A Swede in Swansea

[Iapetus]

So, here it is, my first FM story! I've wanted to do one of these for quite a while now and the last few months of FM 2014's life seemed like an appropriate time to do it. My plan at the beginning of this was to take the job of whichever team was the first that happened to be both bottom of the table and managerless, and Swansea have turned out to be the (un)lucky ones here. I'll be trying to make this as detailed as I can while still making quick progress, so I hope everybody enjoys!
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[jdenzy]

Liking the look so far, Will be reading =]

 

[Iapetus]

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[Iapetus]

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]Name[/TD]
[TD]Erik Olof Mellberg[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Age[/TD]
[TD]36 (3 September 1977)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Place of Birth[/TD]
[TD]Gullspång, Sweden[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Playing History[/TD]
[TD]Degerfors IF (1995-1996)
AIK (1996-1997)
Racing Santander (1997-2000)
Aston Villa (2000-2007)
Juventus (2007-2008)
Olympiakos (2008-2011)
Villarreal (2011-2012)
Copenhagen (2012-2013)
Sweden (1999-2011)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Philosophies[/TD]
[TD]Attacking football
Youth development
Domestic player bias[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Liberty Stadium


[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[TD]Capacity
20,750

Built
2005

Owner
Council

Dimensions
115x74[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

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[Iapetus]

The Table

It's been a horrific start to the season for the club, but I've been brought in with plenty of games left and I feel there's more than enough time to make a success of our season.

The Squad

We have a fairly good squad, one that should certainly be avoiding relegation. Midfield is a particularly strong area, with the only thing lacking being a true "destroyer" type. Shelvey and Sigurdsson are extremely classy players who should pull the strings for us and create a lot of opportunities for our pacy wide players.

Under Garry Monk, the club lost its captain and best centre back in Ashley Williams for a paltry sum of £4.7mil, and replaced him with Ryan Shotton who simply isn't on the same level. Modibo Maiga was also added to the ranks, but with the power up front, it's hard to see him getting a game.

Key Player

Wilfried Bony's form will be crucial in deciding where we end up. If we want to survive and push on from there, he'll need to be banging in the goals on a regular basis, and there's no doubt he has the talent and power to do that.
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[Iapetus]

View attachment 342927
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A very pleasing point, especially considering the circumstances. Despite being a man down, they struggled to deal with our high pressing style and we dominated possession. I thought we had won it after Bony nicked a goal from a corner, but Jedinak scored a flukey goal from outside the box.

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Faultless performance from the lads! Jordi Amat was unbeatable at the back, Sigurdsson was at his creative best and Montero's pace was a constant threat.

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Rangel scored a goal that a winger would be proud of here, beating his fullback and smashing it into the far corner. It was a game of few chances and we never really looked like conceding.

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What a win, and an unexpected one at that! We lost Amat, Montero, Ki and Shotton to injury in the build up to this game but it didn't make any difference as we blew them away. Sigurdsson notched 2 assists and Jazz Richards did a great job fitting into central midfield. The only bad thing is we picked up another injury, with Taylor set to be out for 3 weeks. Hopefully Tiendalli will step up.

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Losing it late was disappointing but to be honest we didn't deserve anything out of the game anyway. We never really got going and rarely threatened.

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Very happy with a hard fought win, but the bad news is Bony broke his ankle and is out for 3 months. Gomis is yet to score under me and he's gonna have to step it up with some very tough games ahead.

Monthly Review

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It's been a great start for me personally, winning 3 more games in the space of a month than the club had in 12 games prior to my arrival. We've put a bit of daylight between us and the relegation zone which could be vital considering the fixtures coming up in January.

December Player of the Month

View attachment 342912
Appearances: 6 (0)
Goals: 1
Assists: 0
Player of the Match: 2
Average Rating: 7.42

Rangel had a great month for us, nullifying the threat of opposition wingers entirely and being very adventurous going forward.

Next Month

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This could get ugly...

Transfer Rumours
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[Tracz]

Great start to the story,
amazing photoshop work with olaf and the swansea scarf,
Done well with your results so far, pitty about the next run, should be able to progress in the cup though,
and any points you get from that run are a bonus, and atleast you wont have a run like that at the end of the season,

 

[Calder95]

Great start to this story, really enjoying it so far so hope you maintain it! I gather you got some layout ideas from Brendan's Liverpool story which was a big hit.

Keep up the good work and look forward to more.

 

[Iapetus]

Great start to the story,
amazing photoshop work with olaf and the swansea scarf,
Done well with your results so far, pitty about the next run, should be able to progress in the cup though,
and any points you get from that run are a bonus, and atleast you wont have a run like that at the end of the season,

That's true. Better to get it out of the way now than have to deal with the disappointment later.

Great start to this story, really enjoying it so far so hope you maintain it! I gather you got some layout ideas from Brendan's Liverpool story which was a big hit.

Keep up the good work and look forward to more.

Thanks! It's true about the layout, I didn't want it to seem like I was straight up plagiarizing it so I changed a few things and stepped up the Photoshop game a little, but I felt like his style was ideal and every idea I had about layouts kept coming back to that.

 

[Iapetus]

View attachment 342353
January


View attachment 342352

If it wasn't for Bony being injured, we maybe could have won this. We had more chances, and better ones at that, but simply couldn't put them away.

View attachment 342350

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I used this as an opportunity to give a few of my fringe players an opportunity. Kingsley, Richards, King and Emnes all started and impressed. Capoue also made his debut and was very solid at breaking up the play, something we had been missing a little.

View attachment 342353

View attachment 342347

Great result! Gomis picked up a knock in the build up to the game so I started Maiga up front and he did brilliantly, scoring, assisting and winning MOTM. Our defence was excellent too, all of them doing their bit to stop Tottenham creating many chances.

View attachment 342348

Delighted to pick up a point here, and on the balance of play, we probably deserved it. We played 5 at the back for the majority of the game and City didn't threaten much as a result, their goal coming through an unlucky error by Shelvey.

View attachment 342346

United were very lucky to leave this game with 11 men on the pitch, the ref was ridiculously lenient. Anyway, it was another game in which we matched up against a big side and looked every bit as good as them, so that was very pleasing, even if we didn't get the result we maybe deserved. Coates made his debut and was our best player, so he looks like a great buy.

View attachment 342345

I could hardly believe what I was seeing here. Liverpool didn't turn up at all and given the way the game went, they'll probably be happy they only lost by 3. If it wasn't for some wasteful finishing, this could have been 5 or 6. Capoue absolutely ran the show, having the most passes, headers, tackles and also grabbing a goal and an assist. Gomis finally scored for me and hopefully that'll be the start of a good run for him. He's looked short on confidence and this should do him the world of good.

View attachment 342349

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This ended up being a showcase of our younger talent, really. Stephen Kingsley walked away with MOTM, while Andy King helped himself to his 2nd assist in 2 games. Promising winger Kenji Gorre also made his debut for us and looked dangerous. Fulham might be 8th in the Championship but I still think they're decent opposition so it was good to see the kids slot in so well against a strong side.

Monthly Review

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That month went far better than I ever expected. Even in the two games we lost, we looked like worthy opposition against teams that on paper are far superior to us, and we ended up finishing the month with an extra 7 points, taking us into the top half. The amount of parity in the bottom half is startling, though, and we could slip right back down there with just one bad result. Too early to say we're safe, but the future is certainly looking brighter. We also managed to snap up Lucas Piazon on loan from Chelsea on deadline day, who will compete with Montero for the starting left wing role.

View attachment 342336

January Player of the Month

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Etienne Capoue was terrific in his first month as a Swansea player. Not only is he reliable at breaking up the play, he's capable of taking the game by the scruff of the neck and making things happen for us.

Appearances: 4 (1)
Goals: 1
Assists: 1
Player of the Match: 1
Average Rating: 7.38

Next Month

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Not easy games by any means, but we're certainly capable of taking points off these teams. QPR, Everton and Newcastle are all involved in the relegation scrap.

Transfers

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