Brexit FC - A Manchester United Story

[rryanwilliams]

Brexit FC - A Manchester United Story

Back again for 2020 and I'm making this years first save with the team I support and go to watch regularly. I've said it every time but I'm hoping I can stick to this for the long term, and as seen by the title I have aims that I'm hoping to achieve further down the line. With the signings of Maguire, James and Wan Bissaka, and being linked to the likes of Maddison, Chilwell and Sancho you can start to understand the aims of the club for the future to prevent coming across the work permit issues.

These two go without saying and my aim for this season is to finish top four, while competing well in the Europa League. FA Cup and Carabao Cup isn't as important for me as it gives me the opportunity to play some youngsters and give them first team experience. As for signings, the first season I won't focus on it too much but from then on I would like to try and sign predominantly British players. I've added a database that increases TV revenue in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland with hope that more money will be injected into the clubs' facilities and can produce better players in the UK. Lets just hope and wish me luck ​

 

[rryanwilliams]

Assessing The Team

David De Sea still going strong as one of the worlds best with an amazing back up in Sergio Romero. Lee Grant looks to be retiring at the end of the season but we have Dean Henderson who could slot in as back up or third choice next season who still has great potential.

Some large depth in the centre back department but not necessarily great depth. Axel Tuanzebe will be our main back up or rotate with Lindelof but I will look to be offloading Bailly due to injury problems and maybe Rojo, but this area isn't as important to improve as other positions.

Our right back solution may finally be resolved in the signing of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, but Luke Shaw may not be good enough to be our regular starting left back so that is an area I will be looking to improve. There are a couple players in the U23's however who could play a part in the first team.

Here's the more interesting area for concern. Paul Pogba being our only standout centre mid and arguably our best player but still unsure on whether he wants to stay or leave the club. The likes of Pereira, McTominay and Fred aren't top four standard so I'll be looking for an extra centre mid to partner Pogba.

Despite being fairly young, Dan James could be the solution to our right wing problems while Mason Greenwood could also play there. Mata is past his prime now so I may look to sell him to still get a fair bit of money but looking forward to working with the pace and flair of this attack.



We also have a great crop of youngsters who I'd like to slowly integrate into the first team this season. Chong, Garner, Williams and Gomes are the top four who are most likely to be involved this season with others like Laird and Levitt who are not far behind. The standout youngster however is in the U18's, Hannibal Mejbri just signed this season for £9m from Monaco and has bags of potential.

This is the tactic I'll look to be starting with. Back to basics with how Alex Ferguson used to do it in a standard 4-4-2, but giving Rashford a more attacking role on the wing. Coming up against lower standard teams I'll go with an attacking approach, but against the top six I'll probably play a counter attacking approach but using the same formation, with the recent match against Man City being a perfect example and using the pace on the counter.​

 

[Extra Time FM]

Gotta love a 442. I love 2 striker formations.

Good luck!

 

[rryanwilliams]

Gotta love a 442. I love 2 striker formations.

Good luck!

Usually I'm one that favours a lone striker, but with this team I can't not go with two when you have Martial, Rashford and Greenwood all able to play there.

Thanks

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Gotta love a 442. I love 2 striker formations.

Good luck!

Even better a 4-4-2 that has 3 strikers!

 

[rryanwilliams]

Summer Transfers 2019

Outs

Not many outgoings but managed to see out most of the deadwood I wanted to. Mainly Matic, Lingard, Young and Mata right towards the end of the window for a fair bit of money otherwise they would have been sitting in the reserves while their value gets lower. I didn't want Garner and Levitt to leave on loan but the Director of Football had already accepted them, however I do have the option to recall them but I'll just see how they get on.

Ins

Karamoko Dembele - £9.5m

My first signing was Karamoko from Celtic for £9.5m upfront. With a £100m budget plus our sales I had a lot of targets especially for the long term and he was one of them, who can play in right midfield and has bags of potential.

Jude Bellingham - £20m

One of my favourite signings of the window with the potential he has, and despite his age I was willing to fork out £20m for him. Bellingham could already play a part in some cup matches and is already 6 foot tall at 16 with some good physical attributes so I'm looking forward to seeing his growth over the next couple of seasons.

Adama Traore - £20.5m

With our only midfield options being Daniel James and Dembele (who is only 16), I wanted a rotational player who could swap every now and again with James, and thought Adama could be a perfect fit. Adding more pace and flair to the attack and could be a good impact player.

Lucas Digne - £37.5m

In a couple of past saves before starting this I've always noticed Digne being one of the best left backs in the Prem so couldn't really not get him for around £20m initial fee rising to £37.5m. I was bearing in mind Shaw wouldn't be good enough to be my main starter and probably only good enough for back up, so just solidifying the back line now with two new full backs.

Erling Haaland - £23.5m

I was debating whether to wait until January or to sign him now, but with the potential he has there was no doubt he was going to be in double figures in goals at Salzburg which would undoubtedly increase his value, so I picked him up right on deadline day to partner Martial up front.

With a new 4-4-2 tactic it took some getting used to for our team to adapt, as we had a rough start losing to Spartak Moscow and drawing to Krasnodar. Nonetheless we ended pre season with three wins on the bounce however looking back, I feel I should've organised a couple more friendlies to allow the players to familiarise themselves with the tactic more.​

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Some very good signings there mate! Looking forward to seeing how things go this season.

 

[rryanwilliams]

Some very good signings there mate! Looking forward to seeing how things go this season.

Cheers mate

 

[rryanwilliams]

August 2019

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Ok, back for good now. Had to take a couple days break to finish some university work however I can commit to this more now and expect to see more regular posts. With a new formation and some new faces I'm hoping these players can make an instant impact but what a tough start they'll be having, as we start the season at home to Arsenal before travelling away to rivals Liverpool. Leicester is no walkover either.

A tough start at home, with five new debutants and a first premier league start for Greenwood. Fairly boring for the majority of the match until Rashford gave us the lead before Arsenal gave a quick reply under their new manager Freddie Ljungberg. Let me know if you want the screenshots of the results to just be the goalscorers, or also see the match stats and lineups.

A great result away to one of our biggest rivals and league favourites for the season, despite us actually having no one on the scoresheet and two own goals in quick succession.

A disappointing start going 2-1 down before half-time and Digne injuring his leg. However after going 3-1 down and with a couple of changes, Martial turned it around with a hat-trick before Daniel James claimed his first goal for the club. Pogba also being a standout player with two assists.

Our Europa group doesn't seem too difficult as we should see ourselves through to the knockout stages. Dinamo probably our toughest competition with the likes of Lovro Majer and Dani Olmo.

Martial continuing his early season form while Haaland picked up two assists on his debut and we end the month unbeaten. Always good to start the season on a high and give the players confidence for the next few games ahead.

A good start for several teams, as five including us remain unbeaten so far, however only Man City with a 100% positive start.​

 

[rryanwilliams]

September 2019

A tough run in the premier league this month after the international break, with Tottenham at home and Man City away at the end of the month. Our first Europa League group game sees us hosting Dinamo and we were also drawn at home to Crawley to start our Carabao Cup run which gives us chance to rotate the squad around.

A repeat of the result that occurred two years ago with the same goalscorer, but the only goal was all that was needed to secure the three points.

Nine changes to the lineup that beat Tottenham, but one too many changes as we could only get a point at home after going behind fairly early, however probably our toughest group fixture out of the way.

Back to back 1-1 draws this time away to Newcastle. Brandon Williams impressed against Dinamo so earned his first Premier League start which lasted only 46 minutes after getting sent off.

Again another opportunity to rest some key players for the City game and play some youngsters against Crawley. We did get a little scare though going behind after 22 minutes, Greenwood impressing with a brace but missed out on the hat-trick. An interesting fourth round draw though as we get to travel to the Emirates.

Fairly even all round in terms of shots and possession, but City probably had the better chances as well as clear cut. Both centre backs Maguire and Lindelof were our stand out players with De Gea getting man of the match.

I'm happy with how we're doing at the moment as we've yet to lose a game but dropping a few points from silly draws early are not what we want. The top five are as expected with Tottenham slipping away in the bottom half of the table under new manager Jose Mourinho.

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[rryanwilliams]

October 2019

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October arrives and I feel like we need to find an affiliate as we currently have none and would like to have a feeder team which we could potentially sign players from or send our youngsters out on loan to for some first team experience. We decide to go with Motherwell who have great youth facilities.

Six games this month as we continue our Carabao Cup run with a couple Europa League games. But first its travelling to Austria to face LASK midweek before we return to back to back Old Trafford games a few days later.

A couple rotations again for the Europa League fixture including a first start for Jude Bellingham who also manages to get on the scoresheet. A dominating performance for the full 90 minutes with 40 shots in total.

After going 1-0 up in the first 30 seconds I thought it'd be another thrashing similarly to LASK, but Southampton caught us on the counter with goals from Ings and Redmond and we couldn't capitalise after Martial missed a penalty. Thankfully Rashford's injury was only minor.

Bouncing back with a win after a brace from Haaland and Traore back in the lineup to replace the injured Rashford as he also grabs a goal.

Still remaining unbeaten in the group stages too with another win this time against Partizan. I've put Haaland on penalties now after Martial has missed his past two and Pereira with a solid man of the match performance.

A classic win at Stamford Bridge with two first half goals which was all that was needed and a standout performer in Pogba.

Four days after the win at Chelsea and we're back in London to face Arsenal, who knock us out of the Carabao Cup with a winner late on. Not really fussed as we rotated the lineup slightly and it's less fixtures to worry about.

Regardless of the Carabao Cup defeat, we're now the only unbeaten team in the league and gaining a gap on 5th place Bournemouth.​

 

[rryanwilliams]

November 2019

The club is currently very please with the entertaining football on show at Old Trafford at the moment, and no surprise either scoring many goals and remaining unbeaten in the league, hopefully we can continue this form going into November.

A few trips abroad sandwiched between four league games which all look like we should get four wins, and possibly advance to the Europa League knockout stages this month with a few games spare.

A great performance all round as we went with a counter approach and caught them on the break with our pace up front. Also a reason why not to leave the ground five minutes early when there could be another three goals in the game.

Securing our qualification with ease getting two goals in two minutes before Martial wrapping it up with another 94th minute goal.

Penalties missed from both teams but Martial's miss costing us to take a lead and probably change the dynamic of the match. Haaland's absence resulted in Martial taking the penalty which I was already 50/50 about having missed the last two himself. Boly's rebound from Neves' penalty miss and Jota's goal made it too much for us to come back from.

Perfect way to bounce back from a loss, with Wan-Bissaka, Fred and Rashford back into the starting lineup who were the standout players.

A chance to start some of the younger players now including Chong, Bellingham and Greenwood with Fosu-Mensah returning from injury and a fairly tight game with Rashford's goal making the difference.

Back to back 1-0 wins and back to back Rashford goals making it six this month for him as we couldn't find more goals past Mathew Ryan who was in form on the day.

Despite Rashford's form, Martial is also one not to forget about with his two braces against Burnley and Crystal Palace as he's the first United player to get a player of the month award this season.

Still four points off the top but we've overtook Arsenal now and slowly catching up on Liverpool. Bournemouth look like unexpected underdogs this season too with only two losses so far.​

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Some weird results but pleasing overall

 

[rryanwilliams]

December 2019

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This month looks to be decisive in how the second half of our season will go. All the games look winnable in the form we're in and we look to close the gap on Liverpool and Man City while the likes of Arsenal and Bournemouth are not too far behind us.

A game of two halves where we looked like we could be 3 or 4 nil up at half time with the chances we had. However the second half was a real scrap and could've gone either way. Pogba kept the team going and ran the midfield otherwise we may have struggled to hold the 1-0 lead.

Pogba unfortunately had a knock before this game so in stepped Fred and McTominay who linked well in midfield, with McTominay having a man of the match display.

A rotation in the lineup for our final group game as we finish with a thumping 5-0 win ending the group stages unbeaten breezing into the knockout stages. Haaland picked up man of the match with Traore, Greenwood and Chong close contenders.

Back with our full strength side, no injuries but Tuanzebe gets the nod over Lindelof to start at the back alongside Maguire due to good form. Haaland and Martial both continuing their goalscoring form too.

Couldn't have wrote it, after a shaky goalless first half Martial breaks the deadlock after 51 minutes before the former Everton player Lucas Digne scores against his former club and gains a 9.0 rating.

Ending the month winning every game as Greenwood scores in place of the injured Martial. Arguably our best month to date, with six out of six wins, fifteen goals scored and zero conceded.

After winning all our league games we overtake both Man City and Liverpool into first place despite them both having a game in hand, but we end the year at the top of the table.

Both draws done towards the end of the month too as we travel to Denmark for the first leg in the Europa League knockouts, while a more easier fixture in Leyton Orient for the start of our FA Cup campaign.



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