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 What is Football Manager: Football Manager is, as its name implies, a management simulation game in which a player takes charge of a football club team, an international team, or perhaps both at once. It is famous for its level of detail and quantity of data, having such an excellent database that it is sometimes employed by real clubs for scouting purposes. Another thing the series is famous for is its nature as a time sink. Players will spend much of their free time thinking up new tactics, trying to refine their old ones, mulling over possible transfers and other assorted things the job requires one to think about. It is a very popular series, being played by several professionals in the sport itself, with current Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Barcelona and France forward Ousmane Dembele, and Wolverhampton Wanderers and Portugal striker Diogo Jota among the highest-profile. The series isn’t something new to Something Awful either, with a joint playthrough of 07 , loco88’s playthrough of 08 , an archived run through of 14 and a recent let’s play of 18, by habeasdorkus, behind those links. Since then, FM19 and FM20 have been released, each of these games quite similar to the other but rather different to those that came before. A number of changes arrived when FM19 did, with a total overhaul of training, mentoring, the introduction of the much-maligned Video Assistant Referee (VAR), and, of course, Brexit. Team talks may now have cascading effects, so saying something a team leader likes may cause players who look up to him to have a similar positive reaction. Managing your players mentally is as important as managing their physical status. FM19 is more automated than ever, allowing a player to deal with as much or as little of the game as they want. Should your tactic be broken enough, you can even gamble by going on holiday and coming back when the season is done. There is a lot of raw data to sift through, but the game does offer manager inductions, the closest equivalent to a tutorial in this sort of game. Even then, it can be overwhelming. I’ll do my best to simplify where I can. Should you not know a thing about football, I’m happy to talk at length about it, so the walls of text I might cough up will probably have some useful information in them somewhere. Every so often, I'll talk about the sport in the real world, which is going to be coming back shortly from its coronavirus-induced hiatus. To start off, we'll be managing a small south coast club called Exmouth Harriers Football Club at the bottom available tier of the English football pyramid. They're a very young club, founded in 2008, and they've been steadily making their way up the league structure. Their training facilities aren't very good, their youth recruitment is minimal and they've got a long way to go before becoming anything more than a blip on the football radar. Their kits look like this.  They're owned by the supporters, and we're all well aware of what that means. Should anything of note happen to the club, those in the thread will be the ones to decide its fate. Will we take them to greatness? Will I be sacked within a couple of months? We will have to see as we go through Football Manager 2019. GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 13:48 on Jul 21, 2020 |
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Jun 9, 2020 20:34
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Bookmarks: Season 1: Part I: EX GENESIS BONUS: Meet the Squad PART II: AN AUSPICIOUS START PART III: AN ACE IN THE HOLE PART IV: RISING TO THE CHALLENGE BONUS: Meet the Striker PART V: THE PAUPER PRINCE Season 2: PART VI: A STEP UP IN CLASS PART VII: THE CREST OF THE WAVE PART VIII: PLUS ULTRA Season 3: PART IX: THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD OFFENSE PART X: ONLY THE RESULTS MATTER PART XI: GOING FOR BROKE Season 4: PART XII: A SHREWD PIECE OF BUSINESS Trophy Case: 
GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Aug 8, 2020 |
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Jun 9, 2020 20:35
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EX GENESIS: (30/6/2018)  Though football in Exmouth doesn’t receive the same sort of exposure its resort facilities and palaeontological finds are showered in, it does still have a tendency to cause a stir when something of note occurs. To call the fallout from the latest session of managerial musical chairs a ‘stir’ would be understating the sheer perplexion coming out of Exmouth Harriers Football Club. Beloved Excavators boss Clark Zybourne, 51, announced this morning that his contract had been terminated with immediate effect, leaving the Exmouth supporters confused and disheartened. Having taken the Sunshine Stadium club from the lowest rung of English football to within touching distance of the Football League, Zybourne was seen as the club’s ticket to greatness. As it stands, Exmouth Harriers are a club with a steady upward trajectory. Formed in 2008, the Excavators have been climbing the non-league structure for a decade now. For a number of years, they have contested healthy rivalries with other south coast clubs, most notably Weymouth Wanderers, with whom they contest the Jurassic Classic. Such pleasantries will need to be set aside while the two south-west sports club duel in the National League South. Weymouth fight to have a chance to break into the National League. Exmouth, without the rallying figure at the helm, seem set to struggle to merely survive.  Club Chairman Riyad Hakimi (pictured above) is believed to be close to announcing a replacement. Without a frontrunner for the job emerging, whoever the choice for new head coach ends up being will be a surprise for us all. _______________ (1/7/2018, somewhere in Exmouth) : Am I right in saying this is your first foray into senior management, Mr. Berardi? : That’s right. And just Gio is fine.: Let’s not get too familiar. We may be a semi-pro outfit, but I expect a level of professionalism here. If we are to make it to the big time, I believe that it’s important to instil these sorts of standards within the club. Now, before we start, do you have any questions?: None just yet.: Good. Let’s continue. I’ll introduce you to the club. After Exmouth Town F.C. folded in 2008, many people in this town were understandably disappointed. To fill the void in their hearts, a group of four American expatriates founded this club, introducing it to the English footballing pyramid in the summer of 2008. The original crop of players comprised a group of construction workers, these men lending the club the nickname it keeps to this day. The Excavators, as we are called, are a club with big dreams. We intend to become a professional club within the next five years. The funds do so will not fall into our laps. Getting us to the next level is a job we’ve seen fit to entrust to you. : You have a year to impress us. You’re free to make a case to make your stay longer. Don’t force us to make it shorter. As I'm sure you're doubtless aware, we'll be playing our games in the National League South, one half of the sixth division of English football. This is as fine a place as any to start a managerial career. If you have realistic expectations about both the budget and the quality of football, you'll enjoy your time here. For now, let's get you acquainted with the facilities…_______________  For the first time in the series, Football Manager 2019 sees the introduction of a tutorial, a series of manager inductions to get the player up to speed on the various aspects of the job. You’re free to set yourself as ‘experienced’ in-game to skip past these but they’re very useful for a new player. As stated in the OP, FM19 has seen a complete overhaul of the tactics and training mechanics, so let’s take a look at those first.  Gone are the days in which a manager selects a mentality like ‘control’, ‘counter’ or ‘contain’. From FM19 onwards, one selects a general mentality from very defensive to very attacking, and one is free to pick a pre-made mentality ordered from most aggressive to least aggressive. Under each of these headings, the game suggests three formations that it thinks would fit that tactic best. You’re free to change these afterwards to something that you might feel would do the job better, but these base formations are good foundations upon which to build.  Each position has a variety of roles, with each player fitting a role based on their attributes. Getting the right combination of roles can make or break the balance of the team. While something might look good on paper, it could easily be torn apart by a single through ball.  The game then breaks down your tactical instructions into three specific zones. In Possession details what you want your team to be doing with the ball. Essentially, this is how you’re instructing your team to win the game. Passing directness can go from extremely short to extremely direct, the former being an extreme form of ball retention, the latter essentially being hoofball up to the strikers. Tempo can go from very low to extremely high. This determines how quickly you want the ball to move, with slow passing lending itself to patient build-ups, and therefore possession-based football, while higher tempo serves to disorientate and daze the opposition by sheer speed of play.  In Transition concerns what happens when the ball changes hands, so to speak. Counter-pressing means that your players will want to grab the ball back immediately, while regroup means the boys drop back to get back into possession to prevent counterattacks. Countering when possession is won indicates that you want your guys to try and catch the opposition out and score against the run of play, holding shape means going back to patient build-up once the ball is regained. The tab for goalkeeper possession principally determines what you want your keeper to do after goal kicks and after claiming the ball. Launching it long supports counterattacks, while kicking it short allows for building up from the back.  Out Of Possession determines how your team acts when possession is held by the other team. The level of engagement determines where pressing starts and where the team’s offensive line tends to sit, while defensive line determines where your defenders are placing themselves, with a high line pushing the team forward and allowing for very quick recycling of the ball for attacks, while a deep line means that the team is more resistant to counterattacks, especially if the centre backs on the slower side. Staying on your feet and diving in are two opposite sides of the coin, with diving in meaning a higher rate of tackling and turnovers with a higher rate of yellow and red cards, while staying on your feet relies on the individual skill of the tackler and hopes for a low volume of higher quality tackles to account for relying on only safe tackling. Playing the offside trap instructs your defensive line to try and get the opposition caught offside. This requires good pace and, more importantly, good communication so that the defensive unit is always in agreement as to when they want to push forward and when they slide back.  Training has been overhauled for this game, with it becoming much easier to mould your team into the football machine you want it to be. Each week, you’re given a training review and a training plan for the next week. Each training module, highlighted in dark blue in the above image, can be changed into a variety of specific training modules. If your team is facing a team that has a high proportion of headed goals, it may be worth it to train aerial defense and heading. If your team has been scuffing chances and fluffing their lines, attacking shadow play and chance conversion training can do wonders.  Your squad is divided into training units, pre-assigned by the game but able to be changed by the player. This can be useful when retraining a player to a different position. For example, if I want Ron the winger to become Ron the full back, I’d move him to the defensive unit. Each unit has a different focus and players might become upset if their unit is being asked to train too hard or isn’t receiving enough attention.  Mentoring has gone through a change as well. Beforehand, a manager would assign a player to tutor a single player, generally under the age of 24. In FM19, mentoring is divided into groups and each player in the group has a given influence on that group based on their social standing and seniority. Mentoring can be very useful for acquiring traits and indeed some traits can only be attained via mentoring. If I wanted Ron the winger to learn how to place his shots, then I’d place him in a group with Fred, who already knows how to do that. Mentoring also affects a player’s personality, so it’s good to have mentors who are model citizens or determined to reach their goals so that it rubs off on the players they’re mentoring. _______________ Of course, to start training and mentoring players, we’ll need to have players. That’s where you come in. Armed with the knowledge that your player is likely to be rubbish and jump ship within a year, please give me: Full Name: Nickname (Optional): City of Birth and Nationality: Age: Between 17-38 Position: Goalkeeper (GK), Centre Back (CB), Full Back (FB), Central Midfielder (CM), Wide Midfielder (WM), Striker (ST) You can also describe your player, giving me height, weight, hair colour, etc. The level of detail is up to you. Example using a real player: Full Name: Jorge Resurrección Merodio Nickname: Koke City of Birth and Nationality: Madrid, Spain Age: 28 Position: CM
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Jun 9, 2020 20:39
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There are still up to 10 more spots on the team sheet for any thread lurkers or people still on the fence about submitting a player. I'll be starting the game on Monday, generating my own players in the event we don't have the standard Vanarama National South complement of 19 players.
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Jun 12, 2020 14:49
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:Is it too early to talk about a raise in my wages? I noticed this post right as I finished simming a game in which Ronnie scores 5 in one half, so probably not.
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Jun 14, 2020 08:43
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BONUS: Meet The Squad: Tó: A product of the much vaunted Benfica academy, the affectionately-titled Resort Ronaldo is a powerful, technical striker who shoots confidently with either foot. Having captured the hearts of the Excavators fans since his arrival at the club in 2015, he has made 91 appearances and scored 71 goals for the club as we’ve risen up the leagues. Tó is a striker just entering his prime and someone from whom the fans can rely on to create a spark and grab a goal when needed. More than that, he is a great example to any youngsters in the game, a model citizen who deserves to be emulated.  The Institute: Nottingham born-and-bred, Adam ‘The Institute’ Smith is a new signing at the Sunshine Stadium. Standing at 172cm tall and weighing 71 kilogrammes, The Institute doesn’t seem like your typical imposing frontman, but his tenacity and work rate mean that he is a menace to sleepy defences. Possessed of electric pace and an eye for goal, The Institute has shone wherever he has gone, featuring for Nottingham Forest, Cambridge United, Dulwich Hamlet, Slough Town, Blythe Spartans and now Exmouth. Boasting a record of 140 goals in 261 appearances, he is a powerful offensive weapon.  Ronnie Rection: Clark Zybourne left an impressive legacy for the club and one of his greatest achievements is his education of rising striker Ronnie Rection. One of Exmouth’s very first academy products, Rection is a tall, composed striker with good feet for a boy of his size and an eye for goal his more senior peers might envy. A mere 17 years of age, he nonetheless seems ready for the step up into senior football.  Shite: Frederik Schytte is a man who adds a touch of class to the industrious Excavators midfield. A decent dribbler and an intelligent footballer to boot, he’s the one the team looks to to dictate the game and pull strings from the middle of the park. Poached from the FC København youth set-up and raised under the tutelage of the Exmouth staff, he has the necessary grit and steel to succeed in this league and add to the 36 goals he’s scored in his 136 appearances with the club. A recipient of our now famous chant "Shite's Alright", he has become a fan-favourite player.  Paul Paulson: Saint Paul from St. Paul is another one of our academy graduates, providing pace and poise on the left flank, though he is equally comfortable cutting in off of the right onto his strong left foot. A progressive thinker and as aggressive as a pitbull down the wing, he harries the opposition tirelessly, bringing great pride to the club and offering hope for the future of the team.  Oliver Goodsir: Our Banbridge Beckham is a Northern Irish gem freshly bought from Forest Green Rovers. A quick and dynamic right winger, he is sure to offer an impressive attacking outlet down the right, as his 50 career goals attest. An experienced head in midfield, his knowledge of the lower leagues will be indispensable as we look to battle through the season.  Moistie: A battler in midfield, Jim Spurtworthy truly embodies the spirit of being a Harrier. Fleet of foot and hard in the tackle, Moistie leaves no blade of grass untouched, pressing relentlessly to get his team further up the pitch. A product of our academy, his is a career the fans will watch with great interest.  Ziltoid the Omniscient: Whether the young man from Tulsa truly is omniscient remains to be seen, but the fact of the matter is that he knows a great deal for a player so early in his footballing journey. A smart player with a silky touch and an eye for a pass, he is seen by many fans as the understudy to and natural successor to Schytte, moulding himself into a maestro in the middle of the park. A mere 16 years of age, there are concerns that he lacks the necessary muscularity to make an immediate step up, but there is certainly nothing to worry about when it comes to his energy levels and drive.  Ivan Avals: The formerly BATE-based Belarusian is a new addition to the Exmouth fold, a hard man in midfield who acts as the catalyst for many of our counterattacking moves. 187cm tall, indefatigable and almost impossible to shake off of the ball, Avals is an enormously impressive midfielder for a man of just 22. By no means a bad finisher, we have faith that he won’t take long to score his first senior goal in Exmouth colours.  Tribune: Gaius Sempronius Gracchus bears the name of a Roman Popularis politician and, like his namesake, favours the cause of the people at large. A team player before anything else, Tribune is a very promising left back cum wing back, another of our recent academy graduates. The Atherstone-born teenager has a great platform upon which to shine, being in the company of Brian Eaufort and Robert Bass, two level-headed full backs that have years of experience and wisdom to impart on the lad.  Robert Bass: Our Houston Harrier is an established face at the club, joining us from AFC Liverpool back in 2016. Scoring 4 goals in 68 appearances, he has shown his value in multiple roles, being equally comfortable in central midfield, defensive midfield and even at right back. Energetic and fierce, Bass is a consummate competitor, sometimes blurring the lines between legal and illegal to get an upper hand in the game. His ferocity has won him plaudits among the Exmouth fans, who bring fake beards to match days in support of the bearded barbarian.  Rob Case: 'Discount David Luiz' may seem like an insulting nickname, but being compared to a Champions League winner is a massive compliment to anyone playing at this level. Case is an imported player from the States, bringing in brash bulk and silky skills to the heart of the defence. While primarily a safety-first type player, his long passes nonetheless have the ability to open up a stubborn defence.  Brian Eaufort: Another stalwart in defence, Eaufort joined the club from Nottingham Forest in 2016 and has been a fixture in the team ever since. An attacking full back with a good engine, Eaufort will race up and down the left flank tirelessly, recycling the ball and sending in dipping crosses for the forward to feast upon. A manager’s dream to manage, Eaufort can receive no complaints from the staff or the fans.  Roy Knypersley: An elder statesman of the game with 418 appearances to his name, our captain know his way around the old block. Starting his career at hometown club Stoke City, he has travelled from Stoke-on-Trent to Weston-super-Mare to FC United to Rothwell Corinthians before settling down at Exmouth Harriers in 2015. Not blessed with astounding pace, Knypersley is nonetheless a wily old fox and strong as an ox. Any striker expecting an easy time against the Bloke from Stoke is in for a nasty surprise.  The Wall: You might not believe it, but Brick Rockmeat, standing at 210cm and weighing in at 120 kilogrammes, is a mere 20 years of age. A full back by trade but comfortable enough to slot in the centre of defence, The Wall is an imposing presence at the back, perfectly personifying his name as he blocks attack after attack. His huge reach gives his access to a long throw that adds a new dimension to the attack, turning The Wall into a unique attacking addition.  Lex Metzger: Goalkeepers tend to be at their best in their late twenties and early thirties. If that is true for Metzger, then he has a bright future ahead of him. Already the first choice between the sticks at 17, Metzger is a tall, quick goalkeeper with sharp reflexes and great command of his box. He can only improve from here, completing his transition from prodigious talent to established professional. 
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Jun 15, 2020 11:50
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AN AUSPICIOUS START (25/6/2018)  _______________ (2/7/2018) (A lovely day in Exmouth. A calm breeze passes through the town. A dark-haired American with red spectacles sits down at a cafe, his gaze focused wistfully on the small stadium looming almost ominously in the distance. A blonde woman approaches him, her voice breaking his concentration.)  : When's your first match?: Hmm?: You're having an awfully intense staring contest with the Sunshine Stadium. The new season is starting in a month or so, so I assumed you'd gotten yourself a ticket to a match.: Oh, yeah. Actually, I think I've gotten myself a season ticket. I'll be following these guys for the year, at least.: The Excavators are an interesting choice for someone from out of town to follow. Although, they do owe a significant part of their success to an American, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised to see some of you following the club. : What sort of 'success' are you talking about?  : Perhaps calling it 'success' is overstating it. Still, the team has a lot of talent and a lot of potential, even if their manager has just jumped ship. I've just done a front-page article on that situation, actually.: Oh, you're a journalist?: That I am. Chrissy March. I'm with the Chronicle.: My name's Giovanni Berardi, but just Gio is fine. I'm... Crap, I'm late!_______________ First, Mr Hakimi needs to speak to us. His conference is one that will set out our professional relationship, whether we want to speak to the media and whether we have any philosophies to suggest. Gio, well-meaning though he is, doesn''t really have any idea of footballing philosophies, so we'll leave that blank for now.      After that, we have our meeting with our Assistant Manager (AssMan), Norman Lake, a most trustworthy fellow. FM19 allows a great deal of automation, so you're free to hire the most tactically astute manager in existence and then motivate the players yourself, or the other way around. We'll share duties with Norman for now.  : We've enlisted the help of 17 schoolboys and Brandon from accounting to give your boys something to do. While you do that, I'll try and find some money to spend on youth facilities.  Norman gives us a lowdown on our squad, what our strengths are and where the holes can be found. On the bright side, Shite is alright and The Institute is a monster up top. On the darker side, Lex is our only option in goal and our only proper centrebacks are Roy and Discount David Luiz. If both get injured, we're reduced to playing The Wall and Ivan at CB, which isn't ideal.   As it is, we have a decent squad on our hands. The media predicts us finishing at a solid 7th on the table, giving us access to the Playoffs. That's assuming no major injuries to key players.  Old Clark left us with four new signings, but I'll be looking to add to those. Not because they're not good enough, but because every team needs back up. Gio is a newbie to this whole football thing, so he'll need some help in identifying and purchasing quality players. We'll be heading to the staff centre and searching for a Director of Football. A DoF is someone who determines the overall transfer strategy of a club, a person who works closely with the first team manager to ensure that the team is moulded in the identity of said manager. A DoF is an enormously important position in football.   A quick search finds us Mr Bentley here. He isn't the most immediately impressive specimen out there, but his 8/8 player judging stats are pretty good for this level of competition. We'll be offering him a contract. While we wait, we need to introduce ourselves to the boys. They're itching to know who they're placing their hopes upon.    You can't win them all, I suppose. The rest of the players, however, are excited to work under Gio. Despite Rob's... objections to our arrival, even he seems to be in positive spirits and confident of teaching the playoffs. The media will want to see us next.    : At least that's what it says on the paper in front of me.  : You look familiar...: Answer the question, Mr Berardi. : I wouldn't tempt them if I were you, Mr Berardi.   : I've got no reason to believe that even one of them doesn't have the same faith in me.   : I'd say that's a good question... sir.  : To even think of having their respect as a manager, I need to respect them as human beings. We're in this together, for better and for worse._______________ It's about time we had our first look at the squad. They've got a lot of energy and their levels of concentration are, on the whole, pretty good. For that reason, we'll be running a pressing, counter-attacking tactic. Our primary formation will be bog-standard, flat 4-4-2. 4-4-2 is among the easiest formations for a layman to understand, as its function revolves around the strengths of its pairs. At the back, our two centrebacks need to cover for one another and have a good working relationship. On either flank, the pair of full back and winger need to interchange and support the other's duties when in and out of possession. In the middle of the park, the midfielders need to balance their duties, with an ideal partnership of a sitter and a supporter. Up top, our strikers need to be able to play each other and work off of each other's strengths to occupy the opposition centrebacks and score goals for the team. Our 4-4-2 is an aggressive one, with The Institute in there as a pressing forward. Out of possession, he will try to bully the centrebacks and full backs off of the ball and then either try to score himself or play in his striker partner. Said striker partner is To, our deep-lying forward. He plays deeper than The Institute, dropping into midfield to receive a pass from Ivan or Frederik, and then spinning his man to drive at the goal from deep. He isn't as quick as The Institute, so I expect him to have fewer open play goals, but I expect him to use his height and power to convert set-piece chances. On the left, we have Paul playing as a supporting winger, staying wide and throwing in crosses and through balls. His partner, Brian, is an attacking full back expected to run beyond him and hit first-time crosses into the area. The right side is the reverse. Oliver is an attacking winger, driving at his man and getting into the box as a supplementary goal threat. To temper his aggressive tendencies, our full back on that side is on the more defensive side, with a safer range of passing and sturdier defensive qualities. In the middle, we have Ivan as our ball-winning midfielder. This role requires him to run around the pitch, constantly harassing the opposition and grabbing the ball from them to support counter-attacking opportunities. As far defensive midfielders go, his role is one of the least safe. To compensate, we've set Shite as our sitter, a deep-lying playmaker who will receive passes from the back and distribute either to To or to either wing. This midfield is fairly aggressive but offers balance. At the back, Roy is entirely defensive, just hitting it long or very short to a full back. Rob is the opposite, being a ball-playing defender who looks to make through-balls to The Institute or Oliver. Between the posts, Lex is expected to be a fairly conservative keeper, more Foster than Ederson. Our defensive 4-5-1 floods the midfield with bodies and hands it two playmakers in the form of Shite and Big Mouth. These two will hog the ball, hopefully using their dribbling and physicality respectively to escape midfield pressure. Both flank pairs are a supporting full back and a defensive winger, doing their best to recycle the ball and steal from the opposition. Both CBs pass short. Up top, The Institute is stationed as a poacher, constantly waiting to burst beyond a high, aggressive defensive line to go one-on-one with the opposition keeper. Our aggressive 4-4-1-1 similarly asks us to have more midfielders to keep a hold of the ball. Instead of a CDM, we have a central attacking midfielder, here represented by Shite. The Advanced Playmaker (AP) has minimal defensive responsibilities, being the man we rely on to feed The Institute. A DLP and a BWM add steel to a stable midfield and two supporting wingers aim to feed our solo striker. Attacking full backs look to overwhelm an under-pressure defense and a sweeper-keeper at the back seeks to distribute the ball back to the playmaker to start building the attack again.   Early signs are promising, with an emphatic win over our non-existent u23s. My limited subs, however, have convinced me of our need to dip into the transfer market. First things first, we need to look at strikers. At present, our back-up to To and the Institute is 17-year-old Rection and I'm just not sure he's hard enough for the league yet. We'll need to find a more senior striker.   By default, the manager is set to scout, but with our limited knowledge, it's far better to have our Chief Scout just do his job. Normally, he has a general focus, finding bargains and good buys across the board. We can ask him to have more specific parameters.   With the arrival of Bentley, we now have a DoF. Rather usefully, we can request transfer targets directly from our DoF, giving us options that we might not have even thought about.   Let's ask him to find us a striker.  Of these players, O'Neill is the most interesting to me. In the Vanarama South, we are limited to five subs on the bench. Therefore versatility and the ability to fill in in multiple positions is quite valuable. O'Neill is described as a CAM and a striker, so he'd fill in well.  Every week or so, our chief scout will hand us a scouting report with recommendation numbers. Looking at the actual players themselves reveals a range of ability scores, daring us to spend money scouting them further, but for now, I'm happy to follow the recommendation on face value. We just need numbers. One of our pressing concerns was back-up for Oliver, so let's look at Causso Darame.  He demanded a fair sum of money, subsequently haggled down in exchange for more money to his agent, but we've got our man. A Portuguese player, I'm sure To will help him fit right in should he decide to join us.   Elsewhere on the signing front, George O'Neill decided to take a chance and join the Excavators. A naturally right-footed player, he can additionally play as an inverted winger off of the left, adding more versatility to his locker. We'll ask one of our lads to make him feel at home.    Lex is a good boy and agrees to my request. The reaction to us getting O'Neill seems to be rather positive. Let's stick him into the starting eleven in our next friendly.   While outshone by Paul, he did alright.  Enticed by the prospect of attacking football, a whole host of season tickets get bought. That's good news for us. It's more money for the reserves.   At the lower levels, managers can get invited to Trial Days. Players who have been released by clubs strut their stuff in friendlies in the hope of impressing a passing scout and getting a deal. We'll be sending our chief scout there and attending in person. I'm sure the boys will get a boost knowing that Gio is in the crowd. The match itself was fairly dull, with a late winning goal from Grant Beeney being the only incident of note in the game. Elsewhere, we've finally got our man. Already performing at a Van South level, his report indicates that he could go all the way to being a League Two level player, a full two divisions above us. In short, this seems to have been a quality transfer.    As is tradition, let's stick him in our next eleven.  2 goals and 2 assists attest to a ridiculous performance from the 19-year-old and a good day at the office for the team. Following such a good performance, I decided to reward the squad with new teammates.    The defence looks to have a great deal of depth now and I'm confident that the team has a solid foundation to build upon for the rest of the season. Let's see how the boys handle a friendly against Halesowen.   Rather poorly, it seems. Not only did we scrape a rather unconvincing 2-0 win past Halesowen, but our starting left winger, Paul Paulson, suffered a long-term injury that will prevent him from starting the season with the rest of the squad. Perhaps that Beeney fellow is still free...   Not bad for a panic signing. His personality, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Seeing as The Institue is an ambitious perfectionist, we'll be having Ronnie, Causso and Grant all being mentored by him, hopefully turning them into goalscoring machines.  He performs admirably in the friendly against Cardiff Metropolitan University, his pace causing a lot of trouble for the opposition defence. With friendlies just about coming to a close, our attention turns to other matters.   The last week of preseason is a mixed bag. While we've confirmed our captaincies, with Roy retaining it just as Gio promised to the media, our midfield engine Ziltoid has suffered an injury, leaving him and Paul on the treatment table. Should push come to shove, Robert can fill in there. It's a loss, but one we can manage with our depth. The media seems to now think that we make the push all the way up to 3rd. That has me convinced that we can make an honest challenge for the title this season. With some luck and some grit, there's no reason why Exmouth won't see its first trophy very soon. Preseason Summary: Total Goals Scored: 29 Total Goals Conceded: 3 Top Scorer: The Institute (7) Top Playmaker: Brian Eaufort (5) Injuries: Paul Paulson (4 weeks), Ziltoid the Omniscient (4 weeks) Transfers In: George O'Neill, Causso Darame, Oliver Gardner, Jack Challis, Matthew Carr, Grant Beeney. Transfers Out: None Next Opponent: Gloucester at home in the Vanarama National South. _______________ : Hey! Hey, Chrissy!: Do you need something?: Did you know I was the next manager when you came to talk to me?: Of course I did. I always do my homework, and it's very difficult to miss the American with the red specs.: Then why approach me at the cafe? You knew you'd see me in a couple of hours at the press conference anyway.: Let's call it curiosity. According to my sources, you're an absolute nobody, a former retail manager whose only experience in the game is the three years he played 'soccer' during college. I thought there'd have to be something special about you for the board to hire you after getting rid of the decorated head coach they had before. : Well, is there?: ... Goodbye, Mr Berardi. Good luck for your first game. Let's hope you won't need it.
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Jun 16, 2020 18:30
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AN ACE IN THE HOLE _______________ (11/8/2018) (The home locker room at the Sunshine Stadium, Exmouth. It's matchday, though the crowds and even the players themselves won't be here for another few hours. A tall burly man with a friendly face approaches the bespectacled man staring out the window with a lit cigarette gripped between his teeth. Recoiling as the smell reaches his nose, the friendly man presses on nonetheless.)  : You look nervous.: Who, me?: Yes, you. It's only the two of us in here. Normally it's just me that's in the dressing room so early. And here you are, chewing on that cigarette like you're going to find the cure for lung cancer inside it.: That bad?: Perhaps I'm exaggerating a little bit. Still, there's something bugging you. What's up, boss?: How did you feel before you made your debut?: Elated. Getting onto the pitch for my boyhood club was a dream come true.:...: I'm not going to pretend I wasn't nervous, though. All sorts of questions were going through my head. 'What if I mess up?' 'What if the gaffer doesn't fancy me?' 'What if I score an own goal?' 'What if I miss my man?' In the end, I just gave it my best shot. I played the full ninety and kept a clean sheet. When I got home, I was wondering 'What was I getting so worked up about?' Then it turned out that the manager did not, in fact, fancy me, and I eventually ended up at a club with a manager in the same position I was in 16 years ago. You'll do fine, boss. We've prepared as well as we can and we've assembled a good squad. The boys and I have faith in you to give us a good season.:... Thanks. That makes me feel a lot better knowing I've got your backing.: No problem, boss. If you ever need an ear, just let me know._______________ August:  The season is about to start and the games are coming in thick and fast. We'll practically have to play two different elevens in the two games just to keep everyone healthy.     Our first opponents are Gloucester, who we'll be welcoming to the Sunshine Stadium for Gio's first game. We're being pegged as strong favourites, but we'll have to be careful for this game. Gloucester have really packed the midfield, with 5 guys in there to try and win the battle in the middle of the park. Our players are very quick as a group, so we'll be bypassing the midfield entirely and looking to transition with speed. Match Report: Gloucester Highlights  A battling performance in the middle of the park by Moistie and Shite meant that, although we lost the battle for possession, we broke with speed and purpose, creating a multitude of chances that Oliver and To put away. Rob missing a penalty did little to dampen a very impressive performance from the centreback. The perfect platform upon which to build, our maiden campaign begins with a win. Our primary tactic worked to perfection with our first choice eleven. Our challenge for the title will be determined by our strength in depth.  Lex Metzger, our prodigiously talented goalie, broke a record, becoming Exmouth's youngest ever starter. Getting a clean sheet in the process makes the moment sweeter. (13/8/2018) Match Report: St Albans Highlights  The Institute ran rampant, causing constant problems for the St Albans defence. Aside from his goal, he made an assist for each of Rection and Darame's goals. Despite conceding, Metzger was brilliant in goal, diving down several times to deny Bignell and Merson when balls over the top threatened the defence. This game in particular exposed our centrebacks, with neither Rob nor Roy being blessed with any sort of pace. The directness of the two St Albans forwards caused us problems and on a different day, the two of them may have scored more and threatened our control over the game.   Ronnie seems keen to prove me wrong about his status at the club, putting in such a good performance that I need to consider him for future consideration as a starter. With our schedule being what it is, there will be plenty of opportunities for the guy to show me what he's made of. The fans are, by and large, over the moon for him. Seeing a local lad succeed is always pleasing. (18/8/2018) Match Report: Hampton and Richmond Borough Highlights  The boys had fun today, with half of our outfield players scoring a goal. Tribune had a brilliant time on debut, laying two golden chances on a plate for his teammates to convert. The young left back overlapped our man of the match, George O'Neill, who ran the Hampton and Richmond Borough defence ragged, getting in on the action with a goal of his own. Rob finally scored his first goal for the club, netting from 12 yards out. The wing players had the opportunity to show off their tricks and flicks, with Oliver Goodsir in particular pulling off a stylish roulette near the edge of the box to get away from his man. So total was our level of control over the game that the Football Association decided to let the rest of the league know as a challenge. All it's going to do is light a fire under our guys.  (25/8/2018) Match Report: Oxford City Highlights Oxford City took us to the cleaners. If it wasn't for a few fingertip saves from Lex, we'd have been looking at a much grimmer scoreline. With this match being seen as an easier one, we decided to let Oliver Gardner have a continued run in the centre of defence next to Roy and allow Tribune to try and continue to improve his form. This proved to be a fatal mistake, as the untested pair fell victim to Ronaldo Pearson and David Owusu's pace, while the youngster was overwhelmed by the physicality of the Oxford City right winger. Our first loss in the league was a sobering experience and a reminder to treat every game with the utmost care. (28/8/2018) Match Report: Chippenham Town Highlights Our return to winning ways is credit to our two wing players, Oliver Goodsir and Causso Darame, the latter in particular turning into something of a profilic goalscorer at this level. A fairly even game in most respects, the difference came in how clinical our finishing was. Oliver was the beneficiary of our playmaker finally seeming to click, while Causso saw an errant pass come his way and launched a rocket into the roof of the net off of his left foot. Aside from the beating we got from Oxford City, we had an extremely good August, and the league officials fully recognised that. A reward was in store for our very own Oliver Goodsir, while Gio narrowly missed out on being named Manager of the Month.   September: (1/9/2018) Match Report: Torquay United Highlights The Institute had an absolutely horrible game, two misplaced passes directly leading to two goals scored by the opposition forwards, leaving us 2-0 after just 17 minutes. Then the second half came and The Institute kicked into high gear, first setting up Darame and Rection before grabbing two goals himself in a spirited performance that left absolutely no question marks over his quality as a frontman. The influence of the dominating Wall at the back cannot be overstated, his beautiful long pass for The Institute's second being a highlight of the game.  : The man really making a case for himself becoming the Player of the Season is Exmouth's Rob Case, a versatile central defender cum full back whose quicksilver touch has greatly enriched a most surprising start by the Excavators. If ever there was an example of how to be a steely but elegant centreback at lower league level, then Rob Case is that example. He and the rest of Berardi's boys lie in 2nd, a mere pair of points behind Gavin Rose's Dulwich Hamlet. If Exmouth are to truly challenge for the title, then they have to find real quality. And if quality is what Berardi is looking for, and is desperate for, then Rob is on the Case.: (Maybe that's a bit hyperbolic, but Rob has been putting up some pretty good performances recently. You know, I started off on the wrong foot with him. I'm sure it'll go a long way to repairing our relationship if I give him a pat on the back.)(The home locker room at the Sunshine Stadium. In front of the mirror, Rob Case is running a comb through his impressively large afro, covering every patch of the sphere of hair meticulously. Gio approaches cautiously.) : Hey, Rob. You got a minute? : I've been playing you out of position at right full back because I'm really a big fan of your passing and crossing. You've really given us a platform to really challenge for the title, the way you've made chances for Adam and Anto, and the way you've protected the goal next to Roy.  : (Oh...)(8/9/2018) Match Report: Slough Town Highlights The Institute was keen to show his former employers what they were missing, with a trademark energetic performance for the team. A man possessed, he grabbed another brace, letting To and Avals get the other goals in a convincing win that Slough never really threatened to overturn. (11/9/2018) Match Report: Hemel Hempstead Highlights Our momentum came to a halt at Vauxhall Road, with a late goal from each of Ziltoid and Kaloczi meaning that it finished all square between Exmouth and Hemel Hempstead. (15/9/2018) Match Report: Bath City Highlights The boys got back into their rhythm with a win against Bath City, The Institute further adding to his already impressive goal return. We created a glut of chances, but, truth be told, so did Bath, and that may be a cause of concern. We were meant to walk over them, but were tested instead. Against a team with greater steel, we might run into trouble. I demanded a higher level of training from the boys. Some of them, one in particular, weren't particularly pleased with this order. : Listen, Rob, I've asked everyone to step up their preparations for the FA Cup match. If we progress, that means the club gets a lot of money to spend on better facilities and better players. It means that even the veterans like you will get a nice big payrise at the end of the day. Thing is, everyone is cooperating, but...  : I don't think I've trained any worse than anyone else to be honest. Besides, we're playing Hornchurch, not Man City. We'll walk this. : We need to take this seriously. The English are always talking about 'the magic of the cup' and crap like that. That means anyone can kick anyone else out of the competition. I need you in the game or we'll see ourselves on the end of something ugly. Please get your head in the game.: Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you getting at me for? I've been the top performer for this team and you're telling me to get my head screwed on straight?: That's... That's not what I meant... (22/9/2018) Match Report: AFC Hornchurch Highlights The league took a break as we went to face AFC Hornchurch in the Second Qualifying Round of the Football Association Cup (FA Cup). Playing in his favoured striker's position, substitute O'Neill plundered a good brace as the second string side ran out convincing winners, with Rob Case in particular having a great game at the back. With fellow non-leaguers Weymouth F.C. in the next round, we look to have a pretty easy ride through the FA Cup at the moment.     (25/9/2018) Match Report: Dartford Highlights Dartford held us to a draw, with under-fire Rob Case scoring a most embarrassing own goal. Bright spark Causso Darame hit the equaliser just before half time, his efforts not quite enough to spark a comeback. The result left us in 2nd, 2 points behind the surprise leaders, Dulwich Hamlet. (29/9/2018) Match Report: Welling Highlights We struggled to beat Welling, limping over the finish line thanks to a blockbuster from Moistie for his first senior goal. Jack Barham got Welling's opener through a shot at the edge of the box, his movement from midfield causing big problems for our defence, the inexperience of Moistie leaving the advanced midfielder free. Still, a win is a win, and we have Weymouth in the cup to look forward to next. Our good September form once again saw Gio nearly clinch the Manager of the Month award, failing to beat the man who seems to be shaping up to be the main villain of Season 1...  October: (6/10/2018) Match Report: Weymouth F.C. Highlights An embarrassing performance. We played like amateurs who had never even seen each other before and let Ken Coton, a wingback who'd never scored a goal in his life, hit one in for the winner. We threw shots at the wall hoping one would stick, but our finishing left a lot to be desired as we were dumped out of the cup by a team in a league below us. What's worse are the vultures circling for our cheap captures, with Jack Challis' short-term contract an apparent invitation to pursue him.  (9/10/2018) Match Report: Billericay Highlights Though they aren't first, Billericay are the strongest team in the league by some distance. That quality showed as they easily carved us apart, with Ivan Avals' goal mere consolation as they ran circles around our boys. We had to go back to the drawing board after this one. Too many of the same mistakes were happening. (13/10/2018) Match Report: Chelmsford Highlights Our boys are strong and battled their way to a 3-1 win over Chelmsford. Shite finally got his first of the season and worked well with To, who grabbed the other two. Our two advanced playmakers are in sync these days, playing quick one-twos between each other and upsetting the rhythm of the opposition to deadly effect. I guarantee that we'll be seeing more goals from Shite very soon. (23/10/2018) Match Report: Concord Highlights If you asked me to guess who was getting the first hat-trick in the Berardi era, I would certainly not have guessed that it would be Moistie. Our Killer Kiwi proved my doubts wrong, netting a treble on his 17th birthday, no less, in a contentious game at the Sunshine Stadium, a game which saw our soaring striker the Institute suffer a long-term injury to his knee that will keep him out for a good chunk of the season. With him in such good form, this will be a bitter pill to swallow for the team.    (27/10/2018) Match Report: Truro Highlights Truro were stubborn but a clinical performance from O'Neill and a fortuitous error for Shite to pounce upon handed us a 3-0 win. (30/10/2018) Match Report: Hungerford Highlights  Hungerford were lucky to only lose by one, failing to get a shot on target and seeing the Excavators dominant in possession. Moistie added another goal to his collection, getting into fantastic form. This result finally saw us leapfrog Dulwich Hamlet into 1st Place, equal on points but ahead on goal difference thanks to our free-scoring team.   Our next match is a crunch clash against the Hamlet at the Sunshine Stadium. Win and we go 3 points clear with a better goal difference. Lose, and we risk them running away if our heads drop. It's bound to be a fascinating clash, one that may yet define our season.  _______________ (Somewhere in Exmouth. A bearded Dane and a blonde woman sit at either end of a small coffee table, the Dane sipping from a cup of black tea.) : Thank you for agreeing to an interview, Frederik. A lot of people are very interested in knowing what's going on at Exmouth and an exclusive interview with one of their star players is precisely the platform we can launch such an inquiry from. First things first, your team has soared up the charts, landing themselves in 1st Place after 16 games played. What's the atmosphere in the camp like? : No, it's good. The squad is a good squad and we have a manager with good tactics. We have lots of formations we work on in training.: We've seen that several times in the league. Your team has switched from 4-4-2 to 4-4-1-1 and 4-5-1 on occasions, with your role almost being the most important in the team. Tell, how do you cope with being that core component of the team. : I think... I think the pressure is good. I like the pressure the manager puts on me. He says I am the best passer in the squad so he trusts me to control the games.: When you've gone to 4-4-1-1, you're almost given a free role behind the striker to do what you want, whereas in the 4-4-2, you're almost asked to play more conservatively and sit in the hole ahead of the centrebacks to protect them. Which role do you feel fits you better?: I like the free role. I like to dribble. I watch videos of Hazard and Isco to see their dribbles so I can learn. When Just Gio lets me pick my positions, I feel I can do more for the team.: When the team is at its best, you're quite fun to watch, latching onto risky passes and hitting low-percentage shots into the back of the net more often than not. Do you think you can sustain that level of performance? : We only take speculative shots because... because the team are not fully understanding each other. Earlier in the season, I would shout at Anto or Ronnie "Giv mig bolden! Giv mig bolden!" and they did not know what I was saying. Now that Just Gio has hired an English teacher for me, I think my team can understand me better and we can connect better passes and make better goals.: Can you win the title this season?: Yes. We will take the title this season.: That's a confident answer.: You don't win titles if you are not confident. Even with injuries, we are one of the strongest squads in the competition. If we play our best, we can beat anyone._______________ First Quarter Summary: League Position: 1st FA Cup: Eliminated by Weymouth FA Trophy: Not started yet Wins: 13 Draws: 2 Losses: 3 Win Percentage (League): 72% (75%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (8) Top Playmaker: Rob Case (6) Best Average Rating; Rob Case (7.59/10) Most Yellow Cards: Moistie Most Red Cards: N/A Injuries: The Institute (3-6 weeks) Next Opponent: Dulwich Hamlet at home in the Vanarama National South So, board and fans, that's how we find ourselves at the end of October. Our star striker is injured for about two months and the better performer between our two backup centrebacks is leaving on a free the moment the January transfer window opens. What does the board think of the season so far? What do the fans want to see from the manager? Should we dip into the market to replace Challis or The Institute?
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Jun 19, 2020 15:35
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RISING TO THE CHALLENGE November (3/11/2018) Match Report: Dulwich Hamlet Highlights A draw is a result that helped neither of us, as it saw Torquay United rise above us both into 1st. Nonetheless, this match was one for the neutral to enjoy. We took the lead through a Shite penalty before they pegged back through a free-kick. Ivan was dismissed fairly early on before Schytte's second goal. The Danish madman got himself sent off in the 90th minute, after George Essuman was earlier dismissed for Dulwich Hamlet. 3 reds in a 4 goal thriller is certainly an interesting way to back into the swing of things.   (17/11/2018) Match Report: Weymouth Wanderers Highlights We took on our main rivals at a point where their manager, Mark de Ruiter, was under great pressure. Berardi's Boys took no mercy, tearing Weymouth to shreds with a performance that ensured that de Ruiter went in the bin as soon as they went home. Exmouth boy Ronnie scored the winner, which he'll doubtless be pleased about.   (24/11/2018) Match Report: Wealdstone Highlights Just as Count Gio predicted, Shite got another goal, a fine addition to his collection. While Lex gave away a pretty terrible goal, in all honesty, Mr Reliable Causso Darame came up big with a looping header to win us the game late on. Dulwich suffered an embarrassing loss to Billericary, giving us a 3-point buffer at the top. Next up is East Grinstead in the FA Trophy. With some luck in the draw, we should have a fairly easy time of things in that particular cup. December (1/12/2018) Match Report: East Grinstead Highlights An impressive showing from the second-stringers puts up through to the next round of the cup, with Ronnie and The Wall deserving special plaudits in this game. This match also saw the much-awaited return of The Institute, who looks ready and raring to go. Giles Ferdinand does... something before getting sent off.   We were meant to play Eastbourne Borough next, but heavy rains caused a fouling of the pitch at the Sunshine Stadium, meaning the match needed to be postponed. As a result, we'll play the next game in the cup, Dover.  (15/12/2018) Match Report: Dover Highlights Dover play in the division ahead of us, right now being placed solidly in 5th in the Vanarama National. They sure played like it, absolutely tearing through our boys despite our rigid defensive set-up. Once again, we were dumped out of a cup competition, but at least we were competitive this time, giving Dover something to think about despite the difference in class.  Anyway, back to the league, where we'll play Eastbo...  (22/12/2018) Match Report: Woking Woking scared me more than a little bit before kick-off. They're a very strong team and the lads' heads would have been down after the thrashing by Dover. The end result was a 1-1 draw neither team could really be upset about. Luckily for us, Torquay United, the team now in 2nd, managed to lose their game, giving us a 3 point lead at the top of the table. (26/12/2018) Match Report: Gloucester The reverse fixture for the start of the season, we had every right to be confident about beating Gloucester again. Gloucester themselves had other ideas, forcing us to rely on To to give us a fairly late equaliser. We weren't quite good enough to force a winner.  (28/12/2018) Match Report: Eastbourne Borough The match was certainly not worth the wait. Even the cursor is desperately searching for goalscorers. Luckily for us, Torquay and Dulwich Hamlet played each other to a 2-2 draw, meaning that the difference between them and us remained unchanged.  January (1/1/2019) Match Report: Hampton and Richmond Borough Another draw, another 2 points dropped. This time, Dulwich took full advantage, reducing the gap at the top.  (5/1/2019) Match Report: St Albans We have no problems scoring against St Albans, with The Institute back and hungry for goals. I left Moistie out of the game for this way. While he'd been putting in good performances over the past few weeks, he was beginning to draw interest from the likes of Fleetwood. Time on the bench was time to get his head straight, in the hopes that he wouldn't force his way out.  (8/1/2019) Match Report: Chippenham Shite's red card somehow made us more dangerous, with The Institute plundering a pair of goals and letting his strike partners benefit from some sharp passing. Dulwich Hamlet are still hot on our tails, so we'll have to approach this last stretch of the season very carefully. We've only one competition to focus on, so any slip-ups will be completely unacceptable.  (12/1/2019) Match Report: Hemel Hempstead The Institute got his twentieth of the season, turning him into the outright highest scorer in the Vanarama South. New signing Joey Jones, signed for a princely sum of 4K, had a tough time at centreback. but looks to be a decent acquisition, his rigidity and calmness at the back giving Rob Case insurance as he drives forward.   _______________ (On the pitch at the Sunshine Stadium. Rain falls all around the ground. Gio stands by his dugout with a black umbrella while the players run through their paces. Once training finishes, Gio approaches a determined-looking striker.) : Hey, Adam, can we talk for a second? : It's 'The Institute'.: ... The Institute, can we talk for a second?: Sure, boss, what do you need?: We've been at the top of the league for a little while now. I know we're not exactly running away with it, but I'm quite confident we're going to bring the trophy home. What do you think?: I'm happy with how we're doing, boss. The way you've got the boys playing suits me down the ground. I think I'm on course to break my previous record.: Oh? What's your record?: 27 in 38. I'm on 20 in 26 at the moment. It just feels like I can score when I want these days.: That's good to hear. I'm glad my tactics are working for someone at least. Think you can break 30?: I know I can. If we keep playing like this, I can get more than that.: Fantastic.: Something else on your mind, boss?: Oh, yeah. You've put in some amazing performances this month. Take this, it's from the FA. : Thanks, boss. Now, if you don't mind...: Yeah, sorry. Should have thought about the rain.(The Institute disappears into the changing room. After a couple of seconds pass, the sounds of boisterous celebrations emerge from the door. The Institute's award seems to have gone down well with the squad.) : (This is a good squad. I'd have gotten nowhere if it weren't for how good these boys are. Onwards and upwards, lads. We've got the lead at the top of the league. Let's keep going, bit by bit.)(Gio retires to his office. Upon entering the small square room, he finds himself faced with a package wrapped in newspaper sitting on his desk. Intrigued, he unpacks the black-and-white covering, finding a shield-shaped trophy hidden within.) : Hey, boss. Congrats on the good work this month. We wouldn't be where we are if there wasn't a good head at the helm. The FA wanted to give you this, even told me to keep it a secret. Congrats on the award, boss. Let's hope for more to come our way soon. ~ Roy _______________ Middle Stretch Summary: League Position: 1st FA Cup: Eliminated by Weymouth FA Trophy: Eliminated by Dover Top Goalscorer: The Institute (20) Top Playmaker: Rob Case (8) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.46/10) Most Yellow Cards: Big Mouth (8) Most Red Cards: Shite (2) Injuries: None Transfers In: Joey Jones (CB) Next Opponent: Slough Town away in the Vanarama National South _______________ Thread challenge: Please tell me what Giles Ferdinand was doing in this highlight
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Jun 21, 2020 20:37
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BONUS: Meet the Striker FM19 offers a fair bit of tactical flexibility for its frontmen, with the above 8 roles being able to be tailored to however you want your Number 9 to play. Most of the time, these are the guys that you want putting the ball in the back of the net, but, as we'll soon see, that isn't always the case. Deep-Lying Forward While the striker is the most advanced position on the pitch, the DLF role asks him to sometimes drop deep into midfield to pick up the ball, either to play his strike partner or a winger in, or to draw the opposition defenders out of position to give auxiliary attackers space. The DLF can be a potent goalscoring threat him, especially if he is fast and strong. These two traits mean that he is fully capable of driving at the opposition goal from deep, causing a bit of panic at the back as the opposition defenders are forced to commit to tackling him or standing off and letting him crack off a long shot. The players you want for this role are team players, with high teamwork, vision, passing and composure, and physical players that can ride the challenges of the opposition defenders. The DLF comes in two flavours. On Support, he will be withdrawn compared to a regular striker, being in the hole just behind a regular frontman. His primary duty will be to play partners in, with goalscoring a secondary concern. He is an excellent link between the midfield and the attack. On Attack, he operates in the same tier as a regular striker, being the primary goal threat but also threading passes for anyone else that may be around him. This is a good role for possession-based systems with a single striker and even as the main goalscorer in a two. A good example of the Deep-Lying Forward is Wayne Rooney in his prime. Fast, energetic and with a great eye for a pass, Rooney is the second-highest scorer in the history of the Premier League and its third-highest assist-maker as well. Often playing second-fiddle to another forward, be it Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov or others, his game was to play off of them, his footballing intelligence and sheer power as a forward turning him into a superb goal threat. Now plying his trade as a deep-lying playmaker for Derby County in the Championship, he lacks a bit of his youthful energy, but his expansive passing range still shines through. Advanced Forward A sort of classic striker, the advanced forward chases down clearances from the defence, charges after through balls from midfield and looks to burst past a high line to go one-on-one with the keeper. His main aim is to score goals, meaning that he is an advanced option down the middle, but he is happy to work the channels and hit crosses for his strike partner or a late-arriving midfielder. You can expect them to string together a few passes but by and large, you want the ball to them being the last ball in the movement. Given how attacking this position is, it can only be used in an Attack mentality. A good example of the Advanced Forward is Jaime Vardy of Leicester City. An extremely hardworking forward with electric pace, Vardy has been Leicester's top scorer for a few seasons now but he is a team player as well, harassing defenders on the ball and running the channels to give Barnes or Maddison space in the middle. His finishing is top class and his timing shows a good football brain. He'd be an excellent pressing forward as well, with his boundless energy and willingness to press a sleepy defence. Target Man That archetypical big man up top, the target man is someone who you build your tactic around. The game automatically causes your team to play more long balls up to the target man if you're playing one, and he'll use his strength to shrug off his man and turn to score. You want an excellent header of the ball here, as well as someone with a good first touch and excellent work rate. A dominant target man can absolutely tear apart even the most meticulously planned tactic, as all it takes is one ball over the top for the big guy to win to get the rest of his teammates in. A target man with good finishing and good passing can make a truly deadly striker. A TM comes in two types. On Support, he'll use his power and presence to open up space for a teammate to attack, playing them in with a riskier passing range. A TM here works well with a late arriving attacking midfielder like a shadow striker or an inside forward, midfielders with strange movement that will confuse the opposition. On Attack, the TM is your primary goal threat, playing short passes and looking to get at the end of a cross or a through ball. A good example of a Target Man is Brighton's Glenn Murray. A wily old fox in the box, Murray attracts both the ball and the opposition players to him, his footballing smarts and good passing allowing him to worm his way out of these sticky situations and play in striking partner Pascal Gross. He offers an outlet for the long pass and his ability to hold up the ball gives his teammates the opportunity to surge up the pitch and get in positions to support the counterattack. Poacher The most attacking striking option is the Poacher, the goal-hanger who lives and thrives in the eighteen-yard box and nowhere else. Don't expect him to start or really support the build-up of moves. Don't ask him to throw crosses in. This guy is a goalscorer. Feed him half chances and he'll take them and score. He loves to hover around aggressive defensive lines, using his anticipation and speed to break past a high line. What you want here is a good finisher with speed and good off-the-ball movement. He might struggle as a lone striker, so play a strike partner next to him or have an attacking midfielder near him to help out. Naturally, the poacher can only be played with an Attack mentality A good example of the poacher is Javier Hernandez aka Chicharito. During his time at Manchester United, he was used as a super-sub, climbing off of the bench to grab goals in the limited time his minutes allowed. His stint with the Red Devils saw him turn, at least briefly, into the man with the 3rd best minutes-to-goal ratio in the history of the Premier League because of how he played. Chicharito would hang around the opposition box waiting for something to fall his way before smashing the ball into the net. At the time, United were a dominant force, so the rest of the team could afford to carry Chicharito and just work on feeding him chances. Complete Forward The Complete Forward is as his name implies, a striker who can do a bit of everything. His goal return rivals the poacher, his assists tally that of the deep-lying forward, his physical presence that of the target man, while adding that maverick streak that just keeps the defenders guessing. This role is reserved for the best of the best and is absolutely a role you build your team around. This guy is your focal point and he'll win you games, one way or another. The complete forward comes in two mentalities. On Support, he'll come deep to help the midfield before turning to attack, playing in auxiliary attackers or cracking off long shots to keep the opposition keeper busy. He does his own thing, causing havoc in the defence. On Attack, he is your main goal threat, combining with the wingers and midfielders to run the show and get himself into the box to get on the end of chances. A good example of the Complete Forward is Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski. Popularly regarded as the best striker in the world, Lewandowski is a pacy, powerful striker whose football brain allows him to dominant a game up top for Bayern. As capable of putting chances on a plate for his teammates as he is at putting the ball into the back of the net, he's a dangerous forward that teams find very difficult to cope with. He famously scored 5 goals in 9 minutes against Wolfsburg after coming on as a sub, giving an indication of just how lethal this frontman is. Pressing Forward The pressing forward is one of the more modular forward options in FM19. He tries his best to rob the opposition of the ball, whether it be the goalkeeper, the defence or the midfield, and takes it from there. The most important attributes for the PF are anticipation, work rate and stamina. With these, he'll work tirelessly to disrupt the rhythm of the opposition. Naturally, this time of forward works best in a pressing tactic. There are 3 types of pressing forward. On Defend, he'll sit a little bit deeper and break up any attacking opportunities the opposition might craft and tries to play simple passes to a teammate to get them moving up the pitch. On Support, he'll move a little bit further forward and will be riskier in his passing. On Attack, he'll be your main goalscorer, attacking the defence and goalkeeper out of possession and acting like an AF when in possession. A good example of the Pressing Forward is Roberto Firmino of Liverpool. Not the main goal threat of his team, Firmino is a slightly-withdraw striker to endlessly harries the opposition when they are in possession and then uses his significant technical qualities to play in either Salah or Mane, two wingers who come narrow to attack the goal when in possession. His raw goal and assist numbers are rather low for a forward of his quality, but his importance to an enormously impressive Liverpool side cannot be overstated. Trequartista Italian for 'Three Quarters', the trequartista is a non-standard striker who operates in the number 10 position i.e. 3/4 up the pitch. Creative, quick and very intelligent, the trequartista is a player with the finishing ability of a regular striker with the passing range and footballing guiles of a traditional number 10. He needs to be carried by his midfield and defence, as he won't do any defending, but he will be the primary outlet for attacks, playing others in and making chances for himself. This role can be used in the striker slot, in the AMC slot or on either wing slot. Up top, he is, in essence, an uber DLF with less defensive responsibilities and is only available with an Attack mentality. A good example of the trequartista as a striker is Cesc Fabregas during Spain's Euro 2012 campaign. Going strikerless, Spain put midfield playmaker Fabregas up top ahead of the legendary trio of Iniesta, Busquets and Xavi, letting him do his thing without worrying about what was behind him. His movement and passing gave opposition defences headaches and Spain went on to lift the trophy. False Nine The False Nine is a bit of a weird one. He's a striker whose main purpose isn't really scoring goals. The F9's role is defined by his movement and intelligence. His job to move about at the front end of the pitch, using his dribbling and speed to move defenders out of their usual positions before playing in a teammate in that vacated slot. He won't do a lot of defending. He just wants to cause panic and confusion in the opposition box. This player tends to drop very deep and adds another body in midfield, making him excellent for a possession-based tactic. He can, of course, get goals on his own by driving from deep and placing shots beyond the keeper. This role is only available with a Support mentality. A good example of this role is Barcelona's Lionel Messi. Famous for his dribbling ability and his eye for a pass, Messi was placed in the middle by Pep Guardiola, where the Argentine's speed and agility caused havoc among opposition defenders. He plundered 50 goals in one La Liga season playing in this role, showing that with movement and timing, you can turn a support striker into a deadly attacker.
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Jun 22, 2020 15:49
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THE PAUPER PRINCE (30/1/2019) _______________ (The Sunshine Stadium. Two players are talking to another one, the elder of the two leaning against a goalpost, the younger with his hands on a wooden box labelled 'fragile'.) : It's all about trickle-down economics. If my business is making more money, then my workers are making more money as well. I pay more taxes, something, something, everyone gets paid. : But you're not paying me anything.: ... Special circumstances. This is valuable work experience. It'll help your job prospects in the future. Now move that crate. : What are you two getting up to over there?: There are gaping market opportunities that The Institute needs to fill. Ronnie and I, but mostly me, are starting up a business to supplement our wages. We've founded the Goonfleet Fund For Youth Development. On paper, it's funding for a youth league team. That means we're tax-exempt. Ronnie here is still on a youth contract, so he makes it official.: ... : Come on, don't give that look. Look, Riyad gave us the go-ahead.: He did?: Riyad gave us the go-ahead, Ronnie. C'mon, back me up, Bass.: This whole thing stinks of bullshit. Count me in._______________ We're in the last third of the season. It's crunch time. If we're winning the league, these last few gameweeks are going to be absolutely vital. February (2/2/2019) Match Report: Slough Town The Institute continued his excellent form against his former club, scoring a brace to keep distance between us and the chasing pack. He kept getting offside, though, which he absolutely shouldn't be doing, considering his pace.  We're looking very solid at the moment to the point where our unbeaten record is right up there with the best the division has ever seen.  (9/2/2019) Match Report: Dartford A back and forth match like this was stressful to go through, but a late winner by the excellent To managed to get us over the line. Behind us, Torquay and Billericary fought each other to a draw, meaning that Dulwich Hamlet slid back into 2nd, a full four points behind us.  We have our own personal records to chase, with both the total points haul and record number of wins for the club within our capabilities of surpassing. If we plan on winning this title, we are almost certainly breaking those records.   (16/2/2019) Match Report: Dartford Well, that's a start, I suppose. The gap between us and Dulwich Hamlet dropped to 2 points again, but at least we still have that buffer. We can't afford to get complacent at this stage of the season. The Institute didn't manage to grab a goal here, but he's firing on all cylinders. We'll see a high scoreline soon with that sort of performance.  (23/2/2019) Match Report: Welling This... isn't quite what I had in mind. While To had a good performance, the defence really let us down this evening. New signing Joey Jones seems to be finding it a little tough, but, for once, the unwashed masses of social media seemed sympathetic to his troubles.   In other news, Riyad finally found some money to bribe children into joining our youth set-up. Most of these guys will just fill ranks, but a couple of them might turn in first-team players over the years. Even the ones that don't give the club anything will still bring us some money in the form of compensation fees after being released if another club snaps them up.  March (2/3/2019) Match Report: Billericay The lads remembered what happened the last time we played Billericay and decided to get a little payback. Our opposition never really got out of first gear, while our boys ran rampant, racking up 5 goals with ease. It's performances like this that will serve us well going forward. Every win boosts confidence, especially big wins, and we'll need to be mentally strong to make it past this last stretch of fixtures. We'll have to do it without Moistie, who pulled up lame in the match versus Billericay.   (9/3/2019) Match Report: Hungerford After March had started so well and Moistie declared himself fit to play, we just had to hand in this sort of tepid performance, didn't we? The lads didn't look like they even wanted to be there, just going through the motions as Hungerford grabbed two early goals and the team just gave up.  (16/3/2019) Match Report: Chelmsford Rubbish. Just rubbish. Two cheap freekicks went straight into the top corner after the boys downed tools, apparently believing that The Institute's opener would be enough to see us through. Suffice to say it wasn't and a team we should have breezed past handed us a defeat that, were it not for a late goal by Welling's Danny Mills against Dulwich Hamlet, would have seen us slide into 3rd.  (30/3/19) Match Report: Dulwich Hamlet Torquay United lost to Weymouth Wanderers, so another draw between Dulwich Hamlet and us was enough to get us both over the line and ensure our places in the playoffs. Both teams are searching for something more, so that little tidbit would be academic at the end of the day.   April (6/4/2019) Match Report: Truro City With The Institute struggling with supply, Oliver Goodsir stepped up to fulfil the demand, smashing in a fine hat-trick to get us back to winning ways. A natural right-winger, I've been playing him on the left side to give him opportunities to cut in on his strong right foot. Based on his goalscoring record, it's not been a bad move.  Only a handful of games remain. Of the four teams fighting for the title, I believe we have the easiest run-in, with our highest-placed opponent being 7th placed Eastbourne Borough. In all honesty, we should be getting a 100% record out of the rest of the season. The title should be ours.  (13/4/2019) Match Report: Weymouth Wanderers We should have this match in the bag, seeing as how our opponents were dead-last in the standings. Instead, Weymouth, with their new coach, really gave us a tough game, giving Lex a fair few things to think about in goal. A late goal by Dale Johnson baled them out and gave us a bit of a stuttering start to the title run-in.  With his absurd record of 25 goals plain to see, The Institute is getting a lot of attention from the press, many of them backing him to be the player of the season not only for us but for the league as a whole. Certainly, he deserves it, but let's complete the season before we rest on our laurels.  (20/4/2019) Match Report: Wealdstone 4/20 saw us a grab a scruffy win, with The Institute getting the winner and Moistie earning his 4th red of the season. He'll be gone for two matches because of prior offences.   (22/4/2019) Match Report: Eastbourne Borough We did it. It took a hat-trick from The Institute and a late wondersave from Lex Metzger, but we finally did it! With one game left, 3 points to play for, and a 4-point gap at the top, we've been mathematically confirmed as champions.    Of course, they have to remind us about some of the ignominious moments over the last season, but still. We've got our hands on the cup, the board are absolutely delighted and we're going to play in the Conference next season! We're just one step away from the official English Football League. _______________   : Well done, Mr Berardi. I'm pleased you managed to bring us our first piece of silverware. : I had a tenner on you getting sacked before Christmas so that I could step in, but this is good too. We've done well, you and I.: I wasn't quite so... presumptuous as Mr Lake, but nonetheless, I'm rather surprised you managed to pull this off. Just be careful, Mr Berardi. Our stars on the pitch are aging and the stars above our heads may not align the way they did this season for the next one. Rest assured that I will back you in the next window but... spend responsibly, if you would.: Um, about the next window, Mr Hakimi..._______________  _______________ : One season played and one trophy gained. Do you think you can keep that sort of record up?: Absolutely not. I'm just looking stay in the division next season and build from there.: Don't you think that shows a lack of ambition, given your success this season?: Not at all. Listen, I just want to be realistic here. We've done fantastically well, but we have to keep ourselves grounded._______________   Somewhere, some football hipster is bragging to his friends about being an Exmouth supporter after starting to follow us from December. His friends will have no idea what the Vanarama National South is and will laugh him out of the room. Post-Season _______________ (A hotel lobby in Exmouth. Gio and Riyad sit on opposite sides of a small table. Riyad's lip is raised, the chairman clearly not enthused by the smell of cigarette smoke.) : What brings you here, Mr Hakimi?: Business, what else?: Of course. : You've done quite well, Mr Berardi. You've done what even Clark couldn't: bring a trophy, however small, to Exmouth. While your losses in the cups were embarrassing and almost certainly preventable, you've more than exceeded expectations in the league. Back-to-back promotions aren't something for any club to scoff at. Though our wage budget is... well, has been exceeded, I still think that we'll be alright on a financial front.: Yeah, I've had a good time here. Though, I've always known that this was just a one-year job. You'll be on the hunt for a permanent boss soon, won't you?: That we are. We'll need someone who can get these players motivated to make another push.(Riyad slides a closed envelope over the table towards Gio. He stands up and speaks briefly before leaving.) : Think it over, Mr Berardi. At the end of the day, it's your choice. _______________ End of Season Summary: League Position: 1st (Champions) FA Cup: Eliminated by Weymouth FA Trophy: Eliminated by Dover Top Goalscorer: The Institute (30) Top Playmaker: Rob Case (11) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.45/10) Most Yellow Cards: Big Mouth (9) Most Red Cards: Moistie (4) Transfers IN: George O'Neill, Causso Darame, Oliver Gardner, Jack Challis, Matthew Carr, Grant Beeney, Joey Jones Transfers OUT: Jack Challis   Our young goalie had a very, very good season, beating out our old record by one and putting in an average rating of 6.9. He even got 1 assist in the FA Trophy.  Unfortunately, we'll have to say goodbye to the Sunshine Stadium for now. She's served us well, hosting the 2nd highest average attendance across the Vanarama National League South. We'll be renting Torquay United's Plainmoor, seemingly just to rub in the fact that we beat them in the title race.   This pleases The Institute.  I left a vote for Gavin Rose, our second-placed rival for the title. He did a good job, I felt, the best among the non-Berardi rest.  This also pleases The Institute.  _______________ And so ends the season with Exmouth. The squad seems to think they'll be fighting against relegation next season, so careful recruitment is needed for them to stay up. In the meantime, they, and Gio, have a well-earned break and time to think about what's happening next season.
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Jun 23, 2020 20:44
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:The Sunshine Stadium is such a charming name. Can we upgrade it down the line? It's possible if we can find the funds. I can't quite remember what I set the expansion capacity to, but it might be enough for some of the higher leagues. If not, we can always give a new stadium the same name.
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Jun 23, 2020 21:11
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:Congratulations on an excellent first season. How long are you planning on continuing with this? I'd like to end the game either after we become a consistent top team (a title or two, several seasons in the top four) or if I get sacked. It's easy to make updates and I'm enjoying the game, so I'm having fun doing this.
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Jun 23, 2020 22:59
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Post-Season I've got access to the Editor, so we can change kit colours in-game and then, with the kit textures being custom ones, the sponsors can be altered at will. Currently, our outfit is as follows: Home: Black and Gold Away: Light Blue and White Third: Red and Black Are we putting a new sponsor on the front of the shirt? Are we getting sponsors for the sleeves? Are we turning out in totally new colours next season? You decide. GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Jun 26, 2020 |
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Jun 26, 2020 12:08
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Behold, images of beauty and success .png)
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Jun 26, 2020 16:51
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You can change a player's size in the pre-game and in-game editors, up to a maximum of 210cm/6'11" and 120kg/265lb. This is entirely independent of in-game attributes, so your titan could have the touch of a football god and speed like Usain Bolt.
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Jun 26, 2020 17:05
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Now that we're in the National League, we're going to need squad numbers for everyone. First come, first claimed, 1-99. Traditional Number Placements: 1: Goalkeeper 2: Right Back 3: Left Back 4: Centre Back 5: Centre Back 6: Defensive Midfielder 7: Right Wing 8: Box-to-Box Midfielder 9: Striker 10: Attacking Midfielder 11: Left Wing
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Jun 27, 2020 17:35
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A STEP UP IN CLASS _______________ (16/6/2019) (The conference room at Plainmoor in Torquay, Devon. Riyad Hakimi stares stonily forward at the pack of journalists. To the chairman's right is Norman Lake. To his left, an empty chair. Draped over the table both men are sitting at are the three kits for the 2019/20 season.) : Mr Hakimi, can you explain the thought process behind the design of your new kits?: No.: ...: ...: Um, next question. Supposedly the club, due to bonuses in player wages after promotion, is going through a bit of a tough patch financially. Do you have any comments on that story?: The club's finances are healthy. The increase in wages will have no effect on incoming transfers and negotiations.: We've moved Oliver Gardner and George O'Neill off of the books, so a significant chunk of the wage budget has been freed up. Don't rule us out of pulling off astute business yet.: Have you agreed a transfer plan with your manager? Reports indicate that Giovanni Berardi has signed a new contract with you.: Yes, we have agreed to an extension to his contract for another year. We're both pleased to keep him around for continuity.: Yes, both of us, very pleased.: Where is Mr Berardi, may I ask?_______________ (A coffeehouse somewhere in Torquay. The players are spread around the coffeehouse, looking for all the world like gangsters gathering in their corners to play poker or dice. A replica of the Vanarama National League South Trophy stands on one of the tables. It looks a little more beat-up than before Gio had let each of the players have a turn taking it home. A lone, somewhat fearful barista listens to the order coming from one of the Exmouth players.)  : Five minutes! Make it perfect!: I'm glad you could all make it for mandatory team bonding and I hope you guys enjoyed it. Let's get ourselves up to speed. We need to be at our best in the new league. We've had our fun, we'd had our laughs, it's time to knuckle down. We'll be starting our pre-season program next week.: What?!: I've done some thinking and I think that we'll be needing a fitness edge against the other teams in the league. They might be better than us, for now, but if we want it more than they do and we get there before they do, we'll win.: But, boss, we've barely had any time off.: I know... but... this is the decision I've made. I'll see you guys in training.(A murmur goes through the crowd of players. That decisions, it seems, has not gone down well.) _______________ We're back and we've been promoted to the Vanarama National League. We played some National League quality opponents a couple of times last season, and they flattened us most of the time, except for that great game against Billericay. Our guys are good and they've still got enough in the tank to get us through the season, but just getting through the season shows a lack of ambition. The media has picked us as one of the sides predicted to struggle, judging that we'll finish down in 21st, just one place above the drop zone. To defy those expectations, we'll need to reinforce and rethink. On the first front, Rob and Roy aren't getting any younger. We dug deep to find £4.5K to sign Keston Davies, a former Swansea youth player. We happen to have Causso Darame, another former Swan, on our books, so a familiar face will do them both some good. As preseason dragged on, the acquisition looked a good one, with Davies adding stability at the back. I also grabbed Junior Monndal, a natural left winger, on loan from Forest Green Rovers in League Two, while allowing Paul Paulson to go to Truro on loan.. Preseason went well. However, a disturbing pattern emerged in our goalscoring records. 90% of our goals were coming from one man: The Institute. At 32, turning 33 this season, he's approaching the time where his primary asset, his pace, might start to go. We're going to need to find a replacement. Luckily for us, a bunch of top clubs released their players from their academies. I was happy to find any sort of goalscorer in there, be it an advanced midfielder or a striker. Most of the players available had heard Chrissy's report on our finances and didn't see the benefits of joining our cash-strapped outfit. A fair number of players outright refused to enter negotiations due to the stature of the club not matching their ambitions. But then, there was this guy.  For a young guy, his attributes are similar to, and in respects better than, The Institute's. His dribbling is excellent, as is his finishing and heading. He's quick off the mark and has bags of pace. His mentality and anticipation leave something to be desired, but that can be coached. What's more, he only asked us for £500 per week. That's average wage around this club! We had to pay Southampton, the loftiest of our south coast rivals, £2.5k in compensation, but this guy looks like a steal and well worth the fee. On the second front, I had good reason for us starting pre-season early and it wasn't because I misclicked the start date. At this level, fitness is extremely important for all clubs, but especially for what I want to turn this team into. For the majority of last season, we were playing at a balanced tempo, sometimes unnecessarily dallying on the ball or slowing down play. I've upped our tempo to Faster, which has boosted the intensity of our training to a dull red. This means that, as long as the players aren't used to this and/or have poorer fitness than the tempo requires, we'll have an increase in muscle injuries and fatigue. But I honestly believe that moving the ball more quickly will really enhance the lethality of the side, as it looks to exploit the pace of The Institute, Darame, Goodsir and Afolabi. Roy announced his intention to take up coaching, using last season's winnings to fund his coaching course. Getting him into the coaching setup is something I'm happy to do, as his personality and traits mean that he will be a good youth coach.   The season would start with a match against a familiar opponent: Dover Athletic thrashed us and put us out of the FA Trophy the last time we met. The boys will be itching to get them back. August (10/8/2019) Match Report: Dover Athletic  We've come a long way from last season and we didn't really look out of place against Dover. Both goalkeepers had good games between the sticks, and a draw was a fair result. (17/8/2019) Match Report: AFC Fylde  An absolutely amazing performance from our front two. The Institute pulled out a range of passing I didn't even know he had, while To kept the game ticking towards the high tempo I wanted us to use. Everything wasn't, however, completely rosy, as we lost Moistie to a relatively long term injury.  (25/8/2019) Match Report: Salford City  Salford City are a very, very strong team at this level, having picked up striker Adam Rooney from Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen and boasting a professional set-up. The boys said 'stuff it' to all pretences of respect and fought toe-to-toe with them, a clinical performance from The Institute grabbing us the win on the day. We look a very good team at the moment, moving the ball from front to back with serious speed. We can unsettle even very tough opposition. My decision to increase the tempo has, however, claimed another victim. With both Avals and Moistie out, our midfield is absolutely barebones at the moment.  September (2/9/2019) Match Report: Dag and Red  New signing Afolabi got his first two goals for the club after coming in for The Institute, but it was Junior Mondal who grabbed the headlines with an energetic, productive performance down the left flank. Big Mouth is putting in perfectly acceptable performances in the middle of the park, but he's also getting on in years and I much prefer him at full back. Against faster opponents, we might have something to think about. (7/9/2019) Match Report: Barnet  Barnet are a professional side who got dropped into the division from League Two. That wasn't a fact that really bothered our boys, as they ran out 4-1 winners. Our starting two strikers struggled a little, but the dream team of To and The Institute bailed us out late on, every single goal coming after the 80th minute in a game I was rapidly fearing we were going to lose. (11/9/2019) Match Report: Wrexham  Previous LP Allstars Wrexham gave us a great game, grabbing an early lead and giving us real scares all through the game. New signing Keston Davies got a good headed goal, but Joey Jones knocked in his 2nd own goal of the season. It's a bit worrying that he's given up a couple of those. (14/9/2019) Match Report: Braintree Town  Braintree were no match for our brain geniuses, our lineup featuring the return of Ivan Avals. Davies kept up his good goalscoring form, hitting a headed goal at the first time of asking. Knypersley had a great game at the back, his experienced head giving Keston pointers. I gave Jones a run-out later on to boost his confidence as the team kept a clean sheet. (17/9/2019) Match Report: Crewe Alexandra  Crewe are another professional team and they really showed off their prowess in this game. We were never really in the game. The defence had a good game, which is worrying because of the scoreline. If they'd had worse games, Crewe might have hit double digits. Then, the inevitable happened.   The work permit system, for reference, requires players from non-UK regions to achieve a certain number of points to be eligible for a work permit. These points are achieved based on: the quality of the league the player is playing in, the number of international caps the player has achieved and nationality. For example, let's look at Percy Tau, from my native South Africa.  Tau was signed by Premier League club Brighton and Hove Albion from PSL side Mamelodi Sundowns. Sundowns have won several recent titles and have been participating in the CAF Champions League fairly regularly. Tau is a regular international player with Bafana Bafana, popularly regarded as our best player at the moment. When signed for Brighton, he failed to get a work permit, so the Seagulls loaned him out to Belgian side Union SG in the Belgian Second Division, where he won the Proximus Player of the season. He returned to Brighton, still not eligible for a work permit. He went out on loan again, this time to Club Brugge, the Belgian champions and regular participants in the UEFA Champions League. The Belgian League's UEFA coefficient is fairly high, so the chances of him getting a work permit have increased. Whether he wants to ditch a Champions League side for relegation strugglers is another matter entirely. The game follows much of the same logic. You can buy a guy that doesn't have a permit and loan him out to another country where the permit laws are more relaxed, allowing him to get playing time and another chance at acquiring a permit. Another away around this problem is the matter of nationality. If a player lives in a country, let's say England, for 5 years, he gets nationality for that country and no longer needs to get a work permit. In-game, because of the UK being in the EU, it's generally just Eastern European, African, South and North American players that need the permits. Now, with Brexit, we'll see many more permits being needed. This brings us to the half-joking of matter 'Brexit Football'. For the longest time, England has had a reputation of being brutish, unrefined and haphazard, with the football being scarcely much better. Many English teams were decried as being proponents of hoofball, a system of play in which midfield technicians are bypassed via long balls to the strikers or wingers. These teams were full of big bullies who would bend the rules, putting in 'proper English tackles' that had an equal chance of breaking a limb as getting the ball. In the modern-day, with the influx of foreign managers in the league, this style has mostly fallen away, with Wengers silky technicians in a modified 4-4-2, Ferguson's rockets in a fluid 4-3-3, Mourinho's solid 4-2-3-1 and Conte's revolutionary 3-4-3 being much more popular in recent years. One club seems to be bucking that trend.  Burnley, managed by Sean Dyche, play a classic 4-4-2 with outside wingers and a little and large striker combination up top. They are well-known for the allergy for possession, their tough-tackling style and their reliance on British players, with only 5 of the 26 Clarets players being non-UK players. Burnley as a city overwhelmingly voted Leave, so people like to joke about anything their team does to perpetuate the English football stereotype as a staunch 'Brexit means Brexit!' stance. Certainly, with a throwback style and a tendency to throw in tackles that only the English refs would ever let them get away with, Burnley aren't doing much to break the stereotype. (28/9/2019) Match Report: Leyton Orient  Our bad luck continued with a game against table-toppers Leyton Orient, who really took no prisoners. An attempt to let some of the 2nd-choice players play backfired. Still, I didn't expect us to get anything from this game, and the guys got some valuable game-time. October (1/10/2019) Match Report: Maidstone United  Both teams served up a treat, but it was ultimately the Excavators who emerged victorious. Afolabi grabbed his first ever senior hat-trick, while The Institute added a goal to complement his two assists for Afolabi. Ronaldo Brown gave me heart palpitations late on, but we saw the result through. We honestly have an extremely inconsistent team. There are times where we look like prime Madrid, tearing through teams with pace and power, and then there are times when we really look like a National South team and make amateur mistakes. I'll put it down to the youthful nature of many of our players. We'll see more consistency as they grow up. (5/10/19) Match Report: York City  It was The Institute's turn for a hat-trick this time, his pace causing real problems for the York defence. Strangely, despite there being 20 minutes left, we couldn't grab another goal after the sending-off, which was slightly disappointing. At the moment, we're the second-highest scorers in the league, with The Institute being the outright top scorer. I told him he did a good job.  (8/10/2019) Match Report: Grimsby Town  This match was about as grim as our opponents. We weren't at the races and looked like a bunch of amateurs. For whatever reason, we couldn't hold onto the ball in the middle of the park and the boys weren't at their usual pressing best. On we go, I suppose. (12/10/2019) Match Report: Ebbsfleet United  Another day, another hat-trick from Afolabi, who already looks like our signing of the season. I almost feel bad for Southampton for fleecing them for a mere £2.5k for this guy. This game is also excellent evidence for our amazing inconsistency. The press backed Grimsby and they took us apart. The press backed Ebbsfleet United and we walloped them. Next up is Chelmsford Town in the FA Cup. We each took 3 points off of each other in the fixtures last season, so there's no way I can take Chelmsford lightly. With our finances struggling a bit, we need to progress fairly far in the cup to recoup costs. (19/10/2019) Match Report: Chelmsford Town  A good professional job from the boys, with goals from Mondal, To and, of all people, Tribune for his first ever goal, a cross that made its way into the top right corner of the goal. Lex Metzger was magic at the back, making 8 saves in a performance that I can show the boys if I ever want to showcase a complete performance. We'll face Solihull Moors, a fellow National League side, in the next round. (26/10/2019) Match Report: Harrogate Town  I wasn't happy with this match. There shouldn't have been this gulf in class, but Harrogate showed up and we didn't. Everything ahead of the defence worked, but the defence itself struggled, the normally extremely reliable Eaufort really struggling. (29/10/2019) Match Report: Hartlepool United  We really, really should have won this match. We had a number of shots in good places, but for some reason, we just couldn't convert any of them. All in all, our start in the new division had been very respectable. We find ourselves in 7th place, in the playoff places, and, will a little more consistency, we can make our home here and gun for back-to-back promotions.   _______________ First Third Summary: League Position: 7th FA Cup: Through to 1st Round facing Solihull Moors FA Trophy: Not started yet Wins: 9 Draws: 2 Losses: 5 Win Percentage (League): 59% (56%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (13) Top Playmaker: Junior Mondal (7) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.62/10) Most Yellow Cards: Big Mouth Most Red Cards: N/A Injuries: None Transfers IN: Keston Davies (4k, Swansea, CB), Junior Mondal (Loan, Forest Green, LM), Jonathan Afolabi (2.5K, Southampton, ST) Transfers OUT: Oliver Gardner (Free, CB), George O'Neill (Free, Harrogate Town, ST) Next Opponent: Boreham Wood at home in the Vanarama National South
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Jul 3, 2020 17:28
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Namtab posted:It will probably be a 22 year old named karl marx There's a Brazilian No. 10 called Marx Lenin in the database somewhere.
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Jul 4, 2020 01:36
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THE CREST OF THE WAVE _______________ (1/11/2019) (Plainmoor, Torquay.) : With your team in somewhat uninspiring, lukewarm form and several nearby jobs opening up, it seems that you've become a manager in fairly high demand. What's your take on the situation.  : I'm committed to the project here, a project I feel that I've only just started. To jump ship now would be silly and disloyal of me. Mr Hakimi has trusted me with the reins; I need to repay his trust.: How do you suppose you'll go about this 'repayment'.: Improved results and efforts at strengthening the club.: Strengthening how? You're several tens of thousands of pounds in debt. Your wage budget has been overextended and it looks unlikely that you'll win a trophy this season. Where is your budget meant to come from?: We'll find a way. This team always does._______________ November (3/11/2019) Match Report: Boreham Wood  More like bore-draw wood. We made a fair few presentable chances but our forwards really had a tough time of things. We need to sharpen up for the next match, which is against fellow National side Solihull Moors. We've got a good chance of beating them, I think. (9/11/2019) Match Report: Solihull Moors  A well-deserved win, with good performances from top to bottom from our first-choice team. We're in the hat for the next round and we'll do well to pick up a favourable opponent to keep our run going. (16/11/2019) Match Report: Sutton United  A good performance, but not quite good enough. Sutton really showed up for this match, hitting two early goals. I thought we were going to drop all 3 points until a late Afolabi goal, his first in eight matches, grabbed a point for us. That sort of fightback will be great for both his confidence and the teams. (23/11/2019) Match Report: Gloucester City  Our old enemies Gloucester hosted us for this matchday and we left them wishing for the safety of the National South with a 5-star performance. Shite put in one of his best performances in the shirt, really getting stuck in in that midfield area. The front two had chances galore and it honestly could have been more but for a good performance from their right back to keep Mondal fairly quiet by his standards. Elsewhere, Roy passed his coaching course with flying colours. At this rate, I might have to hire him on the spot!   (26/11/2019) Match Report: Solihull Moors  The matches are coming thick and fast and our boys will have to keep up with a hectic schedule. They did well for themselves here, dominating from literally the very first minute, as To scored Exmouth's fastest ever goal. A quick ball from the goalkeeper to the pacy man up top to feed to his strike partner might be a tactic looked down upon, but hey, if it works...  The next point of order is finding out who we are to face in the FA Cup next. These things can go either way. Either we get a smaller team and we have a good chance of beating them and going through, or we pick up one of the big boys and get a nice boost financially. In the FA Cup, each team gets half of the gate receipts. For example, if we go to Old Trafford and 60 000 fans attend, we'll get the money from 30 000 of those tickets and whatever money TV coverage will give us. Such a financial boost is hugely important both in-game and in real life. Just recently, Colchester United refurbished their training ground after playing United at Old Trafford and getting that gate receipt cash.  Okay, so we're probably not going very far in the cup this year, but this is still a good thing. City have a 55 000 thousand-seater stadium and they will get us some TV coverage. This is sure to completely reverse our fortunes in terms of fortunes. December (3/12/2019) Match Report: Darlington  Wheatley scored such a bizarre own-goal, smashing it into his own net from about ten yards out, that I'm sure the FA is going to investigate us for match-fixing one of these days. The points are ours, for now, and we'll take them. We could have scored some better goals, but teams are locking down our wingers at the moment, so we're having a tougher time of things. The midfield will need to step and take charge from now on. (8/12/2019) Match Report: FC Halifax Town  A game we'd rather forget, with a mix up in defence costing us the points after To got another very early goal. A red card for Jared Bird came far too late in the game for it to mean anything, the Halifax man getting sent off being the last action of the game. (14/12/2019) Match Report: Chelmsford Town  Rubbish. Just rubbish. Chelmsford seem to have our number at home and a freak goal from Cameron Healey was enough to settle this game. It was about the poorest game from The Institute I can remember, with the rest of the team really struggling as a result of the pressing game being completely off. We're out of the FA Trophy, which is only available to teams in the Vanarama divisions, so this might have been our last chance to win it if we get promoted this season. (17/12/2019) Match Report: Eastleigh  An entertaining match for the neutral, but not for the manager. Some of our defending was absolutely shocking, with Knypersley somehow managing to be second-best in the air all day long. An irritating way to drop 2 points. (22/12/2019) Match Report: Dover Athletic  This was much better and a true showcase of our swaggering style of play. For once we took advantage of a sending-off, To the beneficiary of a gap at the back, plundering two late goals. The lads looked up for this one. However, I'm starting to worry about the performances of Joey Jones. He seems to be struggling at the back but does a little better when placed in defensive midfield. That may be something to be explored... (26/12/2019) Match Report: AFC Fylde  Sometimes your opponents play a better game than you do and there's not much to be done with that happens. Fylde were there and they weren't going to lose. We just happened to be in their way. With Moistie playing poorly, the defence had very little cover and Fylde took their chances well when they made them. (28/12/2019) Match Report: Gateshead  I was very, very impressed with The Wall's crossing in this match. His pass completion rate was low because he was trying the risky passes and it paid off here, with The Institute smashing in off of our right back's looping cross. (31/12/2019) Match Report: Salford City  A rotated team did very little against Salford, who dominated this match. Lex did his best to keep the score low, with a banger into the top right corner from Andreu enough to settle the match. Our forwards and wingers didn't really ever look like they could spark an upset and just looked like they wanted the game to be over. Playing in Salford, they all had their minds in Manchester. January (4/1/2020) Match Report: Manchester City  I didn't expect us to get anything from this game and City's second team had enough steel and firepower to sweep us away with a professional performance. Lex had an absolutely astonishing game in goal, stopping a penalty from Foden and holding onto 20 saves, which is almost certainly a record. The young Brit can hold his head high after this game. (7/1/2020) Match Report: Wrexham  A great performance all around, with Lex even getting an assist for Ronnie's goal. Our issues at the back persist, but if we keep outgunning the opposition, we shouldn't have too many issues. We may need strengthening, but it can wait. (11/1/2020) Match Report: Dag and Red  Another game in which we threw caution to the wind and just went for it. Goodsir took the plaudits for this match, a goal after 30 seconds and one in the 84th sealing the win. We look a bit more stable with Case in a covering position behind another centreback, be it Davies or Knypersley, so I might just have to recall Rob from the wilderness for this last stretch of games. (26/1/2020) Match Report: Barnet  After a slow start to the season, To has really stepped up in this middle portion, taking his tally up to 15 in this game. It was a result that took us up to 5th, a position that is fairly insecure for the most part but something we can doubtlessly be proud about. The January finances have come in, and wow, what a difference after that City game! We made an entire million Pounds this month. Our financial future looks very secure and, who knows, maybe Mr Hakimi will let us invest in something at the end of the season.  Our performances in January were so solid that two of our players made the shortlist for Player of the Month, with To eventually winning. Beyond that, a tight race saw Berardi win the Manager of the Month. With our spirits up and our form golden, we look to have a strong end to 19/20 season. Who knows what we might achieve...     _______________ Second Third Summary: League Position: 5th FA Cup: Eliminated by Manchester City FA Trophy: Eliminated by Chelmsford Wins: 17 Draws: 6 Losses: 7 Win Percentage (League): 55% (57%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (25) Top Playmaker: Junior Mondal and Causso Darame (8) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.46/10) Most Yellow Cards: Avals (5) Most Red Cards: Avals and Moistie (1) Injuries: None Next Opponent: Braintree away in the Vanarama National League
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Jul 9, 2020 00:12
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Deadmeat5150 posted:How do we go about increasing performance? We need to stop shipping so many goals. I feel like our current midfield set-up is a little flimsier than I expected it to be, with Shite trying to make the play and Avals or Moistie running around to get the ball. I've been training the team to adapt to a 4-1-2-3 formation, with a proper CDM to shield the defence. With three attackers, three balanced mids and a stable defence, I think we can kick on and do quite well.
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Jul 9, 2020 18:21
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PLUS ULTRA _______________ (31/1/2020) (Somewhere in London. A Welshman with dark spectacles pores over news reports, their words shining off of his laptop's screen. Chrissy hovers nearby.)  : Gunning for the playoffs, is he? He's doing a lot better than many of us expected. Most of our colleagues thought that he'd struggle to stay in the division this season, but look at him. Twenty games to play and they're nowhere near relegation. : They can't keep it up.: Why do you say that?: Look at the way they play. They're a high-pressing side. That takes a lot of effort. With the fixture list being what it is, those players will tire out. Even when they're at full fitness, they can't beat the teams above them. Now, with fatigue setting in, they'll come back down to earth. Lose even one of their first eleven to wear-and-tear and their team loses much of its quality. The gap between their first and second elevens is massive.: So Berardi is praying for good luck on the injuries front. As I imagine all managers are. He's been quite lucky with injuries. Only Spurtworthy and Avals have missed games for them this season. Very good luck, that is. But luck can change. It can change very, very. quickly._______________ February (1/2/2020) Match Report: Braintree Town  The new formation is already paying dividends, with a complete performance from front to back giving us a win against a team we could only play to a draw earlier in the season. Our front three is arranged asymmetrically, with Causso Darame providing width on the right side as a Right Winger, his natural right foot on the outside to aid with whipping in crosses, and Oliver Goodsir on the left, his natural right foot on the inside to facilitate shots and through-ball opportunities for The Institute to feed off of. With Avals in the CDM Position, our defence has more security in front of it and have more license to bomb forward. Eaufort was the main beneficiary of this tactical change, grabbing two assists in this game to take him up to 6 for the season. The main focus of the team is transitioning of the ball from right to left. To do this, we enlist the mighty power of mathematics. On the right side, The Wall and Darame interchange in giving the team width, the two of them providing a short passing option for the other. On the right side of the midfield three, Shite is set as a mezzala, which is Italian for "half wing". A mezzala starts centrally and drifts wide into half-spaces to help the team in possession, pressing high and aiming to create through-ball chances or crossing opportunities as well as goalscoring opportunities for himself. With Shite as a right-sided mezzala, our right side is packed with players who can make a difference. Numerically, we have an advantage down the right flank, thus creating an 「overload」. 「Overloads」 happen when play is concentrated on one side of the pitch and the team in possession has more players in that region than the opposition. In our case, Darame, The Wall and Shite create a 3v2 versus the left sided winger and full back or even a 3v1 against an isolated full back, giving them superior numbers and a variety of options to make passes up the pitch. The opposition gets sucked into this region of the pitch to compensate, this action shifting their defence to our right, their left. This frees up Mondal or Goodsir on the left wing, who is left unmarked and can score an easy tap-in if the players on the ball can find him. Effective use of an「overload」 relies on quick transitions of play from the midfield to the wing to the other wing and is extremely difficult to defend against. Pep Guardiola, of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now Man City fame, is an 「overload」 master, utilising bizarre formations and esoteric roles like inverted full backs and half wingers to deal real damage to teams he can pin back. Elsewhere, our overperformance this season has not gone unnoticed, with Ivan Avals in particular getting his fair share of attention. I'll need to tie him down to a new contract to fend off the circling vultures.  (4/2/2020) Match Report: Maidstone United  The Maidstone game ended up being a lot trickier than I'd anticipated, with the Stones showing real grit in keeping our attackers at bay. It took a superb solo strike from Shite to separate the two teams and give us a valuable 3 points. The distance between us and the team in 8th is up to 5 points. With the number of games running out, it's really up to us to stay in the playoff spots. (15/2/2020) Match Report: Crewe Alexandra  I was keen to get revenge on Crewe for the spanking they gave us earlier in the season and I was quite confident in our new formation being able to give them trouble. We did very well to fight back to 3-2 up, a late lapse in concentration the only thing that stopped us from grabbing a great victory. Still, we can take a lot of pride from this performance. (22/2/2020) Match Report: Leyton Orient  We stole two early goals in this game, giving me hope for an upset, by Leyton Orient showed enough of their quality to level the match, preying on our mistakes on the slowness of our centre-back. Despite the result, Lex was on top form, making a number of key saves, including a penalty from Macauley Bonne and showing a good range of passing in the game. Goodsir should perhaps have won it late, but that's football. Roy seems to be taking his coaching studies very, very seriously, taking it upon himself to get the National B License, which would make him the second most qualified coach in our set up if he passes the course.  Things are on the up all over the club, with Lili informing us of a couple of new faces in the youth set up. Ray Gritt looks like an interesting player, if one that plays in a position that we don't use at the moment. I'll be following his progress closely. Perhaps he can moulded into a mezzala or advanced playmaker on one of the wings.   Not to be outdone by Roy, The Institute is also taking up his coaching badges. I can only imagine what wisdom he's going to impart on the boys. : The only hand you're allowed to use in the box is the Invisible Hand. Rumour has it that Igor Kriushenko is thinking about calling up Ivan Avals. If so, that'd make him the first-ever Exmouth player to get an international call-up and very possibly the only player in the Vanarama National to get a call-up this season.  March (14/3/2020) Match Report: Ebbsfleet United  Evidently Avals wanted some more time away from the pitch to get to know his new international teammates, getting sent off late in the second half in a frustrating 1-1 draw. Playing Avals higher up in the more advanced midfield position doesn't seem to have suited him. I think I'll keep him in the CDM slot from now on. (18/3/2020) Match Report: Harrogate Town  A Eaufort own goal lost the game for us but the left back didn't really do much wrong, just getting stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. This does mean that Harrogate have done the double over us, a frustrating fact when one considers that George O'Neill left our outfit for Harrogate. I hate to prove doubters right but I didn't do much to prove to O'Neill that his was the wrong decision. At least Avals is having fun. He had a very solid debut in the middle of the park, contributing towards a 3-0 win over Estonia. Happy to be part of the international set up and the one at Plainmoor, Avals seems to be in very good spirits. We'll need him in such condition when he comes back. Our midfield looks a lot shakier with him gone.     (21/3/2020) Match Report: Hartlepool United  A nervy win made complicated by Pritchard's dynamite finishing. Hartlepool had a handle on our attack for most of the game, with two of our goals coming from Eaufort corners, the winner being a captain's goal from Knypersley to take us up to 4th place in the table. We look good value for our position in the table. We just need to hang on for a couple more games. With The Institute in full flow, we shouldn't have any issues outgunning whatever opposition stands in our way. Avals' Eurotrip is going rather well, grabbing a goal on just his second cap. He's a good lad, taking our congratulations graciously.     (31/3/2020) Match Report: Boreham Wood  I must admit, I'm not the biggest fan of these jammy wins of ours, but I'll take them. April (5/4/2020) Match Report: Gloucester City  Gloucester must be really tired of us bullying them. They tried really hard to take the game to us, knowing that our main threat was out, and really threatened to make the last 5 minutes of extra time really nervy, but the backup strikers were good enough to give us a 3 goal cushion and keep us safely in the playoff spots. Ivan's absolute piledriver from the edge of the box ended up being the winner, the Belarusian Busquets bringing his international form back to the south coast.  Our top scorer will be out for the rest of the season, including the playoffs, should we make them. Our place there is all but confirmed and it would take a monumental collapse for us to fall far enough down the table to lose out, but with our goalscoring talisman out, I'm a little nervous. (10/4/2020) Match Report: Solihull Moors  To was inches away from scoring a four minute hat-trick, denied by a fingertip save to keep his volley out. A third goal did come for us, with Oli Goodsir cutting inside and curling one in from the edge of the box. We look in very good form at the moment. It'd take something really daft happening for us to slip up now. (14/4/2020) Match Report: Eastleigh  An early Moistie sending off is pretty daft, yes. Longman scored a free header in the box to win the match for Eastleigh, the Spitfires man somehow left in acres of space due to a mix-up between Davies and Knypersley over who was going to head the ball out. I expect better communication from my senior centrebacks and I was not amused with our manner of conceding in this game. (18/4/2020) Match Report: Darlington  The scoreline says it all, really. This team is monstrously strong going forward but held together with gum and tissue paper at the back. A first senior hat-trick for Junior Mondal and goals galore after 80 minutes means the team won't be forgetting this one any time soon. This happens to be the highest-scoring game ever played by Exmouth and by any set of teams in the Vanarama National. 4 goals past the 80th minute is likely some sort of record too. Losing 2 points in the 95th of 95 minutes was frustrating, but I was too amazed by the sheer number of goals to really be too upset. The draw against Darlington, the second last game of the season, confirmed our place in the playoffs. In the first round, the quarter-final, we'll be facing Crewe Alexandra. The last time we played them, we drew 3-3, a very late equaliser saving their skin. Before that, we lost handily. Based on simple progression, we should beat them this around... Or we would if The Institute hadn't broken his arm. While To is an excellent player, he doesn't have the pace of The Institute. His strength makes him an excellent outball, however. For the game against Crewe, he'll need a player close to him to move the ball along quickly. As such, I've instructed Mondal to sit narrower and tighter to his striker, essentially playing as a False Nine himself. While this sacrifices the width Mondal gives, it also allows us to replace the pace of our attack, which we'll need against Crewe.  (25/4/2020) Match Report: FC Halifax  Our last game of the season, an especially forgettable draw against FC Halifax. To and Mondal showed some promising interplay, their final balls not quite good enough to craft goalscoring opportunities, but their partnership looks like it might have some merit. If Mondal sharpens up his passing, we might have something good on our hands. May (6/5/2020) Match Report: Crewe Alexandra  A gritty, battling performance saw our entire back four pick up yellow cards, an aggressive approach that was rewarded with a convincing 3-1 win over Crewe. To ran like an animal all game, the spirit of the missing The Institute apparently being channelled into the Portuguese striker. Good centre forward play gave Mondal his chance to score, an official assist not given to To because of an intervention from the Crewe centreback, but I'll count it in my mind. The tactical change paid off, for this match at least. Next up are Grimsby, who have had the better of us both times we've played them this season. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, I'll have the team attack from the off in this game. We know they can score goals against us. With our attack, can they stop us from scoring against them?  (9/5/2020) Match Report: Grimsby Town  Evidently not. An Avals header and a Mondal banger set the stage for a breathtaking performance from To, grabbing a four-goal haul in the second half to send us to the Playoff Final. It was a truly astonishing offering from Resort Ronaldo, who has really stepped up to the plate when asked. Our vice-captain could barely walk when the game was done, To having been left on until extra time to complete his hat-trick. Subbing him off beforehand would have been cruel and there wasn't time to sub him off once extra time had gone into full swing. Six of the best set up a showdown against Harrogate Town. Once again, we face a club we couldn't beat in the regular season. It's going to be tough, they're going to be tough. But we didn't have this swagger in the regular season, this level of belief in our ability to score five if the opposition scores 4. The final showdown will be happening at Wembley, the national English stadium and the setting of every cup final in the English game. To an Englishman, playing at Wembley is an absolutely massive deal, to the point where supporters will sing "We're Going to Wembley" at any opportunity they can get. Our pre-eminent Englishman is out for a while and will have to do with a seat in the stands. A Portuguese steps to take his place, his countryman to the right, an Englishman to his left. This is the first final the club has ever gotten to, one no one expected us to reach, never mind win. That game at Wembley will be #100 for Gio. The stars are aligning for us. Is this our moment?   (15/5/2020) Match Report: Harrogate Town   You bet it is. Harrogate fought tooth and nail for the chance to go up to League Two, pegging back Causso's early lashed effort with a bullet header from Knowles. Every shot we made was countered, almost bettered, by Harrogate, Lex having to be on his toes all game. The game looked destined for extra time, and perhaps a penalty shootout beyond that, when a through ball was captured by Mondal and he drove into the box. The Harrogate right back brought him down at the edge of the area, on the wrong side of the line by a matter of centimetres. "Penalty!" says the ref. With all of our regular takers out of the side, an unexpected figure stepped up to take the spot-kick. _______________ (The crowd watches on with bated breath. A strange figure wakes up to the penalty spot and carefully places the ball down. He locks eyes with the opposition keeper and takes a deep breath in. ) : Belshaw has saved four penalties this season. This youth player has never taken one in senior football and now he's stepping up to take one in the biggest game of his life. Why does he look so confident?: I'm Ziltoid. I don't give a poo poo._______________ Ziltoid converted the penalty with ease, sending Belshaw the wrong way, and with so little time left in the game after it, won us promotion into League Two. Simon Weaver, the man in the opposite dugout, was extremely gracious in defeat, noting that we fully deserved our late winner.  _______________ (A hotel lobby in Torquay. Gio stands near to the door, his eyes focussed intensely on his cellphone. A tap on the shoulder breaks his concentration and a couple of blinks reveal the shape of Riyad Hakimi standing in front of him.) : When I hired you, I told that I planned to turn this club into a professional outfit within five years. You've walked into the place and done that job in just two. Well done, Mr Berardi. I'm very pleased.  : (Distractedly) Oh, yeah... Good to hear.: Something on your mind, Mr Berardi?: No, no, I'm just.., My phone has been buzzing all morning. I'm getting all sorts of messages.: Job offers?: Yeah, how'd you know?: You've brought a little south-coast club with financial troubles from the National South to League Two. Achievements like that breed demand. Clubs are always on the lookout for miracle workers. I wouldn't blame you if you left.: You wouldn't?: No. You can certainly earn a lot more than the one thousand pounds per week I'm about to offer you.: (chuckling) This is certainly an interesting way of negotiating a contract extension, I'll give you that.: What's your answer, Mr Berardi?: Yeah, why not? I'll take it. We've come this far already. Let's keep going.: That's good to hear. : It would only be fair to you if you could see where we're going.: Where's that?: Home, Mr Berardi. We're going home. _______________ The media saw fit to label us as the biggest overachievers in the FA Cup, seeing as we made it all the way to the 3rd round. That's a warning shot to the rest of League Two about how dangerous we could be, despite our financial and reputation disadvantages compared to those other clubs.  At the end of season awards, The Institute held onto his crown as the fans' player of the season, while Afolabi predictably got labelled the signing of the season. Forest Green's loanee Mondal got recognition as our best young player while Tribune's long-range chip against Chelmsford got our goal of the season.   The step up to the next division didn't slow down The Institute in the slightest as he grabbed another golden boot. He even missed the last six or so games and therefore might have even gotten a couple more goals in those matches. Still, a win is a win, and I'm sure The Institute will be pleased.  Our Monster sponsorship has finally kicked in, meaning we have more money to spend on players and facilities next season.  The media continued to give plaudits to Gio, even giving him the Manager of the Year award over the actual championship-winning manager.   The u18s will see our captain coaching them from next season forward, giving Roy something to do, as his game time will be a fair bit lower next season compared to this one. He's been a loyal servant and a good captain, but he's been exposed at this level, so we desperately need an upgrade. He can play cup games and slot in when we need defensive assurance.  We're in the big leagues now and that means big bucks. Just playing in the division is going to earn us nearly 300k.  _______________ Final Third Summary: League Position: 6th (Promoted via Playoffs) FA Cup: Eliminated by Manchester City FA Trophy: Eliminated by Chelmsford Wins: 26 Draws: 10 Losses: 9 Win Percentage (League): 55% (55%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (33) Top Playmaker: Brian Eaufort (16) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.51/10) Most Yellow Cards: Moistie (11) Most Red Cards: Moistie (3) _______________ And so our second season ends with us making it into the Football League, with a place in League Two beckoning for the 20/21 Season and Gio having succeeded at Mr Hakimi's 5 year professional status challenge. It's going to be a big step up but we've got enough heart to fight for our right to stay in that division. The off-season has started, meaning that we have time to think about things. Two important details must be decided: 1) What is the name of our new stadium? 2) What are we using our City-sanctioned oil money on? Youth facilities? Training facilities? Players? Drugs? GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 13:26 on Jul 13, 2020 |
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Jul 12, 2020 16:31
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THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD OFFENSE _______________ (Plainmoor, Torquay. Riyad Hakimi sits solemnly behind a table, fielding media questions on his lonesome.) : According to reports coming out of your club, this is the last season you're going to be playing at Plainmoor and that work has begun on a new stadium back home in Exmouth. Can you confirm or deny these reports?: I can definitely confirm them. We're looking to bring the club back to the supporters. That's why we've started the planning phase for our new home.: How far along are these plans?: At the preliminary stage. Though we've had... suggestions, we haven't even decided on a name yet, much less dimensions and placement. Right now, however, we need to be focussing on next season, on the league. If we bring something good back from our adventures in Torquay, I think it will bode well for the tenure of our new stadium._______________ August Preseason started later and lasted a bit shorter this year compared to last, so the boys seem a bit happier and don't appear to have lost any of their fitness. Now fully settled into the idea of playing a staggered 4-3-3, the lads brought up the fact that our depth in midfield is a bit thin. Indeed, with only 2 players to a position and a couple of them being deputies in others, we needed more bodies in that part of the pitch. The yearly youth release, in which the big clubs let go of their youngsters who they think won't make it at the club, provided us with an opportunity to pick up some bargain buys for absolutely free. First up, Charlie McCann, released from the Manchester United academy. Excellent mental stats, good tackling, work rate and stamina mean that he'll slot right in in that ball-winning midfield role. His finishing leaves a bit to be desired and his determination could be better, but this looks a good acquisition for us. He can also play left wing, which is a nice bonus.  Next, Tyrese Fornah, from the Brighton and Hove Albion academy. Again, excellent mental stats, good fitness, and a respectable score for long shots. He'll make a good attacking mezzala if we can improve his dribbling and crossing. He's happy to play in the ball-winning role as well, should we need him to, but pre-season has me liking the way he does his advanced midfield duties.  We got Warren Clarke on loan from Sheffield Wednesday. Despite his young age, he's already a good player for this division. Two-footed, an adept finisher and a guy with a very good head on his shoulders, he'll be our starting left wing, the inside forward from the tactical discussion in the last post, meaning that he'll be chipping in with goals to take the sole burden off of our starting striker. He wants to leave Wednesday so, if he does well, I may want to make his deal a permanent one.  This season, we'll be competing on four fronts. The double-whammy of the league and the FA Cup is something we're used to, but the addition of the League Cup due to our place in the Football League is something new. Adding to that is the Checkatrade Trophy, a competition in which the u23s of some of the bigger clubs compete against some of the smaller teams. Our Checkatrade group is fairly tough, with a strong Forest Green side, a good Northampton side filling out a group with us and a hugely impressive Chelsea academy side. All four clubs play a round-robin group stage to determine which two of the four make it through to the next round.  Before we do any sort of cup runs, we need to get some confidence in the league. A game against Swindon introduces us to the Football League. Fingers crossed, we'll have a good time. (1/8/2020) Match Report: Swindon Town  An Avals banger and a truly unfortunate Keston Davies own goal meant that our first professional game ended in a draw. We looked good value for the result and either team could have taken the match. That bodes well for the future. (5/8/2020) Match Report: Crawley Town  The match was a lot more even than the scoreline suggests, it's just that Crawley took their chances and we didn't. We started well, but couldn't turn that momentum into anything. Numerous chances to make it 2-2 were thrown away, our pressure serving as a wakeup call to Crawley. Hopefully we'll have a more composed performance next time out. (8/8/2020) Match Report: Notts County  Domination. The top team in the division didn't have a sniff as we won by a scoreline that flattered Notts County more than anything. Causso Darame took his goal on his weak foot very well and it was a calm performance all around. (12/8/20) Match Report: AFC Wimbledon (League Cup)  Not our best. We couldn't really get going and Wimbledon deserved their win. New centreback signing Joseph Joseph had a tough time of things, his senior partner Davies looking more assured, though that's not saying much. In our camp, our players are getting more attention for their overachievement last season. Bristol Rovers dropped a 15k bid for Lex Metzger, which I dismissed out of hand. Lex was... less than happy about this.  _______________  : I'm disappointed that you rejected the bid from Bristol Rovers.: You're too important to this club, so I had to reject the bid. You're staying put, for now at least.: At this stage in my career, I need to be playing in the Championship and it's just not realistic that I'll get a chance to do that with Exmouth. I want you to accept the next bid from Bristol.: Not a chance. You're staying and that's final.: I'm not happy about this.: Alright, look... I'm prepared to offer you a new contract...: I can't believe you think throwing money at this issue is going to fix anything. I'm really disappointed with how you've handled this entire exchange.: Lex... _______________ (15/8/20) Match Report: Accrington Stanley  A very positive performance. Though we lost the battle for possession, we were efficient with the ball when we got it and our defence looked very assured when Accrington did make their way forward. (22/8/2020) Match Report: Leyton Orient  Our old friends Leyton Orient looked like they were going to be on the losing side for most of the game, but the most bizarre of equalisers came late when Lex kicked the ball into Joseph's head and it bounced into Ben Wilson's path. Now, Lex, you may be upset that I didn't let you go to Bristol, but that's no reason to take it out on poor Joseph. (29/8/2020) Match Report: Carlisle United  This is the flip side of our attacking style of play. When it doesn't click, the opposition can just bulldoze right through us. We sat at 2-2 at one point and couldn't thread our passes together after that, meaning that Carlisle had mistakes to pick up on and could charge through on goal. A penalty given away and a garbage take on the ball spelled a bad day at the office for The Wall. September (5/9/2020) Match Report: Bury  With Avals gone on international duty, we had to stick his backup Jones in defensive midfield. While Jones is sturdy, he doesn't have Avals' passing ability, misplaced efforts putting us under pressure a couple of times. The new signings Clarke and Fornah had great games, Fornah grabbing a double in a good example of how a mezzala should operate. We've changed as a team. At the beginning, most of our chances were created on the counter, utlising the pace of The Institute and Darame. We aren't so one-dimensional these days, with Clarke's opener showing good build-up and excellent possession. (12/9/2020) Match Report: Cheltenham Town  A good attacking display from the boys, our inside forward Clarke doing well in that left wing slot. The Wall had a brilliant game down the right as well and could perhaps had make a case for getting the Man of the Match award himself. The fact that our wide players are doing well is very pleasing to me; it shows that our switches in play are working well and our midfield distribution has so far been excellent. With performances like that, perhaps we do have a chance of making the Championship soon, huh, Lex?  Elsewhere, Afolabi came back from a weekend out with an unfortunate injury. He's a young man and he's allowed to make mistakes, but he does need to be more careful. Given that he's only going to be out for 3-4 days, he's probably been taking his meds, which is good at least.  (19/9/2020) Match Report: AFC Wimbledon  I do wish we could have had this performance in the cup. We might have taken the tie to extra time or penalties in that case. Oh well, a point in the league is still appreciated and I'll never not celebrate a late goal to grab a point. The Institute may as well have scored with the very last kick of the game. (26/9/2020) Match Report: Oldham Athletic  We won out in a game of few chances, To's goal from a Tribune through-ball enough to get us the 3 points. With The Institute still looking a bit rusty following last season's long-term injury, it's good to see that To is happy to chip in with a goal or two here and there. We'll need that sort of quality squad depth this season. We've done very poorly in the cups so far with Exmouth and I'm desperate to challenge for one soon. To do that, we need good performances from our whole squad, not just the first eleven. (29/9/2020) Match Report: Wycombe Wanderers  Early in the second half, we looked like we might throw this one away, but late goals from To and Fornah clinched it for us. It's a really encouraging sign that we can grab late goals, showing that our concentration and fitness levels are sky-high. The league took notice of our good form during the month of September. Fornah claimed Player and Young Player of the month, with Clarke running him close for the former, while the league couldn't name a better coach than Berardi for the month.    Be happy being yourself, Roy. You don't need to be Gio to be cool.  October (4/10/2020) Match Report: Chesterfield  A glanced header from Davies and good awareness from Eaufort to convert after an error from the goalie gave us the win this game. We were lucky that the defence stepped up to score as the attack was a bit weak this game. An off-game like this is acceptable when other parts of the team can bail you out. (6/10/2020) Match Report: Northampton Town (Checkatrade Trophy)  Dropped points here would have meant that we might have been cut adrift after an early season loss against the Chelsea youngsters. Up stepped Mr Reliable, The Institute, to give us the win and a chance to go through to the next round with a win against Forest Green Rovers. It'll be an all-or-nothing, winner-takes-all match between us and Forest Green, who we share League Two with. We'll have a practice run against them at the end of October. If we can get a good result there, I'm confident we can kickstart our cup run. The hectic schedule is taking its toll on our players. Our entire first-choice right flank pulled up lame during the game against Northampton, neither of those injuries looking like ones that are going to be short-term. Oliver and Robert are good deputies, but there's unfortunately still a dropoff in quality.   (17/10/2020) Match Report: Port Vale  A battling performance, too battling for the referee as our fighting spirit saw us pick up six yellow cards. I'd thought we'd lost it with The Institute's sending off, by To was on hand to steal it at the death, sending us up into the playoff places.  (20/10/2020) Match Report: Yeovil Town  Yeovil did very well to nullify our attack, reducing our output to an Afolabi goal off of a McCann setpiece. Our midfielders seemed to have trouble linking up with the attack, with To especially poor in connecting with his teammates. The game exposed To's lack of pace compared to The Institute or Afolabi, meaning the Yeovil centrebacks could contest a competition of pure strength, the defenders winning out this time. (24/10/2020) Match Report: Cambridge United  Gio went to Cambridge and promptly got schooled, the United players letting us having the ball but making sure we couldn't do much with it by setting up an effective low block. One shot on target is simply not good enough and we'll need to sharpen up. Of course, the universe decided to throw Exmouth a curveball. Not to be outdone by our right side, our left side picked up a pair of injuries as we go into crunch time for the season, a Eaufort in good form and a hungry Afolabi falling victim to a tight schedule.   (30/10/2020) Match Report: Forest Green Rovers  The only vegan football club in England gobbled up all of the free chances we decided to give them, Shite's sending off being the pivotal moment in the game. A man down and outplayed for the majority of the game, we can take heart in the fact that we still made them work, 4-3 a respectable scoreline given the circumstances. We definitely have reason to confident ahead of our cup tie against them.   We don't really look out of place in the division, which is obviously nice to see. Our late form is a bit troubling but we've definitely got the personnel to turn it around. We're the third top scorers in the league but we only have the 14th best defence. Perhaps a dip into the January market could help with that. _______________ First Third Summary: League Position: 7th FA Cup: Not started yet Carabao Cup: Eliminated by AFC Wimbledon Checkatrade Trophy: 3rd Place in the group with 1 game to play Wins: 9 Draws: 5 Losses: 7 Win Percentage (League): 43% (47%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (7) Top Playmaker: The Wall (6) Best Average Rating; Warren Clarke (7.29/10) Most Yellow Cards: Charlie McCann (6) Most Red Cards: The Institute and Shite (1) Injuries: Jonathan Afolabi (6 weeks), Brian Eaufort (6 weeks), The Wall (2 weeks) Transfers IN: Joseph Joseph (Free Agent, CB), Tyrese Fornah (Free Agent, CM), Charlie McCann (Free Agent, CM), Warren Clarke (Loan, Sheffield Wednesday, LW) Transfers OUT: Paul Paulson (Loan, Truro, VNS) Next Opponent: Braintree Town at home in the FA Cup GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Jul 19, 2020 |
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Jul 15, 2020 10:12
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ONLY THE RESULTS MATTER _______________ (Las Vegas, Nevada. An older gentleman sits at a slightly tilted table, his eyes fixed on a set of four balls carefully balanced on the tabletop. The table shifts and one of the balls drops to into the man's waiting hand. In his motion to catch the ball, he accidentally tips the table, sending the other three spheres clattering across the tiled floor. Another man looks on inscrutably. The older man looks up with an almost-embarrassed grin)  : Ah, Riyad. How's life been treating you?: Well, for the most part.: Good to hear. As for me, well... I'm sure you've heard the news.: I have. I thought I'd be hearing it from you, not from the Chronicle.: Huh. Must have slipped my mind.: Clearly.: Anyway, how are the Excavators coming along? You guys are still in the Conference leagues, right?: We're challenging for promotion into League One.:Well, I'll be damned! That Giovanni knows what he's doing, then.: Gio.: Whatever.: ...: Your boys are good, then? I guess I'll have a chance to see just how good they are soon enough. A lot of them are my signings, right? Ronnie, Lex and Ziltoid are still there, right?: Correct. The rest of the team is Gio's own. Our core identity is... somewhat different to what it was during your tenure.: Hmmm... This should be interesting. I wonder if the league is ready for ol' Clark to get back in the saddle. _______________ You don't need me to tell you that we've been overachieving as a side for a little while now, with good bargain buys and moments of magic keeping us aloft in this division. The game has a fairly obvious way of showing the degree to which one is overachieving relative to the strength of their squad. This comes in the form of the Star Rating System, rated from 5 gold stars to 0 silver stars, with the latter being barely able to kick a ball and the former being rated as 'star quality' for the division. The Star Ratings are entirely relative, being affected both by the quality of players in the division and by players in the squad. Let's have a look at what our one of starting elevens looks like relative to the rest of League Two.  Our best players are Avals and Fornah in midfield, and JoJo and Collins in defence. The rest of the guys are 2.5 and 3 stars, meaning they are just about average compared to the rest of the league. Average with pockets of high quality makes for a good upper-midtable side, not the promotion-chasers we've turned out to be. This also shows why we've really struggled against several of the teams above us. They've had the quality to put us to the sword, overwhelming and outplaying us to the point where even a solid system won't really help to get a result. Going back to star quality for a second, we can see hear that the player somewhat unsuited to their roles, the players with the orange semi-circles, have a lower star rating. They haven't magically become worse players, they're just playing in a way that means that their talents, the qualities that potentially make them 4 and 5 star players, aren't being utilised. Similarly, if we were to bring in a world-beater of some sort, all of the others Star Ratings will drop. Again, this isn't because they've become worse players, quite the opposite, as a better teammate would make them better. It merely means that this extremely good player has shifted what the average quality in the league and team is and the rating relative to the average has been adjusted accordingly.  Let's talk about Avals for a second. I jokingly called him Belarusian Busquets an update or two ago, but he's legitimately been our most important player and integral to the way our game is being played. The CDM, or central defensive midfield, slot is extremely important due to its role in the phases of transition in the game. The way we're moving the ball about moves the ball from the goalkeeper, Lex, to either of our centre backs or one of our full backs. If the full backs are picked out, they'll move the ball in different ways. Tribune, being our first-choice left wingback, will aggressively progress with the ball, driving forward using his pace and ball control. This forces the play upwards, with Avals dictating the depth of our line. He won't be too far behind wherever Tribune is, forcing the midfielders ahead of him to push forwards and engage with the opposition in their half. If the right back, The Wall, is picked out, then he'll act a touch more defensively as a full back rather than a wing back. He'll play a ball down the line to Darame or into midfield to Fornah. In this passing passage, the ball can very easily be lost due to a stray pass or a misjudged effort. For this reason, Avals hangs back, waiting to snuff out any counterattacking ambitions the opposition might have. He instructs the midfield to have a standard or deep line here so that we aren't caught out. Another strength of his is his passing. I've trained him to have the 'Likes To Switch Flanks' Player Trait, which means that, if the pass is on, he'll hit a long diagonal to one of the wingers, whichever one is free. This causes a very quick transition and causes panic in the offense. If Darame is picked out, To and Clarke will rush forward into the box to try and get on the end of a quick cross. If Clarke is picked out, he'll offer a pass inside to Fornah, who'll have a crack himself or play it back to Clarke for a goalscoring opportunity. If the ball is being moved around in the opposition box, Avals will allow himself to surge forward to offer another body in attack, ready to drive into the box or hit a long shot from outside of it. Avals frequently has the highest passing numbers and highest passing rate in each game, showing how important he is to our style of play. November (7/11/2020) Match Report: Braintree Town (FA Cup)  A real back-and-forth game saw Braintree manage to salvage a draw and take this tie back to their stadium for a replay. In truth, we were quite sloppy, missing all sorts of passes that really should have been handled better, and perhaps we should even have lost. We'll have to do a professional job at Cressing Road to make it through to the next round of the FA Cup. Our recent performances have gotten Moistie a call-up to the New Zealand set-up, taking our tally of internationals to 2, both of them happening to be our defensive midfielders. Given his work-rate, desire and the weakness of the competition in his region, I have faith that he'll have a good international career if he keeps getting caps.  Our rapid rise up the divisions has not gone unnoticed. Any of our players could have been the subject of the conversation, but vice-captain To took the journalists' focus. I've been happy with To's willingness to sit on the bench for most of the season and really take his chances when he gets given them. With The Institute turning 34 soon and Ronnie not quite ready to take the next step up, To is going to become our starting striker soon.  (10/11/2020) Match Report: Forest Green Rovers (Checkatrade Trophy)  A game of little real quality saw us grab all three points against Forest Green and gives us the chance to square off against League One side Luton Town. (14/11/2020) Match Report: Northampton Town  A Clarke injury forced us to sub in somewhat untested winger Grant Beeney for the game, Beeney struggling to impress. Conversely, JoJo had a great game at the back and really should have scored off of Darame's corner to open the scoring. Darame was happy to do the job himself, grabbing a vital 3 points in a nervy game that the boys had trouble really getting into. (18/11/2020) Match Report: Braintree Town (FA Cup Replay)  An unacceptably poor performance from the boys, switching off to let Amaluzor score not once but twice to take the game to extra-time and then penalties, which we lost 5-4. Braintree are a team we should be putting away with ease and the fact that we couldn't even do a professional job here with the squad we have is very concerning. We'll have to wait until next season to get a chance at competing for the FA Cup again. Next up on the agenda, the battle of the old against the new. Our next game back in the league is against Plymouth Argyle and against Exmouth legend, Clark Zybourne. _______________ (Home Park, Plymouth. The crowd cheers as the Argyle players make their way onto the pitch, their travelling Exmouth rivals flanking them to more muted applause.) : So we finally meet, Giovanni.: Oh, just Gio is fine. It's an honour to meet you, Clark. The boys only have good things to say about you.: As expected. Don't go expecting an easy ride now, after your flattery or because of some sentimental attachment to your club. I'm here to win and you're standing in the way of that. Only the results matter, so go ahead and get ready for the longest 90 minutes of your life._______________ (21/11/2020) Match Report: Plymouth Argyle  Our forwards had a really tough time dealing with Zybourne's flat 4-4-2 sticking two banks of 4 ahead of the keeper. The front three really struggled to get anything done between them, the Argyle defenders making life difficult. Eventually, a The Institute flick-on to Fornah allowed the latter to hit a 25-yard rocket into the Argyle net early in the second half to win us the game. Plymouth stepped up their game after the opener, forcing Lex into a number of excellent saves. JoJo again had an amazing game, refusing to let the opposition past him. This time, at least, the points belong to Gio but it could easily have been a different story had Lameiras put his header away and squared to his striker instead of hitting the side-netting. (24/11/2020) Match Report: Morecambe  Despite The Institute's return to goalscoring form, we didn't have it in us to reward his efforts with a win. JoJo tried to be sneaky early in the first half but his push on Cranston was spotted by the referee, who had no choice but to signal for a penalty. With the game roughly even across the board, we could have taken it with a bit more composure. To make matters worse, Brexit has finally happened and its effects on football have been announced. While it'll be no different for signing British players, getting anyone else in will be a whole lot harder with these new rules.   The tried-and-tested tactic of poaching foreign wonderkids has become a little bit more difficult with these rules falling into place. Any quality foreigners we pick up might have to be those already at English clubs. (28/11/2020) Match Report: Tranmere Rovers  Shifting him further forward to account for Fornah's through injury absence gave Avals the license to bomb forward and plunder a pair of goals to win us the game, a header and a scrappy set-piece finish adding to his tally for the season. Despite what their goal might suggest, we had a handle on Tranmere for most of the game and had the professionalism required to see out the result. Avals' great performances during November saw him duly rewarded by the FA, our CDM going from strength to strength.  December (5/12/2020) Match Report: Stevenage  The town of many Stevens put up a good fight but ultimately lost out to a good showing in front of goal by The Institute. A slight modification to the tactic shifted Shite closer to the strikers in the hope that he'd have more of an influence on the ball. The experiment failed for the most part, with Shite flitting in and out of the game. Needing to be carried defensively, he didn't seem terribly suited to this role. (9/12/2020) Match Report: Luton Town (Checkatrade Trophy)  Again, we suffered cup heartbreak on penalties, this time against a superior side in Luton Town. We can't be too disheartened by the performance but the fact that we're out of all of the cups at this early stage is rather upsetting. We seem to have some sort of cup hoodoo about us, cursed to never progress after the hitting the proverbial jackpot against Man City. Now, we have to focus on the league, where we find ourselves in 6th place after a good early-season showing. The same cannot be said for Plymouth, who have found themselves relegated as early as December. Zybourne did what he could but even he could not save the sinking ship. He'll stay on, for now, as Argyle fight for their pride more than anything. I was quite impressed by Ruben Lameiras, the Portuguese right winger, when he played against us. With Plymouth relegated, maybe he'll like to jump ship in Janua...   Oh well. Our search for a competent back up for Darame goes on. (13/12/2020) Match Report: Newport County  Our wins are getting narrower and narrower as our opponents ramp up in quality. We look fairly comfortable against Newport aside from a moment where Davies hit a backpass past JoJo and the opposition striker latched onto it. Luckily for us, he hit the side-netting, sparing our blushes. Darame stepped up after we missed out on Lameiras, apparently spurred on by our interest in other right wingers. (19/12/2020) Match Report: Swindon Town  JoJo appears to be struggling for fitness, as his performances recently really haven't been up to standard. Given that his replacements are a struggling Jones, an aging Knypersley, and Rob Case, I really need to dip into the market to get him a replacement or a partner to ease the burden on him. (25/12/2020) Match Report: Crawley Town  I hope Crawley are on the naughty list for next year for their refusal to hand us any Christmas presents. With Ray Gritt performing well with the u18's, I decided to go back to the 4-2-3-1 formation to get the boys familiar with it so he can slot in when the time is right. Shite struggled again while the defence did well, taking advantage of the protecting midfielders ahead of them. JoJo vindicated himself with a match-winning performance, scoring an opener the keeper had no chance of getting. Ollie Palmer made us nervous late on, but JoJo's defending was as good as his attacking and we managed to hold on. (29/12/2020) Match Report: Accrington Stanley  Giving up a 3-0 lead is unacceptably poor and really shows off the difference in quality between Keston Davies and Joey Jones, with Jones at fault for two of the goals. We struggled to anything with our possession while Accrington were furious in recycling and reusing theirs. A lesson to take to heart and a tough result to swallow, this is a result everyone will want to move on from. January As promised, I got someone in at the back during January, grabbing Hull City's young centreback Reuben Collins to help us look better in defence. (2/1/2021) Match Report: Leyton Orient  Poor. Just poor all around. Leyton Orient have turned in a bogey team for us, being able to, for whatever reason, avoid defeat whenever we face them. I hope the boys hate them as much as I do. (9/1/2021) Match Report: Notts County  A routine win made complicated by a needless sending off. The formation finally clicked, with Shite finding himself free in the box while the Notts County defense busied themselves with our forwards. (16/1/2021) Match Report: Rochdale  The Dale put up an excellent fight, really reducing the chances our wingers could get to scraps. An early second half goal from McCann promised a bit more fight in the second period but Vincent put the game to bed with a powerful header off of a corner. (23/1/2021) Match Report: Carlisle United  Again, Carlisle brought their A-game against an Exmouth side trying to eke out a trio of vital points, their attack really unlucky to be limited to a late Hope goal. Lex was in imperious form and will be devastated at letting that late shot trickle in. (30/1/2021) Match Report: Bury  Bury put us through the wringer, 8 shots on target to 2 showing the level of control they had over the game. A late chance to equalise went begging for Clarke, whose mid-season form has turned towards the concerning. We'll have to rectify that soon. Despite our recent wobbles, we've been doing quite well, climbing two positions from our last check-in. We look good value for our position there and will likely make the play-offs at this rate. That makes me slightly worried. Every time we've come up against one of the superior teams in the league, we've been walloped. If we get into the play-offs, I don't really fancy our chances to progress from there. Still, just staying afloat in League Two would be a vast improvement on the media prediction, which has us ending up dead last in the league. With our safety from relegation confirmed with that point against Carlisle, the absolute lowest we'll drop is League Two.  _______________ Second Third Summary: League Position: 5th FA Cup: Eliminated by Braintree Town Carabao Cup: Eliminated by AFC Wimbledon Checkatrade Trophy: Eliminated by Luton Wins: 17 Draws: 9 Losses: 11 Win Percentage (League): 41% (48%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (14) Top Playmaker: The Institute and Causso Darame (7) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.14/10) Most Yellow Cards: Charlie McCann (11) Most Red Cards: The Institute, Shite, Moistie, Causso Darame (1) Injuries: Transfers IN: Reuben Collins (Loan, Hull City, CB) Transfers OUT: Next Opponent: Cheltenham Town in League Two GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jul 23, 2020 |
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Jul 21, 2020 13:42
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GOING FOR BROKE _______________  : Interesting club, that Exmouth is.: Yes. Quite. Have you come to me to discuss business or to compliment my workplace?: Rather insolent, is your response. : Mr Hutton, let's not dawdle. Do you wish to place a bid or not? I'm happy to hang onto the Excavators if you're afraid to throw your money at it.: Impatient, are we?: Of you, certainly.: To be made, is our decision.: Mhm.: Shortly, comes our response. Good day, Mr Hakimi._______________ February  The two most common top-level formations in the English game are 4-2-3-1 and variations of 4-3-3, like the 4-1-2-3 we see here. In both of those formations, the attacking force is made up of not two players, but a trident of tricksters. Just as we needed to balance our frontline when we were fielding To and The Institute week in, week out, we need to have it balanced when it's broken up into 3. In a two, you generally want to have a Supporter and a Finisher, To and The Institute respectively. The Finisher is the furthest forward in the lineup and is there to score goals and occasionally make them. The Supporter is slightly withdrawn compared to the Finisher and is there to create and score, though the latter isn't at the same level as that of the Finisher. The triple threat follows much of the same logic. It's generally suggested that your front 3 has no more than 2 attack roles and at least one support role. If there is no support role, your goalscorers don't have any supply to feed off of, and you don't score. If you have no attack roles, your suppliers have no one to feed, and you don't score. As was explained when I was discussing 「overloads」, our attack is biased towards the left and our support is biased towards the right, meaning that we're building our game around holding the ball on one side of the pitch before rapidly moving it over to the other. For this last stretch of the season, I've changed up the composition of the midfield. Previously, it was a broader V shape, with a Ball-Winning Midfielder (Defend) on the left and a Mezzala (Attack) on the right. Both of those midfielders vacate spaces, the BWM to chase down the ball when the opposition has it, the MEZ to affect the play, meaning that Avals was left entirely on his lonesome to prevent counterattacks. This essentially created a central overload whenever we lost possession, with the opposition having 2 or 3 players around Avals when they countered. Now, the left sided CM has been converted into a Deep-Lying Playmaker (Defend) and the right sided CM has been converted into a Mezzala (Support). A DLP is a defensive player who is allowed to have a more expressive range of passing. He generally isn't the one to make the pass before the goal (the assist) or even the pass before that, though he is certainly capable of it. He'll dictate the play from deep, holding his position and finding his midfield partners or hitting long passes to the wingers. The DLP will have a very low percentage of backpasses and will generally look for line-breaking passes when on Support and . This video about Michael Carrick should illustrate what a DLP is all about. A MEZ is, for the most part, a central midfielder who drifts wide, either as a shuttler or a supporter. In a midfield three, the best kind of balance is created when you have each of the shuttler, supporter and sitter. A MEZ on Attack is a supporter, being the assist-maker for the team and the man who creates the chances for the front three. He will leave his slot open in midfield to go and harass the opposition and dribble into space. A MEZ on Support is a shuttler, the man who links the midfield to the attack and then drops it off to the supporter or makes a through-ball. Shuttlers can be finishing players in the midfield 3, receiving the ball from the supporter, who is nominally the most attacking cog of the midfield machine but is not himself a finisher. With our MEZ on support, he won't rush forwards as much and will try to find Darame and The Wall on that right hand side, drifting inside for long shot opportunities when his part in the move is done. When the opposition enters his area, he will attempt to press them but will not actively chase them like an attacking MEZ might. This video will explain the varying uses, and definitions, of mezzalae. TL;DR, Shite's role is more defensive now, Fornah doesn't leave as much space when he rampages forward, Avals has more help, midfield is more stable now and we should stop leaking as many goals. Should being the important bit there. (6/2/2021) Match Report: Cheltenham Town  A clinical hattrick, including two from set-pieces absolutely smashed into the corner, from Causso Darame gave us a degree of comfort in this game, comfort that was erased just after half-time by a superbly rallied performance from Cheltenham. The complacency we displayed after half-time is most concerning and not something I want any repeats of. We allowed a low number of shots on target, just the three, which is already a sign of improvement. If we can limit the number of shots, we can limit the number of goals against (GA), which are the goals we concede. Our sturdier midfield seems to be working wonders. (13/2/2021) Match Report: AFC Wimbledon  A far-post tap-in from Kaja and a 30-yard bolt from the blue from central midfielder Hartigan let Wimbledon grabbed a deserved 3 points, allowing them to jump out of the relegation zone at least for the moment. A Fornah-less midfield struggled to impress, our link from midfield to attack all but absent. McCann is struggling to adapt to the DLP role, which is worrying. He's our 2nd best midfielder and if he's not performing, something is amiss. (20/2/2021) Match Report: Oldham Athletic  Fornah's return to the midfield prompted a man-of-the-match performance from the young Ghanaian, who is quickly becoming one of my favourite players. He and Darame combined extremely well down that right hand side, the two interchanging often to bait the left full back into charging forward and leaving space for the other to race into. A Darame cut-back allowed Fornah to score, a passing play that me feel all tingly inside. (20/2/2021) Match Report: Wycombe Wanderers  Wycombe Wanderers, who recently got promoted to the Championship for the first time ever IRL, let us have all of the possession and set up a very compact defence within their own box. Shite and Ziltoid put up some very impressive passing stats between them but struggled to find the forwards, the relative inexperience of Darame and Afolabi meaning that they didn't have the presence of mind to pull away into space. The wonderfully-named Odin Bailey punished us with a low drive into the bottom corner, Lex getting a hand to it but getting beaten for sheer power. A shame, as our keeper had a fine game otherwise. March (6/3/2021) Match Report: Chesterfield  Some early March Madness saw Chesterfield rip us to shreds for no real reason. No one really had a poor game and the goals weren't down to individual mistakes. Chesterfield just played a very good game against us and we paid the price. Onto the next one, I suppose. (9/3/2021) Match Report: Tranmere Rovers  Our first-choice eleven had a better time of a short 3 days later against Tranmere, The Institute putting in a vintage performance to grab himself a goal. He rushed through off of a McCann pass, skinned the defender and popped the ball over the keeper like he was some sort of discount Messi. Causso continued his fantastic recent form, weighing in with a goal and laying chances on for To and Clarke, who couldn't quite take advantage. Our vice-captain had a tough day at the office, being crowded out of the game by the opposition centre backs. (13/3/2021) Match Report: Port Vale  We registered 9 shots on target in a composed, controlling performance that saw JoJo profit off of a late corner. Recently, we've been doing our corners slightly differently. With 3 talls guys in the team, JoJo, Collins, and Avals, we can afford to make some efforts to take advantage of corners. In our new routine, the ball is whipped in towards the near post, where JoJo is lurking. He'll either head it in directly for a goal, as in this match, or he'll knock it on for Collins at the far post for a player waiting on the penalty spot, as with McCann's goal. Avals is standing on the keeper's toes, preventing him from jumping up and claiming the ball when it's played in. This part of the routine is very important, as otherwise Darame or Eaufort would just be passing the ball into the goalkeeper's waiting hands. Goodsir's goal went in off of a deflection from the Port Vale centre mid, proof that we didn't need to rely on set pieces to win the game. _______________  : I take it you've heard the news.: Yep. Who are the prospective buyers?: A consortium, or at least a representative thereof. Serving some shadowy council, probably. Given how many Saudi and Russian businessmen are throwing money at football clubs, I wouldn't be surprised if this takeover had some sort of political backing behind it. We'll have to see which set of patriots you'll be working for at the end of the season.: La-li-lu-le-lo?: Not those Patriots.: Oh...: You sound disappointed.: So, if this takeover goes through, what happens to you?: I step down. I go back to being Riyad Hakim, hotel magnate, rather than Riyad Hakimi, Exmouth Chairman. It'll signal the end of the beginning, as it were. Clark and I will both be gone, that dawn era for the Excavators becoming part of the history books rather than the chapter we're reading right now.: I see.: Still, there is a lot of uncertainty around the club's status at the moment. The takeover might not go through at all. We'll have to wait. Wait and see. _______________ (20/3/2021) Match Report: Yeovil Town  Bad Luck Beeney strikes, putting up a good performance but ending up on the end of a defeat yet again. The game could have gone either way, with Yeovil getting the better of things through a confident finish from young striker Aaron Kuhl and a vicious long shot from midfielder Scott High. Beeney's volley off of a well-worked corner proved to be nothing more than consolation. Away on international duty while we played Yeovil, Moistie grabbed his first New Zealand goal in only his second appearance. He'll have to bring that form back for us. We'll need some of his steel.  (27/3/2021) Match Report: Cambridge United)  A superb solo goal by McCann and another corner conversion from JoJo got us a needed 3 points against a good Cambridge United side, who will feel like the result was a little undeserved. For once, it was our side who took their chances when presented, converting 2 of the 3 shots that we managed to put on target. Our possession told and the boys'll be happy with wins like this. We'll have a bit of a selection issue going into the game against Forest Green. Case did his thing in training, tackling hard, and somehow managed to put Shite out for two whole weeks.  Interestingly, Junior Mondal, who we had on loan last season, has voiced his support for us. Do remember that Mondal, a youth player, was contracted to Forest Green at the time. Apparently, our club had such a strong impression on him that he's rooting for us against his old club, Forest Green. Perhaps it's just his love of JoJo that has convinced him to throw his lot in with us.  April (2/4/2021) Match Report: Forest Green Rovers  A poor first half performance meant all of the pre-match cheering ending up being for naught as Forest Green ran home with all 3 points. In truth, we never really had a chance to turn it around even with our first choice. Forest Green just had way too much quality for us to handle. Off the field, takeover talk is progressing well.  With the promise of more money once some shady capitalists take over, Lex put pen to paper and put to bed all of this nonsense about him leaving. Given his excellent recent performances, it would be daft to let him go now.   (5/4/2021) Match Report: Northampton Town  The game against Northampton was about as even as even gets, a perfect match up of patient possession against charging counterattacks. In this game, the counterattacking side came out on top, Charlie Adams latching onto a stray pass by Avals and hitting it past a helpless Lex. There were some positives to be taken from this performance for sure but it's still 3 points dropped. To aid with boosting our firepower, I managed to convince former Tottenham youngster Matt West to join us on a free transfer. Already playing at a League One level and with a good deal of improvement in his future, he'll be a good acquisition for next season. Also released in the yearly youth releases was Graham Rushton, a very high quality centre back, and Kyle Armstrong, another left winger, both comfortably League One quality. Should we get promoted this season, they'll slot right in to next year's starting eleven.  ... I don't know what to think anymore. These journalists need to talk to each other to get their stories straight.   Back on the pitch, our promotion run-in is looking fairly straightforward, with a game against Morecambe being the only one I really expect us to lose. Currently in fourth, we'll get a place in the play-offs if we win even 1 of our last four. We have every chance of fighting for a place in League One. That said, whenever we've come up against a big boy in this league, we've been smashed, so I half expect us to get beaten at the first hurdle if we get into those play-off places. Oh well, let's just take them as they come.  (10/4/2021) Match Report: Plymouth Argyle  Berardi's Boys did the double over Clark's Clan, a result that saw us rise into 3rd following Swindon's loss against Leyton Orient, us and Forest Green moving up into the automatic promotion places. A To poke and a McCann screamer saw us over the line and will give the boys a lot of confidence as we enter crunch time. Our investment in youngsters like Fornah is paying off on the pitch, Tyrese being re-assessed as being able to become a solid League One level player, previously only thought to be able to hack it at League Two level. His 4-star rating for the team but apparent ability to only play at Vanarama National level shows the weakness of the league this season, most of the players there being barely any better than non-professionals.  William Draper's bid for Exmouth ownership had finally fallen through, meaning Mr Hakimi will remain the chairman for now. Perhaps William's brother, Don, will be making a bid next.   (17/4/2021) Match Report: Morecambe  The man I was so complimentary about earlier ending up costing us the points this time out, a hard shot into his midsection bouncing into the net. Still, we expected to lose this game, so I can't be too upset about losing points here, but given how even the game was otherwise, I can't help but feel a little disappointed. On to the next one. (24/4/2021) Match Report: Stevenage  A good professional performance and a good enough showing from the midfield that it allowed Afolabi to break his goal drought for this part of the season. To starred in a good win while Lex had a busy day at the back yet again, equal to all of the shots to keep his clean sheet intact. (30/4/2021) Match Report: Newport County  A right wing masterclass saw us grab a win on the last day of the season, a day which saw Swindon Town fail to win at Tranmere. That means that we've only gone and done it again.    3 years, 3 seasons, 3 promotions under Berardi. Those are unbelievable numbers, each of those promotions being performed when we were far from favourites in the league. In fact, we were predicted to finish dead last this season. Instead, we've gone on and been the 3rd best team in the league and we've jumping straight up into League One, bypassing the play-offs entirely. The Institute extended his streak of getting Player of the Year, while Fornah went and got the YPOTY. Causso's thunderbolt freekick against Cheltenham was declared Goal of the Season and who else but JoJo was going to be our signing of the season?   At the end of this season, we'll be saying goodbye to a couple of our old guard. Robert Bass, concerned that he wasn't up to the standard that the rest of the team was putting up, handed in a transfer request. Joey Jones and Oliver Goodsir, hungry for game time, also left once their contracts ran out. Rob Case, unable to break into the team again, announced his retirement from the game.   ...  ... Nah. Promotion into League One means that I'm finally free of Leyton Orient. I can't wait to draw them in the cup next year.   _______________ Final Third Summary: League Position: 3rd FA Cup: Eliminated by Braintree Town Carabao Cup: Eliminated by AFC Wimbledon Checkatrade Trophy: Eliminated by Luton Wins: 25 Draws: 9 Losses: 18 Win Percentage (League): 47% (52%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (15) Top Playmaker: Causso Darame (13) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.06/10) Most Yellow Cards: Charlie McCann (11) Most Red Cards: The Institute, Shite, Moistie, Causso Darame (1) GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Jul 26, 2020 |
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Jul 25, 2020 16:42
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A SHREWD PIECE OF BUSINESS The step up into League One is going to be massive and I expect us to struggle, at least at the beginning. To try and counteract this, I've been very aggressive in the transfer market, bringing in no fewer than six new faces to populate the team. We're also now at a level where our potential transfers and opponents are well-known enough to have Wikipedia articles. From top of the pitch to the bottom, our new faces are: Englishman Matt West, left winger and our first-choice inside forward. Free Transfer from the Tottenham Hotspur academy, valued at 24K  Englishman Kyle Armstrong, left winger and our second-choice inside forward. I want to give Paul Paulson time in that left wing slot, so we'll be sending Armstrong out on loan to Grimsby, still stuck in the Vanarama National several years after losing to us in the play-offs. His absolutely electric pace means he should dominate at VNN level. Free Transfer, valued at 21K  Albanian Egli Kaja, who scored against us last season, right winger. He and Causso Darame will rotate a lot and Kaja's versatility might mean that Darame will play right and he'll play left to mix things up. 40k from AFC Wimbledon, valued at 93K. He is our new record signing, so no pressure, Egli.  Lebanese Khaled Mohssen, attacking midfielder. 11K from Hamburger SV in Germany, valued at 34K. We only got the lowdown on him because of a newly-hired scout, who happened to be at HSV last season. He and Shite will rotate often. Being a German-speaker, he'll at least have Lex to talk to.  Englishman Teddy Bloor, right back. Free Transfer, valued at 5.25K. He'll be used to give The Wall some needed rest.  Englishman Graham Rushton, centre back. Free Transfer from the Tottenham Hotspur academy, valued at 64K. His extremely impressive pace will make us more resistant to counters.  Nigerian Tunji Akinola, centre back. 20K from West Ham United, valued at 72K.  All in all, we've vastly underpaid on all of our transfer targets, saving us some cash for training facilities down the line. Should these players do anything of note and attract interest from other clubs, I'll be sure to rinse the buying clubs to expanded fees. We've just sold Charlie McCann, for instance, to Barnsley for 26K. His value is 23K and we bought for a minimal agent fee, so that goes down as a good piece of business, despite losing a good player. If it weren't for the release clause in his contract, I've have sold him for 40K.   Total Transfer Expenditure: -76K Total Transfer Income: +26K Net Transfer Impact: -50K That of course means that this has been our most free-spending transfer period yet, which is unsurprising, given that this is the highest division we've ever seen. Let's see if our new additions can get anything done in League One. August (1/8/2021) Match Report: Colchester United  A mixed bag for our new signings. Egli Kaja had a tough time on that right wing, not bringing his crossing boots to the match. Matt West, on the other hand, was fantastic on the left wing, latching onto a Mohssen through-ball for his first and tapping in a Bloor cross for his second. The addition of a very quick inside forward on that side has brought the desired tactical results that I'd envisioned. With such a good start, we can only hope that the boys take confidence from this and fight tooth and nail to stay in the division. We'll be back in the Checkatrade Trophy this season. Now being a League One level team, we're going to be among the stronger sides in the competition. While the FA Cup and Carabao Cup are going to be tough, we probably have a good chance of making it far into the Checkatrade Trophy.  (4/8/2021) Match Report: Port Vale  Early first and second half goals from Guy and Long respectively made this game into a nervy one very early on. However, a superb fightback was sparked by maiden goals by Khaled Mohssen and Graham Rushton before Matt West continued his exceptional early season form and grabbed the winner at the beginning of stoppage time. As usual, we look quite good going forward but for once we look quite comfortable at the back. Despite conceding two, our backline had a decent performance by my reckoning. Money well-spent, it would seem. Once Avals returns from his long-term injury, we should be conceding even fewer goals. All talks of a takeover have disappeared. We'll be sticking with our current chairman and board for now. There's a lot to be said for continuity in sports.  (7/8/2021) Match Report: Luton Town  Teddy Bloor's first goal for the club saw us over the line in a game we should perhaps have lost, given the amount of chances Luton made and wasted. An assured performance from Lex and Rushton in particular kept Luton at bay, while Bloor and Tribune dominated down the flanks. (11/8/2021) Match Report: Stevenage (Carabao Cup)  Conor Masterson's lack of experience cost us a place in the Second Round, his misjudging of the flight of the ball causing him to foul the Stevenage striker as he went to claim the ball. We didn't deserve to get back in the match after that, all of our shots being speculative efforts from outside the box or coming in the form of an unexplainable point-blank miss from West. (14/8/2021) Match Report: Peterborough United  An early goal for each side saw us share the spoils with Peterborough, a game neither of us can really complain about dropping points in. The game was about as even as even gets. (17/8/2021) Match Report: MK Dons  Egli Kaja got his first goal for the club but nothing else went right for us against a dominant Dons side. While they gave us chances, our forwards were wasteful, failing to profit off of some lax defending. (20/8/2021) Match Report: Walsall  A good performance by To wasn't enough to see us over the line against Walsall, a late, quickfire double from Alfie Bates grabbing all three points for the opposition. (27/8/2021) Match Report: Bristol Rovers  An excellent midfield performance saw us get the points while the second-choice attack floundered somewhat. The midfield three looked composed and in control all game, forcing Bristol Rovers to bypass them with a long ball to grab their goal. Comeback wins like this one are always nice to see and speak well of our mentality as a group. (31/8/2021) Match Report: Colchester United (Checkatrade Trophy)  After a good win against Colchester United on the opening day of the season, we had reason to confident of beating them again and ensuring our place in the next round of the Checkatrade Trophy as a result. On the day, however, it took goals from Matt West and late substitute Ziltoid to force the game to be decided by penalties, which we unfortunately lost. September (4/9/2021) Match Report: Scunthorpe  Despite being the weaker team on paper, Scunthorpe weren't going to lie down and submit, bringing their A-game against us. Two set-piece goals sank the Excavators, our team helpless to avoid defeat despite Kaja's efforts. (11/9/2021) Match Report: Bolton Wanderers  The 2nd-strongest team in the division showed us just why they are pegged as one of the frontrunners for the division title this year, utterly dominant in terms of attempts at goal. Mohssen and Davies did reasonably well despite the hammering but this is a game the lads will want to forget. (19/9/2021) Match Report: Mansfield Town  Nothing seemed to click in this match, no one being on the same wavelength. Mansfield took full advantage of that, pinning us in our own half for most of the match, meaning that, despite having an equal share of possession, we were on the back foot for most of the game. (25/9/2021) Match Report: Fleetwood Town  The team that were interested in Moistie two years ago didn't get a chance to see him action again but the rest of the team were happy to hammer them in his place. A clinical, fox-in-the-box-type performance in front of goal from Kaja got us the win. He seems to have trouble doing more than one aspect of his job at once. When he scores goals, he fails to cross. When he has assists, he fails to get a single shot on target. We'll have to train some consistency of output into him. (28/9/2021) Match Report: AFC Sunderland  The best team in the league let us have the ball but didn't let us do much with it, their solitary goal from Johnson flattering us more than anything. While every loss stings, we aren't being judged on losing games like this. October (2/10/2021) Match Report: Gillingham  Paul finally got his first goal for the club and it was enough to win the game against Gillingham. A game of little quality and a low number of chances was settled by that single goal, giving us a confidence boost in the form of three vital points. (5/10/2021) Match Report: Swindon Town  A good controlling performance put Swindon to the sword, Eaufort and West running riot down the left. A goal for Darame off of a Eaufort cross sealed the game late on. (16/10/2021) Match Report: Oxford United  An early Oxford goal threatened to turn the game into a desperate war of attrition but a late flurry of goals from both sides saw us on top come the final whistle, Kaja the architect of our comeback win. Crosses whipped in from the right are his bread and butter and he needs to keep contributing with them. (19/10/2021) [iMatch Report: Doncaster Rovers][/i]  Not our finest hour, a real hammering if we're honest. No one played well and Doncaster took full advantage of that fact. (23/10/2021) Match Report: Shrewsbury Town  Shrewsbury raced into a 3-0 lead in the first half, giving us a mountain to climb come the second half. We almost made it to the summit thanks to To and Kellett's goals but a late Matt West miss saw the draw slip out of our grasp. (30/10/2021) Match Report: Queens Park Rangers  A recall to the first team for Shite was rewarded with a commanding win over QPR, some early Moistie madness getting us on track for the win. Obafemi threatened late on but we held on to the win, something that should give us confidence. After a reasonable start, our form had gone to tatters. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the season, especially with how congested the table is. We need a good run of form if we're going to reach safety this season. Hopefully this win will kickstart that.  Elsewhere, our loanee is doing well. Armstrong was given the award for best player in the Vanarama National for the month of October  _______________ First Third Summary: League Position: 12th FA Cup: Not started Carabao Cup: Eliminated in the First Round by Stevenage Checkatrade Trophy: Group Stages Wins: 9 Draws: 1 Losses: 10 Win Percentage (League): 45% (53%) Top Goalscorer: Matt West (7) Top Playmaker: Egli Kaja and Matt West (5) Best Average Rating; Khaled Mohssen (7.16/10) Most Yellow Cards: Egli Kaja and Conor Masterson (4) Most Red Cards: N/A Injuries: Ivan Avals (3 months) Transfers IN: Conor Masterson (Loan, Liverpool, CB/DM), Tunji Akinola (20K, West Ham United, CB), Graham Rushton (Free, Tottenham Hotspur, CB), Teddy Bloor (Free Transfer, RB), Khaled Mohssen (11K, Hamburger SV, CM/CAM), Egli Kaja (40K, AFC Wimbledon, RW), Kyle Armstrong (Free Transfer, LW), Matt West (Free, Tottenham Hotspur, LW) Transfers OUT: Joseph Joseph (Free, Everton, CB), Charlie McCann (26k, Barnsley, CM) Next Opponent: Gillingham in the FA Cup First Round
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Aug 8, 2020 17:24
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