8 DEFEATS IN A ROW!!! - The other side of Barcelona

harrypal

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2012
Messages
53
Reaction score
0
Points
0
View attachment 335821

8 DEFEATS In a ROW!!! - the other side of​ Barcelona

I never managed a team in the Spanish league, so decided to have a go at it and chose RCD Espanyol, the other side of FC Barcelona.


The expectation was to achieve a decent mid table finish and also the board want me to give opportunities to the club’s youngsters.

The team had some decent players, most of them were young. The best player was highly rated center half Hector Moreno, valued around €13 m. Also we had striker Christian Stuani with really good stats, midfielders Baena, Wakaso, striker Sergio Garcia, veterans Simao and Petrov, etc.


TRANSFERS

The transfer budget was €0, so obviously looked for some loan signings. Signed Enzo Perez and Inigo Perez from Benfica and Athletic Club respectively.

TACTICS

Almost all Spanish teams play either 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 (deep), so I opted to go with the trend and chose a variation of 4-2-3-1 (deep).

Good start to the campaign

We started the season really well with some good wins and a couple of draws, which helped us occupy the top half of the table. New signing Enzo Perez scored on his debut, a match winning goal, so things looked really bright.


8 DEFEATS in a row!!!

The worst series of results I suffered in my FM life. We played Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla all in this run of poor results. Our performance wasn’t that bad during this run, but failing to take chances proved costly and also many of our key players got injured. We also got knocked out of the Cup by a second division side. It was EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING AND DISAPPOINTING, but I stuck with my team, more importantly the board stuck with me thanks to our decent league position and also the board was happy with the number of young players that I gave opportunity to in the first team.

View attachment 335825

The horrible run ended with a dramatic 4-3 win against Celta de Vigo. In this game we were 2-0 down, but a sensational come back made it 3-2 for us, but they scored again, but we managed to score a late winner to end our disappointing run.

View attachment 335826

We were 16th in the table at one point and never dropped down to the relegation zone, again thanks to our good start to the season.


The season finished with some pretty good results. We beat Valencia 2-1 at home and managed to get points against Real Madrid and Barca, both at home. A 1-1 draw against Real Madrid and a brilliant goalless draw against our bitter rivals Barcelona.

Espanyol 2-1 Valencia
View attachment 335827

Espanyol 0-0 Barcelona
View attachment 335828


All results

View attachment 335829

View attachment 335830

League Table

View attachment 335831


P.S.: Barcelona's draw against us cost them 2 massive points, that was a great feeling as they were closing in on Real Madrid in the title race, which they eventually lost.


Cheers!!!
 
Last edited:
Top