I envisaged yet. Maybe that will improve with familiarity. Maybe I'm misinterpreting what the role ought to be doing.

[santy001]

Second Friendly - Did the Tweaks Work?

On one hand, the tweak to Darren Fletcher did work, and it did stop him shooting. 

Only 4 shots from outside the box, compared to 12 the match before. I'd like to think this was a success, dropping Fletcher into the defend role for a BWM has now stopped the absurd amount of shots.

The match stats below portray a much better spread of chances I feel combined with the analysis compared to the first game against Slavia Prague.

Still Concerning Me:

The inverted wingbacks still seem to be so, so wide. Is it the Segundo Volante's occupying the space they would push into? I feel like perhaps in the next game I should try either using the inverted wing backs on a defend role (to give the Segundo Volante's more time to move forward and open space for them) or switch to wing backs and make the wingers inside forwards because Benik Afobe up top is looking very isolated in games at times.

 

[santy001]

Third Friendly - Catastrophe!

So I've just finished my 3rd friendly, and been thoroughly dominated by midtable Bundesliga 2 side FC St. Pauli. Fortunately, they didn't score despite carving out a number of good chances to do so and a 0-0 draw was the final result.

Not a single shot on target, not a single shot from inside the box.

It seems by going with the inverted wingbacks on defend I merely created a huge chasm. Furthermore, Afobe had a knock so I put Berahino in that central role, and he was not up to the task.

I did say in my first post, he isn't suited to that role and it's a mistake to put him there but I still somewhat foolishly tried it. I might need to consider going 2 up top, just because Afobe is the only one remotely cut out to leading the line alone, and it could be a problematic season if he suffers an injury.

[santy001]

Final Friendly - Not Competitive Enough to Help

I wasn't aware in advance, but my final friendly was against a Spanish Second Division B3 side. It finished 7-1 and doesn't seem as though it was competitive enough to give a read on how my tweaks for the final game went.

One thing of concern is that there seems to be substantially less passing than in previous games. But, with an upswing in the amount of shots from good positions.

After mentioning how isolated Berahino was, I decided to try 2 up top and potentially concede the midfield with this line-up:

There is the front line options of Berahino as an Advanced Forward and Bojan as a False 9, which was how I tried it in the second half. It was less inspiring, but the team were already 5-0 up at half time so it may have just been a lack of impetus to push on.

I'm going to try it against Leeds in the first game. Although I think in the Championship I may need to adopt a 3 in midfield to hold opponents at bay.

[santy001]

Kick Off! - Robbed by Leeds

I was 1-0 up and had comfortably kept Leeds at bay until around the 75th minute. Chances were being created regularly, quite a few were from long range but still enough inside the danger zone. With 15 minutes left Leeds themselves switched to a 4-2-4 and grabbed two late goals to steal a 2-1 win against the run of play.

I don't like that Crouch is so deep there, being behind one and level with the other Segundo Volante in a lot of passing moves. I might need to put him on the DLF-Attack role to get him a bit further up and maybe that will yield more chances in the box with him being a bit further up the pitch and holding the ball up.

The match stats show there was generally quite a strong performance. But when you consider 11 of Leeds 12 shots at goal came in the final 15 minutes - I made a mistake and did not reinforce the back line enough.

[nsd]

As a fellow Stoke fan, it's always interesting seeing what others do with the team. Will be following this!

[santy001]

Transfer Deadline

Not a lot to report on this front. The deadline came and went without me signing anyone, nor selling anyone. 

The Next 5 Games

Bit of a mixed bag, 2 wins, 2 draws 1 loss. On one hand I would argue I was the stronger in all the games except for the one against Wigan. I made a silly mistake against Preston and Bolton just lured my side onto them before getting a late counter, exposing the lack of pace of Ashley Williams playing at centre half for their equaliser.

I've been trying different players up top to try and complement Afobe. Peter Crouch, Bojan, Diouf and Berahino have all been a little underwhelming. One big problem is that the side is often compressing the opposition banks of 4 into around 10-15 yards of spare on the edge of their own box, and then I'm not getting enough movement into space to open them up.

Sitting 7th on 8 points, it feels a little disappointing a start to the season but hopefully refining the tactics will continue as the season progresses. It feels quite solid, and usually my own substitutes or shouts are letting me down on the touchlines.

Etebo and Ince are only just getting their first games of the season, and Joe Allen only managed 1 fixture so far as well. Considering there are players to come back it should hopefully improve with those 3 returning.

Here's the squad so far with appearances/ratings shown:

[santy001]

New Tactical Musings

To try and combat the issues of play becoming condensed into a tight band I decided it was time to make my side less symmetrical and possess a greater degree of what I hope will turn out to be layered attacking play.

By switching Bojan to an F9 he should have space to drop into, with Ince then having the space ahead of him to move towards. McClean should stay wide left and have Afobe, Bojan, Ince and Fletcher somewhere in and around the box, with Woods deeper.

Bauer will then also be out on the far flank, and Peters should be deeper without looking to overlap or get too close to McClean to be easily closed down.

At least that's the theory of how I'm wanting it to work. Will it? Who knows!

[santy001]

September

With the window shut now it's time to focus truly on the football. Coming into September I'd settled on the formation posted above. With 5 wins from 5 it's got a promising start, but the question that remains in the background is always the one of how much is down to me just having a generally speaking superior squad on paper? The players abilities may be papering over the cracks.

The League Table:

Tactical Worries

One thing I'm still really worried about is my shot spread. 

It feels like far too many shots from long range, the goals feel a little further out than perhaps would be comfortable but in this game against Rotherham they were after a player had broken the defensive line and gotten into a 1 on 1 with the keeper. Shooting that early/far out seems a bit weird but if they're confident they've got it then it's not the worst thing in the world.

[Nobby_McDonald]

It's looking better after September.

No friendly at Newcastle Town?

[lim]

On 28/11/2018 at 11:54, santy001 said:

September

With the window shut now it's time to focus truly on the football. Coming into September I'd settled on the formation posted above. With 5 wins from 5 it's got a promising start, but the question that remains in the background is always the one of how much is down to me just having a generally speaking superior squad on paper? The players abilities may be papering over the cracks.

The League Table:

Tactical Worries

One thing I'm still really worried about is my shot spread. 

It feels like far too many shots from long range, the goals feel a little further out than perhaps would be comfortable but in this game against Rotherham they were after a player had broken the defensive line and gotten into a 1 on 1 with the keeper. Shooting that early/far out seems a bit weird but if they're confident they've got it then it's not the worst thing in the world.

Interesting read, any more updates on this? 

[santy001]

@lim hopefully soon, been wrapped up in other stuff over christmas and into new years but I have got a hankering to get it progressing.

[lim]

1 minute ago, santy001 said:

@lim hopefully soon, been wrapped up in other stuff over christmas and into new years but I have got a hankering to get it progressing.

Great can't wait!  - I have recently finished my second season at Stoke managed a 10th place position in the prem. 

 

Look forward to the next update.! 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Nice one Lim. If only real life Stoke could get back to that level.

[santy001]

October

A strong run in September had seen the team win 5 in 5, but I still had a great degree of tactical concerns. October proved to be a mixed bag, and my tactical failings are still holding the team back. 2 wins, 2 defeats and a draw, it wasn't a terrible month but it meant I've really failed to seize on the momentum from September.

The League Table:

Tactical Evolution

Going into November I'm going to try taking the tactic forward a bit more. With some further alterations to hopefully bring a bit more from it, the team still has the issue of there not being an out ball and therefore shooting, so I'm hoping I can try and provide more options to retain the ball when attacking.

[Deisler26]

Keep going @santy001. Really enjoying this and I don’t usually follow British careers.

[santy001]

November

Just a solitary defeat in November against QPR left the club in a strong position heading towards the Christmas run in, which as ever can potentially be season defining. During November I agreed to sell Mame Biram Diouf for £6.25m to Jeonbuk in South Korea. While I'll be subsidising £35k per week, its halving his wage bill and since he hasn't made any tangible impact on the side I'm happy to let him go.

League Table:

Mid-Season Assessment

As in December I will pass the 23 game mark, I felt like it would be worthwhile doing my mid-season assessment now. Potential is in the team, of course, its a team that's just dropped from the premier league and got hundreds of millions invested in it over the last few years. 

That said there's some massive weaknesses, with how I'm playing there's not much coming from Bojan. This is only a small part of the problem, as all of Diouf, Berahino and Crouch have proven insufficient in this role. It means I am likely to have to look to resolve this in January, despite the strong goal scoring and being top scorers in the league, I feel like the lack of contribution from the secondary forward is really holding the team back. 

Key Performers:

Benik Afobe - 12 goals and 3 assists in 21 games, Afobe has been leading the line and contributing well. Up front he is the only reliable contributor of goals, meaning managing his condition is essential.

Sam Clucas - 9 goals and 5 assists in 12 games (and a further 4 sub appearances) mostly playing in the left winger role Clucas has added a lot to the attack, a surprising amount in fact.

Tom Ince - 7 goals and 3 assists in 15 games (plus 1 sub) as my inside forward on the right he's been equally as vital for goals.

Under Performing:

Ryan Woods, Berahino and Allen have all failed to add really what needs. The problem for all three of these is they will likely be phased out quickly going forward, but they're all on good money.

[santy001]

Dreadful December

After just a seeming blip in the road in November I came into December feeling strong. As I said, this was a potentially season defining month. I had games coming up against teams at the bottom of the league, and every game was against a side in the bottom half after the match against Reading. However, against Reading I lost Afobe to injury, and with him out until the middle of January the ominous reliance upon him has come to be the bane of my side.

Struggling desperately for goals from the moment Afobe was taken off December has proven to be a grim month. Millwall were 22nd when I lost to them, Birmingham were 24th and Bolton were 21st. Fortunately not too much damage has been done to the league standings.

League Table:

Business in January:

Afobe getting an injury has prompted me into the transfer market, I looked at those my scout team had already gotten reports on and one man stood out, Sergio Araujo. At 26 he comes in hopefully close to his peak which is really what I need now.

Hopefully I will be adding a midfielder as well, one problem I've had is the real lack of physical presence in the central area. Adam and Fletcher are too slow, Allen and Woods are too sleight. Etebo doesn't quite bring it to the table in that position either which has left me short. Again, relying on what my scouts have already uncovered I've taken a liking to the transfer listed Ruslan Malinovskyi. With an asking price of £7m I'm hoping I can get this wrapped up early and add some solidity through the middle.

Meanwhile, James McClean will be joining Afobe in heading to Jeonbuk. Quite why a South Korean team seems to have such a huge hunger for imports from Stoke I will never know, but McClean while adding some good assists and goals is pushing towards 30 and isn't a long term solution. With a possible promotion based wage rise in the summer it would prove very difficult to shift him on then, so I pulled the trigger now.

This will put more pressure on Verlinden to perform.

[santy001]

Don't get a start much better than this:

[santy001]

January

Despite the promising screenshot above of Araujo having scored on his debut in under 2 minutes, I did go on to lose that game 2-1. Goals are still proving to be a bit of an issue at times, but once Afobe was back from injury the forward line became a bit more solid and able to retain the ball a bit better. Failing to get a work permit for the Ukrainian Malinovskyi this left me scrambling a bit as my scouts didn't provide too many reports on other suitable candidates. I went to the loan market and brought in Andreas Pereira from Man Utd and Fabian Delph from Man City. The hope being that these two can allow me to phase out my use of Darren Fletcher and Charlie Adam who don't have the pace needed since I switched from the 3 man to the 2 man set-up.

League Table:

[santy001]

February

Coming to the business end of the season the team does seem to be getting a bit more solid, the tactics feel a bit firmer and while I did make one further change (changing the complete forward role back to advanced forward) it seems to finally be hitting on some good ground. The first unbeaten month since September, but Preston, Swansea, Norwich and Reading are all in good form meaning there's a very serious threat should my team let it slip at any point.

League Table:

Other Sides

Since we're coming to the serious part of the season now, just 12 games left I thought it would be worth reflecting upon some of the other sides in the league. 

Bristol City:

Bristol were the early contenders alongside my Stoke side. They were phenomenally strong under Lee Johnson, but at the beginning of November Lee Johnson moved to West Brom who were floundering and for the remainder of November Luke Williams came in as caretaker. Things were generally going well up to this point, but the club then made a permanent appointment on November 29th, Roberto Di Matteo. His first match was a win against my side, and they won their next game in the league as well against bottom end Bolton. However, following that there has been 6 defeats, a draw and just a solitary win against strugglers Birmingham who are 22nd. 

It looks like they've got an enormous job on just to keep themselves in the play-off places, and based on how its gone so far, I don't see it happening.

Leeds:

After a slow start, coming into the Christmas period Leeds were on the ascendancy. They had just gotten up to 6th and were only a handful of points off the promotion spots. At the end of December Marcelo Bielsa left for Leicester. Carlos Corberan has been appointed as the interim manager at Leeds and been there for a couple of months, but the win rate plummeted from 48% under Bielsa to 16% under Corberan. In true Leeds fashion it seems like bottling it in the second half of the season has happened once more.

West Brom:

In the early stages of the season West Brom were really up against it, they were down among the relegation contenders early doors. Darren Moore won just 2 of the 13 games he was in charge for, being sacked in the middle of October. Of course, as mentioned with Bristol they brought in Lee Johnson in early November. Lee Johnson has turned things around, his win ratio is up at 50% and coming into the run in West Brom now sit 12 points outside the play-offs. It's a tough ask, but they could potentially be an outside candidate for it. 

[santy001]

Looking at Tactics

One thing I highlighted early on was that my chance creation, and where shots were happening from were causes for major concern. You can't ever rule out long shots, and nor should you but they can be indicating some serious problems with fashioning good chances.

In general I am happier with the shot locations, here's a couple of shot maps from my last 2 games:

While it still suffers from some of the same issues highlighted back in September there is a much greater quantity of shots between the penalty spot and the goal. Not particularly by design but the way in which the team has set up it means the possession and recycling of the ball tends to occur on the left side of the field.

The heatmap shows how much closer Pieters and Clucas are to other players and looking back through the matches an awful lot of passing combinations central in that area. A tight network of passing between that cluster of players being Pieters (LB), Clucas (AML), Etebo (LDM), and Woods (RDM) with a ball back to Martins Indi in the LCB position, and a ball forward to Afobe in the STCL position always options too.

Araujo, Ince and Bauer are out on the right, and the heatmap is largely unused there, but they're both set to attacking roles to get forward with Ince as an IF naturally going to come inside and Bauer as a WB-A to push right on up to the touch line. Araujo meanwhile is playing the False 9 position and just merely drifting around into pockets of space. 

The passing combinations perhaps highlight the passing workings a bit better. Bauer, Ince and Araujo are really far and seeing a lot less passing action, but when observing the style of play it offers two very distinct approaches down either flank. On the left flank the team is passing well, tightly and in small spaces working players out of position, but down the right its a lot more at the jugular. It gives the team two approaches in one tactic. 

[santy001]

March

The team is coming in strong at the end of March. Five wins in five, the first clean, flawless month since September and extending the unbeaten run. The Millwall game was touch and go, Mortiz Bauer got sent off, for a second bookable offence, on 55 seconds. It was literally a case of kick off, tackle booked and the next time a player came near him with the ball, tackled and booked again. Strong results and good morale have come to fruition and left the in a strong position for promotion, but there's still some enormous concerns. I've not been the runaway train type team, so with only 9 points between myself and 4th it does mean I could still slip up.

 

It's worth mentioning, Bristol City have actually bucked the trend and come strong under Di Matteo. 

League Table:

[santy001]

April

Following on from what I was saying in March, the team was coming in strong and hitting its peak. Sadly, the team peaked early and while ultimately I held my nerve and it paid off the side hit its zenith against Tottenham in the FA cup semi final. Late in the game against Tottenham Ryan Woods picked up an injury, and it was at this point I realised Woods had transitioned from that surplus pile earlier in the season to lynch-pin. He offered little as a Segundo Volante but was the only one really capable of playing as a Roaming Playmaker. I had allowed Joe Allen to depart for the middle east (had been wanting to leave since the start of January) around late February, and ultimately the loanees Delph and Pereira were not suited to the role Woods played. 

Then in the game against Swansea, Afobe picked up another injury. It was going to keep him out for a little while, and surviving a barrage of chances against Swansea and luckily holding on against Rotherham had me considering some big changes. 

The Blackburn scoreline is very deceptive, up until the 75th minute it was 1-1. A fluke long range goal from Peter Crouch got us into the lead, against the run of play. Blackburn opened up and Tom Ince secured a hat trick in the final 10 minutes as they switched to a much more aggressive formation. Tom Ince stepped up though, the only goal against Middlesborough, then a hat trick against Norwich a late burst of good form from Ince saw us over the line.

[santy001]

May

Despite the FA cup having been a complete non-entity to me, and having almost thrown it several times by playing weakened squads and only managing to get a return leg I found myself in the final. In truth, the only tough game was the Tottenham one due to a series of fortuitous cup draws. In the build up to the game Tom Ince succumb to injury, while Woods and Afobe would be back they were lacking match fitness from their injuries. Ultimately Chelsea proved too much, and despite taking the lead the side succumb to a 2-1 loss. It took the shine off the league win a little, and it also marked the first defeat since the turn of the year against Bristol City. 

Final League Table:

Squad Overview

Here's how the squads stats lined up at the end of the year. There wasn't any real stand out massive over-achiever in terms of ratings, which I think in some ways comes down to the formation I've played. It's created chances, and its certainly scored goals but I'm quite hopeful of the fact I haven't gravitated towards any of general known weaknesses of the ME that sees certain players/positions become beasts of burden stomping their way to massive to ratings and goals galore.

Benik Afobe had 26 goals overall, for some reason his loan to permanent move didn't quite work the same as Woods. Woods got his whole seasons worth of stats in one burst, Afobe has 2 entries for the year one loan, one permanent for Stoke.

Sam Clucas became an integral part of the team, yet is one of my biggest concerns. He isn't particularly great at anything, but proved very effective. Should I be looking to replace him or should I keep faith. I want to see how the majority of this squad can do next year, rather than going down the route of the much easier hoovering up of talent. One blessing I do have is I'm very reticent to step into the good players and team guides section, so I know very little about players who are highly effective.

[santy001]

FA Cup Final Defeat

With it being a rare defeat to look into, while its quite easy to dismiss the defeat to Chelsea as just being down to their better squad I wanted to take a look to see what my team did wrong.

Heat Map:

I noticed that the right side of the pitch for my side had seen a lot more activity than it typically would. One thing I also noticed for Chelsea was that extremely high position of Eden Hazard. That positioning from Hazard was likely to have caused problems for both Bauer and Shawcross, its rare to see a team utilise such a high position against me on the flanks. It should have also been where there was more space though, and that does seem to have led to my team playing more there - perhaps being far less effective for it.

Passing Combinations & Shot Spread:

The passing combinations show that Afobe was effectively a passenger, and again as the heat map suggests a lot more of the ball was being played out towards the right side with Araujo being a much more significant presence than previously combinations. Furthermore, instead of it being a diamond Clucas was coming far deeper, so it was a flat line. With no real angles to the passing combinations its unlikely that aspect of my play was troubling Chelsea at all. 

The shot spread is most disappointing though, Afobe despite his isolation still managed to get a number of chances but they weren't with the goal at his mercy. All off to the side of the goal, and not a single chance in that desired zone central to the goal between the sticks and the penalty spot. 

I decided to compare it to the Tottenham game.

Heat Map vs Tottenham:

Tottenham lacked that high secondary player across the back line. This certainly made it easier to defend, and it freed Moritz Bauer up to be far more aggressive.

Passing Combination & Shot Spread vs Tottenham:

Interestingly against Spurs, Perreira was playing instead of Clucas and his positioning was extremely aggressive, he's actually ahead of Afobe. This really stretches the passing diamond shape on the left, but as also indicated by Tottenham not having anyone else further up on their left, Moritz Bauer was very well advanced. This meant keeping Tottenham at bay and creating chances was easier. The passes had angles and would've kept the Tottenham team shifting around, instead of being able to hold its shape.

That being said, the shots were again not in the area I like to think of as the danger zone. One admittedly from the penalty spot more or less, but horribly wide. Ultimately I got lucky against Tottenham with the goals scored, you can accept that in a cup run but they're going to be league rivals next year and that means I need to be capable of creating good chances.

[santy001]

Young Prospects - Those who played

At the end of the first season I feel like its time to reflect on the youngsters I've been making use of during the campaign, and those I'm looking at potentially using next year. This area always leaves me in a bit of a conflicted spot, because I myself set all the PA and such for these players, when it comes to youngsters I have an inherent advantage playing the game. Of course, that's true with the entire Stoke squad, but it always feels a little more of a possible issue with youngsters.

That being said, very few people gravitate towards youngsters from Stoke on the game. They aren't sure things, and they're not likely to be sure things either they just have potential that needs careful nurture to bring to the fore - combined with some luck.

Tom Edwards:

Edwards has managed 18 games this season, Moritz Bauer has been my strong first choice but Edwards has deputised well when the need has arisen but in a very limited capacity. He lacks the pushing forward nature of Bauer, to try and rectify this I have begun getting Edwards to work on the "gets forward whenever possible" preferred move, I feel like this will reinforce what the position should be doing anyway. I plan on keeping him around next season as my second choice, and hopefully the step up in competition to the Premier League will enhance his development.

Josh Tymon:

Josh Tymon is probably the one I do see develop quite well frequently, as an off-topic aside I've been very respectful of the ratings set by the Hull researcher and MK Dons researcher with Tymon because thus far in real football he's had very little exposure to the senior side for Stoke. He has improved somewhat rapidly, at the start of the season I wasn't particularly considering using him much, thinking I would probably opt for Martina over Tymon but he has come along way in a short space of time. With premier league football in the mix for him next year he should come strong. With 18 appearances overall under his belt, he too was very much a second choice player but has the potential to augment this in the future.

Thibaud Verlinden:

Thibaud starts the game as a very sleight, very lightweight wide player who looks like he has good technicals but is always going to come up a little bit short perhaps with the physical rigours of football. Despite being the highest potential ability player at Stoke, he is one who most often falls by the wayside and ends up with a middling championship career. One of the best things usually you can do with Verlinden is to sell him early for big money because his potential can sometimes lure clubs into parting with big cash for him (on FM18 AC Milan would frequently come in for him in my experience) but Verlinden has massive potential if a manager is eager to see it to fruition. 

He racked up 28 appearances, playing sometimes as a deputy for Clucas, other times for Ince. With 4 goals and 7 assists he had a promising return.

[santy001]

Planning For the Season Ahead

With promotion secured, and a budget set of £47m and a wage budget coming in at just under £1.3m per week the club has got money to spend. It's worth noting however that Chairman Peter Coates left the club and it was taken over by a new Chairman. This has given the finances a bit of a hit, while the new owner came in some of the clubs bank balance paid off the £110m owed to the Bet365 group and, at around £30m. To cover the rest, the Chairman took out an £83m loan over 10 years. It's going to add a bit of a drain on finances, but only around £8m a year.

Loan Signings:

Cuco Martina & Ashley Williams will return to their parent club Everton, there was no option on either and I had no interest in making the signings of either permanent. 

Andreas Pereira is one I did want to sign permanently, and had a £3m bid accepted from Man Utd. However, early negotiations hit a wall when New York Red Bulls got involved, they approached on a free and offered him £69k per week. That was more than I was willing to pay and so I backed out.

Fabian Delph was really uninspiring in my team. He has good stats, but he contributed little to what I wanted and at 29 isn't really someone I could be planning around long term.

- - -

Ultimately, none of last seasons loan signings will be staying on permanently.

Definitely Departing:

Peter Crouch has announced his retirement, meaning he is leaving at the end of the promotion campaign. At 38 I possibly would have kept him around for one more year, more for tutoring and fact that despite not playing much I could get some good play from him when used even if he didn't score. 

Darren Fletcher has also announced his retirement. My midfield changes early in the season had rendered Fletcher an outsider in my squad, and that is still true. He played well at times, but never offered enough to keep on in the premier league.

Ibrahim Afellay never managed a game due to his cruciate ligament injury. He agreed a move to Basel in the last 6 months and so ends one of the most history blighted Stoke careers in history. I'm amazed that he hasn't retired, third major knee ligament issue in 3 years is a massive blow to any player.

Returning to the Fold:

Badou Ndiaye will be coming back in likely as my first choice roaming play maker. The season will begin with him and Ryan Woods competing for that spot in my team. He managed 5 goals and 12 assists in the Turkish Super League with Galatasary, well rounded and quite a physical player he will certainly be a welcome reinforcement.

Gianelli Imbula, a long time pariah. He's the clubs record signing, but has spent the majority of his time touring Europe as no one else will pay him the same as what Stoke do. There is a good player in there, he shows it from time to time, but he certainly is quick to lose motivation. I think I can keep him on track though and utilise him competing with Etebo for my Segundo Volante role.

Kevin Wimmer, the man who spent the relegation season looking about 10 lbs overweight for a footballer and perpetually too slow to everything. Hannover haven't exercised their £11m purchase as of yet, so it seems he will be returning to the club. Wimmer is another who has proven difficult to motivate, this could make him a liability if the season is tough but I still think he can be an effective player. Shawcross held up well last season, despite a substantial proclivity to suffer injuries (particularly back strains) he only missed a handful of games but another year on the clock means he is likely to need replacing sooner rather than later.

Young Prospects:

Tyrese Campbell will be in my mind to utilise this season. It's going to be a tough season and he's very raw, but giving him game time in the premier league could certainly enhance his development. At times last season I really regretted the fact I had let him leave on loan, but hopefully the more frequent game time has benefited him.

Mitchell McClellen, a very bright prospect to come through in the summers youth intake. I've taken a keen interest in this youngster and will certainly be looking to give him game time in the future. He's incredibly raw, but physically the attributes are in a good place and if he can pad out and round out his technical and mental attributes he potentially will become the clubs lasting left back alongside Josh Tymon.

[TheJanitor]

I really enjoy your writing style!

[santy001]

Summer Signings

The summer window has come to a close, it was very quiet for a long time. As I've mentioned before I plan to rely much more on my scouts to recommend players (and agent approaches etc) to me, rather than me searching. Nobody is perfect, but I get the researchers hand-book every year, I get far more information about player attributes - and get to ask all sorts of questions about them as a researcher that to me it feels a little less than fair when I go searching for players myself (generally speaking, I will break this rule a little bit which I will go into with the relevant signing).

Goalkeeper:

My new number two goalkeeper, David Stockdale:

Nothing too special here, the scouts were suggesting a cheap asking price. I needed a new keeper since I let Federici go last January and the youngsters weren't quite at a point I was comfortable with for premier league football. So £150k later, Stockdale has rocked up on a 2 year deal.

Defender:

Maximilian Bauer, becoming the second Bauer in the squad.

A scout report came in quite late in pre-season highlighting Bauer. They gave him a rating of 82, and high potential but what caught my eye most was that he had an active relegation release clause of £450k. That meant it was an immediate jump into action. I don't expect him to get too much game time this year, but as I mentioned before, Shawcross is getting older. Should he deteriorate this could see him being well in place by the end of the year.

Forward:

Ellis Simms, a failed Manchester City & Everton prospect.

There's nothing special about Ellis Simms. But during pre-season I gave him a few games, and he scored. His potential is reasonable, and he proved functional in the formation, for me that was enough to perhaps see where the journey could go. A free signing on an insignificant deal means there's no risk here.

Forward:

Aritz Aduriz, the 38 year old from Bilbao.

While I don't actively search for players to specification, one thing I have a massive hankering for on FM is getting performances out of old players. This stretches back years, to when I signed a 35 year old Robin van Persie and had him top goalscorer for 2 years. Other times I've signed a 38 year old Donnarumma. I've signed Toni Kroos at 35 and had him be my midfield playmaker still producing amazing displays, so Aduriz comes very much in that vein. There's no doubt its a waste of money, and there's no doubt its a big wage for an old player on £80k per week but this is what I like to do. I can also make the claim of channelling the essence of Stoke during their greatest spell. Back in the 70's under Tony Waddington Stoke were renowned for their ability to get performances from older players. 

Let's not forget, this is the club where Sir Stanley Matthews turned out at the age of 50 in the top flight. 

Aduriz has some phenomenal stats however, the speed has gone but the rest is still there beautifully.

Midfielder:

Xherdan Shaqiri, this was not at all a planned move but on transfer deadline day I saw a little article pop up "West Ham bid for Shaqiri accepted" and I felt compelled to act. 

Shaqiri is one of those who tends to fall foul of the AI managers in the game not quite utilising him correctly, but can be phenomenal when deployed right. This will provide some serious competition for Tom Ince in the side, and likely push Ince down to second fiddle but as with those players who are remembered fondly I will be tempted to go back in for them.

Failed Transfers:

Again in my vein of past glories I went hard in search of picking up Xavi.

The legs have gone, but the rest is just like with Aduriz still there in spades. I could have made a few little changes to beautifully accommodate him in my team but unfortunately he just wasn't interested in a move to Stoke. I had hoped to bide my time until his contract ended but it seems like he has now announced his decision to retire since I made my big push to sign him a month or so ago and sadly I'll never get a chance to see if Xavi could cut it on a cold wet night in Stoke.

Francisco Trincao, a young wide player I was after before I signed Shaqiri back to the club. 

As you can see, the scouts suggested an extremely low estimated cost, however, during negotiations at around £5m Braga still weren't playing ball (the report is from November 2018 after all) and it seems I've missed the boat on this one. Shame as he looks to have some great potential.

[santy001]

Also, thanks @TheJanitor I've no real idea as to what is best to put in this thread so if there is anything you want to see let me know since its easy to grab half a dozen gyazo's of anything these days.

[santy001]

First Game Back

So we begin with a game at home to Leicester.

Pre-Game:

Shaqiri had suffered a training injury and was out for a few days, so I decided not to include him in the squad. New signing Arduriz was on the bench, and the squad to start the game would comprise entirely of players who had been at the squad.

With the caveat that loanees Ndiaye and Imbula would come into midfield, although they were players who the club have had in the squad before. My main aim is familiarity and continuity, new players need to be brought into the fold over time in my opinion.

Early Game:

Despite a goal on 5 minutes from Sergio Araujo Leicester were playing a very dominant passing game that was shifting the team side to side. For quite a while it looked like Leicester were just a matter of time away from scoring, and then... 2-0. Araujo again, a nice lay off from Afobe it felt like Araujo was getting far too much space in this game.

Final Result:

Turns out I battered them and there wasn't much to worry about. Araujo played well, but Aduriz was phenomenal. Despite his lack of pace he still broke the line twice to beat an offside trap and put it away. The majority of Leicesters chances came before half time, after half time they just seemed to be a lot less effective.

Tactics:

The left side diamond of passing was still in effect in this game, which had been one of my worries. Verlinden so aggressively forward at the tip of it, but I'm very pleased. With 5 shots from in that area I like to consider the dangerzone. Two of them going in, but as can be seen all 3 of Araujo's goals were somewhat fortuitous edge of the box shots. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Have that Leicester.

[santy001]

August (S2)

I've come through August in a strong position, but perhaps not with the strongest of performances. After the very resounding win against Leicester its been very touch and go since then. Man City overwhelmed me, but I was still able to keep it to a respectable scoreline and even though it was against the run of play could have snatched a draw. Preston, a fellow newly promoted side were not much of a threat but then for a long time I wasn't much of a threat either. Sergio Araujo got injured after the first game, and this did some to line up with the diminishing attacking prowess.

As can be seen, I did still manage 3 wins in the league, with a win over Wycombe too in the cup. Good results, but I suspect vital points on the board at this early stage will prove valuable later in the season.

League Table:

[santy001]

September (S2)

A mixed bag this month, a resounding win over Everton, a lucky draw with Tottenham and a mild bit of battery suffered against Liverpool. Xherdan Shaqiri has picked up an injury ruling him out for several months, which has coincided with the struggling. Tom Ince just offers a lot less in that position, and Benik Afobe is seemingly just completely out of his depth in the premier league - not yet managing to notch a goal. Maybe its just a dry spell, maybe he's just not up to task in the premier league I guess that will become clearer in time.

League Table:

[santy001]

October (S2)

Probably the first month I've felt really disappointed since I began the game. Last season in the early stages I still had the argument I was refining the tactic, but now the tactic is largely functional but a few misjudged subs and such have cost me quite dearly. Changing against Southampton to try and shut up shop in the last 20 minutes cost me and left me scrambling for a draw, and the Aston Villa game felt like a match in which I was just really wrong in assessing what was needed. Minor injuries and my decision to go for youth products at the club might be costing me a little bit here.

Benik Afobe finally scored, and getting a hat trick against West Ham and after 10 games I sit 6th in the table. Not terrible, but I still worry that when teams get wise to my aggressive style and I have to look at some concessions I might drop like a stone.

League Table:

[santy001]

November (S2)

Such has been my grievance with Aritz Aduriz announcing his retirement this month I only noticed I had won every game in November when I got the manager of the month award. With some tough games in the mix as well the Manchester United game was very much against the run of play, but I was good value for the win against Chelsea. They took the lead, but sat back far too much and allowed my side far too much freedom. It's really left me disappointed with the retirement of Aritz Aduriz however, he scored 3 in 4 games during November and is 2nd overall in the goalscorers charts for the league, three goals behind Harry Kane.

However, to accompany Aduriz for the rest of this season, and replace next season I'm bringing in Zlatan Ibrhahimovic. A £2m signing, hopefully he can still cut it at the age of 38 as well. 

League Table:

 

[santy001]

December (S2)

It's been a bizarre month. Despite serving up quite poor performances all around goals have been absolutely flying in. 28 goals in 7 games. The only game in which I felt I really deserved to win was the Brighton and Scunthorpe games. VAR helped me on my way to the win against Brighton. Wolves scored an own goal and another VAR penalty came to my rescue once more despite having looked rather hapless against the side floundering at the bottom. Burnley were by far the better side, but practically everything I hit went in (10 shots on target with 7 goals, 6 from Afobe) I don't quite know what to make of it at the moment. 

The strange part is that I wouldn't say I'm playing an overly aggressive tactic, it's not one that relies on some of the more extreme levels of chance creation to get the goals. Perhaps I'll make a bit more of an in depth post on the tactic and where I draw my inspirations from.

League Table:

[santy001]

Mid-season Review

So just over half way into the season, I'm on the brink of top 4 football and competing well above and beyond what I ought to be on all expectations but the performances are coming. I feel like it could be a good time to delve a little deeper into what it is that drives my thinking and my approach. So first of all, here's the squad a week into January.

The Squad:

There's nothing special here about the team, I've managed to sign two golden oldies in Aritz Aduriz and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but this aside my only other signings are Sergio Araujo, Xherdan Shaqiri and David Stockdale - who is yet to play. 

One of the big things I've done is play up massively to the squad dynamics. This has enabled me to build on all three fronts quite well, I've maintained my squad hierarchy and kept the team leaders firmly at the heart of my plans despite not necessarily being the best options.

I am slowly planning their succession though, the concern is that Shawcross and Pieters are reaching the latter stages of their career. I feel like this is an enormous area of preservation to the strength of the squad that is frequently overlooked. A lot of people will want to make their mark on a squad, stamp their identity on it but that can take years and if it doesn't yield results early on you can easily get caught in the trap of making frequent further changes to try and force positive developments. My aim here is to begin laying the foundations for a dynasty. 

- - -

Team talks, interviews and match briefings:

 This is an area where a lot of players feel frustrated with the game, its too monotonous/tedious for some. It's a powerful area of the game, but for me it's of the utmost importance to get the marker in these areas set early. For the first few months, I did all interviews and match briefings myself. Probably around Christmas in the first season I began to ease back on the press conferences and match briefings, using the assistant manager instead. By the latter stages of the season I stopped with match briefings entirely. 

I still take press conferences now and then, mostly when the mood takes me or I want to convey a particular message to try and keep on top of complacency or such. I feel that by having kept my squad core strong, with a fixed identity to it and no sweeping changes this becomes a part of the club that needs nothing more than to be kept ticking over. It's kept simple and functional. It becomes incredibly low maintenance and it generally keeps things at a high level with minimal effort. 

Team talks on the other hand, are completely the opposite. These are my domain and my domain only. I'm very harsh on the squad with team talks. I'm often using assertive demands for victories pre-game, or assertively demanding they show why the press positive remarks are justified. Half time is a mixture of aggressive and cautious team talks, if I feel we're winning against the run of play or not getting the result I want I'm aggressive with a disappointed remark. If we're doing well I will cautiously avoid against complacency. At full time it tends to be a mix of the three, assertive, cautious and aggressive team talks. I often warn against complacency, or tell the team I was unhappy even with the nature of some wins. Other times I will point out it was a let off. 

The feedback isn't always universally positive, but the majority of the squad reacts positively. 

- - -

The 2nd In Command:

The assistant manager is always my most important recruit. Much as I aim to build a dynasty in the dressing room, the backroom staff needs to be headed by a man who also meets my requirements and can be round for years to come. 

Ben Garner met my requirements for an assistant when I went digging. High determination, man management and motivating, coupled with good adaptability and a decent level of discipline this is what I'm looking for. He's young enough that this could easily be a 20+ year partnership but he has begun to attract interest from elsewhere, with Bolton offering him their managerial position. Losing my assistant manager is always a huge worry of mine, with how I tend to run the squad the assistant manager is one of the most essential aspects as whenever an assistant manager has left me I've often suffered a rough season following it as I have to find a new assistant manager that suits my needs and begin once more the process of taking control of interviews and such. 

- - -

Tactics:

As part of my network games, the rules tend to be a bit different there so I often end up flipping through various tactics from others. I have a couple of big influences on my tactical decision making process, personally I'm a big fan of @Rashidi and subscribe to his youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWUCWx5HNWSuzwGxwVczGPQ

I'll be honest, while I watch the videos and appreciate it and take as much as I can on board, it doesn't offer me a huge benefit when it comes to making my own tactics. I generally lack the creativity or imagination to envisage it before seeing it in a match. The way in which I try to structure the attacking play in my own tactics very much comes from Rashidi's videos, I don't know that I'm particularly anywhere near to what he means to convey but it seems to work. I potentially go a bit too far with the mentalities in an already positive formation, but I've certainly seen the wisdom of keeping it simpler with formations.

Structurally I tend to find I really like formations from @knap and one I particularly liked this year was his volante 442/4222 formations: 

Knaps formations were the inspiration behind the original Segundo Volante pairing in the middle with wingers before I deviated. I'm not big on changing team instructions or personal instructions (a few players have shoot less often, and I try to use sit narrow and cut inside with ball to push my FB more into the space left behind the segundo volante position) so there isn't an aim at just using one of Knap's tactics and passing it off as my own - but there is very much an understanding of where certain roles have been inspired from. 

It's linked earlier in the thread but once more here's the tactic I'm currently using:

It's remained unchanged now since around the same time last season, I did ultimately change the complete forward role to advanced forward, I felt a simpler role would suit Afobe better and largely it did, less complication to the role certainly made it better.

The LB, Left CB, Left DM and AML still tend to form a good passing diamond on the left side of the team with the Right CB and Roaming Play Maker always nearby options. Most of my defeats do seem to occur when a team is able to close this down usually by having 4 midfielders packed quite densely in the middle of the pitch on that side. Arsenal for example played a 4-2-3-1 but had their 2 CM's, AMC and AMR all in the same region as where that passing diamond would be and it was non-existent on the passing combinations. 

Less a diamond and more a triangle at the bottom touchline. 

A similar story against Leicester (the LDM #8 has 0 pass combinations when mousing over here)

Compared to the bottom side of the pitch against Birmingham where the LDM is getting a lot more passes. (28 pass combinations for #8)

In time I need to find a solution to this, but one problem with it happening infrequently is it makes it hard for me to plan possible solutions and try them. 

[santy001]

January: New Right Back Hunting

While it's not quite confirmed just yet clubs have begun coming in heavy for Moritz Bauer. To ward clubs off I'm negotiating an asking price of £25m, but Benfica, Porto and Valencia are pushing hard. This is the first time during this save I've had serious, sustained interest in a player I would need to replace in the starting XI. While there is the option of moving Tom Edwards into the side, Edwards has struggled to impress. Perhaps becoming first choice would be positive for him, and it's a definite option.

There's also a fellow youth prospect currently out on loan, Sim Thandi:

The debate that weighs heavily in the mind is simply with how well this season is going, do I want to risk compromising it by relying on youth? Or maybe I just need to hold my nerve even at £25m and say no to a sale for Bauer. 

I have a very hands off approach to scouting, all scouting matters are over seen by my director of football, Victor Orta. 

So I've got a pool of 25 scouting right backs. If I do sell Bauer then one of these will be my replacement, so in anticipation of the player leaving I really would like to get it narrowed down as to who would be my priorities.

Jayden Bogle:

Bogle appeals to me for a few reasons, he's got pace, anticipation, crossing and dribbling. His defensive abilities are a bit below ideal, with marking, tackling, concentration and decisions all coming in at 12 or less but his young age means they could easily improve in time. With an estimated cost of £8m and wage demands below £20k per week, Bogle could well be a solid choice.

Simon Asta:

Another young prospect, he's slightly worse than Bogle in an attacking sense and defensive sense, but he is faster. Given how I use my tactic, a quick ball out to the right and ability to run onto it can be what ultimately proves effective. He is cheaper, with lower wage demands and equally young so you would expect improvements here too.

Ruben Aguilar:

Has an active release clause of £3.1m and is already developed, he's superior to both previous players and fits a very similar mould to Bauer. At 26 he's obviously not got a huge amount of time left on the clock in his prime, but could prove to be a great addition to the squad.

Why not...

Alexis Saelemaekers:

The low tackling stat wasn't my big deterrent here, at 20 years old I think training could improve that substantially to a passable level but there were some major red flags. Firstly, the lack of jumping reach is always a big concern for me. The balls out wide are often in the air and need to be flicked on to the AMR or brought down - if he can't compete in the air then I'm losing an out-ball at times. Secondly, the overall cost of the package, it could cost me as much as £30m and £40k per week for a 20 year old from Belgium. He's not worth it.

I also considered Zappacosta and Aaron Wan-Bissaka but with an estimated cost of £50m and not being interested in selling at all respectively, these two weren't worth a closer look.

[santy001]

January (S2) - A crisis in confidence?

I had resolved actually to not sell Bauer. He put in a stunning performance in the following game and I just felt I couldn't guarantee a replacement would do the same. However, Valencia low-balled me with a non-negotiable offer of £12m (despite two higher bids from Benfica and Porto) and Bauer wanted to be sold. He himself wouldn't agree to my £25m mark, the best I could get him to agree to was £19m. As deadline day approached Benfica made a bid of £22m rising to £26m and so reluctantly I accepted.

Aguilar I didn't sign because he too lacked jumping reach, it's a couple points higher than Saelemaekers but not enough for what I wanted. Asta I wasn't sure if signing him would end his loan and make the transfer immediate, as it was deadline day I needed to move fast so I bought Bogle for £8m triggering a release clause to clubs in a higher division. 

And so came the first conflict with the squad. Shawcross felt the squad was now lacking depth defensively, I promised during a team meeting I would develop youth, and that seems to have put fears to rest for now but the majority of the squad is supporting Shawcross point. The months ahead will be tricky if results don't back me up.

Meanwhile, January was another fairly good month in terms of results. The fatigue is building up in the team and so squad rotation is proving vital. I'm still genuinely amazed at how frequently we're pulling results out, the Man City game was horrific however. Both times now Man City have beaten me this season and its been disgustingly comfortable for them. I was able to ward off Boltons interest for my assistant manager Ben Garner as well by almost doubling his wages, but I do worry that the Bauer transfer might prove to be a nasty spectre looming over the squad.

My Aims for the rest of the season?

With the club still in the lofty heights of 4th I don't expect to sustain it. I play an aggressive style, it gets me goals but as you can see my defence is proving to be one of the weaker in the league. My main aim is to try and keep in the top 7 to secure European football. The 14 point buffer on Burnley is one I should be able to maintain.

League Table:

[santy001]

February (S2) - Disaster

After just having bought Jayden Bogle and a game on Feb 1st against Spurs I took the brave option of throwing him right in. It was counter-intuitively done, but Tom Edwards had just played a game for the reserves midweek and was low on condition. What a disaster that proved to be... Within 15 minutes we were 3-0 down, Bogle was in the red section for ratings and I was desperately scrambling. I pulled it back to 3-2 with some set pieces, and actually finished the game stronger of the two sides after subbing Bogle and some of the other poor performers off. 

Things didn't really pick up in the rest of the month though, a backs to the wall draw against Liverpool with a cup win over championship Reading proving to be my one good result it felt like during the whole month. I lost my second consecutive cup final, again playing Liverpool just a week after playing them in the league and then West Ham drove it home a few days later with a crushing 3-0 defeat of my Stoke team. It seems it was only by the saving grace of it being a leap year I managed a positive result on Feb 29th against Villa.

League Table:

I've dropped out of the top 4, and I think with fixtures coming up against Man Utd & Chelsea next month this is where any vague hopes of a top 4 finish will end. Bogle has thus far been a pretty poor acquisition, and Tom Edwards isn't looking good enough either. I may regret trying to have gone for preserving morale over keeping Bauer.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Sign Moritz's brother Jack instead.

[santy001]

March - Season End (S2) 

I forgot to grab the screenshots at the end of March, and then got distracted watching some stuff on youtube and breezed through to the end of the season without thinking about what I was doing so the March, April & May will be condensed into one post.

March
More disappointment in March, just a solitary win against Southampton (although a penalty shootout win against Man City in the FA cup was also there) it left a negative air over the squad. A few minor issues came to the fore, players wanting new contracts which I refused led to Verlinden handing in a transfer request. It felt very much like the season was slipping away from me at this point. I was definitely on the ropes and wanted to hang on until the season end.

April
April began with more disappointment, a loss in the FA cup after extra time I decided to give a couple of players new contracts, morale improved a bit again and we saw out the month with some good wins.

May
Fortune had been kind coming into the last month, Spurs had been dropping points like crazy in April. Two wins in the final games and 1 more draw or loss for Tottenham would have seen me scrape that 4th champions league spot. However, 10 minutes into the game with Burnley I was 3-0 down and ultimately ended up losing 6-3. Burnley battered me earlier in the season and I came away with a surprise result (of 7-3) this one was the complete opposite way. I was dominating Burnley, having the chances but every shot that was on target in the game bar one went in for Burnley. 

League Table:

[santy001]

Season Review (S2) 

Finishing 5th is a great end to the first season back in the top flight. An awful lot of it came down to managing morale and complacency within the squad I feel. The team was of course no where near the 5th best on paper, and while its quite easy to identify the players who could have justified getting up to that level. Jayden Bogle did eventually settle down and become a useful player after a few catastrophic appearances after his transfer, meanwhile Sam Clucas, Tom Ince & Benik Afobe all proved their premier league worth despite very weak starts to the season. Afobe especially as he finished 2nd to Harry Kane in the golden boot despite the fact he didn't score a goal in the league until October 19th. 

Thibaud Verlinden & Tom Edwards both got game time this season, Verlinden is beginning to look a fine player and has a reasonable return of goals and assists. Not as effective as Clucas, but then Clucas can't go on forever and is approaching 30. 

Surprise of the Season

Looking at the rest of the league the surprise of the season was the survival of Wolves who at the end of February were bottom of the table on 16 points, but clawed their way to 31 and survived. After 20 games gone they were on 5 points, this means they picked up 26 points in 18 games. I don't think any team has ever survived from 5 at the turn of the year, but then it was a low points total for relegation.

Zinedine Zidane's Liverpool side. The surprise here is more how close they came to throwing it away. Liverpool were so comfortably out in front, and indeed in February had a 4 point gap with 2 games in hand. In the end they were rescued by 2 fairly late goals in their game against Bournemouth to secure the title. They won just 1 game in April, which shows just how close they were to bottling it.

Coming up from the Championship

Norwich and Leeds are coming up to the Premier League. Strangely mirroring how it looks like this season in real life could actually be. Swansea joined them coming up via the play-offs. 

[john1]

Fantastic season despite hiccups.

[santy001]

@Nobby_McDonald I don't quite have a Jack, but I do have the German Max Bauer who has returned from his loan with Sunderland.

@john1 it did feel like maybe going February there was a chance of top 4 football after all, but in the end the cruel reality of the squad not quite being strong enough bit hard. 

Next season of course is going to add a real strain onto the squad with the addition of European football, but who knows maybe the Europa League can be 3rd time lucky in a final - if I get there.

[santy001]

Planning for the Season Ahead

The Europa League will add half a dozen or more games to the roster, in addition to this front loading them meaning the squad is going to have a much more intense run. The club is improving the infrastructure on multiple levels, increasing the number of coaches, increasing the coaching wage budget with improvements to the training facilities and youth facilities its very much away from the limelight where the club is being worked on right now. The board have given me a £71.41m transfer budget, and  wage budget of £1.49m p/w which means there's headroom of £300k for new players.

Definitely Departing:

Early in the summer a £9m fee was agreed for Bojan to go to Lokomotiv Moscow, only natural that he now feels like he needs to start moving closer to Siberia to feel cold once more. Aritz Aduriz had decided to retire, and despite the fact I was very aggrieved by it at the time, a bad injury just after Christmas means it probably was for the best. It did lead to me making a bug post which highlighted an issue with older players & contracts, and chucking out a couple of feature requests regarding how retirement happens in the game. 

There aren't any immediate plans to part way with anyone else, but if a good offer comes in it will be considered.

Returning to the Fold:

This year Tyrese Campbell will be back from his loan and at the age of 20 it's time he shows whether he has what it takes to cut it at the top level in my mind. He's still a bit raw and undeveloped, which is disappointing but maybe with some good game time behind him in the premier league he can develop nicely.

Youngsters who may break through:

Mitchell McClellen turns 18 in November, this could be an ideal year for him to gradually start coming into place for Eric Pieters. He's fast, the scouts have rated him highly since he came through at the close of the first season. It could be time to see what he's all about and will be getting promoted to the senior squad.

- - -

I'm not particularly looking to add to the squad, despite the prospect of a tough season coming up. If I sell then I will replace, but I think a good year of continuity will really help the team this year. With McClellen coming through I think the one area of the team that needs a more medium term replacement in place is already covered but I think I've got another season before I need to consider bringing through replacements elsewhere in the team.

[santy001]

August (S3)

A massively worrying month. I started out with a 3-0 win against Everton, but they played a bizarre 5-4-1 formation sat so deep that in the first 15 minutes I scored all 3 goals. Thereafter it was incredibly difficult, and they looked the much better team. I was a little worried, but thought perhaps just complacency at 3-0 had seen my team ease off the gas. Then came a horrendous 4-1 mauling against Man Utd, honestly it could have been 7 or 8. My team offered nothing, and I then bumbled into another heavy beating at the hands of Southampton. 

At this point I was really bemoaning the fact I had let the window close without adding any reinforcements to the squad. Upcoming fixtures were Wolves, Norwich and Arsenal. Wolves were now in fine form, they had carried this season on as they ended the last but Wolves were playing a 4-2-3-1 with 2 DM's. This always suits my teams aggressive style and I ran out 4-0 winners, before going on to notch up a 4-1 win against Norwich. Mini-panic over but there's still some tough games coming up and there are still little issues bubbling beneath the surface. 

The final game of the month came against Arsenal. Unfortunately I lost the game 2-1 and Sam Clucas has pretty much had his season ended already with a knee ligament injury keeping him out for the best part of 8 months. 

League Table: