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If I get on (only about a 20 percent chance) and if I somehow make it to a 5-6 day champion because all my opponents are somehow even worse palookas than I am, Wrexham will get a shout out.
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May 12, 2014 14:41
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habeasdorkus posted:If I get on (only about a 20 percent chance) and if I somehow make it to a 5-6 day champion because all my opponents are somehow even worse palookas than I am, Wrexham will get a shout out. Ah come on! I have faith in you!
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May 12, 2014 14:59
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Yeah! Best of luck. 
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May 12, 2014 15:20
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A: By the numbers provided to us by the management it looks like our current spending is maintainable but only barely so and we don't have any reserves to fall back on. Moreover, while our odds to make Europe are looking good, reaching the Champions League remains very uncertain even if we strengthen the team, which we very well might fail to do even with extra funds since our coach doesn't seem to have identified any prime additions. If we increase funding and we stumble along the way - even a minor amount of bad luck with injuries or disrupted squad harmony from new arrivals might leave us out of Europe, and thus deny us the extra income - we risk everything we and our coach worked for: Going into the red would force us to sell prime assets to remain afloat, and while I do have conficence in Scott Brown's ability to develop replacement players over time it would be very difficult to not slump temporarily since we'd be unable to attract ready-made players with the reduced budget available. And since Scott Brown has already shown he'd consider jumping ship under specific circumstances I wouldn't be surprised such a situation without immediate prospects for european qualification might convince him to look elsewhere for employment. I do admit this is not the most probable outcome of increasing the budget, but it's not horribly unlikely either and I'd rather not gamble with the future of the club, especially since it looks like we can accomplish our goals without taking those risks. Amhazair fucked around with this message at 22:21 on May 12, 2014 |
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May 12, 2014 18:09
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Who else is expecting Sky Shadowing as one of the other contestants? I might have to actually watch an episode of Jeopardy now, and good luck Habeas!
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May 13, 2014 05:08
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To be clear, I'm not on Jeopardy. I was called in for a live audition, so there's a roughly 20% chance I'll be on the show in the next 18 months. I feel good about the audition, but there's a lot of 30-something dudes in the audition pool, and even more lawyers. If I get the call, I'll shout it far and wide.
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May 13, 2014 05:25
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If you do get on Jeopardy and win, we expect those profits to be poured back into the team. 
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May 13, 2014 06:59
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Zaodai posted:If you do get on Jeopardy and win, we expect those profits to be poured back into the team. And also the proper "other" expenses allocations 
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May 13, 2014 16:58
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Interlude: The Youngbloods January 6, 2021 I was asked if I can spotlight some of the players that I feel are most impressive so far this season. I'm also going to give a team overview, so you can get a sense of where we're thin and an idea of what I'll want to upgrade in the future. The Board has also graciously granted me another £5m to use as I see fit this season, and after looking over our stats here you'll be able to tell what I'm hunting for.  We're most obviously thin on the left side of the field, if Mujkic went down Mejasic would be pressed into the left midfield role and youth player Piero Argenti would be our best option at left wing. Right back would also be a problem if Cirjak missed significant time, Douggie Two Saints has done little to show he deserves to be a rotation option in his limited playing time. Goalkeeper would be an issue if Kovacevic gets hurt, but he's rated as being healthy as an ox so I'm less concerned about Novotny being pressed into service than Cirjak and Mujkic's backups. Lastly, losing Bastable would be a real kick in the teeth, he's one of our three best players and neither Di Martino nor Aarts have shown the ability to be a reliable goal scoring threat.  Besides being such a young team, you'll notice that we're both short and slight. This mostly comes from many of our midfielders being around 5'7”, and not having any exceptionally tall centerbacks to even out the average.  We're also not a team that plays well together, or that works all that hard. We also aren't aggressive, meaning that having us play a pressing game is going to keep us from racking up too many yellows but perhaps not be as effective. Those are all traits that I should give more attention to in the future, but I've paid much more attention to getting players with high technical and physical traits than building up a cohesive team. As such we have a very good first touch and passing ability to compensate for our club being a bunch of lazy me-first types.  Keeper is an area of relative strength, and all of these stats are dragged down by Novotny being a Championship level backup at this early stage of his career. The only weakness Kovacevic has is his aerial ability, which along with our short defenders are why we concede a lot of goals from corners and headers. He should get better in the air, he's certainly tall enough to do the job, and I'm actively looking for a giant centerback to replace Boumsong if we can't get him back on loan next year.  Our defense needs to hit the weight benches, doesn't mark that well, doesn't do a great job positioning themselves, and can't dunk a basketball on a toddler's hoop. The one thing they are is fast as hell. They have the speed to catch up to almost any striker who gets past them, and their high tackling and good decisions allows them to recover when caught out. It allows us to play higher up the pitch without as much fear of being caught by a counter-attack. They are also very good at heading the ball. That means when they actually do win a ball in the air they'll do something good with it, such as scoring from a corner or clearing the ball from our own penalty area.  Compared to our defense, which features a number of serious weaknesses, our midfield is one of the best in the league. We're good at Long Shots, allowing players like Nieddu and Shirra to be scoring threats and allowing us to rain in goals from beyond 18 yards. The players also possess the technical skills to keep the ball, the passing skills and field vision to spray it anywhere we want on the pitch, and the good sense not to make many mistakes while doing so. We are crap at teamwork, though, which almost certainly holds us back from being even better.  Finally, our strongest aspect. There's a reason why we're tied for third in goals this season, and it's because our offensive players can put the ball in the back of the net. We're not fast for a Premier League club, but we're either best or second best in most of the other categories. Guys like Bastable and Aarts also make life miserable on opposing defenses by being tall and good at cracking the ball with their skulls. Ideally we get quicker, but when we're in the 4-2-3-1 our striker is meant to be the big lad that the others hoof the ball to, so our tactics mesh well with our ability. Now, onto some of the best players on our squad. Richard Petts Midfielder  Dick Petts, as his parents unfortunately called him when he was just a boy in an unknown English hamlet, is too often the odd man out in our midfield. He's been very good when he's played, and he's the best corner taker on the team, but Nieddu and Djurovic both get more calls to play as beyond just central midfield and attacking midfield they can both play on the right side. That leaves Petts fighting for playing time when he's probably one of the better players on the team. It also means that we finally have a position where I'm comfortable with our depth, an injury won't result in a much inferior player forced into regular action. Dimitri Nieddu Midfielder  We signed him on a free from AC Milan last summer, and it was my best move of the close season. He made an immediate impact, and has been deadly from the right wing. I have him playing as an inside forward, he doesn't have the crossing ability to be the supporting player that Mujkic has become on the other side of the pitch, but his speed and technique means he breaks down opposing fullbacks on the regular. He can finish or pass once he's left the first defender in shambles, the only thing that concerns me is the fact that he's a yellow-bellied coward and tends to shy away from his opponents after they give him a couple rough challenges. Vid Kovacevic Goalkeeper  Getting Kovacevic from Liverpool last season was a coup. They let us take him off their hands at a cost of just over a million pounds because of how upset he was at the club's poor league position, and he's going to end up one of the better goalkeepers in the game. I really wish he'd get better aerially, he's tall enough that he should be better than he is and it exacerbates our overall weakness in the air, but otherwise he's trustworthy between the sticks in a way none of our previous keepers have been. Dejan Djurovic Midfielder  Djurovic was a record signing for us when we reached the Championship, he was on the outs at Turkish giants Galatasary and I sprung the £900,000 needed to bring him to Wales. He's rewarded us with solid, consistent play on the right wing and in central midfield. He'll never be a world class player himself, but he is the type of player that the big clubs need when they're making deep cup runs and playing in continental competitions while at the same time challenging for the league title. He'll win us a few games on his own, and is better than the majority of players on the non-megabastards. Mateo Mujkic Left Winger  Meteor has scored 12 goals for us this season and is getting fully 40% of his shots on target. He's doing so even with just a 9 finishing and 10 long shots. I've had him playing with instructions to take fewer shots, but he's so good at getting into dangerous positions that he's still able to lead the team in goals this year. He's already one of the best players on the left wing in the world, and he has the ability to get somewhat better. Finding him has been the biggest stroke of luck I've ever had in Football Manager, and that's doubly so as it led me to also discover the next player on our list. Rocky Bastable Striker  Paying a measly four million pounds for one of the 5-10 best strikers in the world goes a long way towards creating a powerhouse. That Bastable wasn't shortlisted for the Ballon d'Or and didn't win the AFC Player of the Year award is due only to the effect reputation has on the voters. He stormed the Premier League with 21 goals last season and despite a slow start to this season has been even better than he was last season. He's a big old target man who's only physical weakness is his poor acceleration Mentally, his work rate could use improvement and he could stand to be more aggressive and brave, he loses out on some jump balls because he's not fighting hard enough for them against his marker. Scott Shirra Midfielder  Shirra has seen the following attribute changes since he signed with us as a 16 year old: Corners +4 Crossing +3 Dribbling +3 Finishing +3 First Touch +3 Free Kicks +2 Heading +4 Long Shots +4 Long Throws +2 Marking +5 Passing +4 Penalty Taking +4 Tackling +2 Technique +3 Aggression 0 Anticipation +5 Bravery +1 Composure +6 Concentration +5 Creativity +3 Decisions +5 Determination +3 Flair +1 Leadership +4 Off the Ball +4 Positioning +5 Teamwork +4 Work Rate +3 Acceleration +4 Agility +5 Balance +3 Jumping +1 Natural Fitness +1 Pace +4 Stamina +7 Strength +8 And he's not done growing as a player yet! Chris Todd has seen similar improvements in his attributes since joining us, but he's not nearly the player Shirra has turned into. Shirra could become the best attacking midfielder in all of football in his prime, signing him for £105,000 at the age of 16 is a perfect example of how a Lower League team can develop players who become club legends as the team itself builds a proud legacy. You might have noticed that I mostly spotlighted our attacking players. That's because our best defender, Boumsong, isn't ours and is already valued at over 20m pounds meaning he'll never be ours. The rest are either too young or too low ceiling to be included at this point. Cirjak and Morvan might one day be world class players, but they aren't there yet. Todd and Mair are good, solid players who will have long careers but will never be one of the very best at their position. It's the area where we're weakest, and something that I will be attempting to improve both through our youth system and transfer purchases.
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May 13, 2014 19:18
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It's taken me a couple of weeks, but I finally have caught up with this thread. I just wanted to say thanks this thread has been awesome and convinced me to buy the game (I am currently floundering about in the lower divisions since I did not have the needed sternness to try to completely restructure my team). I look forward to following along with this season "real-time" and look forward to a great performance from our boys. I'm going to vote B Also, good luck with all the Jeopardy! stuff 
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May 13, 2014 19:21
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Got the next two updates played, all the screenshots cropped, and about 75% done with the writing on both of them, so I might be dropping a double update today. Teaser: We give up four goals over the next nine games, and at one point go over 10 hours and 30 minutes between conceding. I guess I shouldn't have been so concerned about our defense. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 13:05 on May 14, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 12:51
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That's some drat sweet stats. May the general enemy goal drought continue. As an aside, when I used to play this game I always used to favour good teamwork and workrate stats. We do seem to be generating plenty of assists etc so how is that relative lack of teamwork showing itself in our current team? Is it?
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May 14, 2014 13:41
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Our passing completion percentage is much lower than I'd expect for a team with such good scores. When we're playing our possession tactic it's seldom more than a tick or two above 80%. You'd expect better better from a team where the starting midfielders have an average 16 in the Passing attribute. And we have more offside calls than you'd expect considering the offensive unit's Anticipation and Off The Ball ratings. Our possession numbers are also not that great, in uptempo mentalities like attack and counter where I expect to have less possession than the opponent we're regularly giving them 60% or more of the ball instead of just 55%. All three tactics have the "Hassle Opponents" shout turned on, which means that we press our opponents to try and force mistakes when they have the ball, but it's probably not working as well as it could due to our low work rate. Likewise, our high tempo strategies probably aren't working optimally because players are prone to taking plays off for the same reason. The work rate also shows in when we score our goals, we're great at scoring quickly, but despite an overall 2:1 goal differential our opponents score just as often in the final 15 minutes of the first half as we do, and when we have a lead in the second half I've noticed that we get complacent quickly which has caused more than one nail-biter in games that we should have put away comfortably (e.g. the Derby game from the end of 2020 where we took a 3-0 lead in the first 30 minutes, then almost bottled it). They're not devastating weaknesses, and I think our defensive lacks are a bigger problem, but it does have a noticeable effect. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 15:03 on May 14, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 14:54
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Chapter the Sixth: In which I'm reminded that we're not yet considered among the elite. January 6, 2021-January 28, 2021 The scouts have been working day and night delivering reports on defenders from around the world, but I've yet to find any gold in the dross. I believe the team is good enough to finish top four even without any additions. Our record against the big four of Arsenal, Chelsea, and the Manchesters stands at a respectable two wins, a draw, and two losses in all competitions. Given that we've beaten Tottenham, Swansea, and Liverpool while drawing against Everton the sum result is 14 points out of 8 games against the clubs with the most talent in the league. We've earned 24 points from our other 11 matches so far, only dropping points on three occasions. That's all a long winded way of saying that we're going to be fine even if I'm not active in this transfer window. At Liverpool, January 9, 2021 Premier League  Stuart Mair has been in a slump, earning a 6.6 rating over his last five games. I'm giving the start to Morvan, who has impressed in training and is now comfortable playing center midfield as well as defensive midfield. Liverpool are recovering from their early season swoon that saw them fall as far as 17th more than a quarter of the way through the season. That still leaves them well in the bottom half. Their nightmare season, combined with the four-nil hiding we gave them on opening day, gives me good reason to think we can beat them. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Attack Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Todd, Mejasic, Morvan, Djurovic, Mujkic, Shirra, Di Martino, Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Aarts. Liverpool's Icelandic forward, Kolbeinn Þorsteinsson, goes Viking on us in the first half. His rapacity is only sated after scoring a goal in the 38th minute. Our attacking style has paid no dividends through the first half, Anfield has proved deserving of it's reputation as a tough place for the opposition to play. We finally scrape our equalizer thanks to the Marvelous Meteor, but can't walk away with more than a point thanks to uninspired performances from every attacker not named Mujkic.   Liverpool 1-1 Wrexham  Ryan McLeod must be very familiar with Wrexham now, he seems to be at all of our matches to watch Boumsong. I hope they let us keep him another year, he's been reliable for us this season, but I tend to doubt it as my scouts say that he's now as good as their regular centerbacks.  Mejasic has been eating yellow cards like candy this season and it's a problem that I need to resolve. I've ordered him to tackle softer from now on, hopefully that won't hurt his otherwise effective game at left back.  Mujkic must have some hidden stats that make him especially good, or my tactics must be a perfect fit for his talents, because he really shouldn't score this many goals given his mediocre Finishing (9) and Long Shots (11) attributes. I'm going to do my best to not look this gift horse in the mouth, lest I disturb the magic.  Remember this kid from last winter's transfer window? Eliav had no interest in joining us and Barcelona had made an offer for him. Well, Barca didn't get him. He also fired his agent, I'm assuming because of the breakdown in negotiations with the Catalan giants. He popped up when I was looking for left backs, and he's now willing to join us thanks to our league position and improved reputation. Several other clubs want him, the toughest competition for his signature will come from Inter Milan and Olympique Lyonnais. I offered him nearly twice as much as what he was originally requesting in wages, but I also tacked on five years to the length of the deal. Hopefully Inter and OL won't offer as much and we'll land a wonderkid that a year ago I thought was headed to Camp Nou and out of our grasp forever. At Chelsea, January 13, 2021 Premier League  Our fixture list gets kinder after this, but we need a result here to keep Chelsea from bumping us back to fifth place on the table. Chelski are undoubtedly smarting after their loss to us in the FA Cup, and they're still the more talented team on paper. We've had success attacking them before, so rather than have us come out in a 4-4-1-1 I turn again to the 4-4-2 Diamond. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Attack Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Lewis, Richards, Mair, Petts, Mujkic, Shirra, Di Martino, Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Todd, Morvan, Djurovic, Bailey, Aarts. The first half sees us match Chelsea stride for stride, and we look to take the lead 20 minutes into the game when Di Martino surges past his markers on a breakway for his first goal of the season, but the whistle had already blown play dead. I switch to a counter attacking mentality at the half but keep the 4-4-2 formation in an effort to get our opponents to venture forward and make a mistake. This has some success, but doesn't result in a goal. Di Martino has done nothing since that first half run, and thus I take him out when we switch over to a 4-4-1-1 at the hour mark. Scott Shirra makes my tactical tinkering look brilliant when he scores the go-ahead goal five minutes later, but we fumble the lead six minutes later. Hearts leap like lemmings into the throats of the spectators for the rest of the game, first with a Mujkic free kick clipping the crossbar and then with a Kovacevic save where he comes off his line to make a vital challenge in a one on one situation. The game ends in a draw, and after a stretch of games that saw us play Arsenal, Manchester City, and Chelsea twice we're not only still in line for Champion's League qualification but also still alive in the FA Cup. Man of the Match: Scott Shirra   Chelsea 1-1 Wrexham  Richards has no place with us. Not surprisingly no one was interested in buying him, so I shipped him off on loan to Reading. They'll at least pay his salary and give us an additional 12k a month on top of that. I'll try to move him again at the summer window, and one of these days I'll recognize that panicked late window moves are always a bad idea no matter how big the hole you think the team has. vs. Norwich City, January 16, 2021 Premier League  Norridge are winless in their last eight, but we're hardly playing like a house on fire ourselves. A home game gives us the chance to play my preferred tactic, but fatigue from fixture congestion means that some players are getting the day off. At least it's a chance for the fans to cheer on Justin Bailey again, he plays in place of Scott Shirra. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Todd, Feruga, Morvan, Djurovic, Nieddu, Bailey, Mujkic, Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Lewis, Mair, Petts, Di Martino, Aarts. The Canaries catch us out on the counter early, but don't capitalize on it. After we spend the rest of the half passing the ball around to little effect, they catch us out again as the half ends. Vid Kovacevic makes saves in both cases. I make a flurry of changes as the game progresses, trying to find a way past the bus they drove onto the pitch, but nothing I do can get us moving. If Kovacevic hadn't been on point today we would have dropped all three points instead of just two. We remain in fourth place thanks only to Chelsea also bottling their match against Bristol City. Man of the Match: Vid Kovacevic   Wrexham 0-0 Norwich  Tarnation. He took an offer for £4,000 a week less to go to Internazionale. Eliav has a great deal of ambition, and his decision was driven almost entirely by the fact that we have a much worse reputation than Inter, who just over a decade ago finished a run atop Serie A where they won five straight Scudettos and a Champion's League title, and who more recently won the Europa League a few years back. The good news is that Inter these days is a shell of it's former self. In three or four years when Eliav wants to win trophies he'll be very interested in joining us.  I also find the gigantic centerback I want so badly in Wigan's Ed Hammatt. He's a 6'6” (197 cm), 200 lbs (90 kg) giant who's still growing. He's very interested in moving up to the Premier League, but they want nothing less than a king's ransom for him.  That's nice, but we're not well known enough for Liad Eliav, apparently!  This might keep our captain out past the Tottenham match in late February. That would be six games from now. Feruga and Lewis will get a chance to prove their worth in his absence, but given that Boumsong was the rock at the heart of our weakest area this could hurt. At Bolton Wanderers, January 23, 2021 FA Cup, Fourth Round  Bolton have won their last four in a row, but they're a division below us and it shows when you compare their lineup to ours:  We really should be winning this game. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Todd, Lewis, Mejasic, Morvan, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Mair, Djurovic, Di Martino, Aarts. We take hold of Bolton and proceed to shake them about by the scruff of their neck for ninety minutes. There's some tension before we score our first goal, I'm concerned that Bolton might find a second gear and after a quarter hour we'd created 3 clear cut chances, 2 half chances, and earned five corners without scoring. No worries, the Bastard of Wrexham finally puts us on top after a half hour that saw us compile sixteen shots, nine of which were on target and one of which bounced off the crossbar, five clear cut chances, four half chances, eleven corners, and 72% possession. I can relax some from there, and after Nieddu scores to give us the two goal advantage I sit back and enjoy the show. Mujkic caps the rout with a free kick goal from just outside the area and we're moving on to the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time in my tenure at Wrexham. Man of the Match: Dimitri Nieddu   Bolton 0-3 Wrexham  Uh-huh, sure. By the time they had a goal scoring opportunity we were already up 3-0. We spent 21% of the game with possession in their third of the pitch, they spent 6% of the game with possession in our third. If anything, the final score flatters them.  There were only three lower league squads left in the draw, so getting a relegation threatened West Ham at the Racecourse Ground qualifies as good news for us and makes us favorites to reach the quarterfinals for the first time in over twenty years and only the fourth time in the 106 years that Wrexham have contested for the cup. vs. Cardiff City, January 26, 2021 Premier League  A win here all but secures a second straight Cwp for the Dragons. It will also get us off our mediocre run of form that has seen us win just one of the last six Premier League matches we've played. We couldn't ask for a better opponent, the Bluebirds are already twelve points from safety and January isn't over. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Lewis, Todd, Mejasic, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Morvan, Djurovic, Di Martino, Aarts. I tell the players to pick up right where we left off, and they follow my instructions to the letter. Once again we batter our opponent about, this time earning five corners in 15 minutes play, but score none. Once again Bastable scores after the half hour mark. We don't have to wait long for a second, as Petts secures the lead three minutes later. Then things diverge from the script. Shirra gets himself an early shower after an idiotic two footed challenge right at the ensuing kickoff and suddenly an easy march towards victory is thrown into doubt. That doubt is allayed when Cardiff can't get anything through our defense. Kovacevic makes several brilliant saves while Todd and Lewis combine to disrupt Cardiff's attack and steal away possession. Bastable hits them on the break to make it 3-0, then gets his hat trick by simply outworking the shambolic Cardiff defense. Three goals aren't enough for the reigning Golden Boot, with five minutes left he beats the offside trap with an exquisitely timed run and finishes with aplomb for his fourth goal of the game. We score three even after going a man down, and with nine points through three matches we are a single point from clinching the Cwp. Our massive goal differential makes us favorites to keep the prize even if we fall to Swansea in a weeks time. Man of the Match: That Magnificent Bastard, Rocky Bastable.   Wrexham 5-0 Cardiff  It was the dumbest foul I can ever recall from one of my players, and I've seen them do some truly gormless stuff. Cardiff had literally just kicked off after Petts' goal and there went Shirra diving in with both feet studs up and getting nothing but the opposing player. It's out of character for a guy who had just one yellow card on the season to this point.  He's lucky I can't fine him more than two weeks pay, and we'll be lucky if he doesn't get multiple games added to his suspension. I disavow his actions in the post match press conference, hopefully my firm condemnation will have the added effect of keeping the other players from similarly losing their heads.  One of my scouts points out that the Africa Cup of Nations is underway, and that scouting the competition would be one of the more efficient ways of improving our knowledge of African talent. Since he came to me with the idea, he gets to enjoy the pleasures of crisscrossing a gigantic continent. I'm surprised at the lack of African talent we've found thus far, few of the nations there have national teams as deep as the European and South American powers but they regularly produce world class players in real life.  We're through the toughest stretch of our schedule, and we're still in fourth place despite a disappointing run of results that saw us take only six points from four league matches. We've been fortunate that Chelsea has been worse. Our form seems to have recovered, the annihilation of Cardiff and the decimation of Bolton both speak to our continuing offensive virility. I haven't been able to find any players worth spending money on, but with five days left in the transfer window we might still add to the squad. Losing out on Liad Eliav for a second time in two years is frustrating, especially given how hard it is to find great fullbacks, but both he and Hammatt are still teens who I'll be keeping a close eye on in the future. 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 20:42 on May 15, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 15:03
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So what English teams are still alive in the Champions League? Just to look ahead and see if we're at risk of being the Tottenham to this year's Chelsea, so to speak. For the non-football fans, two years ago Chelsea won the Champions League, even though they had (for a Megabastard) an awful season in the Premier League, finishing 6th. The CL winner automatically qualifies for the next year's competition- however, since they were outside the Top 4, that qualification came at the expense of the team who placed 4th, Tottenham.
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May 14, 2014 15:22
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Manchester United, Arsenal, and Chelsea made the first knockout round, which is currently underway. Manchester City got bounced at the group stage after finishing third in their group behind BATE from Bulgaria, which I find hilarious and which I hope is repeated in real life. I wouldn't worry about Chelsea finishing fifth but winning the Champion's League, though. They're up against Atletico Madrid, and lost the away tie 5-0. Arsenal is a good bet to advance, they're up against Wolfburg, while Barcelona clearly fixed the draw because Manchester United is playing Real Madrid.
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May 14, 2014 16:17
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Sky Shadowing posted:Tottenham. Jesus. Did Tottenham burn the wrong witch back in the Dark Ages or something? Those poor bastards are cursed.
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May 14, 2014 16:23
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Chapter the Seventh: Green eggs and West Ham. January 28, 2021-February 15, 2021 We play West Ham twice in a row, once at the Olympic Stadium in the Premier League and then again at our house a week later in the FA Cup. I'd feel confident about beating them both times except they thumped us soundly after we took an early lead last fall. We also can finish off our Cwp repeat with either a win or a draw against Swansea.  £5.25m is enough dosh that I don't laugh them out of the room, but the offer is heavily backloaded with only £1m up front. I'd also rather not rely solely on Morvan to play every game the rest of the season, and next season we'll need depth in order to not wear out while playing continental football alongside a full league and cup schedule. Mair isn't going to get a lot better, but what he is now makes him a quality contributor to the club at a reasonable wage hit. vs. Aston Villa, January 30, 2021 Premier League  Another home game against a bottom half side, another order to run out the 4-2-3-1. Shirra's suspension means that all three of Petts, Nieddu, and Djurovic are on the field, as they will be for however long our wayward wonderkid is suspended. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Todd, Feruga, Dos Santos, Morvan, Djurovic, Nieddu, Petts, Mujkic (c), Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Mejasic, Lewis, Mair, Bailey, Di Martino, Aarts. We threaten Aston Villa consistently, but manage just one goal on a Mujkic to Nieddu collaboration. Had Villa's striker not missed a sitter in stoppage time we might have come away with just a point despite the overwhelming possession and chance advantage. I challenge the team after the game, reminding them that clubs like Arsenal and the Manchesters will make us pay for such wastefulness. The team reacts as I hoped they would, they seem fired up and focused for the coming matches. Man of the Match: Meteor Mujkic   Wrexham 1-0 Aston Villa  No means no, Italy.  We bought this kid from Staleybridge last year for £25,500. That means the £4,000,000 fee is essentially pure profit, and we're in line to get 20% of any future sale. Our staff had him rated as having an unspectacular 3.5 star potential. Unless my scouts and coaches are wrong, he was never going to be a star for us anyways.  We made a slight profit in January, but it's concerning me that we're spending over £2m a month on Non-Soccer Costs. We've spent more money on Non-Soccer Costs than we have on player wages this season. How many “cousins” are there who need a job at the club store, anyways? That amount of money could fund at least 250 full time employees earning an average of £50,000 a year even allowing for taxes and other employer expenses.  Crud, Silvio Burlusconi (now 85 years old and once again Prime Minister of Italy) has been telling Bastable all about the bunga bunga options available to players at Italian clubs. Rocky starts complaining at 11:45pm on February 1st, 15 minutes before the end of the transfer window.  Seriously, Inter and Napoli make eyes at you and all of a sudden you're too good for us? You bastard.  He's him under contract for two more years, hopefully he'll be willing to negotiate a new deal when we make the Champion's League. Otherwise we'll be forced to sell him after the 2021-2022 season ends.  If he wanted out, he waited way too long to make his move. I bumped his asking price up to £60 million, if a megabastard offers us that amount I'll accede to his transfer demands even though it means giving up one of the best strikers in the world before he even hits his peak.  Two good performances equals half the team of the week being named from our squad. Other than the Manchesters no team has as many players in the top 20 for average player ratings this season.  Not as bad as it could have been, but it's still a total of three games. At Swansea, February 3, 2021 Premier League  Any points here will seal our second straight Cwp title. The Swans are one of eight teams with a positive goal differential this season. With several of our players unavailable due to U21 national team matches, including Mejasic, we've got three youth players on the bench. I'm going to rely on our counter-attack to win this match for us. Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Todd, Lewis, Feruga, Djurovic, Morvan, Petts, Mujkic, Nieddu, Bastable. Subs: Noble, Dos Santos, Alvaro, Mair, Bailey, Argenti, Di Martino. We start as we so often do, creating chances and outplaying our opponents. Djurovic is the man of the moment in the fifteenth minute, finding himself all alone at the far post as another gorgeous meteor from Mujkic arcs across the area to his waiting forehead. Swansea don't show much gumption until the end of the half, when they waste an easy chance to level the match. My exhortations at the half that the game is far from over have no appreciable effect, and we spend the second half scrambling to deal with a resurgent Swansea. They crack the woodwork twice in the second half and today we have luck to thank for our victory and our fifth straight shutout. We also claim the Cwp for the second year in a row, taking all four games against our Welsh opponents. There is only one team in Wales deserving of the crown, the oldest and greatest of them all. Man of the Match: Dejan Djurovic   Swansea 0-1 Wrexham  I do not like green eggs and West Ham! I do not like them on the pitch, I do not like them one inch, I do not like them in the Prem, I do not like them at Wrexham, I do not like their flashy Olympic stadia, I do not like their gabbing to the media. At West Ham, February, 2021 Premier League  West Ham sit just clear of the relegation zone right now. I'll do my best to help push their heads under water for you, Sky Shadowing. I'll also be using a different strategy that we'll use next week in our FA Cup match, I don't want them getting familiar with how we play. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Attack Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Feruga, Lewis, Mejasic, Mair, Djurovic, Mujkic (c), Nieddu, Di Martino, Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Todd, Morvan, Bailey, Matko, Aarts. The look of relief on Josue Di Martino's face can be seen even from the nosebleeds after his first goal for the team finally comes on a counter attack. He burned the entire West Ham defense when he got on the end of a long Mair clearance and sprinting down half the length of the pitch before chipping the ball over the keeper. The game is never in doubt from that point on. We add to our tally when Woj Feruga gets his head on the ball and nods it into the back of the net after one of our nine corner kicks on the day, and then Nieddu seals the victory with a slapshot one-timer from 100 feet away. The shutout makes us the fourth stingiest defense in the Premiership, we're now shipping less than a goal per game. The one negative from the match is another lackluster performance from the Bastard, his second in a row since pitching a fit and demanding a transfer. We've gone without his goal scoring presence before and we can do it again, but European qualification would be so much easier if he can get back to playing well. Man of the Match: Stuart Mair   West Ham 0-3 Wrexham  Di Martino's earned five assists in fifteen total appearances, so he hasn't been unplayable. It's good to get the monkey off his back, though.  Our next three league games are against Tottenham, Manchester United (at Old Trafford), and Everton. If we're still unbeaten at the end of that I'll start talking again about how our streak can continue for a good while. At which point we'd almost certainly see Southampton kick our asses because I jinxed us.  Man City is the second to last team I'd let Bastable go to. Only their cross-town rivals have even less chance of landing him. I don't want him to make me regret my decision as he kicks our asses up and down the pitch at least twice a year.  No respect, I tell you. We've been in the top five since the tenth game of the season. We've been top four since the fifteenth week. Manchester United is running away with the league again, they're three points up on us and Arsenal with four games in hand, but saying that our hot run has only gotten us into the top half is selling us short by half.  We're also not getting anywhere near the TV exposure due our league position. This is the first time in three months that we'll be featured, over which time we've lost just one match. I'm starting to wonder if the Wrexham fan forums are correct and that there really is a conspiracy against us, determined to deprive us of money that we could use to oust the megabastards who view Champion's League qualification as a birthright. vs. West Ham, February, 2021 FA Cup, Fifth Round  I will not gift you possession, I will not respond to your aggression, I will not have us shoot on sight, I will not give you a sliver of daylight, I will defeat you West Ham, This time I have a plan! Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Lewis, Todd, Mejasic, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Morvan, Djurovic, Matko, Di Martino. Dinko Mejasic will never be a good defensive fullback, but he sure knows how to make himself a threat from the wide areas of the pitch. After Meteor socked his second free kick goal in the span of a month to open scoring, Mejasic made like a winger and lofted a beautiful cross to Nieddu to make it two-nothing. Mujkic bagged a second goal when a cross with some wicked english on it bounced once and spun into the net past the hapless Hammer keeper. It's not all joy in Mudville, though. Bastable is still sulking and out of sorts, missing chances that he usually converts without a second thought. Our scoreless streak is also broken at 67 minutes by West Ham's counter attack. They add a second goal before all is said and done, but 3-0 is too steep a chasm to climb back from. I'm still not pleased about the way we played during that final thirty minutes, and grump to the team that they got sloppy at the end. It doesn't go over as well as I hoped, the club is getting overconfident as the squad is split between confusion and being fired up. Man of the Match: Meteor Mujkic.   Wrexham 3-2 West Ham  Stop being a yutz, Rock. I'm not going to sell you unless someone's willing to drop £50m into my lap. Just think about how happy you'll be when we win the FA Cup and qualify for the Champion's League.  Our bonus pool is so tiny because it's based on the total wages of the players and we're misers when it comes to paying our players. The morale boost for "high" bonuses is still the same regardless of the nominal amount being offered.  The deeper we get into the FA Cup, the more we can charge for tickets. Half a million in gate receipts is pretty sweet for a single game, though teams like Manchester United are hauling in over £3m a game for these rounds.  By getting another home game, we're going to break the sales record we just set. Wrexham has never advanced further than the quarterfinals in the FA Cup, but we'll once again be favored over the Canaries. Meanwhile Manchester City will be playing Manchester United, removing one of them as a potential semifinal draw.  It turns out that I needn't be so worried about our defense. From Chelsea's equalizer in the 71st minute of our January 13th match to West Ham's first goal in the 68th minute of our last match on February 13th, we played more than ten and a half hours of soccer without giving up a single goal. We're through the soft part of our schedule for the moment, though. Next up is a gauntlet of good teams like Tottenham and Everton at the Racecourse Grounds and our annual trip to Manchester United. That's by far and away the toughest set of games remaining. We'll have six games between those and the final three weeks of the season where we'll face off against Arsenal and Man City. If we're still in fourth place after the Everton game we can start making plans for Champion's League football. Even better, we're also alive in the FA Cup and with a victory over Norwich we'll be one of four teams in the hunt for a major prize. 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 20:43 on May 15, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 16:30
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And our remaining schedule: If we top Norwich our FA Cup semifinal will be on April 10th or 11th and our Watford fixture will get rescheduled. If we get through to the final, that will be on May 23rd (I think).
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May 14, 2014 16:40
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Pretty good run, but I'm sensing some dark clouds on the horizon.
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May 14, 2014 16:53
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Zeroisanumber posted:Pretty good run, but I'm sensing some dark clouds on the horizon. Agreed, especially knowing FM. Something is guaranteed to go horrifically wrong.
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May 14, 2014 17:14
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Zeroisanumber posted:Jesus. Did Tottenham burn the wrong witch back in the Dark Ages or something? Those poor bastards are cursed. Something like that, if you count the Blood Libel. Tottenham have always had very strong links to North London's Jewish community, and more often than not we find ourselves in the role of the schlimazel.
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May 14, 2014 17:37
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Zeroisanumber posted:Pretty good run, but I'm sensing some dark clouds on the horizon. Well, I'd definitely call our first big star kicking up a real fuss about leaving a dark cloud. If he really starts going on a bender or starts unsettling Mujkic then we would be in for some fun. habeasdorkus, would you mind also quickly posting a screenshot of the playing stats (assists etc) of our first team regulars?
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May 14, 2014 18:11
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So wait, why the hell is Bastable sulking again? He's third on the table in Premier League, and well poised to take the FA Cup, and go to both Championship and Europa. What "bigger club" does he want to move to? Seriously, it bugs me how much the player whining makes no sense sometimes.  Edit: Not to mention that if he did move to a more established team, he'd be starting out as the FNG transfer, while at Wrexham he's on a rising start team that he's a primary face for, second to no one except maybe the Meteor. It's just confusing is all. Sydin fucked around with this message at 19:01 on May 14, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 18:58
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Ask and you shall receive: Stats Key Apps: Appearances in both League and Cup games (parentheses are how many times they've come on as subs) Gls: Goals Ast: Assists PoM: Player of the Match awards Pas R: Pass completion percentage Tck: Tackles per game DrbPG: Dribbles per game Sh T: Percentage of shots that are on target Av Rat: Average Rating Yel: Yellow Cards I understand why Bastable wants a move. He's only getting paid 27,500 a week right now and a megabastard would pay him five times that. Wrexham is also not yet established as a club that will compete for trophies every season, and we haven't even gotten into European play. Right now Bastable is one of the 5-10 best strikers in the world, and clubs like Bayern Munich and Manchester United are looking to win multiple competitions each season. Why take the risk that Wrexham falters when you can get paid vastly more on a team where you're surrounded by the best players in the world? Especially when he could blow out his ACL and never be the same player again or have another opportunity to join a big club as a featured player. And make no doubt about it, someone who commands 50m in transfer fees is immediately considered a huge get for any team no matter how good the team already was. In real life there were knockoff Gareth Bale jerseys being bought by Real Madrid fans weeks before the transfer was completed. I'm irritated with him because he jumped straight to demanding a transfer rather than giving the club a chance to match his ambitions. But I get where he's coming from. eta: I'm also only really concerned about our ability to keep him more than a year if we don't make the Champion's League. If we make the CL and advance to the knockout round next year while also qualifying for the CL again I expect he'll decide that we can become a big enough club for him and be willing to sign a new deal with a massive raise. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 19:19 on May 14, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 19:13
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Man, I bet you what's happening with the Bastard is that he took after "Jumbo" Joe Thornton for his four goal game, and this is the best way Football Manager can model the fallout. For those who don't know what I'm talking about : Joe Thornton posted:I'd have my cock out if I scored four goals. I'd have my cock out, stroking it.
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May 14, 2014 20:40
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Thanks! Man Mejasic's disciplinary record is pretty striking when set against the rest of the team. Also, drat, Nieddu is posting some nice stats. Joint top rating with Mujkic and getting more assists and MoMs per game than he is, on the same goal scoring pace per game as Mujkic as well. Shirra's play stats are less stellar than I expected considering how often he has come through for us. Some good "clutch play" or the like hidden stats?
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May 14, 2014 21:37
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Meanwhile in OTL Wrexham: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-27408692
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May 14, 2014 22:17
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We're no longer as reliant on Shirra as we were last season, since we're playing in a 4-4-1-1 much less often. He's still one of the main distributors of the ball in our midfield, but instead of constantly feeding Bastable or being fed by Bastable he's got Nieddu and Mujkic playing further up the pitch and/or another striker ahead of him alongside Bastable. So his touch is much less often the one that comes just before the goal, hence the decline in his assist totals despite playing just as well. Right now he's at 10 goals and 5 assists in 26 games, last season he had 13 goals and 15 assists in 37 games. He's also only scored one penalty this year, as opposed to three last year. It's the same thing with Bastable, last season he was the primary goalscoring threat. Now our wingers are much more offensively focused and he sometimes plays as a supporting target man rather than the main goalscoring threat so his total goal numbers declined from where they were last season. As for Mejasic, yeah. I don't know what to do about him. He's going to get a third mandatory suspension when he picks up another card. I've tried everything I can think of, he no longer closes down opponents and he's told to stay on his feet when tackling, but he keeps getting carded. He's never picked up two in one game, or picked up a straight red. It's like he wants to set the Premier League record but at the same time avoid getting dragged into my office for a discussion on the finer parts of not chopping down opponents. I think that 14 yellows is tops for a season, shared by a bunch of players, and he's at 12 now. He might not have time to get to fifteen, his next card will suspend him for three games and there's only nine more left in the season.
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May 14, 2014 22:26
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Dreamsicle posted:Meanwhile in OTL Wrexham: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-27408692 Yeah this is something I am personally very excited for It's kinda funny that OTL Wrexham will soon have a better stadium than "Premier League Megabux" Wexham.
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May 14, 2014 22:39
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Pity about Scott's suspension, but you know what they say... Que Shirra, Shirra 
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May 14, 2014 22:47
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Tehan posted:Pity about Scott's suspension, but you know what they say... There isn't a big enough to justify that terrible pun.
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May 14, 2014 22:50
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Ah, fair enough then. I agree it is lovely of him to give you essentially no time to meet his ambition. Hell, you'd think he'd at least pull back but ask for a pay increase or something. He's doing well enough to deserve it.
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May 15, 2014 00:42
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Shirra's nickname should just be "Que"
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May 15, 2014 04:18
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Any chance of a scouting network update Habeas? I'd imagine we know Wales like the back of our hand but how is our global scouting knowledge?
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May 15, 2014 10:45
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 We're at about 40% worldwide knowledge, and have at least decent knowledge of every major talent producing region. North America is tops because, as the player character, you're always going to have 100% knowledge of your home nationality players so I always know about every college player turned semi-pro in the US. As the US is about 40% of all North American players and I've had a scout watching the Mexican league for a couple years now we know just about everyone playing soccer outside of the Canadian tundra.   The end result is that we have 33,000+ players in our knowledge base, of whom nearly 3,000 have had a scout report filed on them in the past year. That scout report number may seem low compared to the total number of players we've discovered, but that's because I've ordered the scouts to only file a report when their potential is at or above 4.5 stars or their current ability is at or above 3 stars. Hence we're only getting word of the players the scouts love the most.   Full knowledge means that you know every last player from the country, know their basic information (height, weight, footedness, contract, etc) and have at least some knowledge of their attributes. It also means you know the teens entering the youth academies, and in some cases your scouts will have already delivered a scouting report on them before they even appear in the game. Our knowledge of France, Italy, and the British Isles served us well when snaking youth players in the past.   Our scouts are pretty awesome at this point. Staff improve over time just like players do, so guys who joined us while being only good scouts have turned out in some cases to be really great ones. It's a good argument for hiring 30-something unknowns if you're playing Lower League Manager, not only are they much cheaper but they're probably going to improve over time. This did remind me to overhaul my entire scouting orders. Some of our scouts didn't restart their league assignments, for example the Argentine top division was going unscouted, and it's time to change what they're looking for. Our team is good enough now that 4.5 star prospects are incredibly rare and that 3 star players are better than most starting players in the Premier League. I'll have to change that to be less discerning so that we don't miss out on high quality players who aren't quite Mujkic or Shirra level worldbeaters.
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May 15, 2014 16:13
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Chapter the Eighth: There's always someone better. February 15, 2021-March 17, 2021 The closer we get to the end of the season, the more each game means. Or at least it seems that way, even if a point at the start of a season means as much as one at the end of the season. Chelsea sit ten points behind us with ten matches to play, but also have a game in hand. If they win and we stumble the race for fourth place could come down to the home stretch.  It seems like Sky Sports has finally remembered that we're in the Premier League. Why else wouldn't they be covering the best story in English football this year?  That's a misleading headline, especially from a journalist who's got a “friendly and good-humored” personality. But yes, I am trying to keep the team focused by talking about the dangers of complacency.  He's going to get the start against Tottenham despite not being fully fit. Loaned players cannot play against their parent clubs in the Premier League, meaning he's ineligible for the midweek matchup against Manchester United. vs. Tottenham Hotspur, February 21, 2021 Premier League  Spurs sit eleven points back of fourth place Manchester City, making their Champion League dreams just that and nothing more. They do have the third best defense in the Premier League, allowing only 24 goals in 26 games, but their offense is anemic and they have a mediocre +3 goal differential. If we can score twice, we are going to win. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Todd, Mejasic, Morvan, Petts, Matko, Shirra, Mujkic, Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Mair, Bailey, Nieddu, Di Martino. The Spurs score more than 20% of their goals from set pieces, and they increase that percentage in this match when they score off a corner kick at 16 minutes. During the pre-game team talk I finally seemed to get through to Bastable, and he responds to my urging verbiage by pulling us level in the 38th minute by volleying in a Shirra pass after our pressure won us the ball in a dangerous area from Tottenham's otherwise impervious defense. That defense does an excellent job denying us space to work in throughout the game, and as we wend towards the end I order up the 4-4-2 Diamond in an effort to expand the field. The only beneficiary of the change is Tottenham, who watch a long range shot clip the crossbar. I said that if we got two goals we'd win. I was right, but we didn't get the second goal. Man of the Match: Scott Shirra   Wrexham 1-1 Tottenham  Either the game is trying to irk me by downplaying our success, or it just hasn't started thinking about the teams who'll earn European qualification with nearly three months left in the season.  Aww, we can start a mutual admiration society. While trying to top Jose Mourinho when it comes to mind-games is certainly more fun, good relationships with other coaches makes them more likely to accept your transfer offers and less likely to haggle with you over the price. The journalist isn't wrong when they say we're a quick team, only three players have Pace less than 13. Two of them are our goalkeepers and the third is Bailey. 70% of the team has at least Pace 15 and Acceleration to match. At Manchester United, February 24, 2021 Premier League  Any result would be huge here, Manchester United is the class of not just England but the entire world. Keeping our unbeaten run going, and taking four of six possible points from Man U, would announce to the whole world what we're building. The only major shuffle is Nieddu playing attacking midfielder and moving Shirra back to our deep-lying playmaker position. I want both Nieddu and Shirra in the game, and Shirra is not the defensive liability that Nieddu is. Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Lewis, Todd, Mejasic, Djurovic, Mair, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Nieddu, Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Morvan, Petts, Matko, Aarts. United treat us like we treat bottom-half of the table teams, and it's no surprise when wonderkid Shahed Parr puts them on top after 20 minutes. We almost equalize seconds before the half, but United are able to scramble it away and take a well deserved lead into the locker room. I've been modifying specific instructions all game, and after the initial barrage we've been able to retain our shape and create some pressure of our own against United. It all pays off when Bastable, who I'd pulled aside at the end of the first half and told to prove himself to the world, leaps high above everyone else and redirects a Petts corner kick into the net at the near post as the visiting fans roar in jubilation. The elation is stifled as quickly as it sprung up, Manchester United put us in our place with two goals in the five minutes after we drew even. They don't slack off even after gaining a two goal lead, hounding us until the final whistle. Our unbeaten streak is over, and there's at least one team in the world that can still make us look like upjumped upstarts.   Man United 3-1 Wrexham  Monaco are the type of club that could afford the gigantic slab of flesh I'm going to extract if we have to sell Bastable. They're owned by a Russian kleptocrat who in real life splashed £52m on star striker Falcao last summer. Their 2020/2021 wages are £109m, and they've spent £76m on transfers this season.    We'll see if anyone picks him up at the end of the season, there's a chance no one will want him. He's been with the club eight years, and is the second most beloved person in club history after yours truly. Within minutes of my conversation with Bailey, his agent has gotten him an offer from a Scottish second division side. I guess he really will be leaving.    Who cares about yanking some mediocre coaches chain, we're losing Bailey!  Huh. That's surprising. I wonder how much he wants, it can't be that much more than his current £2,200/week. No other teams are currently interested in him, I'm not so quietly hoping that it stays that way. vs. Everton, February 28, 2021 Premier League  Everton are good, but they're not as good as we are. I want to see us bounce back from that Manchester United loss, and the best way to do that is to try and impose our will upon the visitors from Merseyside. It's imperative that we get back to our winning ways as Chelsea has cut our lead to four points, and the top three are pulling away from us with Arsenal eight points ahead and Man City a point up with two games in hand. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Todd, Mejasic, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic, Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Morvan, Djurovic, Matko, Di Martino. Everton's defense is stout as expected early on, but we're forcing them to play our game and they haven't looked remotely threatening yet in the early going. We break through in the 20th minute on a Shirrasational Nieddu-Shirra hookup. Who says Nieddu can't cross the ball? Everton get a chance to respond with a header at the far post late in the first half, but it hits the crossbar and goes over. Nieddu responds to the threat by tacking on a goal seconds before the whistle to give us a comfortable lead. The man from Cagliari cannot be stopped, and adds another goal right after play resumes. No one on Everton seems capable of containing him. Not long thereafter I pull a dinged up Mair to protect him from further injury and because he'd picked up a yellow card and his replacement Morvan scores his first ever goal to run us out to a 4-0 lead. Everton do manager a consolation goal in 81st minute, but we have the final word in stoppage time when a Mujkic free kick hit the crossbar and pops straight into the air. Todd is the only player who wasn't caught ball watching, and his industriousness earns him a finish that couldn't be easier. Man of the Match: Dimitri Nieddu   Wrexham 5-1 Everton  This was exactly the response I wanted after the Manchester loss. The boys kicked seven kinds of rear end out there, and they did it by converting half chances against a defense that had previously surrendered a measley 24 goals in 28 games.  Hey, Frosty, how's your wife and my kids?  Now we can fall as far as 6th without missing out on European football next year. We've got a thirteen point lead over 7th position Everton with nine matches remaining, it's safe to say the real question is whether we stay in the top four.  Todd has developed into the very good centerback he always showed flashes of becoming. He's played well in every match since New Years, and over the full season has a solid claim to being our best defensive player.  The Concupiscent Cagliaritani has been named to six teams of the week, and has an outside chance of making the Premier League team of the year. Milan made a mistake when they let him walk.  Inter heard my plaintive squawks about Liad Eliav. They want to know if I'll relocate to Milan and mold him into a superstar. No, thank you. It's nice that I'm starting to be noticed by top flight teams, though. vs. Norwich City, March 7, 2021 FA Cup, Sixth Round  Arsenal and Manchester United have already won their matches, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool will kick off when our game ends. I know I can't overlook Norwich, but I'm already crossing my fingers for luck in the next draw. Playing Liverpool under the Wembley lights is a whole different beast than facing either last year's Champion's League titlists or last year's Champion's League semifinalists. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Todd, Mejasic, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic, Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Morvan, Djurovic, Matko, Di Martino. The Inimitable Italian doesn't make the home fans wait long, putting it into the back of the net less than five minutes after kickoff. The Bastard and Todd add goals of their own to make it 3-0, but Norwich hit us on the break to pull one back before the interval. I use that Norwich goal to push the team, reminding them that the game is only half over. Bastable decides it's time to get the fat lady ready to come on less than two minutes after the second half kickoff, and Shirra introduces her to the despondent Norwich fans shortly after an hour had passed. I'm proud of the team for the way that they played the second half, they never let up and Norwich were completely incapable of dealing with it. It's our second straight 5-1 victory, and even Bastable is in high spirits after the match. Man of the Match: The Sardinian Stunner, Dimitri Nieddu   Wrexham 5-1 Norwich   They ought to be jubilant, they just watched a game where the ball spent less than three minutes in the Wrexham third.  Five years ago that would be a huge sum, now it's enough to pay Kovacevic for seven weeks.  Shirra is becoming a fixture on the Scottish team, with eight appearances already. Mair hasn't been capped yet, but I believe he deserves the call and am pulling for him to get onto the team. I'm doing so even though his salary will increase when he earns his first cap.  Yes! We got the draw we wanted, against the worst side remaining. We're going to be favorites to make the final. We're also rank outsiders compared to the remaining giants. Liverpool, Manchester United, and Arsenal have won thirty FA Cups between them. We've never made it to the semi-finals until now. At Southampton, March 13, 2021 Premier League  Nice work, Sky Shadowing, you've clawed your way out of the basement and are clear of relegation based upon goal differential. I'm sorry that I'm fixing to put my boot on your neck. We need these three points just as much as you do. I'm sure you understand that this is business, not personal. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Todd, Mejasic, Morvan, Djurovic, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic, Bastable. Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Lewis, Mair, Petts, Matko, Di Martino. The Saints catch us entirely off guard in the first minute, but thankfully the linesman was paying attention and the flag is up before the shot hits the back of the net. In short order normality is restored, but our finishing is poor with Nieddu making nothing out of both one on ones he had with the keeper. We keep plugging away, and with so many chances surely a shot will eventually fall. It's one from Bastable that rewards my confidence in the 65th minute, and it was a goal that had been coming all day. Nieddu finally finds his range in the 77th minute to put the game away, and both our goals were assisted by Shirra. Southampton had one shot off after halftime, and never threatened after the first minute offside call. They remain out of the relegation zone and actually extend their goal differential lead over West Ham, who were mudholed by Liverpool. Man of the Match: Scott Shirra.   Southampton 0-2 Wrexham  We've been fortunate to avoid many major injuries since the season got underway in earnest. Todd missing two weeks isn't ideal, but we only have one game in that period of time.  It's going to get moved again, we have eight international call-ups on that date.  Those call-ups include Mujkic and Bastable, who are back on the Australian national team.  See? I didn't even need to ask. This does make the start of April a busy stretch, but none of our opponents offer especially imposing challenges.  We have a poor youth recruitment class, though the youth system as a whole is still well stocked. I've also decided to save our cash to upgrade the first team over the summer window rather than spend money on youth prospects. We're going to need a much deeper squad when we add between six and thirteen European competition matches to our schedule for next year. I have no doubt that we're going to Europe, we're fifteen points ahead of Tottenham for sixth place and if we beat Liverpool at Wembley we're guaranteed Europa League qualification for making the FA Cup final.  We've reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in Wrexham history. We've set a new points record for the club in the Premier League with eight matches left to play. We're contending for a Champion's League berth and the second most prestigious award in English soccer. Manchester United may have shown us how far we still have to go, but when we look back it's impossible to deny how far we've already come. 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 20:43 on May 15, 2014 |
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May 15, 2014 17:57
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For some reason, I expected to read nothing but a tale of bad luck and missed chances, but things are actually going really well. Bailey. 
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May 15, 2014 18:16
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... is that an actual thing that the actual game actually lets you say in actual press conferences? Because that's amazing.
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May 15, 2014 19:02
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No! We must keep Bailey! Whoever wins this year's "Do what you want" competition, please make him into a coach! We can keep the home-boy here longer!
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May 15, 2014 19:10
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