Tuesday 21 July 2009

Southampton story: 1st season: Mixed start!

Hello there, and welcome to my second proper post in charge of Southampton. When I left you, we had just brought in two central midfielders, Gerard and Stephen Appiah. I had a tough first 15 competitive matches, a real baptism of fire, but I knew that I had to get some good results to help stave off the threat of relegation.


Ultimately, I was to be disappointed. A few decent results: QPR, Sunderland, Derby and Charlton being very good, but there were more bad results than good. Reading, Swansea, Preston, Bristol City and Cardiff were all very disappointing. I wasn't too happy with the draws, but at least they weren't losses eh? On the upside, we are in the 4th round of the League Cup, which is always good. Maybe I can match my performance in my 1st QPR season by getting to the semi final? I am up against Premier League team West Brom at home, which will be tough, but seeing as we beat Sunderland, I see no reason why we can't do the same to them! Anyway, let's have a look at the table shall we?


Not great reading; 13 point in 12 games, putting us in 16th position. What is even worse is that we have one of the worst attacks in the league and one of the worst defences to boot. It seems the midfield (incidentally the only area I invested in) is very good, getting us to where we are, but our attack and defence are shocking. Maybe I should get some loanees in? Our pre-season media prediction was 20th, so we are still performing above expectations, but I am still a little disappointed at our performance so far. I guess I was kind of hoping for the same kind of start that QPR had in my first season. Although I am very ambitious, I am realistic, and realise that 10th place would be a hell of an achievement for us, considering the strength of the opposition. The team has been pretty good as a whole, just a few players letting us down:


Notice that the highest rated players are all midfielders, you have to go all the way down to Andrew Surman (who is a midfielder who I play in defence) to get any defenders, and even further down to Marek Saganowski (on 6.41) to get any strikers! Goalkeeper wise, ever-present Kelvin Davis is down on 6.79, so I will be playing Bialkowski a lot more from now on. Top scorer is midfield maestro Stephen Appiah with 5 goals in 13 starts. Second is Gerard with 4 goals in just 7 starts. Tied third is another midfield maestro, Morgan Schneiderlin (2 in 12) and tricky winger Rudi Skacel (2 in 10). Top assister is Skacel with 6 assists. Second place is Schneiderlin with 5 to his name, and third is Stephen Appiah, with 3. Top rating goes to Gerard, getting an impressive 7.41. Second place goes to Morgan Schneiderlin, on 7.31, and third place goes to left winger Lee Holmes, grabbing 7.27 from 5 starts. Top passer is surprisingly Bradley Wright-Phillips, an amazing 81% of his passing reaching their target. Second is Simon Gillett, with 77% of his passes finding their mark. And finally, third is the fantastic Morgan Schneiderlin (being in the top 3 for everything as you have noticed) with an impressive 76%, pretty good for a defensive midfielder!
Anyway, that's it for this post, next one coming in about 3/4 days. Take care!

5 comments:

  1. What is your formation?
    We all need to see it.

    Told you Schneiderlin is amazing!

    The Swans @ 11 is great.
    Cardiff @ 1 is terrible!

    Parent Clubs?
    You've gotta try for one, my brother (who now has his own save file; is Palace) got West Ham; got about 4 or 5 great signings, Walter Lopez, Davenport, Dyer...
    You need to get money from somewhere, mate, your defence and goal needs upping. McGoldrick is fairly good in Strike, if I remember right.
    A 4-5-1 would be good for you, but what is your formation?

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  2. Liam, my formation is a 4-1-2-2-1, with a defensive midfielder, 2 centre midfielders, 2 wingers and a target man. I will post it up in the next post.

    Yeah Schneiderlin is something else, but seeing as we are massively in debt, I may be forced to sell him in a couple of seasons when his value reaches £7m. That is, if we don't get promoted by then, which I hope we do.

    Yeah Swansea turned us over good and proper, and so did Cardiff, but I think Cardiff will go straight back down even if they DO get promoted.

    I already have West Ham as a parent club, just loaned James Tompkins as our central defenders are rubbish, and hopefully a few more on the way. We need strikers!

    McGoldrick is absolute cack as well, but then again so are all my strikers. Saganowski is really not doing well, and Wright-Phillips is rubbish. I may need to loan Freddie Sears from West Ham.

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  3. Aah. I prefer to think of it as a 4-5-1.

    You never know, you may get taken over! What's your chairman status? (On the info screen, if you didn't know) Never sell Schneiderlin.

    Well, it's still early days, they'll hit a rough patch at some point.
    What about Brandy from UTD? Swnasea started with him for me, and, although he isn't prolific, and more suited to being a Winger, he is lightning quick; goes one-on-one often.
    Reinaldo Navia? Brandy(loan)? Ched Evans??? (loan)

    CHECK OUT MY BLOG PLEEEEEEEEASE!

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  4. how do ya get the big crest on the side?

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  5. Liam, yeah it is basically, but I have changed it now. DMC has moved to AMC :) I have been taken over as well, but he has done nothing for the club so far, and we are so close to going in administration. As for Schneiderlin, i'll try not to!

    I have loaned Rhys Murphy, but he is rubbish so I shall send him back soon, and Cardiff really don't look like slowing down mate, sorry!

    As for your blog, it's looking really good now Liam, keep up the good work!

    Conor, you just add an app called "picture", find the crest on google images, save it onto your computer, and locate it on the app.

    New post up in a few minutes!

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