FM11: Blackpool - A New Era

[JBlues08]

Finally, you scored more than one goal in a match.

How's the league table looking right now?

 

[hedger_14]

Yeah, reverted back to my normal 4-2-2-2 formation

Surprising win at Everton looking at the stats. And yes, I have changed to the dark skin

 

[JBlues08]

Yeah, reverted back to my normal 4-2-2-2 formation

Does that mean you're playing Henrique in the CM position?

 

[hedger_14]

Yeah, just rotating a bit. Playing Henrique/Adam as an advanced playmaker and either play N'Zonzi as a Ball Winning Midfielder or play Adam as a deep lying playmaker, considering N'Zonzi got himself a 3 match suspension for a red card.

 

[hedger_14]

A comfortable 4-1 win against West Brom, David Goodwillie leading the way with a double. Marcio hit a perfect direct free kick from long range to score his first league goal of the season having scored 5 in 6 games in Cup/European matches. A nice header from Romano just before half-time resulted in the centre half's first goal in the league for Blackpool since joining. There's still no stopping Arsenal though who have won all 10 of their opening games while two consecutvive losses for Blackburn mean we move above them after a point at Tottenham and this win against West Brom.

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Well Arsenal 100% record was finally broken with a 1-1 draw against Everton but I only managed a 1-1 draw against Chelsea at home as well.

 

[JBlues08]

Before this, it's all 1 goal in a game. Now, it's all 4!

Just wondering, with the great work you have done with Blackpool, have any of the bigger clubs come offering the manager job to you before?

 

[hedger_14]

Just wondering, with the great work you have done with Blackpool, have any of the bigger clubs come offering the manager job to you before?

No, I don't think so. Even though I've been speculated to take the job at the huge clubs I've just denied all speculation linking me to the job and say that I'm staying at Blackpool. Mainly cause I don't want to leave Blackpool

The annoying thing is though that I applied for the Scottish job but still didn't get it (Following the EURO Championship)

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Our first loss of the season as our poor record against Man City continues, having now lost the last 4 games although two have been neutral venues (FA Cup Final and Community Shield) and the two others have been away league games. We've only managed three league wins in 13 games and only once away from home along with 4 draws.

 

[hedger_14]

Blackburn after a promising start to the season have sunk to their 4th defeat in 5 games as they drop to 6th place. The decision to play Rodrigo on the left wing proved a great decision as he scored the first goal and set up Goodwillie for his second while making a few good runs in a MOTM performance. Unfortunately, the loss of Giovani dos Santos is very unfortunate, after a great start to the season with 3 goals and 5 assists in 11 appearances but will now be missing for 5-6 weeks with a broken arm.

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I've only just realised now how injury prone Giovani dos Santos is. Since April 2011, he has missed over 20% of his career through injury (475 of 2094 days approx. once he comes back from his leg injury)

 

[hedger_14]

Holy ????. I always love to test new things against weaker teams and decided to change to a more solid formation based more on keeping the ball. I never expected this type of dominance though. Even though 2 goals came from set pieces, it could have easily been 5 or 6 goals had Goodwillie not had an off night, having 6 shots on goal but couldn't find the back of the net before I brought Marcio on and he scored pretty much straight away. Tactics, well a normal backline with 4 defenders on default settings (was thinking of putting full backs on attack but decided to make sure we were solid defensively so automatic), 2 defensive midfielders, N'Zonzi as an Anchor Man and Jones as a deep lying playmaker with run with ball set to often. He was fantastic during the game. Completed 97 of 102 passes (Pretty unbelievable for who is normally a centre half), made no errors defensively, 6 intercepts and 1 run. Paulo Henrique was set to advanced playmaker attack with run from deep set to often so he comes deep to get the ball. Rodrigo and Kalou are set as inside forwards, although I set wide play to normal so I might change that. And Goodwillie as an advanced forward.

 

[Bevab]

Amazing possession game.

 

[hedger_14]

haha, Man Utd have sacked Michael Laudrup. I'm the favourite to take the job but I won't be leaving Other top class managers linked with the post are Carlo Ancelotti who hasn't managed in club football since being sacked by Chelsea in 2011 while having left the English post earlier this year, Laurent Blanc who also hasn't managed in club football since 2010 and also left his positon as French manager and Antonio Alvarez, the current Spanish U19 manager who also hasn't managed in club football since 2010. Who will be the next Man Utd manager though?

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We did just enough to secure first place in our Champions League. The draw for Zenit meant they just did enough to secure 2nd place after Dortmund beat Sparta Prague. Will be interesting to see who we draw. Really hope it's a nice draw as we really need Champions League prize money to keep the finances steady with our horrible ground which we will have to play at for another two years. We will play one of the following:

CSKA Moscow (Finished runner up to Porto)
Valencia (Finished runner up to AC Milan)
Man Utd (Finished runner up to Schalke - after losing their last game to Schalke which made them second and got Laudrup fired )
Anderlecht (Finished runner up to Barcelona)
Benfica (Finished runner up to FC Bayern)
At. Madrid (Finished runner up to Juventus)
OM (Finished runner up to Real Madrid)

 

[JBlues08]

Have you tried that against a big team?

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haha, Man Utd have sacked Michael Laudrup. I'm the favourite to take the job but I won't be leaving Other top class managers linked with the post are Carlo Ancelotti who hasn't managed in club football since being sacked by Chelsea in 2011 while having left the English post earlier this year, Laurent Blanc who also hasn't managed in club football since 2010 and also left his positon as French manager and Antonio Alvarez, the current Spanish U19 manager who also hasn't managed in club football since 2010. Who will be the next Man Utd manager though?

Michael Laundrup is current managing Man City in my save.

CSKA Moscow (Finished runner up to Porto)
Valencia (Finished runner up to AC Milan)
Man Utd (Finished runner up to Schalke - after losing their last game to Schalke which made them second and got Laudrup fired )
Anderlecht (Finished runner up to Barcelona)
Benfica (Finished runner up to FC Bayern)
At. Madrid (Finished runner up to Juventus)
OM (Finished runner up to Real Madrid)

You can definitely count United out since you can't face an English opposition yet in the Last 16. Getting anyone from the other 6 there should be a straightforward tie, I think.

 

[hedger_14]

Nah, I haven't. Only a 2-0 win against Peterborough in the league since the Hull game.

 

[JBlues08]

Nah, I haven't. Only a 2-0 win against Peterborough in the league since the Hull game.

Try it.

Would like to see how it would work against the top teams with many players playing higher up the pitch.

 

[hedger_14]

I'm probably just going to drop Rodrigo and Kalou into normal wing positions. And I will try it, once I play some top teams

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Actually, I'm going to completely abandon that tactic and use the tactic I'm using with Barcelona I feel it would work fine although I don't have Lionel Messi on my team (Note this is actually a downloaded tactic with a couple of changes to suit me)

But yeah, looking at it:

GK: Ospina/Caballero

DL: Brack
DC: Jones
DC: Romano/Mertesacker/Cathcart
DR: Hodson

MCL: Henrique (Attack minded midfielder)
MC: N'Zonzi/Abdellaoui (Holding midfielder)
MCR: Adam (Playmaker)

AML: Rodrigo/Downing/Kalou (I feel Rodrigo would play well in this role due to his finishing but his dribbling isn't great)
AMR: Kalou/dos Santos

ST: Goodwillie/Marcio (Vinicius will be great once he reaches his potential as he already has 17 finishing and first touch as well as strength so all will probably be 19/20 once he reaches his potential)

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Arsenal are throwing away their title chances after losing 4 of their last 6 league games while one of the two wins was an 8-0 win against Hull. Actually, my next league match is away to Arsenal so hopefully can extend my lead at the top of the ladder.

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Carlo Ancelotti is Man Utd's new manager as well.