Jtomsett11

Yes, going back to the first season, they're the only side I can find in the Premier League who started in League One. Shocking really!

February 2043 Ah, it's the hope that kills you. A faultless month, with Alaoui returning for 2 goals in the Champions League. I have stuck to my first team this month, with very little rotation and just tried to win games by strength. We actually outplayed every team this month, including United. The Villa game we led 2-0 and 3-1 until the 86th minute so it looks closer than it is. The problem with this form, is it probably comes too little too late. City are 5 points clear, and although we play them at home on the last day of the season, their run in is a lot nicer than ours. I just don't trust us to find the form to win the title. However, it's nice to have played well and won 4 league games in a row and stand a real chance of making the Quarters of the Champions League, which would be the furthest we've ever gone. We got 79 points last season, so with 9 games to go we should beat that really. We got 93 the year we won the title. I think we might have to get close to 90 by winning every game to really stand a chance of beating City. Next up, some teams that we may or may not beat. I'm saying nothing! One thing of slight concern is our finances. I've tried not to spend stupid amounts on wages, and we're significantly below the average expenditure, but we're also in just a 21k stadium, with a new one only 29k which we move into in June. Couple that with relative low amount of corporate and sponsorship income and we're losing a lot of money a month. At this rate, we're looking at £40 million + after prize money for losses per year. Essentially, we're going to have to keep selling some players every now and then to fund our current squad. That's not a huge problem, but it's one to be aware of.

January 2043 One of the most frustrating months of FM for a long time. Alaoui was at the African Cup of Nations and Keskin was recalled by City which then left Bah leading the line. He scored in our cup games, but was hopeless in the league. I'm really starting to get concerned at our home grown players. Palmer has had a poor season as has Bah. Harte has been culpable for a few goals this month while Kizito and Johnston have been playing but aren't improving enough. Statistics wise they are fine, but when I see big moments in game highlights, it's often my home-grown players letting us down. The Rotherham loss was particularly bad, with two horrendous errors from El-Morabet. Our other results, apart from the FA Cup defeat which was comprehensive, can essentially be put down to poor finishing. Frustrating to go out of the cup in a winnable game and to lose/ draw winnable fixtures. I think we've blown our chances of the title, and it looks like we just need to seal top 4 now and see how we do in the Champions League. Transfer window We bought in Barroso, who we agreed a deal with 2 years ago. He looks like a great LB prospect. He scores 83.12 on the attribute analysis already, making him our second best LB at just 18. We've also had some stupid bids for Cortes, which were turned down simply as I couldn't see a reasonable replacement. That was the first. This was the last. Ridiculous money, but no point selling if we can't use it and he's been good this season. Awards and records Yay, something good from this month! What a year he's had. Shame Morocco lost the African Nations to Senegal on penalties February is up next. Here are the fixtures. I won't be jinxing myself by saying anything about their difficulty!

What a season so far! Unbelievable record considering it's youth only as well. Fingers crossed for the title (I have faith!)

The fatigue issue in club world Cup is a well known issue I think from memory. There's been a few posts about it in general community forum and I can't remember any resolution to the problem (although there might be one)

Mid-season analysis Dec 2042 Goalkeepers New keeper El-Morabet hasn't hit the same average ratings and save ratios he was hitting with his former club, but he's done pretty well so far and will only get better in my opinion. I'm not sure how long De Rosa will be happy to sit as third choice keeper, although he'll be second choice when Kubiszyn leaves on a free at the end of his contract. Defenders My two RBs, Harte and Fontana are putting out relatively similar numbers. Harte is slightly better in the tackle and at intercepting, Fontana is slightly more creative and wins more headers. My LB's are interesting, as Diego has better numbers across the park with the exception of chance creation. However, his cross % is higher than Marcos and he's very new to the club, so I usually see numbers improve over time. CB wise, Bazan is clearly our best player and apart from tackles, where per game he lags behind the others, he's ahead on all the numbers. Kizito is having his best season for us now I've partnered him with Bazan, although you can see how much Morillas and Bazan dominate in the air due to their height as their key headers are 3x higher than Marshall and Kizito. That's very impressive for Morillas seeing as he's played 450 minutes less than Bazan. I think it's clear we need an upgrade in this department, but I'm starting to hope at least one of the upgrades with arrive from our youth intake from last year (Faulkner). Midfielders In central midfield, we have quite a few low ratings, with Johnston having the highest average. We've shared games really well this year and I'm pleased with this. I think Johnston has done really well; he boasts a better % tackle success ratio to Parreiral and also creates more. He wins less headers % wise and interceptions, but considering his relative lack of ability, he's doing really well. Smiljanic has the lowest average despite the highest number of assists from CM. 4 of Cortes' goals have come from the penalty spot, but his key passes are also just about higher than Smiljanic. Neither player is doing fantastic to be honest as my problems with this position continue. However, their underlying stats are also not horrible - they both tackle well and create some chances and score some goals. At AMC, Schutt is winning the performance battle with Palmer, who has had a poor season by his standards. Palmer signed a new contract and seems to be complacent. Forwards and wingers Guyot is way out in front again, with 9 goals and 13 assists from just 16 starts. What a player he is. Yes, he takes a lot of set plays, but his key passes and assists aren't just from those opportunities and neither are his goals. Lopez has picked up on the right recently, but his 8 goal contributions is way down on his normal level. Dominguez played well early on, but his unhappiness has led to his form dropping off a cliff, which I hope changes soon, as I'm finding pairing him with Coelho on the right is a big risk as the young 18 year old isn't very consistent yet. However, his assist and 2 goals all came this month, so I think having some faith in him is starting to pay off. Upfront, Bah has been somewhat displaced by Alaoui who has 18 goals from 17 starts. Keskin played while Bah was injured and did well in a few games, but it's likely City will recall him. Have I given him a fair chance? Not really, but he's been useful to have in the squad. In future it would be good perhaps to have a young striker with bag loads of potential as the third option, but picking up someone like that is challenging. Overall thoughts I must say the number of appearances show I've been rotating a lot more, which has been successful and I think that's down to picking the games wisely and also not always picking all the worst partnerships together. For example, Marcos plays with Guyot, so Diego plays with Dominguez and I'm trying to partner the latter with Lopez and Fontana so that Guyot can take the pressure off Coelho when he plays with Harte. I'm going to continue with this and hope that regular game time also means that Dominguez ends up happy so he starts performing again, making him and Lopez a dangerous second pairing.

Yes it's very finely balanced and I'm a much happier manager overall this season. Youth intake from last season I now have two players one 4* and one 4.5* potential so if we don't have anything decent this time that's probably fair enough!

Youth intake preview Dec 2042 This looks a very poor intake to me. We'll see what comes through!

December 2042 The month started in dodgy fashion as we conceded 8 goals in 3 games, 6 of those from set pieces!! I realised two things at this point. One, we have a dearth of tall players beyond our keepers and CBs. Our BWM can be used for height (minimum 13 jumping) while our RBs aren't too bad (minimum 12), but beyond that we have limited options unless I want to change all our routines every game (I don't). For example, if I use Cortes to man mark somebody, the rotation option in MCL is Smiljanic who has 7 for jumping. Similarly, Bah can jump, but Alaiou cannot. This is a problem, but one I can probably just about work around. However, in most games we'll have 5 players available with 12+ jumping and just 2 with 15+ so if we're up against tall sides, we're likely to concede anyway. Something to think about in future transfer windows. Two, since changing tactics my defensive routines are no longer there. I feel like a right plonker as this has probably caused us a few bad results in the last few seasons. Since changing it and dropping tight marking, we conceded just once in the league and twice to United with our fully rotated squad (and United are pretty good). Look at the xG from those games with 3 goals conceded. Verses Small sample, but much better and no impact on our creation. I'm really impressed with our league form. We beat Man City without our main goalkeeper and Bazan while Cortes was on his last legs having played a ridiculous number of games in a row due to Smiljanic being injured (the injury below is since coming back for one game). Our form sees us move up into second position. Wow it's tight at the top! Newcastle are still on top of the pile, while City responded to losing to us by beating United who also inexplicably lost 3-0 to Bournemouth the game before. In the Champions League, Benfica did the double over PSG meaning our result left the table looking like this. Incredibly, PSG are going to play in the Europa League despite being top for most of the group stages. We were rewarded with a tricky tie against Atletico Madrid. They're currently 8th in La Liga, so potentially we could get through. It's only our second ever knockout appearance so we just have to take it as it comes! January I think this is a much more favourable set of fixtures, although Liverpool and Tottenham will be tough. This is a real chance to push for first by the end of the month. Partnerships I've been a lot better this month at using my partnerships, even if that means using weaker players. Dominguez is the one player not responding at all at the moment due to unhappiness over selection (I've now reduced him from key player to squad player so hopefully once he gets over it he'll be happy) which is causing issues as it means a much weaker forward line. However, the first team now looks like this. Note, Smiljanic and Johnston are paired and normally first choice, but due to the former's injuries I've had to rotate our BWMs and leave Cortes playing every game. The 'reserves' don't look quite as good yet, but we're getting there!

Another excellent month and its good to see City falter slightly! 7 youth intake players in the England squad is sensational. Looking forward to the rest of the season!

November 2042 On the face of it, these results are mostly really positive. We beat Arsenal and Newcastle in the league, two tough games, plus won the key match against Benfica. However, we've still conceded a stupid number of goals and it came back to bite against Southampton. Watching back the goals, we've got a lot of errors from silly mistakes in and around the box, plus some issues from our high line. The high line issues I can accept; we have two much weaker CBs who in an ideal world would be replaced (Kizito and Marshall), but they're both home grown and we currently need them for the quotas. Most of the through high line issues tend to involve them. However, errors from new LB Diego (punting the ball at his own man) and two from Dominguez (giving the ball away of the edge of the box in two different games) are examples of poor defending. We do have a new goalkeeper this year, so sometimes these things take time to improve. We really should be winning this game though! Annoyingly, if we'd have won, we'd be top on goal difference. Newcastle lost to us and then away to United. As it is, we've closed the gap to top to 2 points, but we're still 4th and realistically, if we continue our form, in a three-way battle for the title as I fully expect Newcastle to drop off. The good news is we're considerably better than we were at this point last year. The Champions League is going down to the final game, but with Benfica away at PSG and us just having to match their result away at Ajax, we really should be finishing second in the group. Benfica could still qualify by winning, so we do need to aim to win. December is another tough month. West Ham and Bournemouth should be 6 points, while you'd also hope we beat West Brom, but the Chelsea away, Wolves away and City away games all have the potential to be very difficult. If we go into January in touching distance of top we'll have done an excellent job. If not, we just need to make sure we're solid in the top four.

I definitely find it tougher to stick to in months where most games are key! It's a work in progress at least! Not particularly, but I think the difference this season is Dominguez was playing well enough to rotate with him and then did better than him for a while. Now Dominguez has thrown his toys out of the pram about not playing enough and put in two shocking performances (giving away 2 goals) and Lopez has played really well, so it seems they can't all play well!

October 2042 A belter of a month really, with only the draw against Benfica perhaps a disappointment as we conceded twice early on and then had to fight back. That led to a slight adjustment of match plans to use our home tactic away from home, but with the addition of a dropped defensive line for the first 25 minutes. The United away result was excellent and to then beat Everton, who were 5th at the time is also excellent. Okay, we may be slightly 'wasteful', but we're hitting good numbers of goals and we're much better at the back. Bar the Benfica game, we have conceded a direct free kick (Everton), and two goals where the ball bounced around the box (United and Villa). We're going to concede some goals, but I don't mind them as much when we're not being cut open for them. The results leave us 4th, but there's a gap starting to grow to the group below, plus United dropped points meaning we're just 3 behind them. Newcastle are absolutely on one. We face them away from home soon. It is worth remembering we knocked them out of the cup pretty easily, also away from home. The Champions League is looking particularly tight. We have played two home games, but crucially we have Benfica at home next, meaning we could have a 3 point gap and head to head advantage if we beat them, allowing us to lose to PSG away (inevitable) and then we'll just need to beat Ajax away to guarantee our place. Player performances I've been really pleased with the impact of Alaoui who now has 10 in 10 league games. Bah has 4 in 7 cup and league games this season, so is still doing well but is definitely number 2 now. I've not used Keskin apart from in the League Cup against Pompey. Guyot is still the assist king with 9 in 9 games and many of those have come in a short space of time as he was awful for 2-3 games where he sulked about not getting a move to Barcelona. Other players to have impressed are Cortes who has been helped by taking penalties this season, but he's been much better as backup to Smiljanic this season than last. Diego has made a really strong start as well, especially defensively where he has the highest number of interceptions of any defender so far. Interestingly, top of the points per game ratio chart is Kizito who has started alongside Bazan 9 times as I attempt to build a partnership between them (Bazan and Morillas have a strong partnership, while Marshall has partnerships with Kizito and Morillas but I don't like playing the two weaker CBs together as it often leads to lost cup games!). Okay, he's played the weaker teams, but we've only had 1 draw (Tottenham) and 8 wins in those games. Finally, Dominguez deserves a shout out for finally performing in the winger roles (both left and right) that he was bought for, and to be honest outperforming Lopez who isn't even averaging above 7 (he's been my highest averaging player for a number of seasons). Next up, it doesn't get much easier with the crunch game with Benfica and big games against Arsenal and Newcastle before PSG. Southampton at home is probably our only relatively straight-forward 3 points.

Yes I agree, it's a really important month and we need to do well to continue to pick up momentum. Something I'm working on a lot more after reading @Jimbokav1971's thread is partnerships, so I've been trying to get my main partnerships up to speed as quickly as possible so they are comfortable playing together, and ensuring that any changes to the side don't affect partnerships too much. It's definitely had an impact in October!

September 2042 Great news! Followed by: However, he'd already done the damage in the latter two league games this month by this point. After the PSG game (a fluked draw with two penalties), I decided to quit playing around, go back to a higher line with offside trap and leave it there with match plans in place to drop to our away tactic if we're winning late on. 3 wins without conceding followed, so I think I may just stick to it for a couple of months regardless (he says now!). We're up to third, but my word Newcastle and United are going well. Mazzieri has nearly beaten his league goals record in 6 games. Mind you, Alaoui has 8 from 6 so he's made a great start to his career here and is the much needed addition of quality in the striker role I knew we needed despite my loyalty to Bah. Next month is a real mix. The 3 home games should all be wins, but the next two away games are really tough. I'd love 3 wins in the league, 4 points in the Champions League and through in the cup.

August 2042 I'm not overly happy with this to be honest, we've chopped and changed tactics quite a bit and it feels a lot like the start of last season. I think I need to settle on something and stick to it as instant result and tactic fiddling game by game is quite the guessing game. The Brighton game was bonkers. The Liverpool game was a set play and a long range effort. The Tottenham game was a snorefest. One positive is Alaoui's start. The league is obviously in its early stages. United's top goalscorer has 11 already in the league and he's only played 3 of the games... Newcastle yet to concede a goal. Transfers and contracts Parreiral and Schutt have both signed new 5 year deals so I'm pleased with that. Herrero departs and in comes Diego. I like his physicals! I really liked Herrero, but he wanted to leave and we make a really good profit, plus he really isn't that good. September The Champions League draw wasn't very kind. I still think second is reasonable, but we've never played in the Europa League so I'd happily finish third! If we can not lose against PSG, go through in the cup and win all our league games I'll be a very happy man.

Pre-season June-July 2042 Pre-season saw us face some pretty decent teams as I wanted to test out some tweaks to home and away tactics. We've got a reasonable start, but Liverpool and Tottenham will be hard games. The media reckon we're set for just 11th, but I think top four and a trophy, or at least some cup runs, is a must this season again. Do I really want to challenge for the title? Yes! While the media may not rank our team especially highly, Smiljanic is in the Media Dream 11, while Alaoui and Bah are both contenders for top goal scorer. One thing I've noticed, which will help our youth intakes and potential for signings, is a boost to our reputation to continental. We're the 7th biggest club in England now so that's really something. Whether I play enough seasons for the youth impact to be seen is another question. Our squad for this season looks like this. It's our highest average rating by over a point. Transfers and contracts We've not done any other business. A few players have rejected us, and we do have two unhappy players Guyot and Herrero as we've rejected big bids. Herrero is the one I'd let go as we have a brilliant LB joining in January, plus there's several targets we could acquire if needed. I'm waiting on any bids for £60 million. One contract signing that's really important is Bazan. He's by far our best CB, and to be honest we still need another world class CB if we are to really compete. At least he'll be here for the foreseeable future. On with the season! Can we start better than we did last year?

I sense something big happening this season! If only city would just go away!

Any particular reason it feels a little hollow? Is it just that you were able to rest players so it all felt a little too easy in the end? I use to feel that when I've won several Champions Leagues in a row in the past (especially as it was often easier than domestic success), but I do feel you should look back on your success overall here and feel pretty (very very) good. Perhaps just getting to a point with the save where you feel it's almost all achieved? What's the remaining goal now, see how many goals Ako can get?

Striker and goalkeeper search May 2042 The goalkeeper deal was done in April as I didn't want a repeat of last year when we missed out on our target. Overall, El-Morabet is rated 82.48, just above Kubiszyn, but he's a bit more balanced, lacking a 18 for throwing and 19 for one on ones, but sharing those out for more 16's and 17's. His command of the area and communication, plus agility are the areas I'd most like to improve, BUT I feel good about getting him in on a long deal for £35 million rising to £41 million. Striker wise, we had many more targets due to our growing reputation by the end of the season than we did mid-season. Now, you can see from their ratings, that these are top quality strikers. After scouting and talking to agents, two emerged as the best options, Keskin and Alaoui. Interestingly, Keskin has barely been used by Man City since signing for £147 million from Bayern, and is rated at just 3 star by my scouts despite his sensational score. It's probably his one-footedness that increases his rating, BUT to achieve 97.06 across 15 attribute categories implies you must be pretty damn good. Alaoui is much younger and was also sensational last season in France. I decided to... get them both! Keskin joins on loan really to see if we can get more out of him than City. If it doesn't work out, we're paying £6 million for a year. If it does work out, we have an option for £64 million, although his wages may put paid to buying him. Alaoui is a permanent purchase. I think he looks absolutely class. His work rate and determination can be moved up by a few fines for poor performances. We now have 4 strikers here, so I quickly sanctioned the sale of Gonzalez. Leaving us with 3 for 1 spot. Let's just see how it goes as I want to challenge for the cups next year as well as the league, so strength in depth is needed for that. We've also sold Dempsey and Dilrosun, leaving us making a huge profit this year. We currently sit on over £200 million, despite having splurged on new contracts and new signings. Just a potential CB addition to go on our shopping list.

Transfer window shopping time May 2042 Without going into huge detail, I know there are 3 main areas to strengthen Squad depth GK - this is one area, we have De Rosa as a good, homegrown backup, but Kubiszyn is 31 and in the last year of his deal. Younger players need more loan time and are unlikely to challenge for number 1. RB/LB - I'm happy with all the players in these roles. At LB we have Pelling and a young brilliant 17 year old who joins when he is 18 in January who may take over from Marcos and Herrero in the long term, but no movement needed. RB, Harte has just signed a new 5 year deal as a squad player and Fontana is good. CB - we are short behind Bazan and Morillas of quality. Marshall and Kizito are good backups and homegrown, although the latter will continue on loan if we bring in someone. I want someone fast as Morillas lacks pace (13). CM - Despite losing Morais, I'm happy to go with Parreiral and Johnston for BWM and Smiljanic and Cortes for RPM next year. I have found a young homegrown player who may come in but go out on loan and we'll assess him for BWM after a year. Wingers and attacking mids - again pretty happy here, even with Dilrosun likely to depart. Lopez, Guyot and Schutt and Palmer have all contributed heavily, while Dominguez can play both sides (eventually). I may be slightly lighter on the AML option as only 2 can play there, verses 3 plus some youth players for RW, but Guyot has played most games so I'll take the chance, plus I want to keep Dominguez happy with game time. Strikers - this is the other big target, as Gonzalez hasn't worked out this season and Bah needs competition. So, shopping list: GK, ST and CB, in that order probably.

I really like him and although his average rating isn't great, I'm about to offer him a 5 year deal with 2 extra years which will tie him down to a 7 year contract on £200k a week, our highest paid player by £3 million a year. I don't think I'll get more than 3-4 seasons done before the next FM comes out, so that should see him with us until I end the save!

Not at all patronising, you've made it clear that you are now enjoying this new style of play without disparaging any other styles!

End of season 2042 attribute analysis Goalkeepers Our goalkeepers seem to have all hit their peak, including, disappointingly, Quansah who is a big prospect but has the dreaded unambitious personality coupled with low determination. Kubiszyn is good, but I think we could do better, and he has just 1 year left, and there's a big clue below that I've gone out and recruited someone who is already pretty good but could get much better. More on that later. Long has limited potential, but could be a Jersey-born backup in the future for sure if Hadler and Quansah don't develop further. Centre backs Bazan is now world class really and so close to the 90 mark. I'd hoped that Kizito would kick on into the late 70s while on loan, but he's barely improved and it makes me think he's done progressing. I'll keep him in the squad next year but will be on the look-out for another big CB purchase to complement my two very good ones. In the youth ranks, Faulkner is the big prospect and has already been making progress. The others will make up the U23s or U18s or be loaned if they're 19+ and of a reasonable standard i.e. I'm not loaning them to National League level. Full backs Fontana being kept out of the side by Harte is quite amusing when you look at their attributes, but attributes are only part of the story. Hopkins has made some good growth and although he has limited potential, I think a loan spell make benefit him next year to give him more game time to develop. Pelling has also really grown on loan so he'll probably go out again on loan to see how far he can go. Ebbrell has made a great start to life in the U18s with growth that suggests he may be a future option. Ball-winning mids No surprise that my best CB is also rating nearly 90 for this role. Johnston started 10 games in a row at the end of this season and is now likely to be first choice next year as I just can't seem to find decent BWMs. It's one reason that our best ones have been dual CB/CM players such as Morais. I don't think any of our youth will succeed in this position, but then Johnston doesn't set the world on fire with 2* CA and 3* PA, so maybe they'll surprise me! DLP - (roaming playmaker) I haven't yet changed the formula to a roaming playmaker, but probably will next year if we continue with the role. In the meantime, we can celebrate. We've hit the magic 100! Smiljanic is brilliant, it's just the average ratings don't show it. I need to keep him as this sort of player doesn't come along often. Polk has been playing in League One this season, so a loan to the Championship is on for him, while Webb is another really good prospect turning 18 soon with 3* potential who could be involved in the squad in the future. Attacking mids Limited growth here until you get down to Polk. Coelho didn't develop as much as I'd have liked this season, he needs to push on next year. Wingers Guyot confirms his world-class status, growth and performances this year. What a player he's turned out to be, and on a free transfer too! Lynch could be an interesting prospect, capped at 3* potential but showing huge growth. He may even pip Coelho to a squad role next year such are his performances in the U23s. Pearson has improved by 5 points in just 2 months... Could we actually have a real player on our hands here? Advanced forwards Bah is still my main man, with the 3 above him usually disappointing in a striker role (Gonzalez did get 27 last season but lots of those were in the cups, including the Conference League). I'm not sold on any of our prospects in this role to be honest, both Coelho and Pearson are better suited elsewhere, while Nsingi and Santos probably won't make the grade (they've struggled on loan) so there may be room for an incoming striker.

Our second half of the season was excellent and we're very close in the end! I'm hoping we can start well next year!