Cracking the top 4

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August & September Review​

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Looking back I would have to say it has been a really positive start to the season. Just the one defeat and a narrow one at that to Manchester City (Exlcluding the two leg victory over Besiktas which involved a loss) has seen us play some really good football, the problem comes now when we are destroyed by injuries.
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Early days in the Premier League but the Manchester clubs are storming away at the front again, with a perfect start for the red half of Manchester. I am still fully expecting City to be the main threat for the title, we just have to hang with them and see what we can do. While I appreciate just how early it really is, I just dont see Brentford having the quality to stay up.

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An unbeaten start in Europe as we pick up two draws against Monaco and Benfica. Our two matches against Basel are going to be crucial to qualification.

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And just to make matters even better we have been handed a really tough away draw against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup. This could be a real chance for the youngsters as with the injuries we have and the board not seeing this competition as important, we could try a few untested kids.
Player of the Month​
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A shared honour this month as Gareth Bale and Ross Barkley both impress. Bale started off the season with two consecutive hatricks to get us off to a flyer but sadly broke his foot shortly after to halt his progress. From that point Ross Barkley has picked up the strain in the midfield and has shown some real quality, grabbing two goals and creating four assists in his first six appearances.
October Preview​
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This is going to be a tough one, especially with the injuries we have sustained. 5 games in two weeks including trips to Anfield and Stamford Bridge is going to be hard on the legs and we have a massive game against Basel in the Champions League. Add on top of that our need to try and stay with the Manchester Clubs in the Premiership and games against struggling Brentford and Palace start to look really important.
 
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Starting XI - Courtois, Whiteman, Van Dijk, Tah, Chambers, Maia, Barkley, Hesketh, Martial, Villalba, Williamson.

I apparently spoke far too soon about Brentford and probably deserved that. We absolutely smashed them, but Simon Mignolet in their goal kept them alive and kicking to hold out for a point. Mike Williamson is really taking his chance in the first team and Martial moved to play left wing to accommodate him.
 
You write it so well. What year is it in now, ive got a bit lost haha
 
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Another International break, and this time we only have the one competitive match against Holland to play alongside a friendly against the Czech Republic at Wembley.

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The squad selected is back close to being its best..

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Luke Shaw returns to the fold, replacing Ryan Bertrand, while Chris Smalling is in for Phil Jones. Our new tactical set up doest have a defensive midfielder, so Nathaniel Chalobah also loses out to Callum Slattery who can make himself useful further up the pitch. The other major change to the squad is the inclusion of the in form Jay Rodriguez who replaces Zach Clough.
 
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Beautifully done boys. It took us all of 79 seconds to score the opener when a counter attack allowed Berahino to play in the impressive Grealish down the right who picked a sublime cross through four defenders to find Sterling at the back post who made the most of a tap in to make it 1-0. Just after half time I made a whole raft of substitutions, and Jay Rodriguez made the most of his chance to score a well taken goal which will leap him ahead of Berahino in the pecking order. This may only have been a friendly but it is an important win, and my first as England manager.
 
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A match where our defensive frailties were outshone by our attacking intent as we put away a very good Dutch side. Saido Berahino was an absolute monster and finished with a hatrick, putting himself back in front of Rodriguez in the pecking order. Fortunately our fourth goal was scored by Rodriguez who has managed to move himself into position ahead of Kane who was left on the bench for the match. We are now right back in the mix for qualification and a win over Austria should see us through.
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A massive congratulations to both Joe Hart and Sadio Berahino. Hart becomes the most capped English player of all time which is quite some achievement, while Berahino becomes the most prolific England striker in any one season.
 
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Starting XI - Courtois, Digne, Van Dijk, Dier, Turza, Maia, Barkley, Alli, Martial, Lucas, Williamson.

The returns from injury of Lucas and Dele Alli inspired us to a resounding win away from home against Crystal Palace. Mike Williamson continued his role up front and finished with two assists as he first played through Dele Alli on goal and then picked out Martial with a beauty of a cross. Speaking of Martial, he played a blinder of a game in the left inside forward role and is going some way to minimise the impact of losing Bale and Insigne.
 
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Starting XI - Courtois, Digne, Van Dijk, Dier, Turza, Maia, Barkley, Alli, Martial, Lucas, Williamson.

It is amazing what a well timed substitution can do. 60 minutes in, when it was starting to look like we were not going to be able to break Basel down, I decided to replace Williamson with Ozil, restoring Martial up front and playing Ozil as a left inside forward. Less than 60 seconds later Ozil won a corner, took the corner and Eric Dier headed in for 1-0. From the kick off we controlled possession and moved the ball forward, passing it into the feet of Ozil on the edge of the area who went down and won a penalty. Martial converted to give us two goals in three minutes and killed the match.
 
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Southampton Vs Norwich
24th October, 2020​

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Our pressing game worked wonders against a Norwich side full of counter attacking pace. The ever impressive Dele Alli was on form again to have us ahead inside the opening 10 minutes. Anthony Martial then doubled our lead beautifully and from then we saw the game out comfortably. That is now three wins and three clean sheets in a row, promising signs.

PS. I hope you like the new layout.
 
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Liverpool Vs Southampton
27th October, 2020​

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Not actually too disappointed with this one. I decided to really rotate the team, making 7 changes to the side that won convincingly at Norwich, and we got caught out by a mostly full strength Liverpool side. The plus side is that we now have some rested players who can be back at full strength for an important Premier League match against Chelsea up next. The board deciding that the Capital One Cup was not important gave me the perfect platform to experiment a bit and to rest those all important players.
 
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Chelsea Vs Southampton
31st October, 2020​

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I have to take the blame for this one. I realised at half time as we were 3-0 down that I got my selection completely wrong which in a way is positive as I can work on it for the future. My first mistake was Martial playing left wing. That inside forward position, like it or not, has to be a creative influence when playing in a 4-3-3 and Martial is just not a creative player. My 2nd mistake, playing Ozil as a right winger. Ozil is left footed, meaning he was constantly cutting inside to get onto his favoured foot which gave us no width whatsoever and no crosses coming in to the attacking inside forward and striker. My 3rd mistake, was not utilising the potential of my fullbacks who are both on support duty. We were overrun down the flanks today by Chelsea but I now that getting fullbacks to defend properly is a problem with the FM franchise over the last few years. Turza set to an attacking duty and overlapping Ozil would have provided that width we needed and sacraficed nothing in defence, as he wasnt really defending well anyway.

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October Review​

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Although there are some dodgy results in amongst the wins this month, I really cant complain. The brand of football that we are trying to play is establishing itself nicely and we are seeing some real stand out performances from certain players that are giving me a better idea of how they fit into our system. Of course my expectations have been lowered slightly by the crippling injuries to Bale and Insigne but there is no need to abandon all hope.
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Not much to report in the Premiership other than how tight the playing field is. United are charging away at the top of the league while Brentford are continuing to prove me wrong by establishing a fightback.

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Very satisfied with our Champions League performance to date. Undefeated and with a trip away to Basel up next, we have a real chance to qualify here if we can continue our form.
Player of the Month​
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Dele Alli has been extraordinary since signing from spurs and he has upped his game even more for this season. With 12 appearances to his name he has 4 goals, 4 assists, a pass accuracy of 84% and an average rating of 7.98. What an effort.
November Preview​
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A massive month in terms of our Champions League hopes where I reckon four points would see us through. The visit of Manchester United is sure to be a big occasion as well.
 
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Well that is a new one for me. I got a message from the board requesting my presence for a meeting to discuss the clubs transfer budget.

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When I arrived it turned out that the board were concerned with the current injuries in the squad, and had decided amongst themselves that it might be useful if they increased my transfer budget and wanted to know my thoughts on the matter. When I told them that I thought it was a fantastic idea, they let me leave and I got back to a message saying that my Transfer budget has been increased from £5 million to £54 million pounds! happy days!

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FC Basel Vs Southampton
4th November, 2020​

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A really good performance ensures we pick up a vital win in the Champions League against Basel. It was great to see Anthony Martial back to his best with a tremendous hatrick and it appears that nobody can stop Dele Alli at the moment as he notched his 5th of the season. While it was disappointing to concede two, I have to take into account that one was a penalty caused by individual error which can happen to anybody at any time, and the fact that we were playing away from home. The win was all that counts.

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Unfortunately, Martial did pick up a slight knock during the match but will only miss the Premier League game against Derby and should be ready to come back after the international break.

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Southampton Vs Derby
7th November, 2020.​

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A gutting result and a classic case of underestimating your opponent. After our trip to Basel I rotated the side and rested Barkley and Van Dijk, Including the likes of an out of position Schneiderlin and youngster Ahodikpe to gain some experience. While we started brightly we very quickly ran out of ideas and Ahodikpe scored the most unfortunate of own goals to gift Derby a precious win. This should have been a home banker.

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Not a bad transfer budget for Southampton :P
What do your finances look like now?
 
AW190 said:
Not a bad transfer budget for Southampton :P
What do your finances look like now?
Click to expand...

Poor, in a word.. We are frequently dipping into the red.. I just have to trust the board know what they are doing. We are still making about £150 million a year profit and are safely passing financial fair play, it just doesnt look very good on the finance sheet.

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Just the one match this International break and it is the all important decided against Austria in the Nations League. Callum Slattery and Chris Smalling are both out injured so a slight reshuffle of the squad is required.

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Theo Walcott gets his return to the England frame due to the poor form of Jordan Ibe and Phil Jones comes back in for Chris Smalling.
After much thought I have decided that I am going to return to my original plan for the England set up and go back to the 4-3-3 set up as opposed to the 4-2-3-1. I intend to utilise Eric Dier in the defensive midfield position to play in front of my first choice centre back pair of Stones and Chambers. The idea is for Dier to drop in between the centre backs as a half back with the full backs (Clyne and Shaw) pushing on when the centre backs split.
 
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England Vs Austria
17th November, 2020

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That will do. A very good performance saw us walk all over Austria, it required a deal of patience but we showed real character to break them down. It was Saido Berahino that got the breakthrough, tapping in from a wonderful cross by Clyne. Our 2nd was late on and really should have been Jay Rodriguez's but the final touch came off the Austrian defender as it trickled over the line.

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That victory means that we through to the semi-finals of Division A of the Nations League. Our possible opponents in the semi-finals are either Spain, Ukraine or Republic of Ireland, who are doing very well for themselves!

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It is also excellent news on the world rankings front, with our recent victories over Holland and Austria powering us up to 3rd in the rankings, only behind Argentina and Germany. One of my goals at the beginning of taking the England job was to establish us as one of the top five nations in the world and we are on our way to doing that.
 
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