FM22 - Reading Revival

[CalvFM]

Welcome to my new save - Reading Revival! The task is simple, take Reading back to the Premier League and out of the current bad situation they are in, then ultimately go that step further and start challenging for those trophies! These save updates are planned to be short and snappy, so will mainly consist of screengrabs for a quick read to see how the save is going and there will likely be an update on each in game month (excluding the pre-season). Before you start reading, go follow me on Twitter @Calv_FM

Enjoy!

The Start

So the media are predicting us to narrowly escape relegation finishing in 20th place in our first season in charge of The Royals, which if it does prove to be correct we will have met the club vision for the season of fighting bravely against relegation, so I will take that.

The Difficult Start

We have an instant hurdle to jump over from the start with the 6 point deduction due to a violation of budget rules, meaning we have an uphill climb from the off. Also being put under a transfer embargo until 31st December 2021 means we are going to have to work with the players we have currently got at the squad and no strengthening of the squad can begin until January at the very earliest. We definitely have some good talent for th first team, but our strength in squad depth is what is concerning me.

Transfers Out

A few players left Reading, but mainly youngsters who likely wouldn't be playing for us ever, the plan was no first team players to be sold in the summer window and we managed to stick to that.

Starting Line-Up

Key Players

Some really good talent in the squad which I am looking forward to develop further in the save.

New Assistant Manager

Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp comes in to be our new assistant. Hopefully he can share some of his talents with the squad!

August Results

Not the greatest start to life as Reading boss, with only two wins in the month of August and a dissapointing loss to Sutton in the Carabao Cup. Hopefully we are just getting the poor performances out the way at the start of the season and we can really start to kick on! The struggle for goals does look to be a slight concern at this stage though, but hopefully we can make our home a fortress with our two victories coming at home.

August League Table

So after the August results, we stay in 23rd but have managed to bring ourselves out of negative points, which surely is a bonus at this stage of the season. Time to start flying up the league table and maybe aim for a mid-table spot come the end of the season?

Thanks for viewing the first update of Reading Revival and I hope the short, snappy updates are something you like and will enjoy! Do go follow me on Twitter and you can also catch my full blogs of my Glory Hunter save, as well as my Youtube save called The Climb! Updates for the Reading save will hopefully come through thick and fast!

 

[CalvFM]

After an indifferent start to life in the Championship, September arrived and it was time to try and put a nice run together now we have extinguished our negative points.

QPR at Home

A very even match up which could have gone either way, however we lose for the first time at home. We just couldn't pull that goal back to get us level no matter how much we tried!

Tactic Change

So after a pretty porr start to the league I deicded it was time for a formation change. We ditched the 4-2-3-1 and have gone to more of a 4-3-2-1 to hopefully give us more depth and security in the centre of the pitch. You may also notice that Moore has come into the starting line-up, we recalled him from his loan at Stoke City to hopefully help sure up our defense.

Peterborough at Home

Back to winning ways at home with a 1-0 victory over Peterborough. Again it was a tight match, but this time we managed to come away with the three points and the majority of the team had a really good day at the office, showing some very positive signs for the future. Maybe the tactic change worked and we can push on with this new tactic...

Fulham Away

Nope... Arguably our toughest match of the season away at Craven Cottage. We got completely overrun all over the pitch and came away on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline, worsened by the fact we had Holmes sent off towards the end of the match - all my fault as I told them to fire up and to be fair to him he clearly did!

Middlesbrough at Home

September isn't going well! Another defeat, this time a 3-1 loss to Middlesbrough. The match started off so well with a Barker goal in the opening 15 minutes, however we couldn't then create any further great goalscoring chances, where as Boro turned on the switch after conceding. I am noticing that in January there are certainly areas where we need to improve upon, defense being the main one.

Derby Away

A big game against Derby, who like ourselves started the season with a points deduction, albeit a much bigger one! This time it was a match where we were the better team in terms of stats but couldn't take our chances we created. Ending in a 1-1 draw, at least at this stage it is an extra point on the board!

September Results in Full

Not the best month for us, only 4 points from a possible 15, we need to pick things up in October!

The League Table

Now I made a big error and forgot to screen grab the league table after the Septmeber results!! Oops! We stay in 23rd place in the league, but have closed the points gap on those teams outside the relegation places.

Thanks for reading this update of Reading Revival and I hope the short, snappy updates are something you like and will enjoy! Do go follow me on Twitter and you can also catch my full blogs of my Glory Hunter save, as well as my Youtube save called The Climb! Updates for the Reading save will hopefully come through thick and fast!

 

[CalvFM]

Well Septemeber wasn't the best month for us, was October any better...

Cardiff Away

The best start to the October fixtures! A big 3-1 victory away from home against Cardiff. A stunning display from all over the pith, but in paticular the two goalscorers Ejaria and Joao. Our best performance of the season so far against a tricky oppostition, so it gives me big hope for the future of Reading this season.

Barnsley at Home

After such a huge win at Cardiff, we got chucked straight back down with a dreadful 3-1 loss to Barnsley. Now I am starting to get fed up with Moore, he is on such huge wages and to be honest he has not exactly been the best defender in the world so far - just look at that 5.8 rating!!

Blackpool at Home

Back to picking up three points. Again a great performance from the majority of the team sees us beat Blackpool 3-1. It was a bit nervy though with them going down to 10 men, us capitalising on that straight after the break but then not being able to kill the game, leading to Blackpool drawing level and us leaving it very late to secure the victory! Again, a great performace from Ejaria who is proving to be a real key player in this team.

Blackburn Away

It is the month of the B's! Blackburn this time and it was a pretty even game when you look at the stats, so a draw would have been a fair result. However that wasn't to be, Blackburn dealt a blow towards the end of the 90minutes to secure them three points and carry on our indifferent form in the league so far.

Bournemouth at Home

The final game of October was against one of the league favourites Bournemouth. A good 0-0 for us, helping our points tally against one of the best teams in the league. Unfortunately though Rahman was forced off injured in the 80th minute and we thought we had a winner very late on through Joao which was ruled out for an extremely close offside! Nether the less though a draw against the Cherries was a very good result.

October Results in Full

If we are being honest, even though October was a bit up and down, we had some really good performances and wins against the B's and Cardiff. So overall I am quite happy with what I have seen throughout the matches and hopefully we can take those positives forward into November.

League Table

We stay in the relegation places in 22nd, but we are only one point off Hull in 21st, which shows progression at least! I can definitely see us pushing to finish around the mid-table area come the end of the season.

Manager Performance

A C+ so far, but it is still early days in our Reading career!

Thanks for reading this update of Reading Revival and I hope the short, snappy updates are something you like and will enjoy! Do go follow me on Twitter and you can also catch my full blogs of my Glory Hunter save, as well as my Youtube save called The Climb! Updates for the Reading save will hopefully come through thick and fast!

 

[CalvFM]

It is time for November and let's see if we were able to build on our couple of victories in October and bump us out of the relegation zone.

Millwall Away

Not a great start to the month... A 2-0 loss at The Den and a poor performance across the whole of the starting 11 for us. None of the team showed up in this game, in particular our two wide players Barker and Ejaria, with the latter being our start player during October.

Birmingham Away

A point away at Birmingham and we certainly have our defense to thank for it. They were all over us in the match in terms of creating chances and we just couldn't seem to put some nice play together consistently to get ourselves into the game. We did have a goal ruled out for offside though midway through the second half, which was frustrating but it really would have been a lucky three points had we got it.

Nottingham Forrest at Home

Another 0-0, but at the same time it is another point towards saftey. We just can't seem to find the net so far this season - something that if it continues I will look to address next summer when we have a clean slate with points and we can hopefully push for promotion.

Sheffield United at Home

Another point on the board, but it looked like it was going to be three until the dying minutes when Morrison decided he wanted to slot the ball into the back of his own net! After some good work in the last couple of matches it is one of our defenders who messes up to lose us two points. Having said that though, a draw against a top Sheffield United side is a good result.

Swansea Away

Yep, before this match we saw some dreaded news. The match was being classed as an 'El Sackico' by the media due to both of our teams form. Not something you want to see so early on in your managerial career, so this turned into a must win for us!

Uh oh! Sack on the horizon after our final game in November... A 2-1 loss to fellow strugglers Swansea may see us lose our job in December!!

November Results

Not a good month for us, ending with the potential of being sacked. No wins in seven matches is not a run of form anyone wants to see, but especially as Reading or Derby manager when you start on negative points.

League Table

So after November we drop down into 23rd and further away from safety, not ideal!

Manager Performance

And there we have the confirmation, our postion as Reading manager is insecure. Can we turn things around in December or is the sack creeping up on us...

Thanks for reading this update of Reading Revival and I hope the short, snappy updates are something you like and will enjoy! Do go follow me on Twitter and you can also catch my full blogs of my Glory Hunter save.

 

[CalvFM]

Our job is not safe, can we turn our form around in December and make the board believe in us?!

Hull at Home

Again, we have a match classed as the 'El Sackico' as our job becomes more and more insecure!

And then to round that off our own supporters want us sacked! Is the sack actually going to happen to us before we have the chance to rebuild this Reading team!

A huge three points with a 1-0 victory against Hull City, alleviating that pressure on us that little bit, which should hopefully stop all of these 'El Sackico' media articles for now! It was a very late winner though for us in the 82nd minute from Barker - a player who I have been pretty critical of so far.

That victory stopped a disgusting run of form with 7 matches without a win so there was a legit reason why we were being touted as getting sacked before every match recently.

West Brom Away

Two wins on the bouce! This time against a decent West Brom side, albeit they are currently struggling in the league. Nether the less, another big three points.

Luton at Home

No defeat in December yet! A 1-1 draw at home to Luton, which from looking at the match stats you would say was a very fair result. It started off very well for us in the 13th minute but we just couldn't capitalise on that early goal.

Peterborough Away

December just keeps on getting better! A late winner from Swift sees us come from beind and beat Peterborough in the 89th minute. A great overall team performance in the second half to come away with the victory away from home.

Fulham at Home

Wow! An incredible 5-3 win over a top quality Fulham side, arguably our best win yet. We welcomed Fulham expecting at max a draw, but to come away victors with the whole team playing a huge part I was ecstatic!

December Results in Full

A huge unbeaten month for us, something I wasn't expecting at all considering how poor our form was. This is exactly what we needed at this time, with our morale at rock bottom and our position at Reading being insecure we have turned it around in great style!

League Table

We have managed to climb out of the relegation zone for the first time and currently sit in 17th spot, 7 points clear of Huddersfield and Preston in 22nd & 23rd. Those wins this month have really shot us up the table.

Manager Performance

As you can see now, we have climbed to a B ranking from the board and our position at Reading is now very secure, so a huge month for us as Reading manager

FA Cup Draw

So we are going out of the FA Cup early doors...

Thanks for reading this update of Reading Revival and I hope these updates are something you like and will enjoy! Do go follow me on Twitter and you can also catch my full blogs of my Glory Hunter save.

 

[CalvFM]

As a fantastic December drew to a close, it was time to look at the January transfer window now that the transfer ban had been lifted! So let's take a look at our transfer business before we look at how the Janaury matches went.

Transfers Out

Quite a few players left us, mainly those who were on the fringes of the squad taking up wages that we could pump into new signings.

Transfers In

All the players that we managed to bring in are on loan and we are not having to pay a penny for them! Which was the ideal as we had no wages to spend as we were already very negative in the wage budget before and after our player sales.

We did spend some money on one player though, in terms of wages that is. We have confirmed the signing of Filippo Dellie Carri who will be joining us at the start of next season.

Starting Line Up

After our signings we have only slotted Moro into the starting 11, all the others will be squad players for us.

Derby at Home

Our form continues with a dominating 1-0 victory over Derby.

Tottenham Away - FA Cup

As predicted we did get demolished by Tottenham in the FA Cup third round. Ejaria had an absolute shocker for us in the match, and the rest of the team didn't perform much better! I expected it and it happened.

Middlesbrough Away

Another three points in the league. When looking at the stats though you would say it was a pretty undeserving win. Boro dominated the match but we managed to finish off our two big chances in the match, keeping up our great league form.

Huddersfield at Home

The wins just keep rolling in at this stage! Another top performance and another three points in the bag, so much has changed since our early season performances and when we had the risk of getting sacked!

QPR Away

Back to a bit of reality. Our first loss in a good chunck of games and it is a 2-1 defeat to QPR in a game which could have easily gone either way.

January Results in Full

League Table

Another good month in the league has seen us climb up the tabe into 15th spot, a healthy 9 points now away from the relegation places and 12 off the play-off spots... could we?!

Manager Performance

Not a bad month again and I think our job is pretty much secure for the remainder of the season now, which looked pretty mad to say just a couple months ago!

Thanks for reading this update of Reading Revival and I hope these updates are something you like and will enjoy! Do go follow me on Twitter and you can also catch my full blogs of my Glory Hunter save.