[FM20]- Barnsley - Profit Over Points!

[kiwityke1983]

36 minutes ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

Looks like Schmidt might have a tiny upgrade actually for the full game and you can no longer sell him, coz someone's made him slightly worse (quite rightly may I add) .

Bambo's had a downgrade by the looks and I cba to look at the rest, I'm sure someone will know cough* @Adamm90 cough* 

Schmidt played all of about 75 mins for me over 2 seasons and was sold back to Austria. I dread to think how rubbish he is now...(he was L1 level on my save). 

[Adamm90]

2 hours ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

Looks like Schmidt might have a tiny upgrade actually for the full game and you can no longer sell him, coz someone's made him slightly worse (quite rightly may I add) .

Bambo's had a downgrade by the looks and I cba to look at the rest, I'm sure someone will know cough* @Adamm90 cough* 

Don’t have the list to hand but generally decreases for most with obvious exceptions being Mowatt and Woodrow. Halme and Collins had slight increases.

[Jamesbfc1887]

Transfers:

In

A structured £450K deal for Aaron Hickey, his price has gone up quite a lot since the beta so hopefully he's got a PA boost to go with, he'll spend the season on loan at Salford.

 

Diego Poyet, an FM free transfer classic, I signed him to play for Rotherham last season and hopefully he can do the same again in that DM role.

 

Well this was our big punt this season, as Paul Conway said we've finally broken our transfer record of Mike Sheron from QPR in 1998/99. The 19 year old from Germany comes in for a whopping fee that could rise to £2.5million pounds!!!

I've put a lot of faith (and money) into this lad, hopefully he doesn't let me down.

Oh and don't worry he doesn't have an enormous head, I installed a facepack whilst taking screenshots 

 

Out

No permanent departures this window, a couple of loans out including:

The eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed Clarke Odour went out on loan twice, at first to Eastleigh however my loan manager (new feature ) told me he was too good for the National League so I recalled him and off he went to the Bundesliga 2

[Jamesbfc1887]

@kiwityke1983 @Adamm90

Can I just ask how on earth you did so well with this load of garbage???

I'm really struggling, I'll upload my inherent lack of progress shortly.

[kiwityke1983]

9 minutes ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

@kiwityke1983 @Adamm90

Can I just ask how on earth you did so well with this load of garbage???

I'm really struggling, I'll upload my inherent lack of progress shortly. 

First season I drew a lot. Like 60% of my games were draws and I won more of the other 40 than I lost. 

Second season about half the squad had been sold and replaced by much better talent. 

I've had to abandon my Beta save as loads of bugs cropped up, probably due to it being on the beta then updated etc. 

Edited November 22, 2019 by kiwityke1983

[Jamesbfc1887]

9 minutes ago, kiwityke1983 said:

First season I drew a lot. Like 60% of my games were draws and I won more of the other 40 than I lost. 

Second season about half the squad had been sold and replaced by much better talent. 

I've had to abandon my Beta save as loads of bugs cropped up, probably due to it being on the beta then updated etc. 

I've literally struggled so much no matter what I've tried. Tried a high press, low block, slow build up, faster build up. 5 at the back, 433, 4231, 442

All with similar terrible results.

[kiwityke1983]

20 minutes ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

I've literally struggled so much no matter what I've tried. Tried a high press, low block, slow build up, faster build up. 5 at the back, 433, 4231, 442

All with similar terrible results.

I played 5-3-2 with my own custom style. Which is pressing and counter attacking based. I've never been a fan of low block systems. Especially if you are a rubbish team, invites too much pressure, pressure you can't deal with. 

I must admit I was quite surprised how well I did the first season, because the squad is shocking as it is IRL. 

[Jamesbfc1887]

10 minutes ago, kiwityke1983 said:

I played 5-3-2 with my own custom style. Which is pressing and counter attacking based. I've never been a fan of low block systems. Especially if you are a rubbish team, invites too much pressure, pressure you can't deal with. 

I must admit I was quite surprised how well I did the first season, because the squad is shocking as it is IRL. 

Yeah I've abandoned the low block, trying to high press, non of the centre backs can deal with a high line, they get destroyed by long balls over the top, disgusting marking tbh.

I'm doing a write up of the story so far after I've had a sleep 

[kiwityke1983]

3 minutes ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

Yeah I've abandoned the low block, trying to high press, non of the centre backs can deal with a high line, they get destroyed by long balls over the top, disgusting marking tbh.

I'm doing a write up of the story so far after I've had a sleep 

Yes the fact one on one's were nigh on impossible to score on the initial ME may well have had something to do with my success. I remember we beat Brentford 1-0, Watkins had 6 clear cut chances from one on one's he spaffed wide and Brown spanked one in from 30 yards out haha.

I look forward to the write up. I'm actually for once looking forward to tomorrow's game too (it's tomorrow for me, I dunno what time it is in the UK currently). See how the Die Hard villian sets us up. Schmidt might actually get a game. 

[Jamesbfc1887]

6 minutes ago, kiwityke1983 said:

Yes the fact one on one's were nigh on impossible to score on the initial ME may well have had something to do with my success. I remember we beat Brentford 1-0, Watkins had 6 clear cut chances from one on one's he spaffed wide and Brown spanked one in from 30 yards out haha.

I look forward to the write up. I'm actually for once looking forward to tomorrow's game too (it's tomorrow for me, I dunno what time it is in the UK currently). See how the Die Hard villian sets us up. Schmidt might actually get a game. 

Yeah it might have helped thinking about, 6 clear cut chances sums up my Barmsley FM team. The new manager has given me a little lift actually, seems a good appointment on the surface, considering the rave reviews he's been getting from Austria, I'm also very intrigued to see how he sets the team up, don't think we have the players to pull off a narrow diamond though. We'll have to give him time though, the poor lad only came in a few days ago, can't see what real impact he could have made yet. I was very close to not going anymore, as I genuinely believed the board were content to let us slip back down to League 1 without trying, this gives me some faint hope we can salvage something from this season, even if that's just being more competitive than we were, the players are still the same garbage Murray and Stendel had, I'm not expecting this lad to save us, it would be a miracle, arguably a bigger one than the 2015/16 season. 

It's currently 2:40 in the morning, god knows why I'm still up 

 

[kiwityke1983]

56 minutes ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

Yeah it might have helped thinking about, 6 clear cut chances sums up my Barmsley FM team. The new manager has given me a little lift actually, seems a good appointment on the surface, considering the rave reviews he's been getting from Austria, I'm also very intrigued to see how he sets the team up, don't think we have the players to pull off a narrow diamond though. We'll have to give him time though, the poor lad only came in a few days ago, can't see what real impact he could have made yet. I was very close to not going anymore, as I genuinely believed the board were content to let us slip back down to League 1 without trying, this gives me some faint hope we can salvage something from this season, even if that's just being more competitive than we were, the players are still the same garbage Murray and Stendel had, I'm not expecting this lad to save us, it would be a miracle, arguably a bigger one than the 2015/16 season. 

It's currently 2:40 in the morning, god knows why I'm still up 

 

I live in Asia so haven't made it to a game in a decade or more but watch every game on ifollow, I even have my days and times off coordinated with our schedule. I must be mad. 

As I said to my dad earlier in the week, as far as I'm concerned this guys got a free hit this season as I think we've been all but relegated since September. I'm not even convinced we will compete at L1 level as we've bought some utter garbage. 

Plus yes the key problem we have is our squad is yet again unbalanced. We've got 14 wingers and goalkeepers at the club. 2 strikers only 3 actual centre backs (I refuse to count Sibbick as one, he's that awful), 3 Centre mids not counting Styles as nobody seems willing to give the lad a go. 

I'm not even sure we've got enough centre mids for him to play a diamond midfield! It also then makes the 11 wingers we've got totally redundant, not that they aren't already with the 5-3-2 formation Murray employed. 

 

[Adamm90]

I played a high tempo, high press 4-3-3, sometimes with a DM or AM instead of one of the midfield 3.

Ive altered it in my second season, noticed we conceded a lot due to balls over the top, and full-backs being out of position (realistic I must say). Currently sitting around 9th after ten games.

[Jamesbfc1887]

Preseason

Well, usually I'd outline my tactics for the season but that went out the window by October to be honest. I'd be here all day if that I covered all of them.

But anyway, preseason went pretty well actually, some really good results in there actually, especially against Anderlecht.

 

August and September

 

Ahhhh not a great start to the season then. Losses a plenty.

We started the season against promotion favourites Fulham, we twice took the lead through Conor Chaplin, before a sickening 93rd minute Harry Arter screamer left us empty handed. Nonetheless a relatively positive start to the season.

Our first away game of the  season took us to Hillsborough and true to form another loss in Sheffield ensued, meaning we are win less at Hillsborough since February 2009 

Well this is embarrassing to say the least, a hugely rotated squad were sunk by 4 goals from David Amoo, I mean honestly!!! Ben Williams had an absolute mare at left back and left us looking for a replacement, which never came.

The visit of Charlton highlighted the massive lack of quality on show by the two worst rated teams in the league, literally nothing happened!

This is when I really started to worry about our form, 3-0 down to Birmingham before a Chaplin double almost gave us a shot at gaining an unlikely point at St. Andrews, really worried by the lack of form by everyone other than the little man upfront.

Another shocking home performance left my under severe pressure, a 90th minute screamer from James Collins, gave the Hatters a much needed 3 points against their relegation rivals. Not happy at all.

I'm sad to announce another loss, again a fellow struggler turned us over thanks to an absolute worldy from Bright Enobakare in the 84th minute, a half volley from a headed clearance denied us an undeserved point. 

 

 

 

I felt a little unfortunate to lose this one, we really turned up and gave Leeds a run for their money, a 2-0 defeat was tough to take, Conor Chaplin missed a penalty and 3 other clear cut chances  I'm disappointed considering how well he's played this season.

Aghhhhhhhh another point that really should have been 3, Mamadou Thiam with a huge chance to bag all 3 points for the tykes in the 93rd minute, blasts his penalty straight at the keeper to keep us win less this season. Nonetheless a real improvement from the squad over the last 2 games, we really should have had at least 4 points but we'll have to take just the 1.

Finallyyyyyyyy no we didn't win, we scored a penalty , a decent point against a good Brentford side, unfortunately we surrendered a 2-1 lead with 15 minutes left on the clock.

 

Player of the Month(s)

Only one option here, Conor Chaplin his 5 goals have helped keep our head above water. Despite costing us the game against Leeds 

 

[abulezz]

Yikes that was a rough couple of months. 

[Bigshow1]

Shocking couple of months there pal.  Post your tactics up and lets see if we can help you out 

[Jamesbfc1887]

40 minutes ago, Bigshow1 said:

Shocking couple of months there pal.  Post your tactics up and lets see if we can help you out 

Will do! When I get back in, early start today (don't worry I'm not mental enough to go to Blackburn away )

[Jamesbfc1887]

All of this is definitely self inflicted, after winning league 1, with 1 loss all season, with Peterborough in the beta with a classic high press, I decided to make things more difficult than they needed to be by avoiding a similar tactic here. 

Then as the seasons gone by I reverted back to that style of play but we're on such a poor run of form, it's difficult to get the right results. Centre backs are gonna be the death of me, I swear 

[Bigshow1]

1 hour ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

Will do! When I get back in, early start today (don't worry I'm not mental enough to go to Blackburn away )

Good shout, especially if you play like you did against us at Deepdale! lol

[Jamesbfc1887]

@Bigshow1 So these are the tactics that have left us in this mess.

Early season form down to this load of rubbish, my attempt at being clever.

Or varied with this for Out of Possession

 

This is what I've switched to later, back to basics (sort of). The problem is the form was do bad by this point the p turn in form has only been small.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Jamesbfc1887

[Bigshow1]

I think the first tactic is a mess mate. Favourite for relegation and you are playing on attacking mixed with lower defensive line, much lower LOE yet extreme pressing. You have overlap right but your wingback is on defend so he’s going to hold his position and cross from deep.

Also noticed you are trying to play extremely fast direct passing so I think the inverted wingback is wasted as he’s not going to see much of the ball. 
 

I think for starters you should strip things back and get rid of most of the TI’s. I’d play a mid block with normal defensive line and normal/lower LOE on a positive mentality and normal defensive width. I usually play on more urgent pressing and give my forwards/attacking mids more closing down. If I play more direct I may play wider but if I go for shorter passing, I go normal or slightly narrower width. 

[Bigshow1]

Something that has helped me massively last year was watching Rashidi on his the Bust The Net Channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWUCWx5HNWSuzwGxwVczGPQ

he takes people’s saves that aren’t doing well and shows you how to turn things round. Gives you great ideas and makes you see things differently

[samwilzrhcp]

I started my annual Barnsley save during the Beta period, planned on it being a long term save but I had the same struggles as you James, just like real life the defence is woeful, no matter what I tried I couldn’t get a win.  In the end I was chopping and changing things for the sake of it and couldn’t get a settled side or tactic.  Started a new Bolton save after the update, but will watch this thread to see how you get on.

[Jamesbfc1887]

9 hours ago, Bigshow1 said:

I think the first tactic is a mess mate. Favourite for relegation and you are playing on attacking mixed with lower defensive line, much lower LOE yet extreme pressing. You have overlap right but your wingback is on defend so he’s going to hold his position and cross from deep.

Also noticed you are trying to play extremely fast direct passing so I think the inverted wingback is wasted as he’s not going to see much of the ball. 
 

I think for starters you should strip things back and get rid of most of the TI’s. I’d play a mid block with normal defensive line and normal/lower LOE on a positive mentality and normal defensive width. I usually play on more urgent pressing and give my forwards/attacking mids more closing down. If I play more direct I may play wider but if I go for shorter passing, I go normal or slightly narrower width. 

Thanks! I'll try what you've said.

Yeah I've binned the first tactic off now, the IWB shouldn't be there btw, I've not been using one.

This was actually what I started with, using an IWB didn't really have any good results either, I then switched to that confused mess after. The problem is that the defenders are too slow to play a high line and they can't builf from the back as their pasing is woeful. Although when I used a lower LOE and low defensive line, there was a disgusting amount of longshots flying in, which I guess was to be expected.

[Jamesbfc1887]

October

 

So the month started in great fashion, a 2-0 win against Derby in a game we completely dominated (for once).

But normal service resumed soon enough, a disappointing loss in another game we deserved more from but we just couldn't break a stubborn Preston team down, the loss even more worrying considering their own lack of form.

A hugely disappointing collapse with 20 minuted to go meant we were 2-1 down after initially having taken the lead thanks to aLuke Thomas half-volley but a last gasp Denzel Washington from Mowatt salvaging a point from the jaws of defeat.

West Brom have got good players, simple as, they dominated from start to finish. I mean Filip Krovinovic that's just not fair tbh.

Next up was a good old fashioned Yorkshire Derby as Sky Sports would love to build this up, rather than how I view this game as "Two towns moderately close together, with no rivalry, which aren't actually in the same county", so have that Sky Sports! 

Well anyway we lost, a Luke Thomas dissalowed goal for a very marginal offside didn't help and neither did this tbh! 

https://i.gyazo.com/2395ca816d87e76208bc98e5d26a50cf.mp4

Seriously!!!!!!

 

Yep, so unfortunately we're left here without a prayer at seems, other than there are actually a couple of team almost as bad as we are. I'm doing pretty similarly to real life so that proves I'm not doing such a catastrophic job. 

 

No player of the month this month, everyone was "very good" I'll say in fear of being banned for what I would like to say  

[Bigshow1]

I never play a lower defensive line. Just seems to invite attack after attack. Normal line is fine. Try leaving distribution for you sweeper keeper to decide.

[Jamesbfc1887]

8 minutes ago, Bigshow1 said:

I never play a lower defensive line. Just seems to invite attack after attack. Normal line is fine. Try leaving distribution for you sweeper keeper to decide.

Right I'll try that, the problem is these players have all had downgrades since the beta, Woodrow and Mowatt aside. They're genuinely awful.

The frustrating thing is I've usually been quite good at the game, I started a game with Peterborough and won League 1 with only 1 loss all season, so frustrating that I can't buy a win in this save.

The tactic I had with Peterborough was decent, don't think I can plug in and play it in this save though.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Jamesbfc1887

[kiwityke1983]

Standard defensive line with a lower line of engagement and more intense pressing is fairly useful if you want to be quite compact and counter.

[Jamesbfc1887]

1 hour ago, kiwityke1983 said:

Standard defensive line with a lower line of engagement and more intense pressing is fairly useful if you want to be quite compact and counter.

This is sort of what I was trying to do.

@Bigshow1 How's this? Back to basics.

 

[kiwityke1983]

7 hours ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

This is sort of what I was trying to do.

@Bigshow1 How's this? Back to basics.

 

If you are trying to be compact and counter quickly. I'd make a few changes personally. 

I wouldn't counter press, it encourages players to pressure the ball very aggressively and leaves gaps in defence. 

I'd have passing and tempo on standard and slightly higher. (middle on positive) 

I'd also pass in to space and wouldn't play out of defence . Those changes should encourage players to get the ball forward a bit quicker and more direct.

Those changes should make your defence more solid and your attack more potent on the counter. 

Edited November 25, 2019 by kiwityke1983

[Jamesbfc1887]

10 hours ago, kiwityke1983 said:

If you are trying to be compact and counter quickly. I'd make a few changes personally. 

I wouldn't counter press, it encourages players to pressure the ball very aggressively and leaves gaps in defence. 

I'd have passing and tempo on standard and slightly higher. (middle on positive) 

I'd also pass in to space and wouldn't play out of defence . Those changes should encourage players to get the ball forward a bit quicker and more direct.

Those changes should make your defence more solid and your attack more potent on the counter. 

Thanks, I think I've just become so muddled with my tactics on this save I can't see the wood for the trees anymore.

I don't really have a philosophy anymore, it's been completely lost in translation by now. This save has p1ssed me off so much and I've lost the plot tbh. So much so I'm off to PC world to get a new mouse as it ended up in the wall last night 

Some of the reasons for the shorter passing and playing out from defence is simply because as we saw on Saturday, I'm yet to see us pass it more than 5 yards to a red shirt!!!!

[kiwityke1983]

29 minutes ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

Thanks, I think I've just become so muddled with my tactics on this save I can't see the wood for the trees anymore.

I don't really have a philosophy anymore, it's been completely lost in translation by now. This save has p1ssed me off so much and I've lost the plot tbh. So much so I'm off to PC world to get a new mouse as it ended up in the wall last night 

Some of the reasons for the shorter passing and playing out from defence is simply because as we saw on Saturday, I'm yet to see us pass it more than 5 yards to a red shirt!!!!

We've all been there mate! 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Enduring a struggle makes the success all the sweeter.

[Jamesbfc1887]

November

 

Well, another disappointing month and I'm beginning to look rather sheepishly over my shoulder at Paul Conway and his Moneyball crew.

Who knew Niclas Elliasson was so good, or maybe Dimi Cavare is absolutely garbage, I'll let you decide. In other news Mads Andersen is our second top scorer  and considering that's only 2 goal, it says a lot really.

Stoke, nothing happened as we actually dominated a game for once, we created nothing of note and the game fizzled out. Until we almost managed to grab a loss from the jaws of a hard earned point, when Scott Hogan ran clean through before being thwarted by the sole positive from this season Brad Collins.

Blackburn absolutely destroyed us a 7.7 rating from Brad Collins in goal kept the scoreline respectable.

This one stings I have to say, 1-0 up until the 95th minute away at 2nd placed Middlesbrough with what would surely be a huge win for us, until George Saville calmly tucked away an Ashley Fletcher cross. Devastated 

Another disappointing 2 points dropped against Hull, Jordan Wiliams fired us in-front with a  close range header from a carefully worked corner routine before his goal was cancelled out by Matthew Pennington right before half time.

 

POTM:

Brad Collins

As I say, kept us in a fair few games and those ratings are pretty decent considering the lack of appreciation sometimes on the FM match engine. A great month for the young shot-stopper, who has now displaced Sami Radlinger as the number one.

 

These results leave us in 23rd with an alarming 10 points from 19 games!!!!! Not good, this in spite of all the help I've been so grateful to receive, my days are numbered it feels 

 

 

[Jamesbfc1887]

Right so this is a rather large excuse and a bit of a nib at the game.

But I genuinely think this match engine is, well.... average lets say. The wingers not crossing needs to be patched and I'm sure it will.

There are a few other interesting dynamics to the game, there appears to be a huge increase in the number of late goals in games this season, usually against me. I've had this in all the saves I've had so far on FM, even with teams I've dominated the league with. I'm not saying it's unrealistic, I'm sure it probably isn't but seems like it's a little too prevalent for me this year. Also going onto a defensive mentality ruins your defending, I'm sure your better of just defending. All your players turn into prime Keith Curle all of a sudden 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Jamesbfc1887

[Jamesbfc1887]

Board meeting to drop McGeehan, almost got sacked and now they love all of a sudden 

[SRL88]

Tough going so far. Fingers crossed you can get a couple of wins on the board soon.

[Jamesbfc1887]

3 minutes ago, SRL88 said:

Tough going so far. Fingers crossed you can get a couple of wins on the board soon.

Hopefully mate, there's already been a casualty thanks to this save , my mouse died a painful death at the hands of my office wall.

[SpillBlood]

6 hours ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

Right so this is a rather large excuse and a bit of a nib at the game.

But I genuinely think this match engine is, well.... average lets say. The wingers not crossing needs to be patched and I'm sure it will.

There are a few other interesting dynamics to the game, there appears to be a huge increase in the number of late goals in games this season, usually against me. I've had this in all the saves I've had so far on FM, even with teams I've dominated the league with. I'm not saying it's unrealistic, I'm sure it probably isn't but seems like it's a little too prevalent for me this year. Also going onto a defensive mentality ruins your defending, I'm sure your better of just defending. All your players turn into prime Keith Curle all of a sudden 

Try using the 4 - 3 - 3 Gegenpress the game aleady has custom.  I'm using that slightly edited(like one or two roles) and it's been amazing for me.

[ManUtd1]

7 hours ago, Jamesbfc1887 said:

Hopefully mate, there's already been a casualty thanks to this save , my mouse died a painful death at the hands of my office wall.

It shouldn't have given you THAT look. You had no choice, really. It was asking for it... 

[Jamesbfc1887]

7 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

It shouldn't have given you THAT look. You had no choice, really. It was asking for it... 

I know honestly some people these days .

I mean it's as much it's fault as it is mine, I decided I wanted less of a yes man, that did everything I told it to. If it hadn't have clicked on the screen in that particular order to let me create a terrible tactic we wouldn't be in this mess .

It was time to go for that mouse evidently, my new one's got all kinds of flashing lights, that you can customise, very fancy, much more sophisticated 

[Jamesbfc1887]

9 hours ago, SpillBlood said:

Try using the 4 - 3 - 3 Gegenpress the game aleady has custom.  I'm using that slightly edited(like one or two roles) and it's been amazing for me.

I'll certainly try and do something like that, I do change it up in January with something very much out there.

I see your flying up the league's so there must be something in it.

[Jamesbfc1887]

Ooooooo, you love to see it! Sadly I won't be there to reap the rewards of it 

 

December:

A decent month actually, yet again it's a story of what could have been, we've choked so many leads this season but this month really took the biscuit tbh. We just can't afford to ship so many late goals and more importantly the points we're missing out on.

A late Robert Glatzel header made sure we remained winless in 10!!! 2 points dropped for sure after a strong start to the game.

Finally our first win in what feels like forever!!! We stormed into a 2-0 lead through Mowatt and second top scorer Mads Andersen. This happened before Finland international Aapo Halme though it was a great idea to get sent off just before the half time whistle! But the lads left on the pitch managed to battle hard and finally give 3 points at Oakwell.

After our heroic win against Reading, QPR came to town and once again we bottled it  2-1 up after turning the game on it's head and I believed we were on the brink of greatness, everything was suddenly coming rosy, untill.....  Eze for QPR steps up and rifles home a 25 yard screamer from a cleared corner to break our hearts 

Another lead blown, fortunately Millwall equalised after half an hour rather than the 88th minute. Jon Dadi Bodvarsson always scores against me, just like Lys Mousset does 

Enough said , this one hurt.

Wayyyyyyy we didn't bottle the last game though, when Swansea brought it back to 2-1 ooooo my new mouse was lookingat me sheepishly I have to say. I was ready to flip! Thankfully the goal scoring extraordinaire Andersen was there to head home from a corner to give us 3 points for the second time in a month, yes you read correctly, have some of that!!!

  

Oh... Sh*t forgot about this, we're still garbage!!!

Doesn't look great, Derby are having a terrible time of it, I wouldn't be surprised to see them mount a charge to safety though, way too much quality for this to continue surely.

 

POTM: 

 

Mads Juel Andersen, the man cannot defend for toffee but he scores goals!!!!!!!!

What a player 

[kiwityke1983]

If only he could score in real life, rather than just being generally hopeless at defending. God if Sibbick is playing today I swear I may lose my mind.

Decent month, and you are ahead of where I expect us to be IRL at the end of December.

Edited November 27, 2019 by kiwityke1983

[Adamm90]

I cashed in on Mads when I could, I was amazed anybody offered a decent sum for him.

Sorry to hijack your thread but I've had some strange (lucky) transfers. In the pre-season of the second season I brought in Vittorio Parigini on a free transfer. Decent attributes, but nobody else seemed to show any interest in him. I played him in the second game of the season, then the day after he announced that he wanted to leave as he couldn't settle in the country. I ended up letting him go on loan for a monthly fee of £500k, and I've now just sold him for £4.3M going into the third season.

I also signed Jordan Boon, from Bolton, for around £100k. He spent the season on loan at Oxford, and I was about to send him out again for a second season before Leicester came in with a deal worth £10M. Also managed to cash in heavily on Callum Styles (£9M to Newcastle) and Dimi Cavare (£3.4M to RC Lens). The money becomes available to rebuild if you persist!

[Jamesbfc1887]

January
 

After the last game against Swansea confidence was high as we travelled to bottom club Derby, who have recently picked up a few decent results after a managerial change and I fear they may well come back from the brink of relegation at our expense. Malik Wilks gave us the lead with just under 20 minutes to go. It looked like a huge 3 points were heading back up north with us to Oakwell, until..... Tom Huddlestone fired home with less than 10 minutes to go 

The FA Cup gave us some much needed respite from our league woes, too brilliant finishes from Brown and McGeehan gave us a 2-0 lead before Stoke pulled one back through  Cameron Carter-Vickers and uncharacteristically we held on to make it through to the next round of cup.

Our new found tactic much to the contributions on this thread has yielded some extra points, not necessarily better performances. A 0-0 bore draw against Huddersfield gave us a richly deserved point in a game lacking of any real quality.

Oh dear, the less said about this one the better, we got destroyed by Niclas Eliasson and made him look like prime Messi down their left handside. A consolation goal came from Toby Sibbick.

Another 1-0 lead squandered, a late winner came through Tom Barkhuizen and dealt us another serious relegation concern, as we once again fail to see out a lead. Woodrow and Wilks  are the only bright sparks in the side right now and I have serious concerns about how long this can continue. Another win-less month in the league spells trouble for my tenure as manager.

A decent performance against West Ham with us level with only 6 minutes left, before goals in the 84th and 86th minute knocked to us out of the cup.

 

 

So another disappointing month left us 23rd place, fortunately we are only 1 point off Charlton in 21st but there's an alarming gap building to the bottom half of the table. It looks like 3 out of the 4 at the bottom will be going down come what May (obviously actually if you think about it )

We face Charlton next, so stay tuned for that relegation 6 pointer

My January transfers will follow.

[Jamesbfc1887]

Transfers:

Not too busy in this window, only 2 additions

But we'll start wit the outs.

Ben Williams and Callum Styles both leave on loan to Grimsby and Tranmere respectively, both had failed to make a real impact when involved in the first team squad so the decision to move them out was made. I was swiftly made to regret Styles' departure with a huge injury crisis at the club which shortly ensued once he'd packed his bags for Merseyside.

 

4 injuries to our central midfielders has hit hard over January and really contributed to the poor results seen above, we were down to just Becker and Dougall, so we acted on the last day.

Ins:

Not a bad pickup for £45k, his contract was up in 6 months and transfer listed at Hibernian, I think he's a decent squad player for us, especially on £1.3k a week  Injury crisis needs must kind of player, I looked at him in the summer and we've got our man now, welcome to my relegation tour Vykintas Slivka!!!

 

Well then this is a bit of a coup if I may say so myself, Andreas Poulsen is by many accounts a bit of a gem this year and I can't believe we've managed to get him to join in all honesty. We've parted with £2mil rising to 3 with various clauses, absolute steel in my opinion. Bit of an upgrade on Williams or Pinillos!

[johnstonpickle]

Poulsen looks excellent. There has to be a way you can exploit those long throws? Getting to be a desperate situation now in terms of keeping them up! Maybe change all your throw in routines to lump all the big men forward and cause absolute havoc?!!

[Jamesbfc1887]

3 hours ago, johnstonpickle said:

Poulsen looks excellent. There has to be a way you can exploit those long throws? Getting to be a desperate situation now in terms of keeping them up! Maybe change all your throw in routines to lump all the big men forward and cause absolute havoc?!!

Yeah it's getting tough I can't lie, some decent additions this window, I'll see if Poulsen comes in handy with those long throws.

Not sure I've got any long throw expertise tbh.

[Jamesbfc1887]

February:

Well I'd call this an improvement, 2 wins in 2 at the start of the month gave me a real cause for optimism but all in all we flattered to deceive really, going win-less in 5 at the back end of the month.

These 2 wins were followed by a really disappointing loss at home to Birmingham, we were completely outplayed on the day and I was left feeling as though we hadn't really given it our all.

Up next was a spirited fight back on the banks of the Thames, like so many of our games this season a lead was squandered, fortunately for us it was Fulham doing the squandering and we completed a special comeback when are star-man Malik Wilks rifled home a blistering volley from the edge of the area to send us home with a vital point in the relegation fight.

Unfortunately for us we returned to our normal selves when an early Cauley Woodrow effort was cancelled out by Andernee Dijksteel's equaliser just before half time. Another decent performance against two of the best sides in the division, left me pretty content with our work from these two tough games.

Oh dear, we more than met our match against Hull Kamil Grosicki at the double to secure us our second defeat of the month. And finally a bore draw against high flying Reading, this was a vital point and excellent defensive display after last weeks drumming against Hull. We came out with an attacking intent before a Pinillos red card saw a backs to the wall performance by the team. In truth Reading never really troubled us and Brad Collins won't have to wash his kit for the visit of Cardiff (first time I've said that all season ).

 

So we're still in the bottom 3 but it looks like our win over Charlton has effectively relegated The Addicks, Derby have unfortunately found some real form, sweeping aside both Fulham and Huddersfield 3-0!!!!!

We've somewhat bridged the gap to the rest of the pack, but we're still 3 points from safety with ten points to go.

Cauley Woodrow has finally started to pick up some goals  and could yet pay a huge part in our season.

Poulsen has been really poor in honesty, very disappointing so far. 

[john1]

You can turn this around mate!