Part 2

We have now played some serious games and completed the January window. Which had some drama,  and sadly we did not manage to escape without losing a key man.. but thats for later. 

The Games;

Picking up where we left off  in September. Our next game was a tricky away fixture against West Ham which actually turned out to be an easy 2-0 win as we were in control the whole game. Only Kudus hitting the post late on being the Hammers only real effort. 

We then rolled onto to Bournemouth who scored a Solanke penalty early on before we grabbed a much deserved 90th minute equaliser with Rak-Saki coming off the bench to grab it.

Then we heavily rotated for the cup game against Mansfield. Easy peasy. We are flying. 

October.

Was another great month picking up 3 out of 4 wins in the league. The only loss game was at Everton when I didn't put a GK On the bench.. Of course in classic FM fashion, Henderson got injured in the 76th minute. So I chucked in Jaïro Riedewald as he was one of my taller players and hoped for a Giroud superhero type miracle. However it was quite the opposite. Everton managed to score 2 goals in the last 10mins when Riedewald spilt a shot straight at him and then flapped at a corner. Wonderful. 

It only gets worse.

Then we march into November and December and the wheels fell off. You could argue the fixtures were very tough having to play four of the top five.  This seen us drop out of the European spots, and a disgusting run of losses. 

We played Liverpool twice which saw us crash out of the cup on penalties. After Lerma got a straight red at 59 minutes, we did well to hold on. We then went and missed all our penalties to go out in style. 

The only win being against Sheffield United who were bottom of the league and still are. Of course Archer scored his first ever league goal for them against us and it wasn't comfortable as I'd have liked but a wins a win. 

I then decided to change the tatics after data hub told us that our clear cut chances and XG had dropped right off. 

I had a tweak and landed with this especially as Eze and Olise are both finally fit. 

 We've gone to an attacking mentality with both fullbacks allowed to go forward providing width on the overlap whilst the Mezzala and Sugundo Volante provide the overloads and compact the middle.

 

Olise is being re trained as a shadow striker for now and has lovely attributes for it. 

Also a second version is being trained with two Advanced forwards for more of a traditional diamond, as that's a position I plan to buy in the window. 

Saudi also came in for Joel Ward who's contract expired in the summer so I agreed a £1M deal. I then started looking for those cheap young players. Before the board dropped me another £25m for January spends. 

The Revival?? 

Will the new system work? Lets find out, no better way to test it than against a struggling Chelsea team at the Bridge. At this point they were two places below us and sat down in 11th.

Well the under pressure Poch had fired up his boys and Chelsea started fast and well. Nkunku a scoring after only 4 mins. Here we go again. 

But we didn't give up and despite Chelsea dominating on possession we matched them with shots and clear cut chances and even topped the XG. So I was delighted to come away with all 3 points. 

This result actually got Poch sacked too. Whoops. Sorry pal. 

We then finished out December with three more wins. The highlight being a deserved last minute winner against Brentford.

The run begins.

January fixtures continued in the same way as December. WINS. ALL WINS the start of our biggest winning run so far. Yes they were against teams we should beat BUT there was Four clean sheets even with captain Marc Ghuei getting injured for 3 months. 

We even rotated in the FA Cup. Did someone say Cup run? Exciting times as we close out January in 6th place in the table. Just as the Transfer window is about to close and of course weve been shopping with a Right back and striker top of the list. 

The Signings.

I've very quickly discovered that this type of save in England adds a extra layer of difficulty as the Premier League rules mean we can't sign more than 6 Foreign under 21 players in a season. I had 9 agreed so three got cancelled. Proper annoying I forgot about that rule.

So we've had to change plan and spend up on the top English talents to fill gaps around the first team. We can then use the 6 Foreign space to target higher CA cheaper players and gamble on buying and developing the younger cheaper English players. As I really don't want to waste my precious foreign import slots on gambles. Which I did with Maidina but at the time I had no transfer budget and Marshall-Rutty looks like he's going to work out. 

So far we've ended up with this.

Joel Wards departure upset several members of the squad  so I'm glad I didn't try and flog in the summer before I had some manager support.

 I promised I'd improve the depth at Right back knowing I'd already got Marshall-Rutty coming in to be the starter.

Gomes is my last Foreign under 21 for this season and is a young goalkeeper. 

My favourite deal was the loan of Archie gray which has an optional fee for £23m which I will be activating. If him and Wharton live up to expectations I could have a young English midfield for the majority of the save.

Donally is another exciting English Wonderboy who's supposed to be the next Harry Kane and he cost a fortune so hopefully he settles as advertised. 

The drama.

Newcastle finally made a bid for vice captain Anderson. At 27 I was happy to let go for the right price and they forked up £44.5m for him with the work permit going through on deadline day. 

I used that money to grab another young right back in Ryan Andrews from Watford and Luke chambers from Liverpool both on the lower side of CA but have huge PA. 

Both deals were relatively cheap so I've got plenty in the bank as I look for a BPD who's already first team ready. 

 Theres still a few more deals to come in and be confirmed, and I've already got several future transfers agreed for the summer. Update to follow. 

We also let Ayew, Riedewald and Clyne leave on a free after I set them to release with all of their contracts expiring in the summer. Whilst there was no fees it created a huge amount of wages. 

Jean Phillips Mateta also left on a loan deal with a buy clause as he wanted first team football and just isn't good enough. 

It also only leaves Schluup and Johnstone in the over 30 club to phase out over the summer. 

Next up is Everton and I want revenge for the  GK gate match.