FM14 Mr. Manager Dynasty (Ivory Coast/Stade Rennais)

[Travis7401]

SUMMER TRANSFER MADNESS PART 2!

Mr. Manager continued the planned transfer window moves by selling Alessiandrini and Sane, since they were no longer part of the team plans.... Then Mr. Manager went wild and sold Cedric Soares! This wasn't at all planned, and Cedric Soares was supposed to be the Right Back of the future, but HSV offered over double his "value" and Mr. Manager could not resist pulling in an $11.25 Million up front fee for a player who has a "value" of $5 Million. Of course value is all relative, and Mr. Manger then needed to replace Soares in the lineup for this season, since he was going to be a rotational player and possibly even a starter. Mr. Manager was able to find a very promising 21 year old right back on a $3.5 million transfer fee. His wages are $13k/week higher than soares's were, but a $7 million transfer profit more than covers the $0.6 million/year in wage differences. With wage budet to spare, Mr. Manager felt more than comfortable making this move for a younger player with higher potential + profit.

Out:

IN:

WELCOME SAM BYRAM!

 

[Travis7401]

Mr. Manager moving to quarterly updates, as the every game updates have grown a bit tiresome. I get on a roll and want to play a bunch of games without posting about them. In place of posting about every single game, and to have more interaction with followers, I'm going to do at least 1 love blogged game per quarter (I'll pick a big game).

Thoughts? Suggestions? I'm still really enjoying playing the game, but the every game updates were just growing tiresome.

 

[Yankee151]

Works for me. I get tired out posting game by game too.

 

[Travis7401]

SUMMER TRANSFER MADNESS Finale!

If you make ridiculous contract demands, Mr. manager might be forced to sell ur ass. That's what happened in the case of promising young players Ngando and Konradsen. Both wanted 45k+ and weren't willing to take much less. Since both are a little extraneous on this year's roster, I decided to sell them for what I could get (about 2/3rds value for each). The best part is they both signed for perfectly reasonable contracts with their new teams. FUUUUUUUUUU. I also had PSG and Monaco trogging at me to buy all of my favorite youthz. After telling them to fuck off a whole bunch, Monaco finally made a pretty ridiculous offer for Brian Perrin at 7.75M, so I accepted. He was my 3rd best youth CB, so I can afford to let him go at that price. GETTIN PAID.

OUT:

SUM OF TRANSFERS:

Out -
Said - $975k - $1,100/wk
Chrieten - $120k - $775/wk
Gassama - $750k - $8,250/wk
Alessandrini - $10.25M - $26,500/wk
Sane - $1.5m - $12,750/wk
Soares - $11.25M - $18,000/wk
Konradsen - $4M - $14,000/wk
Ngando - 3.5M -$11,250/wk
Perrin - 7.5M - $3,000/wk
SUM - $39.8M - $95,625/wk

In -
Batshuayi - $10.5 M - $45,000/wk
De Vrij - $4m - $33,000/wk
Byrum - $3.5M - $33,000/wk
SUM - $18M - $111,000/wk

CURRENT TRANSFER/WAGE BUDGET: $30.7 Million and $80k/week available (spending $931k/week out of available $1.01M/week)


After loaning some players out and signing M'Bengue (now the highest paid player at $49K/week), Devis Eppasy (Backup GK), and Cheick Diarra to new contracts, I feel I've got a solid team with lots of starting caliber players to provide me depth at all the positions for the Ligue 1/Champions League/French Cup/Ligue Cup. I've also added a fair amount of money to the war chest, though my wages have ballooned as I've added more starting level players to the team.

 

[Travis7401]

Champions League Draw... AKA FUUUUUUU

Group of Death again. Fuck off SI. Every other group is 2 good teams and then 2 teams from Bumfuckistan. I get Man U, Atletico, and then the "easy" team is CSKA Moscow. HMMMMM.

Wat is this fuckery? Why am I in the 4th tier? FUUUU

 

[Travis7401]

LIVE BLOG FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCH AGAINST MAN U!

Tomorrow (August 21st) @2:30pm Eastern. Be there or be queer.

@Milo, @NML, @Yankee151, @goblue96, @osick87, @fignuts @chibob @Travis7401SUCKSDICK , @DeadMan @Deadmong, @Kella, @Brick, @GatorTD @Reel fuckshit

 

[Travis7401]

@Milo, @NML, @Yankee151, @goblue96, @osick87, @fignuts @chibob @Travis7401SUCKSDICK , @DeadMan @Deadmong, @Kella, @Brick, @GatorTD @Reel fuckshit

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCH AGAINST MAN UNITED (A)

Starting Lineup:

 

[goblue96]

Game on

 

[Travis7401]

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCH AGAINST MAN UNITED (A) - FIRST HALF

0:00 - ManU Kicks off (I adjust to "exploit flanks" to attack that back 3)
3:47 - Pajot fouls Rooney just outside the box - Free kick right at Costil - Spills to Mata - Costil saves again, ball out for corner
5:30 - Man U makes nice tackle on Ntep to steal ball, switches to the other flank to Mata who takes a shot from an awkward angle. Costil has it covered and makes an easy save.
6:30 - Goal Man U started with a free kick from 30 yards out. Mata plays in Rooney. SR players try to step up and catch him offside, but fail. Rooney slots it home.
10:37 Goal Man U - Man U clear a SR corner attempt and Januzaj streaks up the left flank. He crosses it in to the box and M'bengue clears the ball into his own net. THat's what Mr. Manger needed right now, an OG from his best player.
12:27 Goal Man U - The rape is on. Mata runs up left flank, crosses the ball in. Costil misjudges the ball and misses it. Costile watches it float over his head and Januzaj is there to finish at the back post. HMMMM.
26:18 - FIRST STADE RENNAIS SHOT ON GOAL! Man U dicked up in the box and passed it straight to Fortunis who shot it right at the keeper.
31:30 - Man U pass the ball forward on another set piece and again SR caught with their pants down. Costile makes a clutch double save against Mata. Out for corner.
38:00 - Rooney takes uncontested shot from top of box, wide right. SR defense looks terrible.
38:50 - Ntep knocks the ball down for Batshuayi at the top of the box, who takes a shot and misses low right.
40:40 - Ntep given yellow card for harsh tackle 40 yards out.

HALFTIME Being outshot 17:2 and badly losing the possession battle. Mr. Manager tells the team they have nothing to lose and subs of Pajot who is performing poorly and looks furious. Also subbing on Wague for De Vrij. Not sure why I didn't start him. Also cranking up to attacking, why not?

 

[goblue96]

ManU bringin' multiple 22 kg. boxes of rape.

 

[Yankee151]

simpsonsinout.gif

 

[Travis7401]

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCH AGAINST MAN UNITED (A) - Second Half

45:00 - Kickoff
45:50 - Stade Rennai win free kick near midfield. Ball is passed to Perriera who clears it all the way back to Costil. HMMMMM. Effective attacking strategy, guys. Feel like I'm watching vibration table football at this point.
46:00 - Costil Woofs (yes Woofs) the ball forward, and we actually get a chance out of it. Save by Man U on a shot from 6 yards by Wijnaldum.
47:00 - Fortunis awarded free kick on left flank, whips it into the box and Abdoulaye misses wide left with the open header from point blank range womp womp womp.
53:50 - Fortunis crosses the ball in from the right flank, Man U GK tips it up straight to Wijnaldum who misses the open net. WOMP WOMP WOMP.
55:00 - Rooney played through between the LB and CB, but takes inexplicably early shot and misses low right.
63:00 - Long throw in from Man U finds Carrick open at the top of the box and he takes a rocket shot that Costile spills out for a throw in.
65:00 - Byrum makes nice overlap up right flank puts in good cross and Man U forced to clear for a corner. Mr. Manager changes to "Overload" and subs on Zaza for Wijnaldum1. Why not?
71:00 - Mata caught offside, Zaza comes on.
78:00 - Man U plays ball over the top of my high line, Rooney hits the post.
79:00 - SR makes a great counter and it looks like a sure sprint/cross type goal when Fortunis whips it in perfectly... but Batuyashi misses the header badly. HMMM.
80:00- Mata played through, Costil makes a nice save.
91:00 - Final Whistle MAN U win 3-0


Live Blog Magic Broken

 

[Travis7401]

Honestly SR played much better once I went "overload" at least I was winning the ball further up the pitch and Man U seemed to struggle finishing their breakaways.

 

[Travis7401]

2015-2016 Season First Quarter Review

With several lineup changes and a deeper roster, SR were excited to begin the 2015-2016 campaign. As part of that campaign, they were invited to take part in a foreign tour in Portugal to play in 3 pre-season matches. In addition to these 3 games, they booked home games against Anderlecth and Blackburn and an away game against Barcelona for a big pay day. All things considered, the pre-season went very well, with 2 draws, beating Barcelona on the road, and 3 routes of the hapless Portuguese sides by a combined score of 26-0. The pre-season allowed Mr. Manager to experiment with a few lineups, but for some reason the team didn't seem to pick up their tactics as quickly as they had in recent years. It was kind of odd.

The transition between the Pre-season and regular season occured in a tightly contested game for the "Champions Trophy" between Ligue1 Champs Stade Rennais and French Cup Champs PSG. This is basically like the community shield, and if you recall, SR won it last year. Unfortunately, SR were not able to repeat as PSG scored a late goal to seal the win. The Ligue1 season kicked off with SR on a pretty solid run of 3 wins and 2 draws (both draws against good teams). Stade Rennais then unfortunately lost a high scoring game with Valenciennes, who have always seemed able to give them trouble. The last three ligue 1 games of the season really weren't much better, as SR limped to a home draw against Nantes, beat last place Angers, and lost at home to St. Ettiene. The first quarter ligue 1 record was thus 4 wins, 3 draws, and 2 losses. Unfortunately, a lot of the draws and losses came in what should have been a relatively easy stretch of schedule compared to what they'll face in Quarter 2.

In the Champions League it has been a mixed bag with the bad laws in an away game to Manchester United being sligthly offset by a nice home win against Moscow. All 4 teams are tied at 3 points in the group, but SR find themselves in 3rd place with a -1 GD.

With a total of 15 points from 9 games, Stade Rennais find themselves in 4th place in Ligue1. PSG did not suffer the early season slump they did last year, and shot out of the gate with 7 wins in 9 games for the league lead at 21 points. Bordeaux and Lyon also had good starts at 20 and 19 points, respectively. Stade Rennais find themselves at the top of the next very close group of teams from 4th to 14th place being separated by a mere 3 points. Stade Rennais also have a lot of tough games coming up, so they could lose a lot of ground if they aren't careful.

Players I'm pleased with:
Kostas Fortunis - Has easily been the best and most consistently good player on the team. Leads the team in goals, is tied for the lead in assists, and leads the team in key passes.

Simone Zaza - Has rarely started games, but I've used him regularly as a super sub and he's performed pretty well with 3 goals, 2 assists, and 3 key passes. I should probably start him more in the CAM spot since he's played so well in sub duty

Kleber - Has played the target man role very well in his few appearances, scoring 3 goals and picking up an assist in 3 starts. I'll probably start him a little more moving forward

Wague- He's been the most consistent defender and the best by far in the air, winning 28 headers.

Cheick M'Bengue - Leads the team with 6.39 tackles/game and 7 key tackles. Has also picked up 2 assists, which is nice from a wingback

Pereira - Has been the most solid and consistent midfielder so far. Hasn't done much flashy, but has a solid 81% pass rating, 2.9 tackles/game, an assist, and 3 key passes.

Players I'm not pleased with.
Batshuayi - While he does have 3 goals and 2 asissts, all of his positive stats came in 2 of his 7 starts. He failed to score in 5 games, which is disconcerting given the fact that I need him to be the star player.

Wijnaldum1 - The other big money signing hasn't performed well either. Having started many more games than Zaza, he only has 1 goal and 3 assists. He's shown flashes of being a very good player, but like Batshuayi he just disappears too much for my liking. I really want to see him become a more consistent player.

Byram - An injury to Danze has forced him to be the starter and he's really not ready. Selling Soares and bringing in Byram may have been the right financial move, but had I known Danze would be out for 4 months, I never would have done it. Byram leads the team in mistakes and he just doesn't seem very good at anything defensively or offensively. Soares really performed well in both capacities near the end of the year, and it is hard to have that drop in production.

Tobias - Has a straight red and 3 yellows in 7 starts. LAWD. He's a nice wrecking ball asshole when he's in the game and the refs let him play, but I have to sub him off if he gets a yellow, which he almost always does. I still have high hopes for his role, but we shall see if he is more of a liability.

 

[goblue96]

 

[Travis7401]

Just took a break for xcom

 

[Travis7401]

Bumpity Bump like a train, babby. Almost to the halfway point, trying to remember where I left off. Struggling in ligue 1, but beat Atletico 2-0 in the Champions league to give me a prayer of advancing. I'll post a mid season review when I get there. Now that it is dark every day when I get home there is nothing better to do than play vidya or jerking off, so expect a lot more updates or something.

 

[Travis7401]

Just made it to December and grabbed a key come from behind victory. I am having a really hard time remembering what all I need to do as far as building the team, and the winter transfer window is open now. I don't have any pressing needs at this point, but I do need my expensive players to start playing like they are worth the money. I'll do my midseason update soon in an attempt to remember where I am.

 

[Travis7401]

MR MANAGER WHISKEY PLAY!

Lille (A) : Loss 2-3 (2 PKs Awarded to Lille)

Fucking @Reel ruined this game for me with a bunch of his Zebra fuckshit. Should have at least earned a result @Brick. Felt pretty comfortable about the game when Lille went up by two goals, because everyone knows that's the "most dangerous lead in football" @Milo. Unfortunately, it all went pear shaped for me in the end @chibob .




@NML, @goblue96, @osick87, @fignuts @Travis7401SUCKSDICK , @DeadMan @Deadmong @GatorTD

This was game 18 (out of 38) in the league season, so the midpoint of the season is this week as I have another league game and a champions league match coming up against Manchester United as well. I'll probably record that one too. I'll pull together a mid season review soon, as promised several times.

 

[Yankee151]

A brotha was not @ed, I see how it is

 

[Travis7401]

lol, I thought I @'d you in the post, so I deleted your name out of the spamming part of the post You know I meant to @ you, I know how you feel about Mr. Manager.

The most depressing part was forgetting to yell at the players at half time. WTF? Halftime tirades are my favorite part of the game and I forget because I'm live commenting? This youtube shit ain't for me. (SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON BRAH)

 

[DeadMan]

I only watch your videos if they are recorded on your gopro.

On an unrelated note, I love flipping out on my players and then flipping out on the ref in the media afterwards. Very satisfying. Until you yell at the refs enough. After 4 or 5 times, you get bant for a game and have to watch your assistant do better than you.

 

[Reel]

oh look


@'d with some fuck shit

 

[Travis7401]

Mr. Manager is very cagey about the way he interacts with refs. He knows how faux authority works, so he never yells at them or rips them in public. He puts voodoo curses on them and everything they hold sacred, but he never shows his anger in public. I honestly think I've had PKs and red cards go 5-1 in my favor in this dynasty. Not sure if just luck or the fact that I always decline to rip the refs has something to do with it.

 

[Travis7401]

oh look


@'d with some fuck shit

I fucking hate everything about your subhuman Zebra kind.

 

[Travis7401]

MR MANAGER WHISKEY COFFEE PLAY!

Manchester United (H) : Loss 0-1 FUCKING @Reel SCREWS ME AGAIN!

Eliminated from Champions league group play on a penalty called on a throw in? HMMMMMMM. This was the last Champs league group play match (for some reason I thought it was second to last when recording, so disregard that). I needed a win and some help in order to advance, so I came out with a pretty aggressive lineup against Man U. I had a solid lead in shots and possession through most of the game and had a couple of good chances. Unfortunately, the deciding factor was when @Reel called a penalty during a throw in routine and Rooney slammed the penalty home. FUUUUUUU Eliminated from the Champions League again during group play.



Penalty at about 8:45

 

[Travis7401]

2015-2016 Season First Quarter Review

With several lineup changes and a deeper roster, SR were excited to begin the 2015-2016 campaign. As part of that campaign, they were invited to take part in a foreign tour in Portugal to play in 3 pre-season matches. In addition to these 3 games, they booked home games against Anderlecth and Blackburn and an away game against Barcelona for a big pay day. All things considered, the pre-season went very well, with 2 draws, beating Barcelona on the road, and 3 routes of the hapless Portuguese sides by a combined score of 26-0. The pre-season allowed Mr. Manager to experiment with a few lineups, but for some reason the team didn't seem to pick up their tactics as quickly as they had in recent years. It was kind of odd.

The transition between the Pre-season and regular season occured in a tightly contested game for the "Champions Trophy" between Ligue1 Champs Stade Rennais and French Cup Champs PSG. This is basically like the community shield, and if you recall, SR won it last year. Unfortunately, SR were not able to repeat as PSG scored a late goal to seal the win. The Ligue1 season kicked off with SR on a pretty solid run of 3 wins and 2 draws (both draws against good teams). Stade Rennais then unfortunately lost a high scoring game with Valenciennes, who have always seemed able to give them trouble. The last three ligue 1 games of the season really weren't much better, as SR limped to a home draw against Nantes, beat last place Angers, and lost at home to St. Ettiene. The first quarter ligue 1 record was thus 4 wins, 3 draws, and 2 losses. Unfortunately, a lot of the draws and losses came in what should have been a relatively easy stretch of schedule compared to what they'll face in Quarter 2.

In the Champions League it has been a mixed bag with the bad laws in an away game to Manchester United being sligthly offset by a nice home win against Moscow. All 4 teams are tied at 3 points in the group, but SR find themselves in 3rd place with a -1 GD.

With a total of 15 points from 9 games, Stade Rennais find themselves in 4th place in Ligue1. PSG did not suffer the early season slump they did last year, and shot out of the gate with 7 wins in 9 games for the league lead at 21 points. Bordeaux and Lyon also had good starts at 20 and 19 points, respectively. Stade Rennais find themselves at the top of the next very close group of teams from 4th to 14th place being separated by a mere 3 points. Stade Rennais also have a lot of tough games coming up, so they could lose a lot of ground if they aren't careful.

Players I'm pleased with:
Kostas Fortunis - Has easily been the best and most consistently good player on the team. Leads the team in goals, is tied for the lead in assists, and leads the team in key passes.

Simone Zaza - Has rarely started games, but I've used him regularly as a super sub and he's performed pretty well with 3 goals, 2 assists, and 3 key passes. I should probably start him more in the CAM spot since he's played so well in sub duty

Kleber - Has played the target man role very well in his few appearances, scoring 3 goals and picking up an assist in 3 starts. I'll probably start him a little more moving forward

Wague- He's been the most consistent defender and the best by far in the air, winning 28 headers.

Cheick M'Bengue - Leads the team with 6.39 tackles/game and 7 key tackles. Has also picked up 2 assists, which is nice from a wingback

Pereira - Has been the most solid and consistent midfielder so far. Hasn't done much flashy, but has a solid 81% pass rating, 2.9 tackles/game, an assist, and 3 key passes.

Players I'm not pleased with.
Batshuayi - While he does have 3 goals and 2 asissts, all of his positive stats came in 2 of his 7 starts. He failed to score in 5 games, which is disconcerting given the fact that I need him to be the star player.

Wijnaldum1 - The other big money signing hasn't performed well either. Having started many more games than Zaza, he only has 1 goal and 3 assists. He's shown flashes of being a very good player, but like Batshuayi he just disappears too much for my liking. I really want to see him become a more consistent player.

Byram - An injury to Danze has forced him to be the starter and he's really not ready. Selling Soares and bringing in Byram may have been the right financial move, but had I known Danze would be out for 4 months, I never would have done it. Byram leads the team in mistakes and he just doesn't seem very good at anything defensively or offensively. Soares really performed well in both capacities near the end of the year, and it is hard to have that drop in production.

Tobias - Has a straight red and 3 yellows in 7 starts. LAWD. He's a nice wrecking ball asshole when he's in the game and the refs let him play, but I have to sub him off if he gets a yellow, which he almost always does. I still have high hopes for his role, but we shall see if he is more of a liability.

2015-2016 Season Mid Season Review

The second quarter of the season started off with a bit of a slump coming off of the first Champions League group loss to Man U which ended the first quarter. A tie and a loss in Ligue 1 and a thrashing at the hands of Atletico in the Champions league had everyone very concerned. Fortunately, the team then managed to string together 5 straight wins, four in Ligue 1 and a redemption win against Atletico. The end of the quarter consisted of another slide, with 2 champions league losses and 2 Ligue 1 losses, offset by only 2 ligue 1 wins. Overall the second quarter finished with 7 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses. Definitely not good for a team of SRs reputation. If there was any positive, it was that the Ligue 1 portion of the record wasn't terrible.

Quarter Summary
Ligue 1 - 6 Wins - 1 Draw - 3 Losses
Champions League - 1 Win - 0 Draw - 3 Losses.

That brings us to the Ligue1 Table, where we once again find ourselves in 4th place, though we are closer to 2nd and 3rd place than we were at the end of the first quarter, but are now 14 points behind the leaders, PSG. PSG are really starting to run away with Ligue 1, after picking up 27 out of a possible 30 points during the quarter. Given the fact that the second quarter schedule featured games against each of the top 3 along with a lot of fixture congestion from the Champions league games, we actually did pretty well.

Players I'm Pleased With -
Davy Propper - After a slow start to the season with few opportunities, I decided to give him more starts since Wijnaldum1 had been struggling in the CAM spot. We were rewarded with a bunch of good performances as he really became a solid playmaker, racking up 4 assists in 5 starts. He also contributed 11 key passes during the quarter.

Cheick Diarra - Batshuayi was still playing poorly, so Diarra became a super sub where he picked up a goal, assists, and some solid ratings in very little time. Then I started him in a few games and he ended up with 6 total goals scored this quarter, including one absolutely dominant game with 4 goals.

Molla Wague - Still the defensive stalwart on the team, started almost every game this quarter and continued to put up solid ratings while leading the team in Key Headers and also picking up 2 goals on set pieces this quarter

Abdoulaye - The other half of the stalwart defensive pairing, also continued to post solid ratings in almost ever game and leads the team in key tackles with 17 and also contributed 2 goals this quarter on set pieces.

Players I'm Disappointed With -
Strobl - Christ, what a train wreck this guy is. 2 red cards, 7 yellows, and at fault on two of the penalties that @Reel called against me. I keep playing him because he SHOULD be good and he's a tackling beast, leading the midfielders in Tackles/Game, but he's now the lowest rated regular starter on the team because all of the dumbass shit he does.

Danze - Spent almost the entire quarter hurt and then when I tried to renegotiate his expiring contract, he wanted me to sign him for like $100,000/week going forward, so I'm going to have to let him walk. He's been one of my favorite and most consistent players since I started this dynasty, but he's old and would cost way too much. FUUUUUU.

Sam Byram - I sold Soares when I received an offer I couldn't refuse and brought this guy in to learn under Danze and then take advantage of his freakishly high potential in the future. Unfortunately he was pressed into service earlier than I would have liked with the injury to Danze, and he's had to start most of the games this season. He is also #1 on the team in mistakes.

Kleber - Only played 1 game this quarter due to injuries. Would really like to have a target man striker back, as he brings something none of my other strikers provide and allows Ntep, Fortunis, et al to excel as inside forwards. Need him to get healthy and start playing well again.

 

[Travis7401]

Transfer Update:

Not my usual quarterly update, but with a pretty solid and deep team, I don't have any real areas of "need" to address during the winter transfer window (Though I will need a RB after Danze leaves in the off season). As such, I was able to scour the expiring contracts with the best player available mindset to see who I could pick up on a free transfer. I don't "need" anyone right now, so it doesn't matter if these guys show up at the end of the season, as long as I get a deal! I ended up with a gem of a deep-lying playmaker, which is an area where I've been really lacking this season. I have plenty of ball winning/defensive minded midfielders, but Pajot is really my only playmaking option and he's only serviceable.

Look who I picked up on a free! His wages are a little steeper than I'd like, but he's already a top player and still has great potential as well. His ratings in all the passing/decisions categories are 15 or 16, making him a BTT in this role!

 

[Travis7401]

MR MANAGER WHISKEY PLAY!

Monaco (H) : Win 2-0!

Had a really important league game against the always dangerous Monaco. After a string of tough losses in my whiskey play videos, I was hesitant to record, but it worked out this time! I wasn't sure I could hold my one goal lead late in the game, but @Reel decided to take my side this week and give me a break. Amazing how every time I record a game that dude thinks he's the star of the show.

 

[Travis7401]

MR MANAGER WHISKEY PLAY!

Lyon French Cup (A) : Loss 0-1 FUUUUUUUUU

@Yankee151 this one is for you.



This was a frustrating game. Worked on set piece attacks all week because of their alleged vulnerabilities. Won about 20 corners and didn't do dick on any of them. FUUUUU. Had several great chances and my players hit their shots wide or straight at the keeper. I've actually been on a solid winning streak, but have been saving the videos for the "big matches" and end up losing, ha ha.

 

[GatorTD]

Ive never had the set piece attacking training help ever. The set piece defending and the attacking movement are the two best.

 

[Yankee151]

It appears I've been @ed, shame it was a 0-1 loss.

 

[goblue96]

Funny how @Reel (the basketball ref) gets @ed and blamed for fuck shit while the former soccer ref flies under the radar and gets zero blame.

 

[Travis7401]

PSG (A) - Loss 1-2 - COFFEE PLAY

Pretty good game, couldn't pull it off doe. PSG scored both their goals on 30+ yard shots. I did a really good job packing the defense, but their midfielders can put the hammer down, apparently.

 

[Travis7401]

2015-2016 Season Mid Season Review

The second quarter of the season started off with a bit of a slump coming off of the first Champions League group loss to Man U which ended the first quarter. A tie and a loss in Ligue 1 and a thrashing at the hands of Atletico in the Champions league had everyone very concerned. Fortunately, the team then managed to string together 5 straight wins, four in Ligue 1 and a redemption win against Atletico. The end of the quarter consisted of another slide, with 2 champions league losses and 2 Ligue 1 losses, offset by only 2 ligue 1 wins. Overall the second quarter finished with 7 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses. Definitely not good for a team of SRs reputation. If there was any positive, it was that the Ligue 1 portion of the record wasn't terrible.

Quarter Summary
Ligue 1 - 6 Wins - 1 Draw - 3 Losses
Champions League - 1 Win - 0 Draw - 3 Losses.

That brings us to the Ligue1 Table, where we once again find ourselves in 4th place, though we are closer to 2nd and 3rd place than we were at the end of the first quarter, but are now 14 points behind the leaders, PSG. PSG are really starting to run away with Ligue 1, after picking up 27 out of a possible 30 points during the quarter. Given the fact that the second quarter schedule featured games against each of the top 3 along with a lot of fixture congestion from the Champions league games, we actually did pretty well.

Players I'm Pleased With -
Davy Propper - After a slow start to the season with few opportunities, I decided to give him more starts since Wijnaldum1 had been struggling in the CAM spot. We were rewarded with a bunch of good performances as he really became a solid playmaker, racking up 4 assists in 5 starts. He also contributed 11 key passes during the quarter.

Cheick Diarra - Batshuayi was still playing poorly, so Diarra became a super sub where he picked up a goal, assists, and some solid ratings in very little time. Then I started him in a few games and he ended up with 6 total goals scored this quarter, including one absolutely dominant game with 4 goals.

Molla Wague - Still the defensive stalwart on the team, started almost every game this quarter and continued to put up solid ratings while leading the team in Key Headers and also picking up 2 goals on set pieces this quarter

Abdoulaye - The other half of the stalwart defensive pairing, also continued to post solid ratings in almost ever game and leads the team in key tackles with 17 and also contributed 2 goals this quarter on set pieces.

Players I'm Disappointed With -
Strobl - Christ, what a train wreck this guy is. 2 red cards, 7 yellows, and at fault on two of the penalties that @Reel called against me. I keep playing him because he SHOULD be good and he's a tackling beast, leading the midfielders in Tackles/Game, but he's now the lowest rated regular starter on the team because all of the dumbass shit he does.

Danze - Spent almost the entire quarter hurt and then when I tried to renegotiate his expiring contract, he wanted me to sign him for like $100,000/week going forward, so I'm going to have to let him walk. He's been one of my favorite and most consistent players since I started this dynasty, but he's old and would cost way too much. FUUUUUU.

Sam Byram - I sold Soares when I received an offer I couldn't refuse and brought this guy in to learn under Danze and then take advantage of his freakishly high potential in the future. Unfortunately he was pressed into service earlier than I would have liked with the injury to Danze, and he's had to start most of the games this season. He is also #1 on the team in mistakes.

Kleber - Only played 1 game this quarter due to injuries. Would really like to have a target man striker back, as he brings something none of my other strikers provide and allows Ntep, Fortunis, et al to excel as inside forwards. Need him to get healthy and start playing well again.

2015-2016 Season 3/4 Review

Due to matches for the Euro Cup, French Cup, and Ligue1 Cup + a friendly match against the Orlando Pirates to fill a 2 week fixture gap I had in the winter, there ended up being 18 games in the third quarter. Everything started off really well, as we went unbeaten over the first 6 games (though one was a friendly) and pitched 4 shutouts. We then had an up and down next 6 games, we lost in the Coupe de La Ligue on penalties and dropped a key ligue 1 match, but we also had 3 victories where we scored 4 or more goals as the offense really took off.... then the last 6 games, WOOF, only managed 1 win, was eliminated from 2 competitions, and lost to PSG which gave them an even larger lead on the table. Even with the crash in the last 6 games and elimination from several competitions, it wasn't the worst quarter.

In summary:
Friendly - 1 win
Euro Matches - 0 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss (eliminated in first knock out round)
Cup matches - 3 wins, 0 draws, 2 losses (eliminated from French Cup and Coupe de la Ligue)
Ligue 1 - 6 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses
Total: 10 wins, 3 draws, 5 losses

Looking at the Ligue1 Table, I made a brief jump up to 2nd place before dropping back to my consistent 4th place in the table. Points wise, I gained 1 point on LOSC and lost a point to Lyon, but both are basically within one game and I have a slight lead in goal differential over both. PSG are basically assured the Ligue1 title, as they are 17 points clear with only 9 games remaining, so the fight is really for spots 2-6 and Euro/Champions league qualification. Below me, there are 3 teams within 6 points, though I have a solid GD lead over all of them. After that there is another 6 point drop off between the rest of the pack.

I also have probably the most favorable remaining schedule the teams competing for Euro/Champions league spots in that I'm eliminated from all other competitions, reducing fixture congestion and fatigue and I play Lyon, LOSC, and OM at home. Of the top teams I only have Bordeaux to play on the road. I'm also done playing PSG while most of the other top teams must still play them! I'm hoping for a top 3 finish and the #2 spot is certainly within reach as long as I can handle the head to head competition against Lyon and Lille!

Players I'm pleased with:
Basically all of my CAMs/Wingers have been playing awesome lately, and could have all earned a spot but I'll have to give the nod to the following 3 players for this

Diarra - This is obvious! He scored 7 goals this quarter alone and I only started him 5 times (though he scored several more as a sub). He will be my primary striker down the stretch

Zaza - He shot forward with 7 goals as well this quarter and has earned himself a spot to play in every game from here on out as either a starter or a super sub.

Wijnaldum - Picked up 5 goals and 2 assists this quarter, most of that coming as a sub because he only started 7 out of the 18 games that quarter.

Propper - Due to wanting to get all of my CAMs on the field at once and an injury to Pajot, I played him in the DLP role a lot more this quarter. He responded really well, notching 11 key passes and 4 assists. I need to keep him in the team somewhere in every game if possible!

M'Bengue - was really the standout defensive player this quarter and it was good to have him back from a brief injury. He's just a consistently good player for me

Sam Byram - Danze was injured for most of the quarter and Byram played better than he has been, increasing his average rating by 0.10 over this quarter and he had several really nice games showing his high potential. Still making more mistakes than I'd like, but he's improved.

Players I'm Disappointed with: Strikers other than Diarra - In a combined 9 starts at the striker position, Kleber and Batshuayi combined to score only 2 goals.

Batshuayi - My biggest transfer, I was determined to help him break out of his funk so I started him in 4 games against lesser competition. I also brought him on as a halftime sub 5 more times, hoping he could provide a spark. In that amount of playing time he managed exactly 1 goal. One of the games I started him was against a terrible team and I put Diarra on to replace him in the 70th and Diarra scored 2 goals. I had such high hopes for Batshuayi, but at this point I can't really justify including him in the team with so many better attacking options

Abdoulaye - Despite being awesome the first 2 quarters, my defensive stalwart had a rough 3rd quarter. He had 2 own goals against him and another two mistakes leading directly to goals. He was at fault in a couple of the most important conceded goals that caused me to be knocked out of competitions. I know he's better than this and I hope he'll step it back up!

Kleber - with his return from injury I was excited to finally have a target man again! I started him in 5 games and he scored only a single goal. His overall rating also dropped by 0.15, showing how poorly he was playing in total.

I WILL BE GOING BACK TO UPDATES FOR EVERY GAME FOR THE LAST 9 GAMES OF THE SEASON!

 

[goblue96]

I WILL BE GOING BACK TO UPDATES FOR EVERY GAME FOR THE LAST 9 GAMES OF THE SEASON!

@Reel

 

[Travis7401]

Lyon (H) - Win 3-0 - Pants Off!

This was by far the best and most important win so far this season. We absolutely dominated Lyon from the first whistle, and even though it was still 0-0 at halftime I was confident because we were absolutely blasting them and dominating. The breakthrough came from a great combination play between Propper and Fortunis on the right wing. Eventually Fortunis crossed the ball to the far post where Ntep was wide open and slotted it home. Unfortunately, Zaza got hurt and I decided to sub on Batshuayi and try him in a shadow striker type role even though he has no experience there. Ntep made a nice run down the left flank and juked inside a defender before passing to Batshuayi for a goal (he showed up!) The final goal came on a set piece as Peybernes was able to finish and Fortunis picked up the assist. Fortunis had 2 assists and Ntep had a goal and an assist, so it was obvious the wing play was key. The midfield also did a phenomenal job controlling the ball and the defense was great too! WHAT A GAME!

Most importantly I jumped Lyon in the table and I'm still only 3 points back from 2nd with an edge in GD and a home game still remaining against LOSC.

The only downside is Zaza is going to be out for most of the remainder of the season. He was really coming on strong lately, and this is a bummer. Still, I've got a lot of attacking depth!

 

[Travis7401]

YOUTH INTAKE DAY!

My youth intake definitely wasn't as great this year, at least according to the star potential, but I also think that might be partially due to my reputation increase? (it is harder for a player to look like 4-5 star potential with my reputation now). They played well enough against the U19 squad and even scored a really nice goal.

I'll highlight some of the best looking players on the team! A lot heavier on the GKs than I'd like, especially since I already have several youth goalies, but I must admit I love that 20 determination on the highest rated youth goalie. The 4.5 star central defender also looks really good!

At the end of the season I'll be doing an update on the youth candidates from previous years as well!

 

[Yankee151]

6'4? Milton should be an all time gr8 defender

 

[Travis7401]

AC Ajaccio (A) - Win 2-0 - Early 2 goal lead and a comfortable win. WHEEL OF FORTUNIS on a roll

 

[DeadMan]

Please, please, play the Brazilian goalkeeper

 

[Yankee151]

5'8, jumping reach 10. That's like Hope Solo

 

[Travis7401]

I'm kind of surprised he didn't attempt to play for Brazil's Women's National Team with his pouty good looks.

 

[DeadMan]

Didn't even see that he is 5'8"

 

[DeadMan]

5'8, jumping reach 10. That's like Hope Solo

So about 6 inches taller than you then?

 

[Yankee151]

There is literally a picture for scale, she only has 4 on me

 

[fignuts]

Pretty good game, couldn't pull it off doe. PSG scored both their goals on 30+ yard shots. I did a really good job packing the defense, but their midfielders can put the hammer down, apparently.

Above is why 14 and now 15 are no fun, imo; The match engine is utter shit. Sports Interactive is attempting to placate to the general masses that play FIFA/PES with 'new and improved 3D' play. It's why I have chosen to go back using the classic 2D set-up.

 

[Travis7401]

To be fair, that's basically the only time I've seen that happen and it was because I parked the bus

 

[Yankee151]

HMMMMM, Fortounis' Greek influence slipping in I see. Looks like simple Karma to me.

 

[Travis7401]

AC Arles-Avignon (H) - Win 2-0 - Early 2 goal lead, Byram sent off with a Red Card, but we pulled through! (moved into second place on GD)