Life with the foxes - Leicester City Story

[harrypal]

Life with the Foxes

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I decided to quit FM for some reasons, but when FM 2014 came out and when there was a 50% discount during the holidays, I couldn?t resist myself and bought the new game.

Most of the reviews I read were negative so started my first save with Leicester with less expectation.

The board expectation was to achieve a mid table finish, but looking at the squad, I realized that we could achieve something more than a mid table finish. It was a readymade squad as there were enough players in each and every positions, but I had certain strategies that I wanted to apply to my team and brought in veteran midfielder Paulo Assuncao on a free with the hopes of making my team and tactics around Assuncao. There was no fund available for transfer, so had to depend on free signings. Also brought in David Bentley on a free on the last day of the transfer window.

TRANSFERS

PAULO ASSUNCAO ? on a free (probably one of my best signings ever in FM as he went on to play a crucial role in our success. Watched him closely on extended highlights, occasionally on comprehensive mode, and I was really impressed with the way he played, almost exactly the way I wanted/instructed. That?s something very pleasing to see, the player instructions working well most of the times). Also brought DAVID BENTLEY ? on a free (never used him really)

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Paulo Assuncao (main man)


TACTICS

Main: 4-1-2-2-1

Four at the back with Paulo Assuncao sitting in front of them, two central midfielders, one with more free role, two attacking wingers supporting the lone striker up front.

Additional: 4-2 deep players-2-2


SEASON BEGIN

After a very successful preseason campaign we went to Middlesbrough for our first Championship game of the season, again with less expectation and thought a point would be pretty decent, but we did quite well and won the game 1-0


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With this superb result I got my interest back, as you know, there is noting better than getting a 1-0 away win in the league. This win was only the beginning as we went on to win 9 games in a row, quite extraordinary. As I'm posting this story after finishing my first season, I will post the some notable results and other stats after that I will update regularly as I play the game.

NOTABLE RESULTS

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Look at the stats here. Watford completely outplayed us with their 3-5-2 formation, but its all about taking your chances, we got 3 chances scored 2 and with a solid defensive performance, we won the game 2-1.


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Its a comeback win against a strong Reading side, had to make some changes at half time and it worked!!!


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This extraordinary game was in FA Cup, I had zero expectation going into this game although we were at home. I put a strong possible side, given the fact that there were 5 days before the next league fixture and this is what happened.

FULL RESULTS

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LEAGUE TABLE

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STATISTICS

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GREAT 1st SEASON

We clinched promotion in a fascinating and stylish way. At one point with 10 game to go, we were 16 points ahead. In real life football management, man management has a crucial role along with tactics and game knowledge. I thought in FM 2014, they have given more importance to man management abilities, so keeping players morale high and having a good squad harmony is very important.

I changed tactics and players frequently and that also helped. I rotated my forwards Chris Woods and David Nugent. When we had a short spell where we lost and drew a couple of games, the players morale surprisingly hit rock bottom and I had to do a lot of changes and things to get that back, and that is where you enjoy the game more, overcoming difficult situations and problems with different approach and decisions.

When I took over our financial status was insecure and the board frequently reminded me about the financial fair play rules, but after the promotion, it changed to secure also got some new sponsorship deals as well.

I won the manager of the year award and our player Paul Gallagher won the player of the year award.

TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE

Going to the premier league. A lot of work to do. Will update here.


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[harrypal]

The preseason is about to start. We got some friendlies arranged against 4 Scottish teams. Looking forward to them. Already managed to sign Gianluca Sansone (left winger) from Sampdoria. More updates on transfer and preseason results to follow shortly. Cheers!!!

Its quite interesting to see how good Leicester doing in real life current season in the Championship. They are on a 8 games winning streak after beating Birmingham yesterday (I also had an 8 game winning streak; see below in full results screenshot)

I wish good luck to Nigel Pearson and hopefully get them promoted just like I did.

 

[harrypal]

So here we go, the 2nd season of my Leicester save, and 1st season in the Premier league, hopefully first of many.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the club's finance is significantly improved thanks to our emphatic promotion and the various new deals, so the club provided ?17m as transfer budget, more than what I expected.

This is how we have done in the transfer market

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As you can see above we have managed to sign some decent players. 3 players from Samdpdoria, I have high hopes for the young defender Skhodran Mustafi. Then a couple free signings, the experienced Caldwell and Jermaine Jones. I do spend a lot of time in the transfer market and managed to sign 3 quality players, Ledley, Christian and Cerci for less than 6m. Plus a deadline day signing of Brazilian midfielder Renan.

Pre season friendlies

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Smashing preseason; we scored 31 goals in 6 games against decent opponents.


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[harrypal]

TACTICS

Same tactics we used in the championship, a simple 4-1DM-2-2-1 with shorter passing and higher tempo. I also have a backup tactics, its a 4-2DM-2-2, with more direct approach.

FIRST GAME

New Castle 5-3 Leicester

Tough game to start with and we lost as expected, but managed to score 3 goals though.

FIRST POINT

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Expected another loss, but grabbed our first point from this spectacular game. We took the lead thanks to a cool finishing from our new signing Joe Ledley, but United scored 3, so I changed the system and made a couple of changes and played two up front and guess what we got a penalty in the 84th minute, which Ledley successfully converted and our star striker Chris Woods equalised for us with an unbelievable strike. In fact Woods had a chance to win it in the dying moments of the game, but it was brilliantly denied by DeGea. First point!!!

OTHER RESULTS

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AND THEN THIS

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This was quite an incredible game. Again, we took the lead through Woods, a clever pass from right winger Cerci and Woods finished it off in style, but Spurs equalised a bit later. Then it was all Spurs, attack after attack, but they just couldn't break us, most of their shots were from outside the box and then we got the winner through a corner in the last minutes of the game, it was quite unbelievable. Shame that we got only 2 shots, but overall we did really well.

RESULTS

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Disappointedly got knocked out from the cup by Watford, but got 14 points from our first few games in the league and some tough games coming up. Looking forward to the upcoming games.






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[harrypal]

So, we have had a great start to the season, taking 14 points out of possible 21, played some good football against Swansea and Southampton and also a lottery like win at Tottenham. We had some really tough fixtures after the Spurs game.

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Four consecutive defeats. 1st one was against Chelsea. It was 2-2 until the 81st minute, but then they scored 2 late goals. We were very poor against Liverpool, started well against Villa and Sunderland, but ended up losing them both 2-0.

Then we faced bottom placed Watford in a must win game. I dont know why but in Football Manager, the bottom placed teams play surprisingly well against me, a lot of one touch passes, some wonderful team play, accurate passes, etc. but we somehow managed to beat them by 3-1. A much needed win.

Then we faced City at home. Started really well, played some good stuff, but lost it 4-2.

Then we went to Norwich with the hopes of getting at least a point, but we managed to get all 3 points thanks to a brilliant team performance especially defensively.


Most satisfying result of the season

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Well deserved win. We scored our goal from a corner, defender Mustafi headed home the winner. Defensively we were solid and didnt allow them to create any clear cut chances. 3 points.

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I declined this job interview offer from Swansea and looking forward to the rest of the season with the foxes.




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[harrypal]

Latest post

Well things went really bad after the win at Norwich. Got 2 home games against Stoke and Fulham, but we lost them both. Terrible performance and terrible result.

Our next game was at Arsenal.

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Went there with no hopes at all after what happened in the previous 2 home games. Arsenal completely outplayed us as you can see above, but changed to 4-4-2 in the final stages of the game and we scored 2 quick goals from two lucky strikes. One a freak freekick from Sansone and the 2nd from a corner. Unbelievable!

After this morale boosting result, we went on a extremely poor run with a lots of defeats, lots of suspension and injuries with occasional wins and draws.

POOR RUN OF FORM

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Absolutely pathetic and incredibly frustrating. In the 17 league games after the win at Arsenal, we lost 9, drew 5, and won only 3 games.

INJURY ****

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Injuries and suspensions restricted our chances of consistency in the league. It was like one key player back from injury the other gets injured in the next day.

But we were never reached the rock bottom of the table, thanks to the poor form of other teams and also our good start to the season.

POSITIVE RUN

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At last a good run in the league. We beat Arsenal for the 2nd time this season, this time with a better performance than the first one. And then a fantastic win away at Fulham followed by a disappointing draw at home to West Brom in a game we completely dominated.

THE RESULT GUARANTEED OUR SAFETY

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We went to Everton knowing a point would give us an unlikely 10th place in the table.

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A great fightback to earn an important point, which eventually guaranteed our 10th place.

END OF SEASON SUMMARY

LEAGUE TABLE

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TEAM STATS

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After the good start, our strikers forgot the art of scoring, so we had to depend elsewhere for goals. One of those who provided us goals was Alessio Cerci with 10 goals and 9 assists.


A RIDICULOUSLY GOOD SEASON

It was a ridiculous season filled with frustration, injuries, suspensions and some brilliant wins. Having a great start to the season was key. I never thought we could finish in the top half of the table, so I'm delighted after all the frustration we have managed to achieve a respectable position in the table.

Serious work needs to be done in the squad for the new season.


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[harrypal]

February 9, 2014

NEW SEASON

We are about to start our 2nd consecutive season in the premier league (3rd season with Leiester). Last season, it was a great achievement to finish in the top 10. This year, I will be delighted if we could do the same or better.

TRANSFERS

The club provided a decent ?15m for transfers.

View attachment 423895So we have bought some attacking minded players. A club record transfer of Dani Parejo is the highlight. Also signed striker Guidetti on a free transfer and sold Nugent to West Ham.

In the first preseason friendly our first choice defensive midfielder Jermaine Jones got injured (out for 7 months ***WHAT A BLOW!!!***) so brought in Muntari on loan from Milan.

I wasn't convinced signing Parejo given his poor physical attributes, but his passing and technical skills forced me to spend a huge chunk of transfer money for the Spaniard.

Also signed the experienced international striker Lambert.

Pre-season friendlies

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Despite the poor results, we had some decent performances in these games.

LEAGUE RESULTS

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So, it was a tough start. Got a decent draw at home against Newcastle. Lambert scored 2 and almost scored hatrick as well in his debut. We should have won that game. Then City away and Liverpool home. We lost both games as expected.Then a disappointing draw at home to Middlesbrough.

It looks like, we have wasted ?9m on Dani Parejo as he is really struggling to contribute, but I reckon it is my job to get the best out of him.

Our first win in the league was away at West Ham.

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Brilliant team performance. Used a 4-2DM-2-2 for this game and it worked really well.

Then we drew at Swansea, again 2 points dropped. A point at home against Aston Villa.

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Another great away performance and win. Used the same 4-2DM-2-2 tactics.

Our next game is Chelsea at home. Must continue getting points from each and every games.


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[harrypal]

February 10, 2014

We are still looking for our first home win of the season. All of our home fixtures have been difficult so far.

Next up Chelsea.

HEAVY DEFEAT AT HOME

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Played 4-2DM-2-2 with instructions to stuck in and hassle opponents. They scored early in the game, which made things very bad for us. We couldn't create anything. Changed to a 4-2-3-1 to get some football going, nothing worked.

In the next game, we got knocked out of the league cup by Tottenham, again at home.

Next league game Sunderland away

5 STAR PERFORMANCE! YET ANOTHER AWAY WIN!

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Scrapped the 4-4-2 and decided to play football with the usual 4-5-1 and it worked. We were in total control, played some fluent football. They scored 2, but both from long range, we couldn't do anything about it. A brilliant away display and yet another away win.

Rickie Lambert scored another brace. What a player, what a striker, GREAT SIGNING!!!

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Board promise is a tricky thing. As you can see above, they wanted me to sign high profile players. I bought some quality players, but they said they are not high profile, so they are very disappointed about my transfer business.

Still looking for that first home win of the season. We're playing some good football, so hopefully it'll come soon. Our record signing Dani Parejo will be fit in one week (he was out injured for 2 weeks). He struggled to fit in so far, but I'm sure I can get the best out of him.

League RESULTS so far

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Our next home game is against Manchester United.

.....

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[harrypal]

February 11, 2014

Struggling for consistency. Getting some decent results and points, but not on a consistent basis. We got our first home win of the season in December!

RESULTS

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Got battered by Reading. A good performance at Stoke but lost 2-0, thanks to 2 brilliant strikes. We're only winning against the teams around us in the table, which is a bit disappointing.

FIRST HOME WIN

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Good win. We went to West Brom after this. Came back twice to make it 2-2, but lack of concentration in the box cost us big time.

It was incredibly frustrating.

A solid win

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I brought in Chris Wood with 10 minutes to go, and he scored the winner. Great feeling.

Gotta get some consistency and put together a series of good performances.
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[harrypal]

February 12, 2014

So we continued our brilliant AWAY form with a 1-0 win at Fulham. Still struggling for home form. Newcastle was our next opponents. Used a 4-2-2-2, and hoped for some counter attacking football and grab a draw.

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40 SHOTS!!!!! and 21 of them were on targets. No away points this time. Scored a consolation goal in the end.


KNOCKED OUT OF THE FA CUP - again at home

First game in the FA Cup, against Nottingham Forest at home. We were 2-0 up, then they scored twice to make it 2-2. The last thing I wanted at this point of the season was a replay and one more game. I would have rather taken a defeat. Thats what happened exactly. They scored the winner in the last minutes of the game.
What a comeback by Forest. They are delighted, me too.

In the league, away to Liverpool. Expected a lose, but changed the tactic a bit and used a 4-5-1. Considering the amount of quality attacking players they have, decided to fill the midfield and play the passing game when we are in possession of the ball.

RESULT OF THE SEASON sofar

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We signed John Guidetti on a free transfer in the summer and what a performance from the young striker. Scoring a hat-trick away at Liverpool, absolutely fantastic.

Things went as planned, when we got the ball, we played some quick passing game. Yet another away win, this time with a decent performance against a very good Liverpool side.
......

I forgot to renew Chris Wood's contract and as a result HSV signed him on a free. The transfer will happen at the end of the season. What a shame, but the good news is we got a young quality striker in Guidetti, but losing Wood on a free is a big disappointment.

I have checked everyone's contract, but I dont know how I missed Woods situation.

Anyway super performance and 3 more points. Next up West Ham at home. Gotta make it 2 wins in a row for the first time this season. Looking forward to it.
.......

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[harrypal]

February 13, 2014

After the stunning 3-1 win at Liverpool, wanted to put together a series of good results. Starting West Ham at home. Well things went according to plan.

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Wonderful win. So first time this season, we were able to win 2 matches continuously.


STUNNING

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Never thought we would do this. Not only the result, but the performance was fantastic as well. Filled the midfield and stopped them playing. When we got the ball, played some quick passing move game.

So 3 wins in a row. Great.

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