Crystal Palace | Where Eagles Dare | 3 Season Challenge

[rdouglasncfc]

Hello everyone my name is Rhys.
I have been producing Football Manager YouTube video since 2013 and have recently been challenged by a subscriber to see who can be the most successful in 3 seasons managing Crystal Palace.

Whilst creating my profile and creating the file, I was surprised at the 10M budget I was given to shape the team as I want it. I was expecting lower and having had a detailed look at the team, I was impressed with what I had at my disposal. Happy with the pace of my forward options I decided to concentrate on building a solid defence spending a risky 6M on Neil Taylor from Swansea. After selling some reserve players with high wages, I then took took a safer gamble with another 6M spend on Virgil van Dijk from Celtic to add some youth and more pace to my center backs.

My first episode simply explains the concept of the series, giving an overlook into the formation and tactics I'll be using for the first season in charge followed by some highlights of 2 pre-season games:
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 1 | A NEW CHALLENGE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGj4eT1RsRg

Part 2 kicks off the Premier League season where my fixture list is particularly mean. My first two games in charge are taking on Everton & Liverpool. If I can get through them, there is the chance for some fringe players to impress me with a Capital One Cup tie against Stevenage:
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 2 | TOUGH START!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjKLUlpNCko

Part 3 throws my back into the deep end where I have to take on Man Utd who are less effected by their real life chemistry issues followed by teams more around Crystal Palace's expected standards against Sunderland & West Brom:
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 3 | CHEMISTRY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEObBsQYhys

 

[rdouglasncfc]

Having completed a few more episodes recently I've begun to learn quite a lot about Crystal Palace. With varying success and failures.

Part 4 continues our flying start to the season with some big scorelines and positive results. It shows great confidence in the apce of my forward line but does leave me to think about tightening up at the back trying to find out who makes my strongest back 4:
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 4 | BUG SCORES!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebh6WBfXx-c

P[art 5 immediately brings me back down to earth. At half time in all 3 games I am winning but yet manage to finish the episode without a single win and out of the Capital One Cup. I have also begun to notice how Speroni (GK) always thumps goals kicks down the right wing trying to use Zaha as a target man which results in us immediately giving possession away - infuriating!
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 5 | THROWING IT AWAY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvBOv4KwYv0

Part 6 is simply a case of making Part 5 look like a blip. I bought some new staff off camera to assist with goalkeeping and technical traits. I am surprised at how relatively cheap staff can be if you look at the lower leagues. Starting the episode in 9th we manage to smash QPR on the way to rising to 5th:
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 6 | RECOVERY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doBEsGxpNBM

 

[rdouglasncfc]

It's come to my attention that I haven't updated this post in some time. My challenger for his own person reasons that it wouldn't be in his best interest to try getting into Youtube. Naturally respecting his decision, I thought I would at least finish off the first season and wherever I end in the table would be the benchmark & challenge for anyone watching who wants to try and better it.

Part 7 - Palace have to take on both Arsenal & Manchester City today. A good season always has one or two great upsets so I will be anxiously looking for one but by the end we haven't got a consistent rhythm going and it shows in our results.
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 7 | INCONSISTENT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCfOeKvEGbQ

Part 8 - In this episode I have a much better run of fixtures against West Ham, Southampton & Leicester. I decide to make some tweaks to my tactics after some success in Football Manager challenges and it result in much better performances. I particularly love the Leicester game that turns into a goal fest!
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 8 | MOVIN' ON UP!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x9sTQa9DYA

Part 9 - Manchester United, Burnley (FA Cup) & Liverpool. If you look at those games and assumed where I get the results from, you'll be a long way off what I actually achieve. It start so well but ends incredibly badly!
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 9 | 1 STEP FORWARD, 2 STEPS BACK!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2NN4XPh6a4

Part 10 - When you are destroyed by Liverpool in the manner that we were, you demand a response from your team. I certainly get it with 3 great games against West Brom, Sunderland & Newcastle to put us right back into the European mix!
Football Manager 2015 | Crystal Palace | Part 10 | PROFESSIONAL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU0xZqQcTA