JD nawrat Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 If you can get a console cheap enough you may as well - XY are good games and ORAS is out in 8 days. Plus the 3DS itself has a really good games catalogue worth investing in, if you're into more than just Pokémon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 If you can get a console cheap enough you may as well - XY are good games and ORAS is out in 8 days. Plus the 3DS itself has a really good games catalogue worth investing in, if you're into more than just Pokémon. I'm not really. I used to be a big Nintendo gamer in the N64/early GC era (with a dash of SNES as well) but in recent years it's mostly been FM with on and off side orders of Pokemon, Civ and more recently EU3. Will complete White 2 and then we'll see. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 January 2018 Serie A Results A near perfect January saw us take a total of 13 points of a possible 15. The new year kicked off in great fashion - unlike every year previous to me with Torino or Union! - with a thumping of (one of many) bogey team Pescara. Hell, 6-0 at Half Time it couldn't've been going any better to be honest. I couldn't inspire any more goals from the team and then we threw away a stupid ****ing goal. BAARRRRRGHHHH. No clean sheet. But at least we won emphatically. A wonderful first ever goal for Jiménez was the icing on the cake. That made it 11-2 over our last two games (5-1, 6-1). Hopefully it would continue. It sorta did, but not really. A strong 2-0 win against Udinese away from home was just what the team needed - after two easy wins we had to get a good win against strong opposition and that's exactly what we did. Udinese tested us several times but after Kagawa's early goal we manage to counter for most of the game. Vives scored at the death from the bench to make the game safe at last. A huge win and a clean sheet - only our second since November - was great, obviously. A trip to Palermo would hopefully provide another big scoreline in our favour, but wasn't to be. Two early goals put us in a commanding position but not long after half-time it came back to 2-1. Things were nervy for a while, I'm not going to lie, but then Bellotti came off the bench to seal the game. All three strikers getting on the scoresheet was lovely. A strong win - disappointing to not get the clean sheet but this was now our fourth straight Serie A victory. Confidence was high, so hopefully we'd carry that into the Ternana game and repeat out 4-0 smashing of them earlier this season. Unfortunately, we made a meal of it. Three goals were scored in the first 27 minutes and that was that. Ciro actually scored another two times later on but both were ruled offside. Nobody played well for us barring Ciro and I gave the team a piece of my mind - they didn't appreciate it but whatever. I'm not going to applaud them for scraping past a team like Ternana. I'm glad we got the win in the end though, that was nice. Five straight victories - superb! Six including the cup game below, too. To seal the perfect month we had to travel to Rome. Our last trip to Rome we won 3-1, so a repeat of that would be cracking. Lazio had other ideas. Never liked Lazio anyway. We went into HT at 0-0 and, just prior to the whistle, Lazio went down to 10. The game was surely in our hands...or so you'd think. Lazio took the lead just minutes after kick-off. Thankfully it wasn't for long as we worked the ball nicely down the right through Peruzzi and El Neny. The cross found Ciro who kicked it straight off the goalie. It rebounded back out and off the back of Yanga-Mbiwa. A bit lucky, but we deserved it overall I'd say. not long after we scored a penalty and took the 2-1 lead. Lazio weren't even looking to score goals so that was that... until some **** from Lazio's team got the ball, our players decided to not defend, he walked past Fellaini, someone else (whoever my MCR was at the time), past Vertonghen and then hit it from the edge of the box into the near post. It was like our players WANTED to concede. A disappointing draw; an undeserved draw; but a draw all the same. It soured the perfect month but it did still mean an undefeated month, so that's great! This almost perfect month leaves the table looking like this: TIM Cup Results First up in the Cup was Fiorentina at home. I was hoping to win fairly comfortably but...7-3?! A Maupay hattrick, Ciro brace, Jimenez second ever goal... six brilliant goals. Nice that Knoche scored as well, of course. The big CB doesn't score enough but it's great when he manages it. Defensively leaky but...whatever. We scored 7 Next was Roma. I don't want to get too much into it but we had to rest a lot of players due to a busy schedule - 7 games in 25 days - and it cost us. A pretty crappy way to go out and I wasn't happy about it but the scheduling totally screwed us over. Overall Thoughts Pretty great month in all. Disappointing to not beat Roma and play in the semi-finals but whatever. At least now we can turn out attention fully towards the league, huh? Undefeated Serie A month was brilliant of course. Hard to complain about 13 of 15 points, especially considering there was a couple of tricky ties in there anyway. Should have been WWWWW though... Blergh. The table standings are pleasant to see though... I think that, at this rate, not getting top 3 would be disappointing. but as we know, there's a lot of football to be played and that means CHOKING OPPORTUNITIES. Hopefully it won't come to that though I haven't posted any transfer dealings for one simple reason - I didn't make any. I've agreed two signings but both are to come in the summer so I will just cover them in the summer (one is a regen, the other is Kolasinac, the Bosnian who starts the game at Schalke (I signed him from Barcelona)). Oh yeah, I almost forgot... looking ahead to next month: Genoa [H], Milan [A], Cagliari [H], Fiorentina [H] The three home games are all winnable and must-wins tbh, but Cagliari will **** me up as they always do. I expect 7 points minimum (WLDW for the above fixtures). The best thing about these fixtures tbh is the fact that there is only four of them. It's a nice quiet month. One game per week. YAY. The schedule is no longer killing us. How nice. One other small thing is that Andrea Belotti is injured for 6-7 weeks. Well, he was. About 3-4 weeks now I think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Great cup win Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AcidBurn Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 7-3 in the cup!!! Sounds a cheesy but there's always next year for the cups and with those home games you should be able to take a lot of points, good luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Shame the Roma game took the gloss off the 7-3 a little but you're in a good position in the league which is the main thing at the moment Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 Great cup win Indeed. I was really pleased with it, just a shame about the next round I guess. 7-3 in the cup!!! Sounds a cheesy but there's always next year for the cups and with those home games you should be able to take a lot of points, good luck! Such a cliché! But you're right - winning silverware isn't that important to me right now. I'm focussing on just climbing the table and trying to get into the Champions League first. Next season we should be in a better position, hopefully, to challenge the cup. Shame the Roma game took the gloss off the 7-3 a little but you're in a good position in the league which is the main thing at the moment Indeed. The League will almost always take priority. Certainly right now and for the foreseeable years it will. Got the next month coming up just shortly. I'm not happy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 February 2018 Serie A Results You're reading that right. SIX goals for Fiorentina. First up was struggling Genoa. We did our best to make them look good - I think this is a feature of our play tbh - and went into HT losing. I blew my top - I think this is a feature of my style of management these days hahaha - and the team responded. We fought back in the second half to win 3-1 which was great. Peruzzi hailed my charisma and everything. How wonderful. Cheers Gino. Next up our second trip of the season to the San Siro. We managed to beat Milan earlier this season (the first time in the save's history) so we were semi-confident, but unfortunately we got absolutely dominated. Things weren't ALL bad. 0-0 after 45 minutes...then Kevin Mirallas scored a FK on the 45+1st minute. Ciro made it 1-1 after a goalmouth scramble but that was as good as it got for us. Milan took total advantage of how PISH we are on the flanks and exploited our LB - crossing in twice for two easy goals. 3-1, game over, whatever, move on. The dreaded Cagliari travelled to Turin to spank us once again. For a change, we spanked them. A first for everything, I suppose! My front trio of Jimenez, Ciro and Maupay all got on the scoresheet and we were cruising three nothing. Someone must've whispered in the Cagliari's manager's ear at this point as they started to exploit our flanks, especially the left, but it wasn't enough. They got success just once and we held on to take a massive three points. Finally beating Cagliari is great - it shows the progress that we are making this season. First Pescara, now Cagliari. Instead of rolling over and letting these sides hump us, we're fighting back and actually even winning, which is obviously all the sweeter. Fourth and final of the month was Fiorentina. I don't even know what happened. We beat them 7-3 at home last season. Apparently they learned how to defend in that time. Erick Torres had a hattrick inside 45 minutes and then he added another two after the break to crush us 6-1. Four of Fiorentina's six goals were identical - cross from the right flank after my Left Back decides to back off, back off, back off, back off, back off... HE NEVER ****ING TACKLES THE WINGER. Gives him all the space in the world, lets him cross in and picks his spot, then Torres just passes it into the net with his first touch. I wouldn't be surprised if he only touched the ball about 10 times all game. Prior to this he had 4 goals in 21 games. He now has 9 goals in 22 games. I ****ING HATE HIM. Words can't describe my anger. I almost rage quit the game but if I had done so I'd have lost all my progress of the month and I obviously didn't want to do that. Plus rage quits aren't in the spirit of the game I suppose The problem was simple - my LB is ****ing terrible and Fiorentina exploited that. But also, I don't think my team talks helped. We were awful in the first half but at 2-0 down on the 45th minute, things were recoverable. El Neny netted a penalty on 45+1 to give us hope going into half time... and then they kicked off, passed onto their right flank, crossed it in and scored immediately. This sent me into a rage and I basically angrily gave everyone a piece of my mind twice over, totally demoralising them. Were my actions justified? I think so, yeah. We beat these 7-3 just a month ago and now we can't even get into their half twice in 45 minutes. Give me a break, the performance was disgusting and totally unacceptable for the so-called second best team in the nation at the time of the game. They had no right to be beating as they were but my side were letting them. The team just fell apart and played even worse. Was that my fault? I guess it was, but I'm not going to molly-coddle a bunch of grown men who can't kick their own arses. I was really pissed off - still am tbh. The table now looks like this: Overall Thoughts Top Four should be a gimme at this point I feel, but that's not the target; top three is. Milan are gaining on us thanks to their big win over us earlier this month, but Napoli are right behind them and will hope to leapfrog us at some point also. Before the end of the season we've got the likes of Atalanta, Napoli, Udinese, Juventus, Inter, Roma and Pescara, which signifies a REALLY TOUGH RUN-IN. I am not looking forward to it, because all I keep thinking of is last season and how we fell to pieces in the last 8 or so games. I don't think we'll fall anywhere near as far as we did last season - like I say, top four should be almost guaranteed for us. But are we going to collapse and miss out on top 3? I think we could. I'm pretty damn nervous about it. Beating Fiorentina was so important, we simply cannot give us three points at home to anyone. Looking ahead to next month: Atalanta [A], Empoli [H], Napoli [A], Chievo [H], Parma [A] So a potentially tricky month to come. The two home ties aren't the toughest and I WILL be taking 6 points. Anything less and they'll all get a toe up their arse for their trouble Parma are doing really poorly so I expect to beat them tbh and Atalanta away, whilst tough, should be winnable. They're not doing great but they are rivals, so it has potential to go either way - as they say, form goes out of the window in a derby game. Hopefully we can take three, but I'll settle for one. Napoli away is the obvious biggie of the month. Last season we lost in Naples and earlier this season Napoli left Turin with a point, so to expect anything from our trip to Naples would be naive and over-expectant. At the very least I will demand we challenge them; I'm not having another bloody Fiorentina game on my hands I expect 0 points from that, but in an ideal world we need to take something. Unless Napoli have a bad month, we can't afford to lose to them. I'll be expecting 10 of 15, but hoping for at least 13 of 15. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rancer890 Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 Hang in there. You can do it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidBeckham Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 Pretty sure Fiorentina was one-off, KUTGW and good luck for the rest of the season mate! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 Did you not like that? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Yank Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 Poor Crotone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 Hang in there. You can do it! I hope so! I'll be so angry if we do a repeat of last season. The run-in we have makes it possible that the same will happen again tbh, that's what scares me most. Pretty sure Fiorentina was one-off, KUTGW and good luck for the rest of the season mate! It better be a one-off! Cheers fella! Did you not like that? What gave it away? By any chance was it the repetitive appearance of ***s? Poor Crotone. **** Crotone! Poor Torino Yeah they've just not been well prepared for the rise to Serie A it seems. Poorly managed. Going straight back down unsurprisingly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 March 2018 Serie A Results First of the month was a tough trip to Atalanta. Not looking forward to it because of their situation, but it was a must-win with the final games of the season coming up. The first half was a disaster and we created nothing. On top of that, we conceded. We went in at the break trailing 1-0. Thankfully I managed to fire the team up a little and it was enough. We scraped past 2-1, with Atalanta probably deserving a point (at least). Next, a home tie against Empoli. Routine win...or so i thought. 10th minute, 13th, 14th, 77th, 81st, 88th were just some of the goaltimes. I swear I didn't think we were going to leave with all three points but somehow we managed it, so that's something I guess. Our defending was horrific but we managed to win. Also the good news that Andrea Belotti is BACK. His first appearance in two months and he nets a goal. Not too shabby, huh? Crap defending, but we won. Moving on, because all I want and need is three points and we managed that. The test of the month. A trip to Naples. With them not far behind, this was a must-not-lose in many senses. And we didn't. Rejoice! Ciro scored his 50th ever goal for Torino - his 27th under my management. Proving quite the acquisition, I guess. Unfortunately we couldn't hold on to our lead and a very late goal for Napoli saw us only leave with the one point. You won't hear me complaining, but a win and clean sheet would've been amazing. Next was Chievo - another 'easy' 'routine' win We actually were cruising 4-0, but we can't keep clean sheets, didenchahear? Two stupid goals and then a fifth for us and we won 5-2. At least we won, hey. I'm not complaining about three points And last of the month was Parma, who beat us at home earlier this season (I forgot about that til the media said to me :o). The game was tough and they actually had a one-on-one with Zieler in injury time but the goalie came up trumps to get us our first clean sheet in a ridiculously poor 14 games. Our last clean sheet came on January 14th (2-0 v Udinese). Shocking, but whatever. A point wasn't great but Milan drew and Napoli lost. The only team who gained on us were Sampdoria, which isn't a bad situation tbh. The table now looks like this after an undefeated month: Overall Thoughts A pretty damn good month sees us remain in second with a small gap. Eight clear of the first non-CL spot with only 7 games remaining? I'll take that Hopefully it stays that way, but it will be tough. Upcoming we have: Roma [H], Sampdoria [A], Inter [H], Juventus [A] Talk about tough. In what is undoubtedly the toughest month (on paper) that I've had in this save, we could legitimately end up with zero points... I am NOT looking forward to this. The Roma game is on my birthday, so hopefully we mark that with a win But it will be a tough ask. We beat Roma in Rome but lost to them in Turin in the Cup earlier this season, also. Sampdoria succumbed to a 3-2 defeat in Turin this season, but they're undefeated at home against us throughout this save so I am not hopeful. Plus they are the second most in-form team (after Juve) so halting them will be huge. It's like Napoli really - a must-not-lose game. If we win, great, top 3 sealed. If we lose, it'll be so tight and we might actually drop out of the top 3 before the end of April. Juventus will beat us, I have resigned to that. Inter is a dodgy one - we beat them already this season and they're not having a good time this year, but they're still Inter. I hope to win that one at least. From the month of April, I think we'll do well to take 6 points (two home wins). But really I need more than that... I'd settle for 5 points if it meant not losing to Sampdoria tbh. Realistically, we're looking at about 4-6 points in total though. No chance of us getting a full 12 I'm afraid. One small bit of info is that Jan Vertonghen's season is over. He's damaged his hip (getting old, heh) and is out for 3 months. This also leaves my decision to sign him at the end of the season in the balance. I probably won't now tbh, but we'll see... it all depends on my scouts work and whether I can realistically find someone as good/better for the same price he would cost to sign permanently (about £4M iirc). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 April 2018 Serie A Results Well, well, well... My birthday/first game of April could not have gone better. We were solid defensively and didn't look like conceding. We didn't look much like scoring either, though, to be fair, but we finally came up trumps near the death when Andrea Belotti got on the end of a Gino Peruzzi cross to make it 1-0. A fantastic start to the month put us one step closer to sealing that promotion. Milan lost to Inter as well which helped us somewhat, giving us a little more breathing room in what would undoubtedly be a tough month. Next was the trip to Sampdoria. Things got off to a shocker when Angelo Palombo found a clearance at his feet around 22 yards out and let rip, almost bursting the net and making it 1-0 after just five minutes. Not to let that stop us, we rallied back and actually dominated the game from there. We scored not longer after going behind courtesy of Ciro, but we couldn't find the winner in the end. Sampdoria had a couple of late chances to win the game but they failed (obviously) and we managed to come up with a huge point. Inter travelled to Turin for the third game. A win would wasn't necessary, but it would be so helpful to our hopes... We managed to scored early through Andrea Belotti and things just sorta stayed like that throughout. Neither Inter nor Toro looked like scoring but then with seconds to go - and us set to Contain with a a 451 (3 DMs and 2 WMs ), Maupay found himself on the end of a Peruzzi cross to make it 2-0. A great victory and our third clean sheet in four games. Thrilled, obviously, to get the win. Knoche got a yellow card which meant he was suspended for the next game. I was doubly worried about that because with Vertonghen injured it meant Tiote had to play at CB... Last of the month was a trip to Juventus Stadium where we had to take on bitter rivals Juventus. My record in derby games isn't exactly good, so I'm sure you'd understand me having little to no hope... The lads had other plans, though. Bonucci being a total moron was obviously helpful, but we still had a game on our hands. Last year we travelled cross-town to Juventus Stadium and still got beaten despite them getting an early red. This time we showed our maturity over the previous year and we scored three brilliant goals to take the win (well, one wasn't brilliant, but I still celebrated it like it was the greatest goal ever ). Bad news for our two injured lads - Peruzzi's season is over with a broken ankle (2-3 months out); Dzagoev might not return as he's out with a broken cheekbone (2-3 weeks). My first ever derby victory (my fifth attempt). So happy. The table looks smashing now: Overall Thoughts Mission accomplished for the season. Hell to the yeah. We still want to finish second of course, but that shouldn't be too hard with our final three games being: Crotone [H], Pescara [A], Udinese [H] I think we should get at least 7 there (Pescara still tricky) but to be honest I don't even care what we get now As long as we don't lose all three I'll be happy, I'm sure. The board are obviously delighted with us getting Champions League football, especially with my target only being to get Europa League football. I'm also obviously delighted too and if we can get second place it'll be a brilliant marker for the season after when we have to try and close the gap on Juventus, which is looking like a mammoth task at the moment. Still, we'll give it a good go. We can only but try, eh The board have given me my budgets for the next season already - 45k spare wages and £20M transfer budget. Hopefully we will be able to invest that well in defence and improve the squad. The rest of the pitch is fine and I'm happy with our attack. I've got a RB and a LB coming in already (paid for too, so the £20M is after they join) and I'll likely sign Fellaini permanently because he's been good for me all season. I need to get two centre backs in, as Vertonghen will be leaving on a free most likely leaving me with just Knoche and Glik. Glik may leave if someone comes in for him too, so we'll have to see where I stand on that one. Otherwise, yeah, this is what I'm looking at. Two CBs and Fellaini (if not Fellaini then <insert other MC>). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
debonhare Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 Cracking results, mate! It would take an almighty collapse of Torino 16/17 proportions to lose that second spot Ciro must be nearing the 30 goal mark this season, surely? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 Cracking results, mate! It would take an almighty collapse of Torino 16/17 proportions to lose that second spot Ciro must be nearing the 30 goal mark this season, surely? Haha cheers fella! I can confirm we went on to beat Crotone (probably harder to lose to them than it is to win ) so second is confirmed Ciro has hit 25 for the season, 22 of which are in the league (current top scorer in La Liga). He's matched the record he set a few years back irl where he scored 22 goals in 33 games. Although he's played 34 games for me... I'm not sure if he'll add to his tally - since the top three is guaranteed (well, second place now) I've taken it upon myself to rotate a little. Maupay and Belotti will likely see the rest of the season out and I've promoted three of my most promising youths to the first team for the remainder (all three got their debuts v Crotone - will post the screenshots in a minute) so Ciro isn't likely to even come in off the bench, nevermind score. I might put him in to try and secure the top scorer but I'll only do that if second place catches him (he's on 22, second is on 19 atm). Two games left... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 So these three kids all came off the bench v Crotone for their first team debuts. Two of them will feature on/off next season and then the season after will likely become more permanent figures, but at the minute they've spent all season in the youths. I thought I had all of these come through my youth academy, but only one has (the third one). The other two were signed for 300k and 325k respectively - so a relative pittance for highly talented players Angelo Ronga - the young DM is a potentially important figure in the future at central midfield. I envision him partnering El Neny and Benassi at MC for years to come, and that excites me. He's highly rated by my scouts which is part of the reason why I chose him over others to step into the team. Bruno Romeo - the exciting CAM could find himself at the team sooner rather than later as I'm not 100% happy with Shinji Kagawa this season. He's immensely talented as well so I've got plenty of hopes that he'll develop to compete with Agustín Jiménez one day... Maurizio Cecere - the kid CB is the youngest ever Torino player, having been born in 2002 (jesus christ...) and being only 15. He came through the youth academy just this season but he is potentially one of the best centre backs to ever play for the club if things go right for him. He's very raw of course, but I have major hopes for his future. I think in the remaining two games I will also hand debuts to the following duo: Luca Dominici - the striker could yet play an important part in the new season, with Fabio Quagliarella getting on a bit (he only played 15 times this season and 13 of those came from the bench) I'll be looking for someone to step into his shoes sooner rather than later, and who better than this talented academy product? It'd be fantastic if he could mark his debut (more likely to be against Pescara than Udinese) with a goal but he's probably only going to get 5-10 minutes so it's unlikely, I guess. Still, I'm excited to begin integrating him into the side. Dario Silvestri - this guy look like the real deal. The other four I have highlighted are obviously promising, but this kid could genuinely be one of the best. The only problem he has - and this is going to sound stupid, I realise - is that he is going to be contending with Kagawa, Jiménez and Romeo for a position in the team. But with his potential he'll definitely have a future with me. You could argue he's ahead of Romeo as it is but I preferred the fact that Romeo is physically built for playing in the league now whereas Silvestri is a little off of that (mentally and technically he's already halfway there though at such a young age). Dario was also signed from another Italian club and not a youth product - 55k from a Serie C side. Not bad. [NB: My HoYD signs players, hence I have no idea whether i signed Silvestri etc ] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 Injuries meant that I gave Cecere a full 90 minutes against Udinese on the final day of the season. We drew 1-1 but Cecere was our best player (most were really bad though tbf ) and posted a 7.1. Came out of the game "Looking self-assured" so that was great. Got a bright future, this kid. 90 minutes as a 15 year old, dunno what I was thinking tbh My hand was forced with Yedlin and Peruzzi both injured though. That's my season finished - I'm not gonna be around from now til tomorrow now most likely, so I'll post my final results and all that other crap then. Nothing exciting happened tbh (although the end-of-season awards might be good...but I'm not gonna see until I next play anyway so there's nothing to talk about them now anyway ). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamillePunk Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 Hurray for no late season collapse this time! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Yank Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Gif of JDownie after the Turin derby: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 Gif of JDownie after the Turin derby: More like this Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Ronga looks especially capable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 Ronga looks especially capable. Indeed. He'll be involved next season, will get a lot of sub appearances. Tiote hasn't really worked out for me this season plus Giuseppe Vives is about 39 now so I'll probably start integrating Ronga from the start of the season. Might ask Vives (my VC) to tutor Ronga, actually. I see Ronga as a potential captain at the club for years to come. His leadership and determination attributes are already better than about 90% of my first team (I have my C, VC and the El Neny gets next on my captaincy list haha - such is my use of players, El Neny was essentially my captain because Glik © was a back-up and Vives (VC) was 6th choice MC). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 May 2018 Serie A Results An undefeated month to end the season. I hit 5 of 9, two short of my target of 7, but I can't complain. First up was Crotone. Victory would seal second place, but I wasn't expecting we'd have to work so hard for it. We took a lead through Neal Maupay and were coasting - we really struggled to score after that (and before tbh) but it was fine as we were controlling the game. Crotone scored from a setpiece to make it 1-1 and it looked like we were going to draw. Captain Glik stepped up late on to net and make it 2-1, giving us confirmation of second. Yay. A trip to Pescara was on the cards now. I made an arse of this to be honest, because I took a 1-0 lead for granted and decided to bring on all three youngsters. It was their debut, I don't know what I was expecting. We suffered in attack as a result and Pescara got a late equaliser. But we avoided defeat and we didn't need a result, so it was pleasing to see the lads get their opportunity. Dominici got 39 minutes and posted a 6.5; Silvestri got a 6.6 after 20 minutes; and Cecere got a 6.8 after 15 minutes. Not great, but not exactly bad. Our final game of the season was at home to Udinese. I started Ciro to ensure he got top goalscorer (or had a chance to, anyway). He was two clear of whoever was in 2nd (cba checking) but I didn't want to risk him losing out. He scored to practically guarantee top scorer (2nd didn't even score) and then we sorta went into shutdown. The end stats saw us have 7 shots to Udinese's 31 (), which is the worst performance we've ever put in at home. We managed to contain them for so long but eventually we conceded at the end and drew 1-1. The starting line-up had Glik at RB (who got sent off after 47 minutes), Cecere at CB, Dario Silvestri at CAM, Ronga at DM... it was quite a young side and not particularly great as my CWB/A was a CB with no technical ability whatsoever Ah well, undefeated end to the season was nice. The final table: Overall Thoughts I won't say too much because I'm going to post the end-of-season review at some point today (maybe tomorrow, depends). But the season ended fairly well. We went on a run of 12 games unbeaten to end the season, by far the best of any team. We won 7 of those. And they weren't the easiest of games either, so I am (obviously) delighted with how the season ended. I'm also glad that I got a chance to integrate the youths. All five mentioned above got some playing time over the last two games, with Cecere getting 90 minutes against Udinese and being our best player at a 7.1. Very happy with that. He's 15 ffs, very happy with how he played. He is unlikely to feature much, if at all, next season but I will probably try to get him playing every now and again. Maybe bench him for the 'easy' games and then bring him on for 10-20 minutes. He's miles off of starting, obviously, but in three years or so, I wouldn't mind if he was starting every game for us. It could be early, but by the time he is 18 I can see him being a good player for the level we'll be at (permanent top 3 hopefully). The rest will get varying levels of playing time, some will feature quite a bit next season, especially Dario, Dominici and Ronga. Romeo might get loaned out but I'll see how I feel about it. That's all I've got to say atm. Look out for my end of season review. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Good season JDownie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjericho Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Ciro no-last-name turned out pretty good Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 Ciro no-last-name turned out pretty good Haha yeah I set a nickname for him as just Ciro, because it's what I know him by He did turn out good, yeah. He wasn't even bad for the 6 months I had him for last season, it was just that the team hit a rough patch in style going forwards and he suffered through it more than anyone else. He's came good this season as I had hoped he would and I'm sure he'll be even better next season (if he stays) Good season JDownie Thanks man Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 2017-18 End of Season Review Serie A Only the five losses in a brilliant campaign where we managed to put together some brilliant runs and also ended the season without a loss in the final 12. We started off with plenty of clean sheets but quickly they disappeared and we struggled to defend. Despite that, the goals kept coming and we ended the season as the second top scorers overall in the league. Key victories were undoubtedly getting wins in Turin (v Juve), Milan (v Inter) and Rome (v Roma). We also managed to beat certain bogey teams at home who bested us in Turin last season, such as Pescara (6-1) and Cagliari (3-1), the former was particularly pleasing. We lost three at home - to Juventus, to Parma and to Fiorentina. The loss to Parma was the biggest surprise, as they would flirt with relegation all season. They were tough for us though as they also managed to take a point from us when we travelled to face them. Losing to Fiorentina hurt as well because of the scoreline. 6-1. We bested them in Florence 2-1 earlier in the season and then we managed to skelp them 7-3 in the cup, so to lose 6-1 (to FIVE Erick Torres goals) was really damaging. Still, we suffered no real embarrassment besides that. What is also means is that no side did the double over us, which is nice The end of season table looks like this: TIM Cup An emphatic win over Fiorentina gave us hope of going on to win the Cup but we were halted in the very next round as Roma came to Turin. A disappointing defeat but courtesy of a B-side as I had to rest players to take on the Romans. Things didn't go as hoped but I can't complain. We reached board expectations but personally I had hoped to make it past the QFs at the very least. Still, there's always next season! Sampdoria would go on to win the competition, by the way. Europa League My first trip around Europe in charge of a club did not go as expected. We struggled in most of our games and ultimately we finished last of the group with only five points. Disappointing, but oh well. The schedule was taking its toll on my squad so perhaps failure in this competition wasn't all bad. Expectations Serie A - Board Expectation: Europa League Qualification - Achieved (Qualified for Champions League) Italian Cup - Board Expectation: Reach Quarter Finals - Achieved Europa League - Board Expectation: Reach Group Stage - Achieved Finances A huge improvement on last season's finances, where we were in heavy debts and there was talks of loans being taken out. The sale of Diego Poyet helped us massively and has stabilised our finances to the point where the board have given me £20M for the coming season. I hope to keep finances high and if we can improve them further that would be most welcome Players of the Season 5. Andrea Belotti - I identified Belotti as my player of the season last season. This season he wasn't as great, but that owed mainly to having more options up front and injuries hampering Belotti's chances to impress. Still, the talismanic striker had a large part to play in our season. He was one of the top scorers in the league and second overall for the club. Another impressive season. I've got high hopes that he keeps this up, he'll be the first choice next season once again, alongside Ciro once again. 4. Mohamed El Neny - The Egyptian's second season was better than his first, with him becoming more of a goalscoring threat from deep. He scored a few screamers and he established himself as our penalty kick taker (previous taker Dzagoev missed one or two so El Neny got the chance). Not as much of an assisting threat as I'd hoped but he did undoubtedly take part in our build-up play and, whilst maybe didn't deliver the final ball, helped get the ball to that point anyway. A brilliant season for him. I hope he improves next year, but if he churns out the same level of quality as this season I'll be happy, still. I named him as my second best player of last season and he actually had a better avg rating last season (by 0.01 ), but he offered more this year I feel. 3. Ciro - The Italian hitman's first full season back at Olimpico was a great one. 26 goals in 41 games proves that he's still got it, after a couple of years on the bench at Dortmund where he didn't get any chances to prove what he can do. His overall play isn't that great, and that's the only reason he's my third choice for POTY instead of first. I can't fault him when it comes to his main job though - finding the back of the net. A lot of goals and a lot of important goals, too. He ended the season as Serie A's top goalscorer. Here's to more goals! 2. Gino Peruzzi - A broken ankle at the end of the season might cost him his pre-season, but the Argentine will undoubtedly be first choice next season after his performances of this year. A phenomenal talent, capable of going forward and back, Peruzzi was the top assister in the team (second in the league) with 13 assists in 25 games, averaging over one contribution every second game. He ended the season as our highest rated player, but due to his lack of games (compared to others) I didn't feel it was right to name him POTY. Still, a brilliant season. I'm going to have to try to hang onto him, as Real Madrid(!) have come sniffing. A bumper contract might be on the cards here - and he deserves it. Could become one of the top earners at the club now. 1. Robin Knoche - The rock. I identified Knoche as my fifth best player of last season, despite him playing only half of the season (signed in January). He continued to build on that and has undoubtedly made a name for himself, at times single-handedly stopping opposition from overrunning our weak defence. With a better player at LB, I hope that Knoche will begin earning the clean sheets he deserves. Capable with both feet, he was regularly switched between LCB (alongside Glik) and RCB (alongside Vertonghen) and regardless of the side, he put in performances of the highest calibre. I'm not sure if the fans will vote him player of the season (got a feeling it will be Ciro) but I think he deserves it. Great season. The Squad Looking at the squad I need to improve in a few areas - notably, MC, LB and CB. At LB, Marchese will leave on a free (he's about 34 now) as Sead Kolasinac comes in from Barcelona. I wasn't going to renew Mino's contract but as a back-up LB he will do a job, so I changed my mind and he's back for another two years. Yedlin played well but not so well that I can justify blowing £5M on him, so I've signed a young Brazilian RB (who is also natural at LB) for almost £10M who is just as good as Yedlin but has lots of potential to become better than even Peruzzi. I'll look to sign Fellaini permanently whilst Vertonghen and Yedlin will return to their clubs. This means that I now need to find an MC if I don't get Fellaini and I'll need a minimum of TWO centre backs - one to replace Vertonghen (a starter) and one to replace Gastón Silva who left on loan due to being a moany ****. His contract expires this summer. I have no idea who I will sign but I'll figure something out. Glik will leave if anyone comes after him - same for Kagawa and Quagliarella. Not much else to say. This'll be the last update for a day or two because I'm not going to get a chance to progress with the game for a couple of days. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 Oh and special mention to Agustín Jiménez. He narrowly missed out on my top 5 players of the season but he was fantastic. He played how I hoped Kagawa would, which says a lot I feel. Brilliant all season long. 12 assists (second most of team) in 34 games with a Vision of 7. If he can improve his teamwork and vision then i feel he can truly be one of the best. High hopes for him next season as he will be the first choice at AMC. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Who is Ciro wanted by? Hope you can hang onto him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 Who is Ciro wanted by? Hope you can hang onto him. It was originally Napoli (so he came to me saying he wanted to leave for CL football - ironically Napoli aren't in the CL now and we are ), but now I'm not sure. Loading my game up for an hour or so (won't get a chance to play at all tomorrow unfortunately so grabbing any time I can tonight ). Will have a little look-see. If I have to sell, I'm comfortable in the knowledge that I have Maupay (who actually had a good season for me) and Dominici, but I'd rather keep him for obvious reasons. He seems happy (got a news item saying he was happy to stay) and he's getting good pay (80k p/w). In a better situation now than he ever was at Dortmund, where he played about 15 games in 3 seasons... With me he's guaranteed to start every game he can in the league/CL for another year at least. e: It's Milan who are after him, which means no CL. I'd be surprised if he asked to leave for them... No wait, Milan are in the EL final (v Lille - come on Zapata! ), so for the second season in a row an Italian team might get into the CL thanks to winning the Europa League.... Milan 1-0 Lille - so Ciro might want to leave for Milan as they are both a CL team and bigger than us, but I hope he won't! With me he'll become a legend. With them he'll become a traitorous dickhead Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 Small update on Union Berlin - their Bundesliga status remains intact...just. They had to beat Hanover on the final day of the season and hope Kaiserslautern and Koln lost or drew. They got their victory, which gave them hope, and then Koln drew and Kaiserslautern lost, meaning that they scraped out by 1 point. They're going to spend their fourth season in a row in the Bundesliga, but not in great circumstances and they're likely to battle relegation once again. Their Bundesliga finishes have been 11th, 15th, 15th. I did the majority of the work for the 11th place finish obviously, so fair to say that the team has gone backwards since sacking me. I'll do a mini-update after the World Cup showing how the league finishes have been, who's won CL etc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 Transfer News I'll keep this brief as I plan on simply updating this post as I go along (unless someone posts after me in which case I'll quote and add in new news). Marouane Fellaini has agreed to sign for Torino on a free transfer. The Man Mountain had a good season for us last year and I wanted to sign him. We had an agreement with United in place where we would pay £2.4M to sign him, but I've just realised he was out of contract in the summer so I signed him for nothing (well, £1.8M sign on fee). Much better this way! Great start to the off-season. Secondly - Giuseppe Vives has retired. The now-U18s Assistant Manager only played 23 times in two years under my management, but he's a player I have huge respect for due to his influence in the back. He was vice captain throughout his career at the club under my management and he'll be a miss in that regard. I wanted to sign him as a coach but the only available position I had was U18s Assistant Manager. This suits me as, in the future, I would hope to have him become my assistant. For now, he is a bit raw, so hopefully he trains up to be something better and eventually will be good enough. It's also good that he's the U18s Assistant Manager (his initial choice of job was U18s Manager tbf) because he is good at working with youngsters. The bright side of Vives retirement is that he is now out of the squad, meaning the young Ronga will come straight into the team as of next season (as 6th choice MC, but still not a bad place to be for an 18 year old, huh?). Lastly for this mini-update is Fabio Quagliarella. The veteran didn't have a great season for me and his declining physical attributes mean he's really quite past it now. He has decided he's going to retire next summer, which suits me perfectly to be honest. He might make for a semi-decent coach in the future so I might keep him around... he's definitely sticking around for now, though. He'll be 5th choice ST this season (basically, very last resort) behind Ciro, Belotti, Maupay and Dominici, but he might still play an important role at some point or another. He's experienced and that is always useful. Thanks to Juventus winning the Champions League last season, the Italian league has moved to be the third ranked league in Europe once again. What this means, is that like the Premier League and La Liga, Serie A will now be given three automatic CL spots and one qualifying spot, meaning top four get Champions League for the 19/20 season (so the coming season will still be top three only). A minor related note is that we jumped highly in the rankings, going from 183rd in Europe to 95th! Very pleased with this improvement... wouldn't mind if we jumped another 88 places next season That's all for now but I'm sure there will be some more stuff to report. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamillePunk Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 A great season mate, now to knock Juventus off their perch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 A great season mate, now to knock Juventus off their perch. Cheers fella! Indeed, that's the plan. It is happening, eventually. I just don't know when. I want to stop them before they hit 9 in a row. They're on 7 at the moment. So I'm hoping to win the title in the next two years. If I miss it by 9, I HAVE to stop them for 10 in a row. No way am I letting them get that many Champions league groups drawn (season hasn't even started yet ) - will post just shortly revealing the draw I got. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 Champions League Group D Arsenal Zenit Porto Torino Seeded in Pot 4, we were the third lowest ranked team in the entire draw, with only Slovan Bratislava and Maribor beneath us (and only just, might I add). As the teams were drawn I found myself hoping for one of a couple of groups: Man Utd, Sevilla, Olympiacos, (Slovan Liberec); Chelsea, Leverkusen, PSV, (Celtic); and the one I got - Arsenal, Zenit, Porto, Torino. Why? I think all of those groups are winnable. Sevilla and Olympiacos are both decent sides but neither are great. Leverkusen are a very good team but I feel they're beatable, plus I wouldn't mind travelling over to Germany again... PSV more than beatable. And Arsenal have obvious flaws and can be beaten. So them, Zenit and Porto, whilst three really good teams, could all legitimately finish beneath me. It's arguably the hardest group of the tournament in terms of picking two teams to progress, especially since Zenit and Porto are both highly seeded irl (must have dipped slightly in game). But I think it's a draw which favours us. We could realistically qualify in 1/2/3, but at the same time, 4th isn't out of the question. Especially with our performances in Europe last season at the back of my mind. First up is the toughest game of all - a trip to London to face Arsenal. After that we host Zenit before back-to-back matches against Porto (this pleases me greatly), starting with us travelling to Porto. We then host Arsenal before ending the first half of the campaign with a trip to St Petersburg in Russia. So yes, overall, I am happy with the draw. It could be a tough group but at the same time, it's a group I feel we have potential to top. Will we? I can't say at the moment to be honest, but I'm excited to get cracking on with our first ever venture in the Champions League! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 Pre-Season Pre-season is over at last. The new Serie A season doesn't begin until September 2nd (for me, September 1st for some teams), so I've got no competitive matches to report back to you. So I'll just go through some news, my ins, my outs, expectations, that sort of stuff Transfers In Six players join il Toro's ranks, totalling £29M in spending. Among them, two were agreed back in January and one was a free transfer (already discussed). Here they are: Klivanly Hevany - £6.75M from Atletico Mineiro - A terribly bothersome name to say, so will no doubt he handed a nickname down the line. The young Brazilian is a replacement for Yedlin, of sorts. Rather than spend £5M on Yedlin, I thought I'd spend that little bit extra to bring in a younger, more promising talent. My coaches say he has the potential to be one of the best at the club, so I'm pleased that my instincts were right (I signed on the basis of his scout report, with very little knowledge about him). Risky, but it might pay off. He'll spend this season as a back-up to Gino Peruzzi with a view to him becoming 'the future' of RB. Needs to work seriously on his dribbling, passing and off the ball movement, but other than that he's already pretty damn good. I have high hopes for him. Sead Kolasinac - £3.7M from Barcelona - The Bosnian fullback is highly talented but had fallen out of favour at Barcelona. He was put on the transfer list much to my delight. I got him for relative pennies and and he'll come straight into the team. My weakest area last season was undoubtedly LB, where we conceded a boatload of goals, so hopefully someone solid at FB like Kolasinac will turn that around for me. Not the best Composure and positionally he can be suspect, but he will hopefully be a great signing. For £3.7M, I can't complain, anyway. Marouane Fellaini - Free from Man United - As I said before, the giant midfielder was supposed to be joining us for £2.4M but then I realised he was available to sign on a free, so that's what I did. He'll start a lot this season as he is one of the best players at the club. Timo Horn - £2.8M from Koln - A totally unnecessary signing, but what a signing! Such a small fee for such a quality player. I am over the moon with this one to be honest. He's arguably an improvement on Zieler and he's probably going to become a German international (first team) very soon. I think he'll probably start more often than not, but for the first couple of games of the season, Zieler will probably retain his place in the team. Horn will definitely get chances, especially at the slightest hiccup from Zieler. The reason he was so cheap is that Koln got relegated last season. Stefano Denswil - £10M from Ajax - You may remember I had to make a choice between Denswil and Knoche around 18 months ago and opted for Knoche as he was cheaper. Denswil was my go-to choice to replace Vertonghen for this season, and I actually got him cheaper than I would have 18 months ago ha. He'll go straight into the first team alongside Knoche to form, I hope, a formidable partnership at the back. Davide Monteleone - £5.5M from Chievo - I needed a fourth choice CB for the season and Monteleone fits the bill nicely. At 5.5M he's a bit expensive but he's young and still has room for improvement, plus he's Italian, so that worked in my favour. He only cost so much because he signed for Chievo on a free just days before I signed him - if I'd known he was available for free just days prior I'd have snapped him up there and then but oh well. As for transfers out...well, there wasn't any. Loans expired and players got released on a free, but the only notable out-going transfer was Giovanni Marchese. The Italian left back had a few decent years at us but with Kolasinac coming in and Mino extending his stay, there was no place for Marchese who was released at the end of his contract. At 33 (coming up for 34), he had no place in the team anyway. He's signed for Serie B side Grosseto. Expectations Board Expectations: Serie A: Qualify for Europa League through league finish TIM Cup: Reach Semi-Finals Champions League: Reach Group Stage Personal Expectations: Serie A: Challenge Juventus, at the very least finish top 3 TIM Cup: Reach Semi-Finals. If we are out of Europe before the semi-finals, I want to win it. Champions League: Qualify for post-Christmas European Football (Champions or Europa League) News With only a year left on my contract, I decided to ask the board for a new one. They were happy to oblige: "Struggled at Union Berlin" haha get ****ed. A two year extension (wanted more but they weren't having it) and £500 extra (I had to ask for it). Not the greatest new contract ever, but adds a little security to my job and at least I'm here for another few years at least (barring failure/sacking) Another note: I can't find the news item (was too long ago, I forgot to screenshot it at the time, don't think there's another way to find it), but Mohamed El Neny was voted as Fans Player of the Year (slightly ahead of Knoche and Ciro, was almost a three-way tie). I promoted him to official Vice Captain since Vives retired, too. In fact, I forgot another piece of news. Ciro and Knoche both declared that they were happy to stay at the club following our achievements last season (qualifying for CL). Then Real Madrid came in for Gino Peruzzi. I turned them down and Gino asked to leave because he feels Torino isn't big enough for him. He's a nice guy, it turns out, and didn't get arsey when i told him no. I promised him that the club's reputation will increase by next year and he'll want to stay, so he has given me the chance to prove that. I'm now hoping to win something this season, or at least get far in a competition, to increase our rep to 4.5* (currently 4*). If we can do that, it might be enough to keep him. If not, I'll just have to cash in on him I guess. All that's left are Tactics and Squad, but i'll get to those later because I can't be arsed atm. Will probably it later tonight when watching RAW e: Oh, yeah. I am desperate to ask the board to improve our facilities but our finances aren't anything special (we've got a balance of £7M, lost about £10M this season through transfers) and I'm worried that asking them to improve training and/or youth facilities will damage us short-term and that's the last thing I want... Our facilities aren't terrible ('Average' Corporate, 'Excellent' Training', 'Great' Youth, 'Average' Junior, 'Above Average' Recruitment) but I definitely to try and improve a few of those. Our Youth training in particular as I want to start turning towards the youths in the future...that obviously means we have to improve our Junior Coaching and Recruitment as well though, and those might be costly. Bah. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
megadan777 Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Looking forward to seeing how you go in the UCL. Hope you get out of the group Also, Slovan Liberec qualified for the group stage?.......very suprised at this lol Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Surely Chievo wouldn't have sold him if he just literally joined them? :confused: Klivanly Hevany looks promising Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 Looking forward to seeing how you go in the UCL. Hope you get out of the group Also, Slovan Liberec qualified for the group stage?.......very suprised at this lol Cheers! Yeah, they did, somehow I think they qualified automatically, actually. I looked at their matches this season and they've not played yet, so I guess they went straight into the competition ha. Surely Chievo wouldn't have sold him if he just literally joined them? :confused:Klivanly Hevany looks promising He did, yeah. Guess the money was too good for them to turn down or something, especially since they got relegated. £5.5M for basically nothing in the space of 2 days He does indeed. Not sure how much he'll feature this season but he's got a bright future with me, anyway. Gonna post my squad and tactics then crack on with my season at last. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 The Squad GK: Timo Horn / Ron-Robert Zieler RB: Gino Peruzzi / Klivanly Hevany* RCB: Robin Knoche / Davide Monteleone LCB: Stefano Denswil / Kamil Glik LB: Sead Kolasinac / Juan Sanchez Mino MCR: Mohamed El Neny / Cheick Tiote MC: Marouane Fellaini / Angelo Ronga* MCL: Alan Dzagoev / Marco Benassi AMC: Agustín Jiménez* / Shinji Kagawa / Dario Silvestri* STR: Andrea Belotti / Neal Maupay / Fabio Quagliarella STL: Ciro / Luca Dominici* [* - Regen] Key Players 5. Sead Kolasinac - The new signing will hopefully be such an improvement on last year's Left Backs (Mino and Marchese) that our defence will instantly improve tenfold. Okay, maybe that's a bit too expectant, but I think the defence will be much better as a result if Kolasinac can put in good performances. At the same time, he's on the left on his own, so he'll have to do something offensively for the side as well. A big task, but also an incredibly important one going forward and back. 4. Gino Peruzzi - The Argentinian full back was the top assister last season despite missing a load of games. He was rated as our best player and will surely play a big part in this season if we're to be successful once more. Doesn't let much past him and is a beast going forward. Adds an extra dimension in the wide areas that, ordinarily, we would miss. 3. Mohamed El Neny - With Glik as a back-up this season (again), El Neny is likely to wear the captain's armband in most games. On top of that, he's pivotal in my midfield in that everything goes through him. He sees the ball a lot and as such, he is one of our most important players. He won't be relied on to win us games but without him, we look half as good. Think Yaya Touré for Man City, but a lot smaller and from a different part of Africa 2. Ciro - Top goalscorer last season, you might be surprised to see he's not listed as the most key player of all. Despite this, I still think that if we're going to be successful, it's going to be in large through him. We rely on him to score the majority of our goals, obviously, but he's not the only point of attack we have which is the only reason I haven't listed him as #1. I think I fancy the 'other' striker to do more this season. 1. Andrea Belotti - I've not even tried to hide my admiration for this guy. Last season he scored and assisted more than he did in the season before, despite playing less games. The guy is phenomenal as our TGM/S and if he continues to score and assist the way he was at the end of the season, then I think he should be able to top our scoring charts this season but also lead us to glory. I am more than aware that I've neglected to mention any of my CBs in this, but it goes without say that Knoche will once again be a king. Probably end up as my player of the season again [PS. I was gonna do some stuff on tactics but I cba. I'm using a 4312, similar to last season, if anyone cares to know what I'm using I don't mind posting it but unless anyone specifically asks I won't bother] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjericho Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 He did, yeah.That's italian transfer market at its best! Is Agustin Jimenez your first choice AMC? He looks weaker than Kagawa, Silvestri, and even Dzagoev for that position. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 That's italian transfer market at its best! Is Agustin Jimenez your first choice AMC? He looks weaker than Kagawa, Silvestri, and even Dzagoev for that position. Same idea as what happened irl with Ciro and Juve/Dortmund. Juve signed him permanently from Torino and then a few weeks later, Dortmund signed him from Juventus for double the fee (Juve paid £8.5M; BVB paid £16.5M). Jimenez is, yeah. Kagawa was bitterly disappointing in the role last season and Silvestri is still young so I don't want to throw him straight into the position (although he's gonna be there sooner or later haha). Dzagoev plays at MC most games barring injuries mid-game meaning I need to move him to CAM or whatever, but by and large he stays in the centre of the pitch. The games he has played at AMC (which is actually where I signed him for - quickly changed my mind on that), he's not been that great tbh. Jimenez managed to get 12 assists from AMC last season, in about 35 games. His stats for last season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 September 2018 Serie A Results 10 points of a possible 15 isn't a bad start to the season... The season started with a trip to Fiorentina, where we won last season. However, we also lost our most recent encounter with Fiorentina, at home, 1-6. This wasn't a match I was looking forward to. By half-time, we were trailing 3-0 and Erick Torres scored twice to continue his form against us. But that's where the goals stopped as we came back into the game and won 3-5. An amazing turnaround. It also means that there has been 25 goals in the last three encounters between us and Fiorentina! Madness. Belotti's hattrick proving that my thoughts of him being the key player this season might prove true... Next up was a home game against rivals Atalanta. I started Agustin Jimenez for the first time this season (Kagawa started and failed to impress v Fiorentina) and he set about proving kingjericho wrong - scoring the first goal and taking the MotM award. We controlled the game throughout so it was fairly comfortable despite only winning 2-0. Luca Dominici - my 17 year old youth academy graduate - scored his first ever goal for the club in only his third appearance. Fantastic stuff. We sought our third straight win to start the season in Rome, with a trip to face Lazio. Lazio started the season badly with two straight losses so we were quite confident and that was just in the end as we cruised to a 2-0 victory. Jimenez once again scored and took MotM, in his bid to prove kingjericho wrong El Neny then slammed a penalty in (the GK saved it but the power was so much that he still scored) to seal the victory. Nice and easy. Also of note was that this was Belotti's 100th league appearance for Torino The fourth and pentultimate game of the season was a home tie against Milan. Not easy, but definitely winnable. Last season we managed to conquer Milan in Turin for the first time since the career began, but this time things didn't go so well. We found ourselves 3-1 down at half time and I had to try and inspire another magical comeback. We quickly drew the game back to 3-3 with two goals in 4 minutes and, with 10 minutes remaining, I might be forgiven for thinking we were going to get a draw at least. However my defence fell asleep and we allowed Viktor Fischer to score a header (sandwiched in between Denswil and Knoche...) and win the game for Milan. It was his second header of the game. My anger isn't worth talking about Belotti was credited as scoring his 50th ever league goal for Torino in this game, but having added up his totals, he only has 49 league goals, so I'm not sure what the game was talking about there. Still, 101 appearances, 49 goals... not too shabby, huh? The final game of the month was another home tie, this time against Sampdoria. Flying high, Sampdoria came to Turin as the league leaders. However our home form is (usually) formidable so I hoped we'd walk out with three huge points against rivals. After just three minutes, Kagawa and Peruzzi combined to score a great goal and put us ahead 1-0. We dominated much of the match but right before HT, Sampdoria made it 1-1. We got plenty of chances afterwards but just couldn't find the net and we dropped two points at home. I'm not pleased with it, but at least we didn't lose. It was important to note drop 6 points from our two home ties. The table after the opening month looks like so: Champions League Just the one game and it was by far the toughest of the lot. We started with a trip to the Emirates. Things went bad. Really bad, in fact. Arsenal had about 30 shots to our 2 (neither of which were on target). We just couldn't deal with the Ox. I'm not too upset as winning at the Emirates was never likely really. But damn, we got schooled badly. Hopefully that doesn't continue throughout this group... hopefully The Champions League Group D Table: Overall Thoughts Not a great month by any means. But then, it could have been a lot worse. My biggest problem with the month is that two teams who will undoubtedly want to challenge us for top 3 - Milan and Sampdoria (4th and 3rd place last season respectively) - managed to take points from us in Turin. That's unacceptable imo. We have to win these games. At the very least we must avoid defeat ffs... But still, we're doing okay. We need to win as many games as possible next month and, if we manage that, then maybe we can go on to challenge the title. The good thing is that Juventus didn't run away with a great start and actually did pretty poorly... much like Lazio and Inter, which surprises me. Hahahaha. And amuses me Looking ahead to next month, I have the following: Zenit [H], Pescara [A], Bari [H], Porto [A], Cagliari [A], Empoli [H] The league games are all must wins really, but the problem with that view is that Cagliari away is one of the toughest trips of all for me. I think it might be the only place where I've yet to take any points from in Italy... and Pescara are rivals so never easy. We did well against them last season in the league but that doesn't mean ****. It's entirely possible we make a mess of it. At the very minimum I want 10 points of 12 in the league. I think that's realistic too. In the CL, I think we have to take a minimum of three points. Anything else would be disastrous (I suppose 2 might work, but I don't really want to draw at home). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 I live in Turin so I'm glad to see a Toro career here (I'm a Juve fan though ), you built a nice team, "Gallo" Belotti is becoming a little Bobo Vieri, regarding Juventus they're unbeatable in my Cagliari save as well, they finished the first half of the season without a single loss...I'm curious to see if you could stop them this season. I'm a bit surprised to see Virtus Entella in serie A in your save, they're a really poor team in real life. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 I actually watch Juventus a fair bit when they're on TV. I'm not a fan or anything, but I definitely have a soft spot for them. Starting to hate them a little because of how dominant they are on this save though I had no idea Belotti was known as il Gallo til now. What an awful celebration Cool nickname though! Hahaha. Yeah I was surprised to see them as well. They gained promotion from Serie B last season, although I'm not sure how they managed it (will check when I load my save later tonight). I was a bit surprised to see their history as well, they've rocketed up the divisions in the last 10 years. They've gone from the 4th tier of Italian football to the top tier in about 12 years on my game, which is pretty remarkable. Cheers for the comment Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kris0710 Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Going well in Italy, a very solid 2nd placed finish although that CL draw was harsh.. KUTGW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 Going well in Italy, a very solid 2nd placed finish although that CL draw was harsh.. KUTGW Cheers fella. I'm quite pleased with the CL draw, but it is quite a tough one at the same time, yeah. Next monthly update coming... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rancer890 Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Solid start to hopefully another successful season. Group stage might be a bit rough, but I reckon at least 3rd place in the group and Europa League knockout is a good goal to have. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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