Season 4
October & November Results
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Some real good results again in the last 2 months. Surprised to have beaten Juventus in the CL. Schalke 04 deserved to beat us 1-0 at Portman Road, but the return fixture at VELTINS-arena should have seen us take all 3 points and top spot in the group. We raced into a 2-0 lead but surrendered it within 25 mins. A late surge of attacking football from us couldnt ****** the victory we so deserved from the first halfs performance.
Decent wins over Everton & Newcastle. A good 3-3 draw at Zola Arena vs Chelsea really showed we were starting to match the big teams now. Beating Man Utd 3-2 with Jack Sinnott getting on the scoresheet was brilliant. It meant we were 5 games unbeaten in the league. I decided to play the likes of Fowler, Mings, Bishop, Henriquez & Seabrook against West Ham as they were floating around the bottom of the league. I perhaps made TOO MANY changes and my team decision backfired as they smashed us 3-0. I brought on youngsters, Sinnott & Cole despite losing. They couldnt make any difference though. We ended the the last 2 months on a massive high. Beating Shahktar 3-1 away was a fabulous result and actually secured us a place in the 1st knockout round. Will be interesting to see who we get drawn against. Naturally you would like the smallest side available so you get a chance to progress. But im genuinly not bothered. We didnt expect to get out of the Group stages, and although you always want to get as far as possible in such a competition as the CL. I wouldnt be devastated to get knocked out.
If we can make it further in the competition it would be good for the Coefficients ranking in Europe and help us get a higher seeding should we qualify again.
Premier League Table
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12 games played now and we are still hovering around the top position. To be second place by goal difference is awesome. If we can play in the second half of the season as well as we did last year, finishing top spot could be a real possibility. We are still overachieving which is great. Once we are expected to be finishing this high, is when the game will start becoming more tough.
Champions League Group D
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Qualified with a game left to play. If we failed to beat Shahktar, it would have meant our final game against Juventus would have decided who progresse with Schalke 04. Didnt fancy a nervy game like that so im happy we finished the job and got out of the group as soon as we could
Players Stats
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As you can see from the players stats list, Woodrow is our run away top goalscorer at the moment. Dybala & Bonazzoli are struggling to find some real decent consistent form so far.
Happy with the amount of games my youngsters have played. I said at the beginning of the season id like to feature my youngsters a lot more.
Fowler has started in 6 and come off the bench in 4.
Bishop has started in 5 and come off the bench in 7.
Mings has started in 8 and come off the bench in 1.
Cole has come off the bench in 2.
Seabrook who is on loan from lower league Reading has started in 3 and come off bench in 4. Scoring 3 and assisting 2 is brilliant for the young striker who im hoping to sign eventually.
Jack Sinnott who randomly impressed in our tour of USA pre season has started in 1 and come off the bench in 5. Scoring 2 goals is a decent return for the youngster who has been scoring a lot of goals for the U21s when not picked for the 1st team squad.
December Fixtures
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December is a busy month so ill do 1 month in my next update. This will take us into January so i can do a good update on the transfer window before showing the January results.
Im not expecting to make any real moves in January. But i am scouting quite a few young centre backs at the moment. Berra is getting old and not performing as well as he has done. Chambers has decided he wants to move following his lack of first team football. With Mings pushing for the first team ahead of Berra now. That leaves me with just Fowler as back up for my cbs. Maybe one more cb for the 2nd half of the season would be good. But i doubt to see much more activity. Maybe a small chance of us bringing in a young goalkeeper. But theres no urgency there just yet.
Hope youre all still enjoying this thread. Ive noticed there are alot of guests following this from time to time, be good to see them sign up to the site and let me know they think. Im sure theres alot of silent followers about to.
If youre enjoying thread please feel free to leave a comment or two. If you have a manager story of your own going on at the moment feel free to share it with me. Im actually following 2 or 3 manager stories after people following this have asked me to check theirs out.
COYB
ITID
lol well done mate!