Southampton story: 3rd season: Staying up there!

Hello everyone, hope you are well. Now, in my last post we were on a massive high, holding 5th place after 13 league matches. Let’s find out how our next 13 went:



A solid 13 games, but our recent form is a bit worrying. 1 win in 6 games isn’t the best I could’ve hoped for, but seeing as we drew the other 5 games, it’s all good. If we want to remain in this top 5, we will have to get a few wins under our belts though, as showed by the table:



Still an excellent position for our debut Premier League season though. From 3rd to 8th only 6 points are in between (and that’s even with third place United playing a game more). The media are still saying that a drop in form is just around the corner, but I really think we could finish in the top 6 this year (something it took me 5 odd seasons to do with QPR). Of course this shall take a lot of hard work, and a lot of luck, but it’s something I believe we can achieve. Now, onto our player ratings:



The top name will be unfamiliar to you, Yohann Andreu, but I shall explain about him later on. Top scorer is Ched Evans, the new signing from Man City, with 9 goals in 19 starts. Second place goes to Miku, who has just come back from injury. He has got 6 goals in 14 starts. Third goes to defender Jan Simunek, who has grabbed 5 goals in 26 starts. Best assister goes to the impressive Adam Johnson, getting 12 in 23 starts. Second place goes to Nathan Dyer (5 in 18) and Jake Thompson (5 in 9), with fourth place going to Franco Zuculini (4 in 18) and Lee Holmes (4 in 2). I am happy with the assist totals, because it shows that we have 4 good wingers, all capable of getting assists (and goals in some cases). Best rated player goes to Yohann Andreu, with 7.20 being collected from just 1 start. Second place is for Franco Zuculini, with 7.18, and third place going to Jan Simunek, getting 7.13. Top passer is a tie between Adam Lallana and Daniel Sturridge, both having 79% passes complete. Tied third are Franco Zuculini and Morgan Schneiderlin, both getting a tidy 77%. Finally, tied fifth are playmaker Ferrie Bodde and energetic midfielder Stephen Appiah, both on 76%.

Anyway, let me talk to you about Yohann Andreu. I bought him from Saint-Ettiene of France on loan until the end of the season, for a princely sum of £550k. He is a top class right-back, and I only brought him in because new signing, and first choice right-back Coke Andujar felt that he needed to go after just 6 months into his stay. We got £1.8m for him, and spent £550k on a better right-back until the end of the season. It’s my last season, why not! Below are his attributes, which don’t really look too impressive really:



He has no outstanding attributes, but he is very able because of his heading, tackling, positioning, anticipation, agility and stamina, all really important for a right-back. He has decent crossing too, which could come in handy if I ever played him as a wing-back (which I have been trying out recently). I have high hopes for this guy, especially as right-back has been a problem area this season where we have been conceding many goals.

Anyway, that’s it for this post. I hope to be able to post soon, and complete the season in the next post.

Southampton story: 3rd season: Unexpected start!

Hello and welcome to the second post of my final season with Southampton. A reminder again to vote in the poll for who I should be in FM10, and now straight to business. After a very successful transfer window, bringing in a host of Premier League standard players, hopes were high for this season. Unfortunately, the media didn’t seem to agree with me:



This didn’t deter me, or the team, as our results show:

An absolutely fantastic start to the season, one that no man could have ever imagined. Amazingly, we have won 8 out of 15 (7 out of 13 in the League) with 5 losses (4 in the League) and 2 draws. This is European football form, as you can see by the table:

5th in the league, with 23 points. Wow. If we had better goal difference we would even be in 4th place (which we were at one point)! I think it’s fairly certain that we are going to be safe this season, but I am getting so excited about our realistic prospects for the season. How far can we actually go in my last season in charge? We shall soon find out. Meanwhile, here are the ratings for the season so far:



For our first Premier League season, the ratings are very good, but what surprises me most is the goal scoring statistic. Top goalscorer is our back-up striker Miku with 4 goals in 8 starts, with second place going to midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin (3 in 13) and new defender Mark Beevers (3 in 13). 4th place goes to Adam Lallana (2 in 4), Ferrie Bodde (2 in 9), Jake Thompson (2 in 4), Ched Evans (2 in 8), Stephen Appiah (2 in 9) and Paul Huntington (2 in 2), with almost all of our players at least on 1 goal. This is heartening; because that means that we are getting goals from all over the pitch, not just from midfield as we were before. Best assister is new left winger Adam Johnson, getting 8 assists in 10 starts. Second place goes to Franco Zuculini (4 in 7) and Lee Holmes (4 in 2). Lee Holmes has done brilliantly, and is definitely pushing Johnson all the way. 4th place goes to Daniel Sturridge, with 3 assists in 6 starts. Best rated player is Morgan Schneiderlin, getting a rating of 7.18. Second place goes to Oliver Lancashire, getting 7.15 from 2 starts. Third place goes to Adam Johnson, getting 7.14. And finally, top passer goes to Daniel Sturridge, an amazing 82% of his passes finding their mark. Second place goes to Schneiderlin, Johnson, Lallana and Bodde, all getting 75%. 6th place goes to Lee Naylor, with 74%.

Before I go, I would like to let you guys in on the secret to my success. A coach for everything. If you don’t understand me, take a look at this:

I discovered that if a coach covers too many categories at once, he doesn’t perform any of them adequately. So what I did was I brought in a few more coaches, and assigned each of them to a maximum of 2 categories, and now the stars for each of them are quite high. Plus the coaches do not get overworked, which allows me to pay them less. An all round good option that I recommend to any Football Manager players. (If you’re wondering why Rui Barros doesn’t have any assignments, it’s because he’s my assistant manager)

And on that note, I bid you farewell. I hope you’ll be back for the next instalment of my 3rd season. With form like this, you can’t miss it!

Southampton story: 3rd season: Excellent transfers!

Hello and welcome to what is unfortunately the final season of my Southampton adventure. Football Manager 2010 is coming out soon (vote in my blog regarding what team I should be) and I will be looking forward to that immensely. Meanwhile, there is the small matter of my Southampton team, and when I left you last I had been promoted to the Premier League for my 3rd season! Happy days, and while I do not have the screenshot unfortunately, I can tell you that the board gave me a massive £17m to spend on transfers. Seeing this large amount of money was very rare for my Southampton days, so as you can imagine, I spent spent spent! Take a look:



I spent £7.5m on a brand new central defence, in top class centre backs Jan Simunek and Mark Beevers. I have high hopes for these two, and I hope that Oliver Lancashire and Paul Huntington never have to be used again! Coke Andujar is a solid right back from Rayo, and with Lloyd James injured, he shall be our first choice right back for the first month or so. If he performs well, who knows, maybe he could nail down a first team place! I recruited 3 of Manchester City’s reserve players, goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, and strikers Chedwyn Evans and Daniel Sturridge. All 3 are Premier League quality players, and at a combined cost of £7.1m, a bargain I think! I also showed that I still have a good feel for free players, with striker another striker, Miku and former Celtic left back Lee Naylor joining the squad. They will be very good cover for our first teamers, and both have experience playing at the top level. Finally, I brought in left winger Adam Johnson from Middlesbrough, who is now one of the best players at the club. I hope that he can be a big success here for my final season. Now, you may think that I have too many strikers now, but the next screenshot will tell you the real story:

4 first team strikers offloaded, at a combined cost of £2m. Along with those 4, reserve player Aarran Racine, goalkeeper Kelvin Davis, left back Joseph Mills and experienced left winger Rudi Skacel have all been sold for a price of £3m. I thought I would miss Skacel a lot, but with Adam Johnson now at the club, things are looking a lot rosier. I definitely think that the £13.5m outlay was worth it, because now our squad is well equipped, and definitely odds on to stay up. Only something spectacular could take us down now! (I’ve jinxed it now haven’t I)
I chose not to have many pre-season fixtures, but I certainly did not envisage only 2 matches. Unfortunately, that is what we got and now we enter the season not fully match fit. Not going to tell us much, but here are the 2 results:

A surprising result was the 2-0 win over West Ham, an established Premier League side. Goals from new signings Jan Simunek and Mark Beevers secured our win and a good defensive display kept West Ham’s attackers out as well. Recently relegated Reading put up a fight, just 2 days after our West Ham match, and grabbed a 2-2 draw. Goals from our end came from Nathan Dyer and goal machine Stephen Appiah. I shan’t bother to do a ratings section from 2 matches, so this shall be the end of my post. Until next time, goodbye!

Football Manager 2010: What team should I be?

A new poll will open today regarding what team I should be for Football Manager 2010. I thought about Southampton, and I have shortlisted them, along with Leeds, old team QPR, recently relegated Newcastle, League 2 side Notts County, and finally Championship side Nottingham Forest. It's going to be a tough decision, so I'll leave it up to you. Here are the teams again:

Southampton

Leeds United

Queens Park Rangers

Newcastle United

Notts County

Nottingham Forest

Pick wisely! 

Southampton story: 2nd season: The final push!

Hello and welcome to the final part of Southampton’s second season. Gunning for an automatic promotion place was tough in the final 7 games, and I’m sorry to say, we didn’t make it. We did make it into the play-offs though, and as you will see below, we went one better than last season:

Yes, we are in the Premier League! After completely and utterly outclassing Watford in the final (only 1 goal to show for it though) we have won the play-offs! The winner was scored by veteran striker Jean-Claude Darcheville, and he scored 3 goals in 9 games since arriving on a free transfer. Let’s see how the table panned out:

We are joined by Ipswich and Stoke, after they had the closest title race in recent history. Ipswich edged the title on goal difference, but Stoke won’t mind; they’re in the Premier League! The fans must be very happy that Portsmouth are not joining us in the big league, quite different from the situation in real life. Swansea unfortunately did not make the play-off places, and missed out by a long way. 12 points separated them from 6th place, something they will have to work on next season. A small comfort to Liam is that Cardiff got relegated from the Premier League, and by a long way. They finished on 21 points, while 17th placed Fulham got 35. I might poach some of their players if my chairman gives me any money! Anyway, let’s move on to the ratings:

As you can see, everyone is on holiday. And rather surprisingly, in the space of 2 months Jean-Claude Darcheville has moved to be our top rated striker. Saganowski’s form has dropped off unfortunately. Anyway, top scorer for the season is Stephen Appiah, breaking the 20 goal barrier to score 22 in 45 starts. Second place goes to Marek Saganowski, getting 13 goals in 26 starts. Third place goes to Cameron Jerome, with 7 goals in 16 starts. Top assister is Rudi Skacel, with 20 assists in 40 starts. Second is Nathan Dyer, getting 12 in 43 starts and third place goes to Franco Zuculini, with 7 assists in 39 starts. Best rated player for the season is Morgan Schneiderlin, with 7.25 from 37 starts. Second is Stephen Appiah, getting 7.24, and third is Jake Thompson with 7.21 from 11 starts. Top passer is Marek Saganowski, 80% passes completed. Tied second are Morgan Schneiderlin, Ferrie Bodde, Franco Zuculini and Adam Lallana, all having 79% of their passes on target. Finally, 6th place goes to Stephen Appiah, 77% passes completed. Let’s have a look at the Coca-Cola Championship ratings; how well have our players done?

It’s looking really good! We have at least 1 player in every good list. Stephen Appiah is the 5th top scorer in the division, 19 goals out of his 22 coming in the league. Rudi Skacel is the best assister, 19 out of 20 assists coming in the league, with Nathan Dyer also getting on the list, but 6th with 11 assists. Franco Zuculini has averaged 6.55 tackles per game, which puts him 5th on that particular list. Appiah reappears on the Man of the Match list, with 8 in total for the season, which puts him second. Appiah is also on the average rating list, along with Morgan Schneiderlin. Together, they are tied second with 7.22. Finally, 4 of our players got on the pass completion list. Marek Saganowski is top with 80%, and Franco Zuculini, Ferrie Bodde and Morgan Schneiderlin are tied second along with Ricardo Fuller of Watford, all on 79%. A very successful season then, in every sense. Let’s have a look at the board confidence:

I can only give you a summary, because otherwise the post would be ridiculously long, but you can see what’s happening here. The board is very happy with our performance in the competitions and our squad harmony, happy with our wages, and relatively happy with our club stature. The fans are happy with our matches, and indifferent towards our signings and players. Hopefully the club will offer me a new contract soon, as mine runs out next year!
Anyway, that’s it for season 2, so check back soon for transfers and pre-season for season 3! Can I stay in the Premier League? We shall find out. Take care!