Football Manager

[Lanteri]

Update as of December 5th, 2013.

We, along with Schalke, are through to the knockout stages of the Europa League, still with 1 match to play in the group stage.

Domestically, we got off to a very good start, winning 8 of our first 9 matches, with the lone loss 2-1 away to Spurs, ending with 3 straight 4-0 victories. However, after that we randomly decided to blow up and lose 4-0 to Man City @ Man City (not that surprising a result), but a 5-3 loss at home to QPR and a 3-3 draw at home to Fulham were shocking. We conceded 12 goals in those 3 matches, after conceding just 5 through the first 9. That's with no injuries to the defense or anything, they just decided to stink.

Joe Mattock is the main culprit. After impressing me with a 7.21 match rating in 10 games for me in the run-in last season, prompting me not to upgrade at left back, he's been in poor form this season, turning in a 6.78 through 11 matches, and a 6.02 in the last 5. Definitely going to be looking to upgrade there in January. I don't want to sell Mattock just yet, so I'll likely ship him back out on loan.

[spiker]

Won the Premier League. Thats 4 titles in 4 years. We won 11 Premier League matches in a row to finish the season. We were down by over 10 points to United at one time too. Great comeback and finish. Now onto the World Cup with England.

Final Table

 

Player Stats

 

52 Goals? Holy fuck

[Lanteri]

Drew Villareal in the first knockout round of the Europa League. Closed out the group stage with a 3-1 victory over Schalke for good measure as well. Winner gets winner of Everton (lol, figures they'd get through the group stage of the Europa League despite being relegated) vs. Metalist.

Agreed with Bayern to sign LB Diego Contento for £3.2m. Naturally, Mattock has turned in a 7.0, 7.0, 6.9, and 6.9 in the last 4 games just to piss me off. I'll still loan him out.

4 matches left to go in December til the window opens, including the typical 3 matches in 5 day stretch after Christmas. Fortunately it's not against tough competition, away @ Swansea, then 3 straight home matches against Wigan, Stoke and M'Boro. We're currently 6th in the table on 30 points, with a game in hand to 5th place in Man City, who's on 30 points as well, and 4th place Arsenal who are on 31 points. So with a win in our next match we can move up the table to 4th place.

Man U has a comfortable lead on 41 points through 16. Newcastle behind them with 33. Liverpool on 31 through 15.

[Lanteri]

Just lost Graham Dorrans for the rest of the season as well with a broken leg. Expected to be out 5 to 6 months. Potentially a career altering injury as well, given that he's almost guaranteed to lose pace that he doesn't really have to begin with. He had 2 goals and 3 assists in 13 league games, and a 7.08 rating.

My options now at AMC are Simon Cox (1 goal, 2 assists, 6.79 rating in 10 appearances), James Morrison (1 assist, 6.52 rating in 6 appearances), or I can move Chris Brunt in centrally, and start Jerome Thomas (1 goal, 6 assists, 7.12 rating in 11 appearances).

I'll of course be looking at loan options as well.

[Lanteri]

As expected, we won all 4 matches at the end of December, 1-0, 3-1, 2-0, 3-2. That puts at the halfway mark at 19 games, with a 13-3-3 record, good for 42 points and 3rd in the league, with one game in hand on leaders Man U (51 points), and 2nd place Arsenal (43 points). We've recovered well from that brief spell of terribleness that we had there after a hot start.

I've terminated Charlie Adam's loan due to a 3 month injury that he sustained, combined with the development of George Thorne, and the strong play of Rhys Williams. Contento has joined the squad as I mentioned for £3.2m. Mattock and Wood have been sent out on loan. I've been rotating the squad fairly frequently since the Dorrans injury, and because we had so many games in rapid succession, so it's hard to tell what I've decided on as the ideal starting XI up front while Dorrans is hurt.

I'm looking into Julio Baptista, who has been transfer listed. Might bring him in if his wage demands aren't too ridiculous.

Shane Long has been in tremendous form for me all season, turning in 23 league goals, in 19 matches, along with 7 in 7 continental matches, for a total of 30 in 27. McLean has proven to be a good signing as well, turning in 3 goals and 8 assists in 17 league appearances, for a 7.30 avg rating, + 3 and 3 in continental play for a 7.34.

[Lanteri]

Well now, this was rather insulting:

"Julio Baptista has rejected the contract offer from West Brom.

Julio Baptista stated that he is of the opinion that a move to West Brom would be a backwards step in his career."

Oh sorry Julio, didn't know that playing in the same European Competition as Malaga, and being 3rd in the table in a more competitive league is a step backwards. -_-

edit: Brought in Tim Cahill instead, for £3.2m. Signed for 50k p/w wages, and is here through the end of next season. Obviously, as an Everton supporter he's a favorite of mine, and his leadership ability is definitely a plus.

edit #2: Sold Jonas Olsson to Newcastle for £500k after I made him mad by stripping him of captaincy. Brought in Alexis on loan from Sevilla. Bartley and Silvestre will continue to provide cover.

[Lanteri]

Contento hurt himself 3 weeks into January and is out 4-5 weeks. *sigh*

Mattock coming back from loan.

Our 10 match unbeaten streak came to an end with a 2-0 loss at home to Man U.

[Lanteri]

Injury woes continue.

Cahill, who I just acquired, is down for the season with a torn calf.

[Lanteri]

Eliminated from the Europa League by Villareal. Lost 4-3 @ their place, then drew 2-2 at home. We had a 2-1 lead with 8 minutes to go, got hit on the counter by Nilmar, and wound up drawing. Went on overload for the last 7 minutes of the match, had a number of opportunities to take the lead, but couldn't get it done.

[spiker]

Seems like when the injuries start, they just pile up on you. To me, it always feels like as soon as say my LB goes down, then every LB on my squad gets bit by the injury bug at the same time.

[BigHouseUSA]

Yup, that's pretty much how FM works.

[Lanteri]

Alright, time for the 10 match run-in report.

28 games played, we're 5th in the table with 57 points. 17 wins, 6 draws, 5 losses. 54 GF, 30 GA. We're even on points with Chelsea, who have a game in hand on us, and a lead in goal differential. We have a game in hand on 3rd place Man City, who are on 62, and 2nd place Arsenal who are on 63. Man U still holds a fair cushion, up 5 points on the Gunners on 68. We also have a game in hand on them.

Behind us in 6th and 7th are Spurs and Newcastle, each of which we have a game in hand on, and are 6 points clear. A win in our next match against Bolton will give us a 9 point cushion in the continental qualification zone.

Arsene Wenger has resigned from Arsenal and the media's touting me to be their next manager. I've declined to comment and haven't been approached as of yet. I don't think I'd leave for the Gunners as I'd rather win some trophies in West Brom first, but you never know.

As I mentioned already we've been eliminated from the Europa League. The only competition we're left in is the FA Cup, in which we've advanced to the 6th round and are facing Ipswich. The other 6 remaining teams are Man City, Newcastle, Villa, Burnley, Reading, and Hull. We defeated Chelsea in a 5th round replay 3-2.

Form-wise, Alexis has proven to be the signing of the term for me. In 5 league games he has a 7.44 average rating and has just plain been a rock in defense. Pretty glad Olsson decided to have a temper tantrum now as he's clearly been an upgrade at the back. We've conceded just 1 goal in those 5 matches.

Fixture wise, here's what we got left:

vs. Bolton (16th)
vs. Man City (3rd)
@ QPR (9th)
@ Fulham (10th)
@ Arsenal (2nd)
Vs. Villa (18th)
vs. Newcastle (7th)
@ Wigan (15th)
vs. Swansea (11th)
@ Stoke (12th)

Definitely a favorable schedule for us, as our toughest opponent comes to the Hawthorns. Arsenal will certainly be a challenge at the Emirates, but other than that it's setup in our favor.

[Lanteri]

Sure enough just after posting this, Arsenal offered me the job. I requested that I be allowed to delay my decision until the end of the season. I'm very unlikely to accept as long as we finish in European Qualification at West Brom. If we manage to collapse and fall out, I might jump ship.

[Lanteri]

Bit of a disappointing run out. Still managed a 5th place finish in the league though, and we'll be back in the Europa League.

I've turned down Arsenal's contract offer.

Got a number of things to work out in the summer window. I'm leaning toward moving away from the 4-2-3-1 formation I've been using and back to a 4-4-2, so with that in mind, I'm going to be looking for potential suitors for Graham Dorrans, and see if I can't get anyone to take Tim Cahill off my hands, after that went sour with the injury and all.

I'm pretty set in midfield between Mulumbu, Thorne, and Rhys Williams so I won't be looking for upgrades there. I do need some cover for McLean and Brunt in left and right midfield, hopefully find one guy that can play both sides. Up front, Cox will just slide from AMC to striker, giving me Cox and Long up front. Chris Wood is a possible rotation option, but he scored just 8 goals for Ipwsich in 19 appearances, and a 6.65 rating and doesn't appear to be Premiership quality just yet, so I'll likely seek out cover there as well.

Defensively, I'll be looking for a permanent option to pair with Ashley Williams. Alexis played well on his loan, but I don't think he's the long term solution there. Donervon Daniels continues to develop, but isn't ready, and won't be for another season or two, so I'll be searching there as well. Billy Jones wants out. He sucks anyway, so I'll sell him. Leaves me Contento Reid and Mattock at fullback. I gave Reid another new contract keeping him with the club through 2014. His physical abilities have yet to give out on him, so he's still a class fullback.

Also, worth noting is the board has gone out of their way now in consecutive offseasons to expand the grounds without my asking. We were upgraded from 26,272 to 34,200 last year. This year they're adding another 3,800 to bring us up to 38,000. We were at 99% capacity for the entire season, so it makes sense for them to keep adding. Also our youth facilities are in the process of being upgraded for a second time as well.

Squad Stats

 

League Table

 

[calgaryballer]

Back with my Bayern/England save. 2017, and we're on course for a second straight Bundesliga. Knocked out of the CL by PSG after winning 3-1 at home, they beat us 2-0 at Parc de Princes.

Team struggled for a while, but we've begun to find some form as I tinker with tactic. 9 points clear with 6 games to play