Football Manager 2010 - 2010/11

I'm burning through FM2010 at the moment and season 2010/11 has been a real rollercoaster.

Pre-season
As I mentioned in last seasons year end report, a world class striker was the key thing that I needed to buy over the pre-season. Luckily for me, the new board gave me a transfer kitty of GBP62 million which I promptly raided for GBP52 million on Sergio Aguero.


Check out those stats! If Torres isn't careful, Aguero is going to steal his thunder

I also made two stupid mistakes over the pre-season. I completely forgot that Milan Jovanovic was joining on a free transfer so I signed Victor Obinna (a 23 year old backup with fast pace) on a free transfer as extra cover for my strikers. I went from not having enough strikers in 2009/10 to having too many strikers in 2010/11! Ah well, I guess its lucky I signed Obinna as a backup so he didn't complain too much when I ditched him in the reserves.


Milan Jovanovic - nice piece of business by Benitez to capture him as he has some good stats

The other mistake I made was in forgetting that I would need 8 players who trained in England starting from 2010/11 (due to new rules). Unfortunately, the Liverpool squad is mainly comprised of foreign players and it meant that, in order to accommodate Aguero, Jovanovic and Obinna, I had to drop both Kyrgiakos and Degen. Luckily, I had managed to sign some young up and coming talent as cover.




Despite the mistakes, it was a good preseason which saw the side strengthened in a couple of key areas. This good feeling lasted until the board set their expectations for the year ahead. As usual, they didn't care about the League Cup but they did expect me to challenge for the premiership as well as reach the final of the FA Cup and the Champions Cup.

Really? I was expected to reach the final of the Champions Cup?

No f'ing pressure then...

FA and League Cup
The League Cup has been a funny experience this year. I planned to mainly play my second stringers in the League Cup this year but came up against Everton early on. What could I do? There was no way I was going to risk the wrath of the fans by being knocked out of a cup competition by Everton so I ended up playing my first team players for that game.

After Everton, we came up against Chelsea. The interesting thing was that 3 days after the League Cup game with Chelsea, we would then face Chelsea again in the 5th round of the FA cup. I stuck with my youth policy and played my second stringers so that I could save my first team players for the FA cup match with Chelsea. Somehow, and I don't know how, we managed to win the League Cup game but lost the FA cup game (albeit on penalties after ET).

We then had a couple of relatively easy games in the League Cup which gave us another cup final to look forward to. I played my first team again and we managed to retain the League Cup. Small recompense for not getting to the final of the FA cup but there you go.

Premiership
Liverpool started the season extremely well and took an early lead in the Premiership. Unfortunately, my team continued to struggle against "lesser" teams and it wasn't long before we started to drop points. Luckily for us, other teams dropped points as well and by the end of the season, the top of the table was pretty congested with Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham all within 3 points of each other.

Game 37 would see Liverpool take on Man City. At this point, Liverpool were top of the table and ahead of Man City by only 1 point. What a chance for Liverpool to seal off the Premiership!

Alas, we bottled it. We lost 1-0 and the Liverpool dressing room became very unwelcoming as the manager told his players exactly what he thought of them. All appeared lost as the only hope left was for Liverpool to win their last game against Middlesbrough while hoping that Stoke, who were close to relegation, somehow managed to beat Man City.

Game day 38 started with football fans the world over wondering how the season would end. Despite Liverpool starting brightly against Middlesbrough, they were unable to break down the Middlesbrough defence. Meanwhile, Man City had a player sent off and miraculously, Stoke were leading by 2-0!

As expected, the Liverpool dressing room at half time was witness to another expletive filled tirade as the manager tried to get his players to react and take advantage of Man City's misfortune. The second half started much as the first half ended - with Liverpool laying siege to Middlesbrough but unable to find a way through.

Meanwhile, Stoke shut up shop and, with an extra player on the pitch, managed to see out the win and save themselves from relegation. Could the bunch of bottlers at Liverpool take advantage of Man City's gift?

Well, could they?


The final league table - what a way to finish the season
Also - lets all laugh at Man Utd

Champions Cup
This is the big one. The most prestigious cup competition in the world (for clubs) with the biggest and best teams around. And I was expected to reach the final.

We managed to get through the group stage without any problems. We were also really lucky in the knockout stages as well as we managed to avoid the best teams until the semi-final where we came up against Bayern Munich. Despite that, we didn't exactly coast through as we generally only managed a 1-1 draw away from home before getting the home win which sent us through to the next round. Bayern Munich would be a much tougher nut to crack though.

And sure enough, Bayern Munich immediately showed their class by completely outplaying us in the first leg and beating us 3-2 at their home ground. Although we managed to get 2 away goals (2 lucky away goals completely against the run of play), I was furious at how badly we played. Still, it put us in a good position for the home leg (provided we could up our game that is). In the end, the home leg proved anti-climactic as Bayern had a defender sent off in the first half which ultimately gave us an easy victory.

And with that little piece of luck, we managed to get to the final of the Champions Cup and meet our Board expectations. Of course, the story wasn't quite over yet. We still had to play the Champions Cup final against .... Chelsea.

Chelsea? Again?

Blimey. Not only do we have an all English final but this will make it 5 games this season where we have faced off against Chelsea. The last time we played Chelsea was in the FA cup which went to ET and penalties before we got knocked out. And would you believe it - the Champions Cup final also went to ET and penalties. Not exactly a good omen for Liverpool.


Good thing I don't believe in Omens!

In the end, Reina did a Reina special and won us the Champions Cup! What a way to end his Liverpool career!

I guess now is a good time to mention that halfway through the season, Reina decided he wanted a new challenge and wanted to leave. Bastard.

The Squad
Here is a snapshot of my squad as at year end.







As with last year, Stevie G was my best player in terms of his average rating. However, Aguero was my best attacking player as he managed to score 22 goals as well as get 19 assists. What a purchase! Well worth the GBP52 million.

I also played Torres a lot more sparingly this year which meant that he spent less time injured. Overall, he ended up playing more as a result and ended up with a much more respectable 21 goals. I also noticed a theme in that Torres tends to only play well when he is the lone striker. If he has a strike partner, he tends to do poorly.

Key themes
Expectations - Despite what I felt were unrealistic expectations from the Board, we managed to do extremely well and win both the Premiership and the Champions Cup. By any definition, this has been a good year. Given that, can anyone explain why the pissant fans aren't happier?


Lesser teams - My team continues to struggle and drop points against lesser teams. I really need to find a way to deal with this as it almost cost us the Premiership this year. I have no idea what I can do though.

Torres - Torres actually struggled with injuries at the start of the year in a similar fashion to last year (ie couldn't last 3 games without an injury). This was particularly worrying as Aguero was still settling in at that time. Ultimately, once Aguero settled, the whole team benefited as I was able to rotate players a lot more which probably ultimately resulted in less injuries overall.

HG squad - Another problem facing my squad is the lack of home grown players (ie players who trained in England). I'm going to have to be really careful about who I sign in the pre-season until the hot prospects which I've been signing left, right and centre graduate from the academy and into the first team.

Transfer targets - Unfortunately, my superstar GK wants to leave. Signing a replacement for him has to be a top priority over the pre-season. Assuming I get enough money, I also need to buy a right winger who can hug the touchline on the right side of the pitch. On the left, I have Babel and Riera which is a good mix of one player who cuts inside and one who hugs the touchline. Unfortunately, on the right side of the pitch, I don't have anyone who can swing a decent cross and I will need to rectify this to give me some more options in attack.

The importance of a good control scheme

One of the games I've been playing lately is Alan Wake, a survival horror game from Remedy Entertainment which is the same studio behind the classic third person shooter Max Payne. And in many ways, this shows in the game as it contains a lot of similar elements to Max Payne (such as the broody protagonist who likes the sound of his own voice a bit too much). Of course, the key difference is that Alan Wake is a survival horror game (although the developers are billing it as a psychological thriller).

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I do enjoy playing scary games. However, there is a big difference in style between a game like F.E.A.R., which is a shoot em up where you carry a boatload of heavy armament, and survival horror games like Alan Wake where you spend half your time worrying if you are going to have enough ammo for your pistol.

Believe it or not, Alan Wake is actually the first survival horror game that I have ever played. I was interested in Dead Space but it came out around the time when I was boycotting EA which is why I skipped it. I was also interested in the Resident Evil games but never got into them because of the horrible control scheme.

And this is really the first thing worth mentioning about Alan Wake. The game controls like every other TPS on the market and feels great because of it. You can strafe left or right, you can sprint (but only over short distances), you can walk in one direction while looking in a different direction (also known as turning your head). You never feel like you are fighting the clumsy control scheme instead of the monsters which inhabit the darkness. Ultimately, the control scheme makes the whole game better simply because it allows me to focus on the story instead of thinking about how I'm going to control my avatar.

And having played Alan Wake, it just makes it even more incomprehensible why the Resident Evil series continues to use an old and outdated control scheme.

FM2010 - Season 2009/10

And so ends my first season in charge of Liverpool. Season 2009/10 has come to a close and overall, its been a good year. If nothing else, at least we finally managed to get rid of Hicks.

The dreams of Liverpool fans the world over are finally realised

Premiership
Unfortunately, the story from the first half of the season continued as my team maintained their good run of games against top opposition while struggling to beat "lesser" teams. In addition to beating Tottenham (which I talked about last week), we also managed to beat Man Utd and get a great win against Arsenal.


At this point, I'm pretty sure that everyone is wondering how Arsenal managed to lose this game. They controlled the game from start to finish, scored an early goal and even had a man up late in the second half. And then they missed the penalty. That gave my players some hope and some damn fine counter-attacking play saw us score two goals to get the win!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to beat Chelsea. I intended to play that match with a heavily defensive mindset. I figured that with the number of older players at Chelsea, they would tire late in the match. All I had to do was hold onto the ball and force them to chase after it (with Chelsea being at home, they would feel that they have to attack) until they got tired at which point, I could start my own attack. All was going to plan until Lampard scored with an absolute screamer of a free kick and after that, their players stopped chasing after the ball.


As you can see, Chelsea defended well which meant that I was restricted to long shots.

That defeat by Chelsea was probably critical considering the final league table.

So, so close.
Also - lets all laugh at Spurs! :D

Cup form
The board expectations for my Liverpool squad were to reach the final of the FA cup and the semi-final of the Champions Cup.

I managed to get to the semi-final of the Champions Cup where I went up against Real Madrid. Unfortunately, Real Madrid then proceeded to give me a masterclass in attacking football. My team were not only beaten but completely humiliated 4-0 away from home. Unfortunately, the home leg wasn't much better as they completely controlled the match until late in the second half when they went all out defence. The only consolation was that we managed to score two late goals by throwing everyone forward and ended up winning the home leg 2-1.

As you already know, we were knocked out of the FA cup by Man Utd in the fourth round at which point, I made the League cup a priority. Fate would give us a chance at revenge against Man Utd as we came up against them in the final of the League cup. It was a chance that my team would grab with both hands!


woohoo - silverware in my first season in charge! I can only imagine how furious Fergie must have been at being completely outplayed

The squad
Lastly, here is a summary of my squad as at the year end.




As you can see, Stevie G was easily the best player in my team. 18 goals and 14 assists mean that he was my most important attacking player and was also the most consistent player over the course of the season.

Torres was a huge disappointment. He had constant injury problems throughout the year and, although he started 28 games, the reality was that in a lot of those games, he wasn't really match fit. In addition to all that, he also suffered a huge dip in form in the second half of the season. Frankly, 13 goals is pathetic for a player of his standing.

On the other hand, David N'Gog has been a revelation. Can you believe he was my top scorer! He got into the team primarily because Torres was spending so much time injured and, other than a dip in form midway through the season, he did a fantastic job considering his age.

Key themes
World Class Striker - my team desperately needs a world class striker. Torres is spending way too much time injured and I just can't rely on him to be there when I need him. I already have my eye on several candidates and if Torres isn't careful, his status in the squad is going to drop fast.

Injuries - my team have been blighted by injuries this year. There were several times over the course of the season where I had to play players from my reserves because there was literally no-one in the first team who was fit to play. Hopefully, this is only a one-off. Although I fully expect injuries to be an issue in future seasons, with a bit of luck, it won't be as bad as it has been this season.

Reserves - the injuries also highlighted another serious issue with my Liverpool squad. I have absolutely dreadful players in the reserves and under 18's and anytime I fielded one of them, it was a serious weakening of the tam. With the exception of 1 or 2 players, none of them have any potential worth talking about. In addition to a world class striker, I seriously need to buy in a crop of young up and coming players (particularly with the requirement next season that I have 8 players who trained in England).

Conclusion
Overall, I have to say that its been a good year. I managed to get some silverware and meet board expectations in the Champions Cup and the Premiership (in fact, if it hadn't been for the injury crisis, I may even have been able to win it this year). Granted, the board were upset that I got beat in the 4th round of the FA cup but they did acknowledge that it was Man Utd who knocked me out.

Considering that we got new management midway through the year and that those American losers are no longer in charge, I might even get some transfer kitty to buy a world class striker and win next year.

The future is bright. The future is Red.

FM 2010 - Tottenham vs Liverpool

One of the great things about the most recent version of Football Manager is the increased options you have during a match to influence the outcome of that match. Just like with real football, having the right tactics won't guarantee a win as you still need the players on the pitch to execute. However, there is no greater feeling than when they do execute after you identify a gap.

Below is one of those occasions where everything came together perfectly.

You may recall from last weeks post that Tottenham came to Anfield early on in the season and spanked me 2-0. This meant that when it was our turn to travel to White Hart Lane, I really wanted a win. Of course, the fact that Spurs were doing really well and I was in danger of ending up in 5th place in the Prem added extra spice to this fixture.

The lead in to the fixture itself didn't particularly favour us. Both Glen Johnson and Philipp Degen were injured (although Johnson had just returned to full training) so I had to play Carragher as RB (there was also a period in the season when all 3 were injured and I had to play a reserve RB in that position). In addition, both Gerrard and Torres were out injured as well.

Considering the relatively weak team I was being forced to field, I went with a 4-5-1 formation with Kuyt up front. Basically, I was hoping to catch them on the counter. As expected, Tottenham sensed the weakness in my team and, as it was a home fixture for them, they went all out attack straight from the start.

In the first half, they pretty much controlled the game and managed to get a goal to put themselves 1-0 up. However, I noticed that their wingers were really pushing forward in an attempt to get goals so I told my team to clear the ball to the flanks. This paid off as Kuyt managed to score a goal on the counter just after the second half started.

Unfortunately, after that, Spurs just resumed their siege of my goal line and just as I was beginning to think I might be able to steal a draw, Jonathon Woodgate popped his head up in the 80th minute to score a goal and put Spurs up 2-1. With another defeat on the cards, I figured what the hell and changed up my tactics. I changed the positioning to fluid (they had previously been rigid as I wanted them to keep their shape and defend) and put my team on all out attack while Spurs decided to try and defend their one goal lead.

Unbelievably, Babel managed to score a goal in the 86th minute to level us at 2-2. At this point, Spurs changed back to an attacking mentality and I considered moving back to a defensive one. However, it occurred to me that, scoring so quickly after they did, the match momentum may well have swung to Liverpool. I decided to leave my team on all out attack.

One last thing, in the 68th minute, I had brought on Albert Riera and placed him on the right winger position with instructions to cut inside. In effect, he was playing in the inverted winger position.

In summary, by this point in the game, my team were playing fluid positional football with an all out attack mentality. My defenders had been told to clear the ball to the flanks and Albert Riera was playing as an inverted winger. By now, I'm sure you can guess where this is going!
:)

In the 95th minute, my Liverpool side produced a moment of magic that had me leaping out of my chair and screaming like a nutjob.

The move actually started with a Spurs attack.


Here you can see Jenas running at my defence. Crouch (at the bottom of the screen) had just passed the ball to him after drawing in two defenders (git). At this point, I was actually quite worried. If Jenas got past Agger, he would have a clear run on goal.


Of course, the key word in that last statement was "if". Agger managed to get the tackle in and we got the ball back deep in our own defence.


With my instructions to clear to flanks, he immediately knocked the ball up to Riera on the right wing. You can see exactly why I told my defenders to clear to flanks in this screenshot. Look how much space Riera has here as the Spurs players have pushed quite far forward.


Riera takes a step inside and spots the run of Babel on the opposite flank. Using his natural left foot (and justifying my decision to put him on the right wing) he lobs a beautiful ball over the top of the defence.


Babel manages to get in between the defenders and has a clear run on the GK.


With Babel's speed, there was no way that the Spurs defenders were going to catch up. Knocking the ball ahead of himself, he catches up with it just as he gets inside the penalty box.


At this point, its a simple job for him to slot it past Gomes and into the bottom corner. The game finishes 3-2 and I have my revenge!



A couple of final screens showing the overall match stats. As you can see, we were outplayed by Spurs in that they controlled possession and had lots more shots on goal. Having said that, I do feel that my Liverpool side deserved the win as my tactics were spot-on, both for the overall match and for the specifics which lead to the above goal.

Bear in mind that my team were playing counter-attacking football so you would expect Spurs to have more possession and more shots on goal. However, if you look at the numbers closely, you will find that of the 22 shots on goal that they had, 17 of them were from long range. Over the course of the match, they only had 1 clear cut chance and 5 shots from close range. Compare that to the 3 clear cut chances and 9 shots from close range for my Liverpool side.