FM11: Blackpool - A New Era

[hedger_14]

We have drawn At. Madrid in the first KO Round of the Champions League.

I don't think I'm going to continue this really though with FM12 coming out and I'm planning on writing a new story.

I'm still pretty proud that I got through 18 pages of this story Broken my record in this section by a long way

 

[Bevab]

Haha, its 19. You have got an automatic promotion.

I would like you to end the season and then end the story on a good note.

 

[JBlues08]

Haha, its 19. You have got an automatic promotion.

I would like you to end the season and then end the story on a good note.

Agree with Bevab on that one. End this story with a flourish before starting a new one with FM12.

 

[hedger_14]

Ok then.

 

[hedger_14]

Great result against Arsenal away from home to push Arsenal down into 4th place while we lead by 2 points to Man City at the top. Rodrigo had another great game on the left wing with a beautiful finish while Phil Jones took the MOTM award with his 5th goal of the season. We fully deserved the win though creating the best of the chances with most of Arsenal's shots coming from long range and not really troubling Caballero that often.

 

[hedger_14]

It's games like these which really annoys me. Liverpool didn't even deserve to draw although with our horrendous finishing, we didn't really deserve to win.

 

[hedger_14]

Well I never thought Giovani dos Santos would be such a huge impact in his first match back from injury. He opened the scoring after 27 minutes before winning the penalty which Charlie Adam converted. He was again in the action when he drew the foul which saw Dikgacoi see red. Minutes after the break, he won the penalty which Charlie Adam missed. Romano scored his 4th goal of the season meanwhile before Goodwillie ended his goal draught with a tap in but I'm really in search for a new striker and will likely be bringing one in during January. I'm not really caring about price as it will be over 48 months and I'm not planning on continuing after this season

----------

Also, just to make my day better

And here's the table going into January.

Meanwhile, Phil Jones has won the European Defender of the Year award with 56 appearances, 11 goals, 4 assists and an average rating of 7.49, ahead of Gerard Pique (Barcelona) and Simon Kjaer (Leverkusen) and has been named in the World Team of the Year first team after being named on the bench last year.

Tarik Brack has now won the Young Player of the Month award for the past 3 months I won the Manager of the Month for the first time this year as well.

----------

Blackpool have confirmed the signing of 26 year old Italian striker, Alberto Paloschi for a huge sum of ?20.5M over 48 months from Zenit. With his finishing ability and great pace and off the ball skills, he will be hoping to get on the end of Blackpool's attacking moves. He could play in Blackpool's match against Man Utd tomorrow.

 

[hedger_14]

Beautiful win against Man Utd. It took a bit longer than expected to find the breakthrough but it was always coming. We completely dominated the match, although the first half was more revolved around keeping the ball and frustrating United and the stats showed that with over 70% of possession going into the break and a pass completion rate of 91%. Paloschi was subbed at half-time and Goodwillie made the most of his appearance off the bench breaking the deadlock with a powerful strike after 67 minutes. Phil Jones scored a beauty minutes later before Romano added a third from a corner just before full-time.

 

[hedger_14]

Goodwillie kept his spot despite Paloschi's first goal for the club the previous week in their 2-0 FA Cup win over Leyton Orient. Goodwillie made the most of his chance back in the starting XI with a superb hattrick, and although the 20M pounds spent on Paloschi hadn't paid off in his performances in the league so far, it was certainly making Goodwillie more determined to keep his spot with now 5 league goals in the last 3 games.

 

[hedger_14]

It took long enough but Paulo Henrique finally scored his first league goal for Blackpool with an absolute stunner before scoring a second later in the match. Paloschi in his third appearance found the back of the net for the first time with a precise finish.

 

[hedger_14]

This is tweaking stupid. Because of the Four Associations Tournament, I miss 5 players (Adam, Goodwillie, Hodson, Cathcart and Eardley) for the 1st leg of the knockout stages so I have no right fullback and noone can really play there. Well Brack is competent there but still. Missed them for the match against Wolves as well where we only just managed to win taking a brace from Marcio off the bench to score the opening goal after 80 minutes before setting up Rodrigo's 91st minute goal, with Wolves scoring a late consolation as we won 2-1.

 

[hedger_14]

Well a great comeback win although we deserved it after a dominant performance controlling the game throughout. Paloschi and Mertesacker scored off the bench while Giovani dos Santos led the way with a couple of assists, setting up the penalty as well as Paloschi's goal while Charlie Adam scored a penalty before adding an assist to take his tally to 9 goals and 7 assists for the season.

 

[JBlues08]

What happened in the match against Atletico Madrid?

 

[hedger_14]

We lost 3-2. Didn't want to post it cause it was stupid though that I was missing half of my team.

 

[hedger_14]

Well a stunning performance from Paulo Henrique who was at the heart of every Blackpool attack helped them on their way to a 3-1 win to take a 5-4 aggregate win. It took only 20 minutes to score the opening goal when Henrique played a beautiful ball in behind the defence and Bebe was there to finish and score his first goal of the season before Paulo Henrique doubled the lead 4 minutes later pouncing on the rebound from Stewart Downing's shot to smash past the helpless keeper and take a 2-0 lead going into half-time. Atletico pulled one back when Sergio Aguero found the back of the net but Paulo Henrique was in the action when he played a beautiful ball in behind for Bebe who squared it back for substitute, Giovani dos Santos to take a 2 goal lead. As Atletico looked for a goal to take Blackpool to extra time, Blackpool hit them on the counter in stoppage time as Paulo Henrique again played a beautiful ball in behind for Vinicius who couldn't make it 4 but it was still a comfortable 3-1 win. Paulo Henrique was not surprisingly named MOTM with a goal, an assist, 6 key passes and completed 42/45 passes.

David Moyes meanwhile has been sacked by Arsenal after a run of poor performances which saw them go from 1st place with 10 wins from 10 games down to 7th place, having only won 7 of their last 18 matches with 8 losses and 3 draws. I'm the favourite to take the job but I've already denied all speculation, while other managers linked to the job are Michael Laudrup (unemployed following a 3 year spell with Man Utd), Paulo Sergio (unemployed following a 3 year spell with Liverpool) and Franco Baldini, Arsenal's current assistant manager.

----------

Hugo Sanchez has also been appointed as Liverpool's new manager following the sacking of Paulo Sergio.

----------

Michael Laudrup has been appointed as Arsenal's new manager.

Champions Cup 1st KO Round Results:

CSKA Moscow 0 - 8 Real Madrid
At. Madrid 4 - 5 Blackpool
Valencia 6 - 4 Porto
Zenit 0 - 4 Barcelona
Man Utd 2 - 1 FC Bayern
Benfica 4 - 3 Juventus
Anderlecht 1 - 5 Schalke
OM 2 - 4 AC Milan


Quarter Final Fixtures:

Real Madrid v Barcelona
Blackpool v Valencia
Benfica v Schalke
AC Milan v Man Utd