The Northern Lights - A Scandinavian Superleague Story

[FancyPantsCam]

They always say “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Never been one for tautologies. With me needing to crowbar Isak Johannesson into the starting line-up to justify his fee, our all-conquering system last year had to go.

Regarding players, as we’re now in our third season and the numbers of foreign players are creeping up, it time to implement a new rule. There must never be a majority of non-Nordic players on the pitch. Not just starters, but at no time shall there be six non-Nordic players out there.

I really wanted to make this stupid formation work. In theory, it should work well. It’s just a slightly more aggressive version of what we were rocking last year. I mean, if one Segundo volante works that well, having two just means twice the fun.

Despite some great score lines, it just wasn’t giving me the control that I was wanting in matches. Especially in the Champions League. The results might look great, but that’s more due to moments of brilliance from our forward and Dennis Seiman being in inspired form.

After more experimentation and crucially loosing our first match in over a season and a half against Copenhagen, I had to admit that this isn’t the one.

Time to go back to where it all began. Time to revive the 4-3-3 from the first half of season one. It’s dull and it’s ordinary on the tactics page, but it lets me get in all our star players and is crushingly effective.


We go on an absolute tear, ripping through our domestic opponents like a giddy child on Christmas morning. We’ve kept our lethality up front but have now become much, much more stable. One goal conceded in nine matches in the league are some full blown Mourinho level numbers.

The great thing though is that Copenhagen are matching us step by step. They’ve recruited really well and are finally getting back to the threat they should be. We win a match, they win a match. Kilicsoy or Berterame score a couple of goals, Donyell Malen scores a couple of goals for them.

This is what I want. A proper title race like in season one! They’ve even managed to go invincible at the halfway mark, which is a great achievement for them. I mean, ignore the goal difference for a moment, because that makes it look a little less even. We have a knack of our subs adding goals late on in matches as our opponents tire, so there is a touch of stat padding going on.

Despite us scoring over 3.6 goals a game, the main difference between us and the Danes is actually in defence, as they’ve not been able to properly close out the wins they need to beat us.

We’re also kicking all forms of bottom on the continental stage too.

Having been gifted with a more than favourable set of opponents for both the qualifiers and the league phase by the FM gods, we’ve been able to really lay a marker again. With two matches left of the league phase, we are already guaranteed at least a playoff spot and look set to make it through in the top eight once more. Only Lazio and Real Madrid are left to go, I’ll leave you to guess which one fills me with most trepidation.

That we can describe sides such as Olympiakos and PSV and Wolfsburg as easy opponents only three seasons into this run is beyond what I was hoping for. The game against the Greeks was also a fun one, as we both seemed to forget defending for a bit.

The extra depth we now have in the squad thanks to our acquisitions has made a huge difference.

Speaking of those new players, Kilicsoy, Johannesson and Jelert have all started like a house on fire. Although that might actually be a slight understatement.

Jelert is a constant menace down the right hand side, somehow laying on even more assists than Wenbangamo used to. Johannesson has been a great addition in the middle of pitch, a brilliant combo of bustling energy and creativity with a good eye for goals. And then there is Kilicsoy, who from his very first game has become an absolute menace to opposition defenders.

They all cost a pretty penny, but all have been major upgrades on who they replaced. Zero regrets. We may have lost our undefeated streak, but this is easily a better team than last year.

Let’s go survive January and I suppose go for the Youth Trofe that the board care so much about.

 

[MitchT94]

What a journey so far and some of the transfers you've been able to make (chefs kiss).

Can't wait to see how this develops going forward especially with the latest title race being so close.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

This is a weird feeling. I’m coming into a transfer window with no intention of entering the market. Is this squad happiness? Yes, I have my eyes of a couple of pre-contracts for next season, but I have no immediate wants or needs. Everything is rosy.

Which is very handy because we’re absolutely skint. Unlike Manchester City, who decide to treat themselves by breaking the transfer world record for Ansu Fati.

£384million.

Yep, that’s the sort of team we’re going to have to try and beat if we want to finish this challenge.

Our January is mainly made up of the Youth Trofe, which our new, younger squad can attack with real relish. It’s also time to introduce you to two of our youth graduates who will be hoping to make an impact this month.

These would be Carl Haaberg and Stefan Eilertsen, both of which I have real high hopes for. Haaberg is the heir apparent to Berg, a combative defensive midfielder, just needs to work a little on his passing ability. He will do very nicely indeed thank you very much.

I don’t know why though, but Eilertsen is the one I’m excited about. It’s probably just the mohawk the in-game model has, but both me and my staff think he’ll go far. Having come through the academy last year, he become the club’s youngest ever goal scorer in his debut last May. Since then, I have been using him very sparingly but now is his time for a month of game time.

As all my transfer dealings this month have been telling Europe’s elite to sod off in a variety of ways, we’ve been able to focus on the Youth Trofe and have massively capitalised. With a lot of our first team now able to play in this competition, it almost seemed unfair to unleash this lot against our opponents’ youngsters.

I hope they’re not too traumatized by Schjelderup, Kilicsoy, Johannesson and Larsson running at them.

We end the month with another trophy lofted over our heads for The Yellow Horde, thrashing Copenhagen in the final to win it for the second year in a row and making the board all sorts of happy.

Oh, and the remaining UCL fixtures? Well, we battered Lazio with precisely sod-all possession and tried to bore everyone to death with our game against the mighty Real Madrid at the temple of football that is the Bernabeau. Eeesh, were that rubbish that we even had to rope in their lads to get one past them.

We progress into the first knockout round right floating around the top of the table and once again feeling horribly smug about doing this on a budget lower than what Mbappe is earning on his own.

Now, let's go kick the rest of this season's behind.