Steven Gerrard - into the world of management

Onto the second leg ...

We needed to produce our best performance of the season here to have any chance of turning around a 2-0 deficit from the first leg.



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Unfortunately, we couldn't quite produce our best.

A 1-1 in isolation against the league leader, away from home, is a good result. But we needed so much more on this occasion.

Our american dream is over ... for this season anyway.​
 
END OF SEASON MEETING WITH THE BOARD

​

Director: So Steven, how do you feel the season went?

Steven Gerrard: Ultimately, the season was disappointing although I'm pleased that I managed to to climb several places in the league since taking over.

Director: We are also disappointed that we couldn't get further into the play offs. However, we appreciate this wasn't an easy job for you given the circumstances you took over in.

Therefore, we are prepared to give you the first 6 games of next season to prove you are capable of taking this club further and winning the MLS cup next season.

Steven Gerrard: I know I'm capable. With the right additions next season we can really challenge on every front.

Director: We agree the squad needs strengthening and will back you 100% in the pre season transfer market and draft.

Good luck next season Steven ... dont let us down!
 
Pre-Season 2015/2016


After the disappointment of last season, I really needed to strengthen in the squad in nearly every department. We didn't wait for any kind of draft, we just went in and cherry picked the payers we needed.

The first bit of news was a striker joining the club to ease the pressure on Robbie Keane ...

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Former, Aston Villa, West Brom and Swansea striker, Luke Moore joins from MLS cup winning side Toronto.

Moore only featured 11 times for Toronto last season, scoring 5 goals. Despite this,

I'm still confident Moore has the ability to partner Robbie Keane and score himself 15 to 20 goals a season. I'm surprised that Moore's still only 29 ... he seems to have been around for ages!​

We didn't stop there ...

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Pablo Pintos is the next player to join the club. Pintos joins the club from San Jose, who we beat in the 'Wild Card' game only a week or two ago.

Pintos played 30 games for San Jose last season but only recorded an average rating of 6.80. He should suit our system well by being able to play both right back and right wing back which should give us the option to play 3-5-2 again.​

The next bit of news was a transfer offer for one of our main men ...

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Nantes offer a total of £2.25 million for influential midfielder, Juninho.


Although this is a lot of money, I wouldn't be able to spend any of this anyway as clubs in the MLS only receive a very small proportion of any transfer made from a European club.

We also need Juniniho fit and firing if we want to achieve anything this season.

The offer was declined with Nantes not coming back with any increased offer.​

We then looked to tie down the main players in our squad ...

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Zardes contract was extended by another year, this was a clause in his previous contract which allowed us to do this.​

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The next player to commit this furture to the club was goalkeeper, Jaime Penedo.

Penedo had a pretty good season last year and was an ever present in the league.​

Jack McBean was the final player to sign an extension.

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The young forward player who features 13 times in the league last season, scoring 5 goals is the final player to commit his future.

McBean is only 20 years old and looks to have plenty of potential to improve into. He didn't feature at all before I took charge but he forced to play an important role for us with Robbie Keane's injury late on in the season.​

We did have one rebel in the squad who we couldn't tie down to a new deal ...

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Star center back, Omar Gonzalez has refused to enter into negotiations with us.

Gonzalez is unhappy at the club as there are rumours Aston Villa are interested in signing him and him wanting to move leagues.

This is a big blow as he's so important to us! He's got one year left so I'm just hoping Villa's interest dies down in the coming season.​

The only other bit of news I can bring you from pre-season is Gerrard starting a managerial training course ...

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I started out with 'NO' coaching badges when I started the game.

I don't know how much of a difference these coaching badges make in the game but I'm keen to work on this even if it just helps getting better jobs as the save continues.
​
 
With my second season just days away, our pre-season results looked like this ...

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A pretty mixed bag really.

You can never read too much into pre-season results but the main thing is the squad looks pretty fit and ready to go for the new season.

I would still say we're a central midfielder and central defender away from being able to really challenge.​

We also got some disappointing injury news ...

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Inspirational midfielder, Juninho is ruled out for 2 weeks with a damaged elbow.

This means he'll miss the start of the season and puts even more emphasis on the need for us to sign a new midfielder as soon as possible.​

Just a day or two before the start of the season, we managed to sign the midfield player we so desperately needed ...

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Another player joining from Toronto.

Jonathan Osorio, who featured 18 times for MLS Cup winning side, Toronto, last season joins the club to partner Juninho in central midfield.

Osorio is only 20 years old but already looks a good player and has good potential to improve further.


BRING ON THE START OF THE SEASON​
 
So, the first game of the season.

Here is our new looks side ...

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Youngster Daniel Keller has to come into the starting 11 after featuring mostly on the bench last season. This due to us being unable to sign a defender in time for the season starting.

New signing, Pablo Pintos comes into the squad as right wing back. Fellow new signing, Jonathan Osorio comes straight into the squad at central midfield. He comes in to partner Maganto, this again shows that we need another midfielder to come into the squad.

Luke Moore is the final new signing to feature in the squad. Him partnering Robbie Keane should rip teams apart in this league.​


Let see how the game goes ...


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A fairly disappointing result, although we played pretty well.

Keane and Moore failed to click on their first appearance together but I'm still confident they can work throughout the season.

Orlando City are new to the MLS so it's pretty hard to tell how good they'll be be this season. Although I'm pretty sure they'll be happy with this as their first MLS result.​
 
Game week 2

Next up we face New England in a very winnable game. New England went on to finish 14th in the Supporters Shield, 11 points behind us.

Just before the game we managed to complete the signing of a much needed center back ...​

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Matt Hedges signs from New England just days before we play them! (I'm sure that went down well). Hedges played 13 games for New England last season with an average rating of 7.40. He will become the third center back to play in this formation.​


Lets see if the front men can strike up an understanding in this game ...

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Thats more like it!!

A thumping 4-1 win over New England. We got off to a great start with Omar Gonzalez gabbing the first goal within 2 minutes.

New signing, Pablo Pintos then got himself on the score sheet to double our lead. Playing this formation should give him licence to bomb forward when he likes and pop up with a few goals and assists.

Bradford Jaimeson then scored the 3rd after only being on the pitch 60 seconds, he scored with a great strike from 20 yards out.

Teal Bunbury then got one back for New England but it was always going to be just a consolation goal. Left wing back, Paito then made sure of the points with a late penalty.

This is a really pleasing result, all 4 goals scored by different scorers and neither Keane nor Moore needed to score themselves.​
 
Game week 3

Next up we faced an away trip to face Colombus. This should be a fairly tight game as Colombus only finished 5 points behind us in the Supporters Shield, should be tight but certainly one we can win ...


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Another very good win!

I'm really pleased to see both Robbie Keane and Luke Moore get themselves on the scoresheet.

Luke Moore got us off to a great start with a goal within 7 minutes before Colombus equalised through Ben Williams.

Robbie Keane then grabbed our second and, what turned out to be, the winner.

Keane hasn't really recovered from that injury yet but hopefully this is the start of things to come. I've only really seen Keane at his best for about a month since taking over. I could do with him having an injury free season.​
 
Game week 4

We then came up against another new team to the league in New York City FC (NYCFC).

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A great win!

I expect NYCFC to be right up there in the league this season so to win so emphatically was really pleasing.

Jose Villareal with his first of the season within 4 minutes. NYCFC then equalised shortly after the hour mark.

We then retook the lead through Zardes before Robbie Keane got his 2nd in 2 games to make it 3-2.

And that's how the game finished.

On a side note, I was disappointed that Frank Lampard hadn't joined the club in time to play in this game. He doesn't join until June so he'll just be joining for the run in at the end of the season.​
 
Game week 5

The final game of the see's us in another away trip, this time to face Montreal Impact.

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That makes it 4 wins in a row.

It looked to be a terribly boring game with only 4 shots on target between us!

Luke Moore grabbed the only goal of the game on 12 minutes.

At least with this formation we're able to stay pretty tight at the back, last season we would have conceeded 3 or 4 here.​
 
Game week 6

The first game of April saw us up against Real Salt Lake.

This should be a real challenge as Real Salt Lake ended up finishing second in our Western Conference last season.

Lets see how the game goes ...

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Another good win which makes it 5 wins from 5 games!

Real Salt Lake took an early lead after 10 minutes before Omar Gonzalez powered home from a corner to make it 1-1.

Robbie Keane then went on the grab the second and the match winner.​
 
Game week 7

Game week 7 see's us up against last season's 'Wild Card' opponents, San Jose. This should be a tough game with San Jose only finishing one place behind us last season and giving us a good battle in the 'Wild Card' match.

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Another good win which now makes it 6 wins in a row.

Robbie Keane with the only goal of the game after just 15 minutes. Again, this is a game where we played well and really deserved the win.​
 
Game week 8

The next game saw us up against Sporting Kansas City who finished last season 5th in the Eastern Conference and went on to lose their 'Wild Card' game against DC United.


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What a win! This has to be the performance of the season so far.

Robbie Kean with a hattrick inside half an hour was pleasing and really ensured we took away all 3 points on its own.

In the middle of his hattrick, new signing Brad Evans scored his first goal for the club.

Luke Moore then grabbed the 5th and ensured there would be no fight back from last seasons losing Wild Card team.​
 
Game week 9

Just before we played the 9th game of the season, we had some disappointing injury news ...

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New signing, Brad Evans finds himself on the injury table for up to 4 weeks with a pulled hamstring.

Evans has been in good form this season with an average rating of 7.08.​


Now, onto the match where we were up against Vancouver at home.

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That's now 9 wins in a row!

A fairly straight forward victory which could have/should have been more emphatic had we taken our chances better.

The two striker getting themselves on the scoresheet again. First up Luke Moore got us on our way by putting us 1-0 up before his partner, Robbie Keane doubled the lead just before half time.

At 2-0 up we never looked back with a Vancouver comeback never really on the card.​
 
Game week 10

Just after the Vancouver game, we realised that midfielder, Juninho has suffered an injury ...

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Influential midfielder, Juninho is ruled out for 2 weeks with a damaged elbow. This, coupled with Evans injury means we're going to be very short in the midfield area for the next few weeks or so!​


So, back on to game week 10 and the opportunity to make it 10 wins from the last 10 games.

Getting the 10th win won't be easy though as we face last season's rivals, Portland. Portland were a real bogey side for us last season after they beat us heavily a couple of times as well as knocked us out of the play offs. This should be a test of how we've improved since last season.


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Thats 10 in a row! What an achievement!!

This is a really impressive win for us here after struggling against Portland so much last season.

The game was pretty even throughout with no real chances for either side.

That was until injury time when Robbie Keane pounced on a rebounded shot from Osorio which the keeper couldn't keep hold of.​

This game also brought the end of the month with it. So, after 11 games we remain top of the league.

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We're already a massive 8 points clear of our nearest rivals - who happen to be Portland.​

We also find ourselves top of the Supporters Shield as well.

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We're still 6 points clear here wit Toronto looking to be the nearest challengers. If we can keep this form up the we'll win the Supports Shield at a canter.​


The form of striker, Robbie Keane also didn't go unnoticed this month either ...

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Keane has been superb this season and scored an increadible 7 goals in just 5 games. This was mostly helped thanks to a hattrick against Sporting Kansas City.

I'm really hoping Keane can keep this form up and stay fit this season.​
 
TALKS WITH THE BOARD RE GOOD FORM​

Director: ****, again, Steven. We, the board, just wanted to congratulate you on a very impressive turnaround of results this season. This is much more like what we expect.

Steven Gerrard: Thank you boss. The side is so much stronger this season and I think the squad have go used to the 3-5-2 tactic more.

Director: That's great Steven. Keep us the good work and there's no reason why we can't go and win the MLS cup this season.

Steven Gerrard: Thats the aim!!
 
After this great run, we were unbeatable! Weren't we?!?

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Sadly not - we were not unbeatable!!

Colorado gave us a right run around and beat us fair and square.

We actually took the lead just before half time through Luke Moore. At 1-0 I really thought our run would continue, but sadly it didn't.

Colorado then took over and capitalised on a sloppy second half performance. The equalised straight after half time and then took the lead shortly after the hour mark.

Simply put, we weren't good enough. To only have 2 shots on target all game is not acceptable, we only just edged the possession stat's where we normally win quite comfortably.

We'll have to out this one down to a bad day at the office.​
 
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