Leeds United - Marching On Together

[FM_TNSSO]

Leeds United - Marching On Together

Leeds United football club are based in Leeds, West Yorkshire and play their home games at the near on 38,000 capacity stadium, Elland Road. They were founded in the year 1919 and are now playing their football in the English Premier League for the second season running after 16 years outside the top flight, which saw them drop down as far as the third tier.

Marcelo Bielsa brought the good times back to Leeds and the fans loved him for it. However, his time is now over and it's time for a new era as I attempt to take this club back to the bright lights of the Champions League (one day) and hopefully put some trophies in that cabinet along the way.

Talking of trophies, the club has previously won the Premier League three times, but not since 1992. They also have only a single FA Cup (1972) and a single Carabao Cup (1968) to their name as well so domestic success is pretty limited and in all honesty, a club of this size should probably have done a lot better throughout history. On the other hand, they are an English club with some European honours to their name, having picked up the Europa League twice back in the late 60s/early 70s which was the prime time in the football club's history!

The setup is there to attract top players to this club with superb training facilities and excellent youth facilities. The youth recruitment is only bang average though, and with the junior coaching only rated as good, I'll be looking to put some investment into these areas moving forward.

As far as the current crop goes, there is some individual talent there and a handful of players to build the squad around over the first couple of seasons (assuming we can keep hold of them), but overall the team is pretty bang average and to Bielsa's credit, he did an amazing job finishing 9th in their first season back in the Prem with these players.

Without a doubt, the best of the bunch is Raphinha! However, I'm not naive and know that much bigger clubs will be coming calling for his signature in the not too distant future and I'll have a real job on my hands convincing him that Elland Road is the place to be!

The heartbeat of the team and the man in the middle of the pitch that everything is likely to revolve around in transitioning the ball from defence to attack, is Kalvin Phillips! I'll need to get the best out of him to guarantee us any level of success at the highest level!

As far as young talent goes, 19 year old Joe Gelhardt could be the one to watch and I'll be looking to nurture him into a top player over the coming seasons.

One thing's for sure...I'll be dipping my toe in the transfer water in this first Summer at the club and seeing where I might be able to make some improvements early on. I'll have £24 million to play with, which isn't a bad little war chest and I'm exciting to move forward and see what I can achieve in West Yorkshire.

 

[sahajpal97]

Make the manager nationality American and achieve glory the Peter Ridsdale and David O'Leary way just for the banter. :')

 

[MidKnightDreary]

Special one story = instant follow from me

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Special one story = instant follow from me

Thanks buddy…appreciate that!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

After a meeting with the board to discuss their vision under my management, it seems there is a big focus on the commercial development of the club which will include expansion of Elland Road. On the pitch, they want to see an attacking and entertaining brand of football, which suits me down to the ground. Expectations are limited in season 1 to simply replicate the mid table finish from last season, which should be achievable.

With new signings coming in, I knew it was only a matter of time on the flip side when I might have to fend off a bid for one of my best and it came in the form of a £37 million offer from Man City for Kalvin Phillips. Naturally, I rejected the offer, which led to showdown talks with my main man! Those talks left Phillips furious with my for blocking a move that would give him the chance to play in the Champions League!

That distraction didn't seem to effect our pre season preparations as we had a good run of friendlies rounded off by a decent draw against one of Spain's best.

It's no surprise to see Man City as the bookies favourites for the title, with Liverpool and Chelsea expected to be their only real challengers. The race for the other top 4 spot will be a competitive one, whilst we are firmly expected to be in the mid table pack.

Going into our first game of the season against Newcastle, this will be my tactic and lineup...Focused on a high press as a team with the wide inside forwards being the main goalscoring threat, although they will be heavily supported by the two flanking centre mids and behind them by the wing backs. The centre backs jobs is to defend, whilst the ball winning midfielder will sit deeper to win back the ball and be the workhorse of the team. The striker is there predominantly for link up play rather than being a target focal point...I expect him to score his share of goals, but I wouldn't be surprised to see both wide man out score him throughout the season. The build up play when we get the back back will be patient and slow, looking to keep posession and find the gaps to create solid opportunities for the front 3.

 

[sahajpal97]

You need a new left back and right back for sure. Upgrades on Taylor and Ayling are important. Also, Diego Llorente is good enough to be in the starting lineup.

 

[StormToChampion]

Good luck specialone Leeds will be stronger under ur management

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Good luck specialone Leeds will be stronger under ur management

Thanks for the vote of confidence mate!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

We kicked off the season in perfect fashion with a big win over The Magpies. It was a set piece masterclass from my lads as we bagged 2 goals from corners and one from an indirect free kick. However, the best goal of all came from Jack Harrison who was impressive throughout!

Next up was a trip to Stamford Bridge and what a result we pulled off against one of our fiercest rivals. A solid defensive performance was the foundation behind the win, with Mateusz Klich grabbing the winner with a tidy finish from just inside the box.

Our first venture into a cup game this season saw me make wholesale changes against Hull in the Carabao Cup. We were great though and the lads that came in did a professional job to see off the Championship side.

Although we did lose Rodrigo to injury for 3 months during that game!

A tight game away at Everton ends in a bore draw. Both sides had chances to nick it, but neither team's strikers were good enough on the day to find the back of the net.

Transfer deadline day came and past and we managed to hold on to our best players (for now at least). The biggest deal of the day saw Raul Jimenez move from Wolves to Newcastle for a fee of £55 million.

Our first game back after the international break and we battered Brentford, but they defended for their lives and walk away with a well deserved point. A real shame we couldn't find a way through here though!

After two 0-0 draws, we needed to do better in front of goal and we started with a frantic pace against Villa with Raphinha hitting the post and Klich missing a pretty easy chance on 11 minutes. An absolute banger from 25 yards from Coutinho put the hosts up against the run of play though. We didn't really recover from that and Coutinho ran the show in midfield as we struggled to deal with him and Gerrard's team went on to win the game and inflict my first defeat on me as Leeds manager.

So five games into the season, it's been a solid enough start and we are sitting in the top half of the table. Not spectacular, but solid enough.

Our form hasn't been great of late though and that was backed up with a defeat in the Carabao Cup against West Ham. I did rotate the squad heavily again though, so it might not be a completely true reflection on where we're at right now.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

With 4 games without a win and only 1 goal scored, it was time to change things up tactically. We simply weren't getting enough men forward, so I wanted to focus on playing more players higher up the pitch as I've seen other formations with a lot of strikers or attacking mids doing well and wanted to emulate something similar. I think our strongest players are in midfield, so it wasn't worth playing 2-3 strikers as I don't think we have the quality up top to do so. I also couldn't bring myself to play 4 attacking mids and leave ourselves exposed behind, so I opted for an inverted winger and inside forward to mix it up with a different approach down either wing. I then stuck the forward on a more attacking role, as he is now supported by the advanced playmaker who's job will be to link up the front 3 from a more advanced position on the pitch. There will then be further support from deep in the form of a carrileo, who's job won't be to press really high and get in the box, but instead, sit just behind the front 4 as an outlet. He'll also link the play well from the deep lying playmaker who is providing additional cover for the defence in a deep role. As I have an attacking midfielder pushed higher up on the right side, I opted for an inverted win back on the right to help plug the gap in central midfield, where as the left back will be a more traditional full back offering some wide support to the carrileo and DLP. Centre backs are initially down as ball players, but I may adapt this depending on who is playing in what games. Each player has individual instructions assigned as well to play on their strengths....for example our best dribblers have dribble more, where as players with poor dribbling are set to dribble less....best tacklers set to tackle harder where as worst tacklers set to ease off. PS. Ignore players selected here...team will be picked on a game by game basis.

Initially, it provided a much improved attacking performance as we thumped Palace in our next game. Raphinha needed a rest, so Jack Harrison moved across to the right side inside forward role and he thrived there, banging in 2 goals.

And we carried that form into our next two games as well as we make it three wins on the bounce. Raphinha came off the bench to score twice against Brighton and ensure we came from behind to win, before he also bagged 2 assists in easy win over The Saints. Arsenal up next though and we know they will present a much more difficult challenge!

We did come very close to beating The Gooners on their own turf though. Its looked like Jack Harrison's goal might get us the result, but two late goals saw Arsenal ****** the win from under our nose.

Adam Forshaw has been an integral part of my team in my early days as manager and started every game under me. However, he'll now miss the next couple at least through injury and someone else will get the chance to step up and impress me.

Against Watford, we actually had more shots on goal than in any other game this season (27), but relied on an own goal and a pen to see us through it with all 3 points. Still, it was a very dominant performance and I come away pleased with the way we played.

Raphinha has made a sensational start to the season, scoring 3 times in 9 games in the Premier League, whilst also weighing in with 4 assists! He has one of the highest average ratings across the entire divison as these early stages!

And his efforts have been recognised as he lifts the October Player of the Month award!

Manchester City were our next opponents...the side that came sniffing around Kalvin Phillips during pre season and unsettled my star midfielder. However, that is all in the past now and Phillips seems to have got over it, although there is still interest from the likes of Newcastle and Bayern Munich. I thought I'd approach him and discuss a new contract - negotiations began and I'm delighted to announce that he has signed a new 5 year deal with an all important £86 million minimum fee release clause included!

We actually put up a really good effort against the reigning champions and had a couple of really good chances to take the lead shortly after the half time break. Unfortunately for us, City have got so much strength in depth and when your opponent has the likes of Phil Foden who can come off the bench it's always going to be a struggle to get a result.

Despite that defeat, 11 games into the season and we're flying! Mixing it in the top 4 with the big boys! Other sides that have made an extremely impressive start are Aston Villa and Brighton.

One team that have made a slow start to the campaign is Spurs, who sit down in 11th. Ultimately, it has cost Conte his job. Graham Potter and none other than Marcelo Bielsa are the men linked with the job!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Liverpool are one of the best sides in Europe in modern day football, so we can't be too disheartened with defeat at Anfield.

After two defeats, it was good to pick up a decent result here against Spurs, although we are under no illusions that we may have just caught them at the right time without a manager and in a bit of turmoil.

We built on the Spurs result with a hard fought win away at Burnley, with that man Raphinha bang on form again bagging a hat trick and sealing victory with a 90th minute pen!

The big managers of the Premier League continue to drop as Tuchel departs Chelsea, shortly after the Conte sacking at Spurs.

And it is confirmed that ex Leeds manager, Marcelo Bielsa will be the new Tottenham boss!

Our next league game saw us go away to West Ham...a side that have shown significant improvement over the past couple of seasons and we knew would present a tough challenge. However, we rose to it and come away with a massive 3 points. Daniel James stepped in for the rested Raphinha and took his opportunity, scoring a hat trick!

We were back at Elland Road for the game against Wolves and we couldn't have started the game any worse, going a goal down inside 3 minutes! Things got worse before the half hour mark as Wolves doubled their lead and we were being simply outclassed (probably should have been 4 down). Mateusz Klich did get us a goal back before half time completely against the run of play and gave us something to play for in the second half. The lads got the hairdryer treatment at the break in the hope it might spark a bit more passion into their performance, and it did just that as we went on to win the game by an incredible scoreline! To be fair to Wolves, they played their part in what was a thrilling game of football!

We backed up that win with another against Norwich...in all honesty, a game I expected to win.

We're now unbeaten in our last 5 games, which is pretty amazing considering we've conceded 10 goals in those 5 matches!!

It probably has something to do with the fact we are the Premier League's top goalscorers...although the goals certainly aren't coming from my strikers who have been pretty shocking!

All the time the goals keep coming, we have a good chance of remaining firmly amongst the league leaders, although our leaky defence could just as easily see us drop down the table.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

It's the Christmas period which is always busy in England and we have 4 games to play over the next 11 days, starting with a tough away day at Old Trafford.

And despite United having a bit more possession and a few more shots, we managed to come away with a very good point!

That takes me to 20 games in charge of Leeds and I'm gaining some plaudits for our entertaining brand of football combined with a decent run of results! Long may it continue!

We replicated the 2-2 draw against Man Utd in our next game against Leicester as well. We weren't at our best here so we'll take this!

There haven't been many games this season where we've been absolutely terrible...but this was one of them!

The January transfer window is officially open and my biggest task during it, may be to keep Raphinha at the club! He is attracting interest from some of Europe's elite clubs and if any of them come calling, I might not be able to convince him to stay! It may be a case of simply ensuring I get the maximum amount of money I can for him!

Our New Years Day fixture would see us host Brighton and I challenged my lads to prove that the Southampton result was a one off and bounce back immediately. Fair to say they delivered, with Raphinha again impressing his potential suiters with another 2 assists!

That led us to our first FA Cup fixture under my management and we played host to Championship side, Cardiff. We saw them off with relative ease.

We made it three wins on the bounce (in all comps) with another victory over bottom side Watford. Raphinha now has 10 goals and 10 assists in 19 Premier League appearances this season...he is nothing short of amazing! We're half way through January now and still no bids for him...I'm hoping and praying it stays that way!

Back to back draws against Arsenal and Leicester followed and we made it all the way to transfer deadline day and still no Raphinha bid had come in. We might just keep hold of our star man after all!

One player that did leave the club on transfer deadline day though, was Patrick Bamford. After failing to score a single goal so far this season, I was happy for Wolves to take him on a loan deal to the end of the campaign and they have optional clauses in place to make the deal permanent if he does better for them than he has for us.

And that was it for us this January! I was dreading this window as I genuinely thought we'd see some bids come in for a couple of my top players, but they never did! No new additions, but I'm happy to be going into the back end of the season with my full squad (minus Bamford of course).

Moving into February, we are 5th in the league and still massively overachieving. I really don't want to start thinking about European qualification with 14 games still to go, but it's hard not to with us very much in the mix!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

In the FA Cup, we'd drawn Brentford and I took the opportunity to rest a few of my stronger players. It backfired and I underestimated The Bees who knock us out of the competition. I can only apologise to the Leeds faithful for this one and take full responsibility!

We were back at full strength for the Premier League encounter with Newcastle and quickly set things right.

A Raphinha double ensured we made it back to back 2-0 victories as we overcame relegation threatened Norwich.

It was a short February with only two games in the Premier League, but keeping clean sheets in both games was enough for keeper Illan Meslier to pick up the Young Player of the Month award.

We would need our keeper to be at his best in our next game too if we were going to get anything out of it, as we played out a 3rd vs 4th clash against Manchester United.

Meslier didn't have a terrible game, but coming up against one of the greatest of all time in Cristiano Ronaldo proved to be the difference on the day for us! It's incredible that at 37 years old, he now has 25 goals for the season for United!

One thing we have done well this season is bounce back pretty quickly from defeats and it was no different here as we won our next game against Wolves. It was a good win too considering they came into the game 2nd in the form table.

A late Jack Harrison goal rescued a point against Chelsea in a good battling performance from my lads. Chelsea are one of those teams chasing down our position in the league, so ensuring we don't lose to teams like them in the current situation is big!

It's that time of year that we all look forward to...the youth intake! But my first one as Leeds manager is not that impressive, with Ashley Finnigan being the best of a very average bunch.

One of the results of the season for us at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as we beat Marcelo Bielsa's side after a tightly contested game.

Another excellent victory as we beat The Hammers. Rodrigo has scored a couple of big goals in these last two fixtures and this one here was a belter!

Seven games of the Premier League season remain and incredibly, we sit in the top 4! It looks likely that a European qualification spot will be secured in my first season at the club - just depends for which competition!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Our last seven games will kick off with two matches against the best sides in the country and it's unlikely we'll take anything from them. However, we have a good opportunity to recover after that and all 5 of our final matches are winnable as long as our confidence isn't dented too much against Liverpool and City!

As expected, we lost the first two, but we weren't totally outclassed by any means and actually held our own for long periods in both games. I had every confidence that if we played like this in our last few games, we'd likely win most of them against lesser opposition!

My theory was immediately proved correct as we battered bottom of the table Burnley.

Brentford absolutely battered us though. We were never in this game and this result could have turned into a very embarrassing one if they could finish a bit better!

We were no better against Everton either. Are we having a mini meltdown right at the end of the campaign?!

We got back on track in our penultimate game against Palace. They are struggling down in 16th and still not entirely safe from the drop yet though, so it's a game I definitely expected us to win!

That Palace win moved us back into the top 4, which means if we win our last match of the season against 10th placed Aston Villa, we will be playing Champions League football next season!!!

A tight and nervy game finishes in the narrowest of wins for us, but we got over the line with the result that we needed!!

So we finish an incredible first season in 4th place and qualify for Europe's elite competition next year!! Moneybags Newcastle drop into the Championship in perhaps just as much of a shock as our 4th place.

 

[StormToChampion]

Congratulations specialone for guiding Leeds to top 4. wow, what an achievement Next season will be interesting to see how u manage the league and CL.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

End of Season 2021/22

Premier League = 4th (qualified for Champions League)
Emirates FA Cup = Fourth Round (knocked out by Brentford)
Carabao Cup = Third Round (knocked out by West Ham)

Premier League = Liverpool
Emirates FA Cup = Liverpool
Carabao Cup = Liverpool
EFL Championship = Fulham
EFL League One = Rotherham
EFL League Two = Northampton Town
Community Shield = Manchester City
Papa John's Trophy = Portsmouth
UEFA Champions League = Liverpool
UEFA Europa League = Real Sociedad
UEFA Europa Conference League = Feyenoord

Overall this season, the squad have mostly all done their bit and made a contribution to an amazing campaign. I love the fact that our goals were coming from multiple players, with 5 getting into double figures this year, Jack Harrison and Mateusz Klich both topping the chart with 13 a piece. Klich also made double figures on his assists as well with 10, as did Harrison, whilst Raphinha topped the assist chart with 12. Up front, Rodrigo came into his own over the last 10-12 games of the season and firmly cemented his place as my number 1 striker. As previously seen, Patrick Bamford was shocking and was sent to Wolves on loan where he only actually played 3 times. Defensively, we conceded a lot of goals this year, although most of our defenders did manage to score decent average ratings over the course of the season. Kalvin Phillips was disappointing considering he is seen as one of our best players!

The Best 11...

Awards...

In my first season in charge, I managed to take the Premier League Manager of the Year award...Jurgen Klopp will feel hard done by after completing a quadruple!!

Our training facilities were downgraded at the end of the season due to technological enhancements in the industry.

So we invested in them to get them back up to scratch!

There was also some investment to improve our youth recruitment!

The money generated by Premier League clubs is absolutely ridiculous and it was no different for us here at Leeds this season. Over £90 million in broadcast revenue alone, alongside some good competition and sponsorship money! The commercial summary makes for good reading!

It means we had an extremely healthy bank balance of nearly £81 million as the season came to a close!

We will continue to develop relationships with clubs in countries where we can increase our profile and in turn our revenue. The latest is San Jose Earthquakes.

Plans For The Summer

Well if we are going to compete in the Champions League next season, the squad will definitely need some decent investment. However, the board have disappointingly only made £21 million available for new players and that won't be nearly enough! We will either need to be extremely shrewd in the market or we will have to make players sales...if a big enough offer comes in for one of our key players, we may just need to consider it if it means we could reinvest the money into maybe 2-3 quality players.​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.....I was excited about my 2nd season in charge and felt I'd had a pretty good window with the limited funds the board had given me, but after 14 games without a win, capped off by a 6-0 thrashing from Chelsea the board have let me go! Not entirely sure what the **** happened to be honest...my tactic just didn't work at the start of the campaign and everything I seemed to try to change things up didn't work. My big players like Raphinha and Harrison from the year before were awful and couldn't score to save their lives and my defence was shocking and looked like they had no confidence at all, which just got worse with every defeat!

Just to show you who I had signed in the Summer....

I had sold the following players...

Jamie Shackleton - Basel £6 million
Tyler Roberts - Almeria £4.5 million
Helder Costa - Club America £3.7 million
Diego Llorente - Napoli £9.5 million
Patrick Bamford - Norwich £12 million
Kiko Casilla - Elche £1.3 million

I'm going to take a couple of days away from the game to work out what I want to do next as I don't want to rush into a new save that my heart isn't in, with me being a little frustrated at the moment. I'll probably look to come back with something at a lower level again as I did really enjoy my Palermo save building a squad as I went up the divisions.

 

[StormToChampion]

Oh dear. What a bad ending to the save. Waiting for your next save