Excuse me for a depressing post but I'm really not feeling particularly buoyant at the moment. Unfortunately, season 2011/12 will be a season to forget for numerous reasons. For starters, I forgot to take screenshots at the start of the year so not much of a pre-season report to give you.
The big changes were that I signed Igor Akinfeev to replace Reina and also managed to bring in James Milner. It was actually a toss up between Lennon and Milner but in the end, I went with Milner as he had slightly better all round stats (Lennon having slightly better attacking stats).
Unfortunately, neither Akinfeev nor Milner did particularly well this year. As a result, Cavalieri managed to get a lot of playing time. And this highlighted a broader problem with this season. Right from the start of the season, my team really struggled to beat our opposition. All too often, my team was outplayed by the opposition (which is what really grates - the fact that we were so often outplayed).
Another issue is that my team seem to be full of bottlers. I noticed this at the end of last season when my team buckled (but still managed to win the Prem as MC bottled it in the final game of the season). However, in the current year, despite MC making a few mistakes and giving us the opportunity to win the Prem, my team always managed to find a way to lose. For example, in a key game against MC to take the Prem lead, my team were 2-0 up but still managed to let in two late goals.
The only upside was that Torres was fantastic this year and managed to pull our ass out of the fire more times than I can remember. If it hadn't been for Torres, we would have had a lot more draws and losses.
Final league table below:
Final team ratings:
And the board - not very happy (understandably)
Just in case it isn't obvious, we won nothing this season. Not only did we not win anything, we were knocked out of all the cup competitions at an early stage (CL - quarter final, FA Cup - 4th round, League Cup - 4th or 5th round
Roll on 2012/13. Sigh.
2 comments:
You sold Reina!?!? No!!!!!
Believe me when I tell you that it wasn't by choice. However, Reina wanted a new challenge and started kicking up a big fuss halfway throught the previous season. In the end, I had no choice but to agree to sell him.
Really pissed me off though as it completely derailed my transfer plans for the summer. Instead of getting an outfield player, I had to spent a fortune buying Akinfeev who, arguably, wasn't even as good as Reina!
Its really hard to buy good players in this game as they are all priced ridiculously high. During the current off season, I tried to buy a new LB but in the end, had to give up as there was no way I was going to pay over GBP80m for a LB even if I could afford it.
I had a transfer kitty of GBP54m (on the basis that I would challenge for the prem) but could still only afford 1 good player! And when I say good, I mean good (and not world class).
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