The Return of The Entertainers: The Rise of the Geordies

I saw nobody of note in the biggest sides in Spain and Italy, so onto the league update. We're now in March. The month of my birthday, and it was a mixed month, with us picking up three wins, a draw and a loss. It might well be the worst month I've had yet, to be honest.

Let's take a look at the fixtures.


As mentioned, 3 wins, a draw and a loss. First up was Sunderland, where we were hoping to manage to do the double over our neighbours, after our 3 - 0 romp of them back in November. This is how the match went.

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RESULT: Sunderland 0 - 1 Newcastle​

First team lined up thusly.
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Keisuke Honda - Yohan Cabaye
Hatem Ben Arfa - Angel Correa - Eduardo Vargas
Leandro Damiao

A fairly dull game, we deserved to win it, and Damiao's header from the cross of Mathieu Debuchy was enough for us to seal the three points. Nothing else worth mentioning happened.

The next game was a home game to Norwich, who were 8th in the table at this point in time, above the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal. To be quite honest, I'm hoping to nab some of those two teams' players come summer, as I can't imagine Ozil or Suarez being happy not playing Champions League football. Anyway, here's how Norwich went.

​
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RESULT: Newcastle 2 - 4 Norwich.

The first team was like this:​
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa- Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Keisuke Honda - Yohan Cabaye
Eduardo Salvio - Hatem Ben Arfa - Nicolas Gaitan
Leandro Damiao

What a travesty. Coloccini missed out due to suspension, Honda got injured for a month, and when I went onto overload in the last 10 minutes to try and win the game, we conceded twice, once the result of me throwing Tim Krul up for a corner. I don't quite know why I did that. It was a scrappy, poor game, my worst result yet, and I'm keen to just move on from this.

Aston Villa were next up, and I demanded that my boys won this game to make up for the shambles that had been the last home match.
​

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RESULT: Newcastle 3 - 1 Aston Villa​

First team as so:
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Moussa Sissoko - Yohan Cabaye
Nicolas Gaitan -Hatem Ben Arfa - Eduardo Vargas
Leandro Damiao


They scored first, and were in control of the game quite frankly, and I was quite worried that we were going to come unstuck. But then, Fabian Delph did us a favour by reducing them to ten men, and then we went into the second half with much more belief. 3 goals in ten minutes, courtesy of Sissoko, Vargas and Damiao meant that we were able to claim a win. We were lucky though, as Sissoko returned from his long term injury right at the start of Keisuke Honda's, so we were able to have a ready made replacement for the Japan captain. I must have saved up my luck on my other FM saves for this save, because I've previously been forced to play a 2-3-5 formation due to injuries to my defenders, in this game I've gotten very few injuries, and only once have I had a real injury crisis.

The next match was away to Goodison Park, to face a resurgent Everton side sitting disappointingly in 13th place. Here's how it went.

​
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RESULT: Everton 1 - 1 Newcastle​

First team:
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Moussa Sissoko - Yohan Cabaye
Nicolas Gaitan -Hatem Ben Arfa - Eduardo Vargas
Leandro Damiao

A poor quality game, very few chances, and a draw that I was happy with. It was a fair result, we'll try and move on quickly, because very little interesting happened in this match. However, there was something that was very good that happened on March the 22nd.

​
View attachment 444910

He's joining us! He'll be a key player for us in a couple of years, have you ever seen a fourteen year old with those stats before though? I'm very likely to retrain him so that he can also play as a striker, his stats would already have him as a decent deep lying forward, imagine him at age 25 tearing up defenses across Europe and in the Premier League, week in, week out.

The final match of the month was at Stamford Bridge. We face a Chelsea side one point below us with a game in hand, so really this was a must win game. Let's take a look.

​
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RESULT: Chelsea 1 - 3 Newcastle

First team:​
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Moussa Sissoko - Yohan Cabaye
Eduardo Salvio --------------------- Nicolas Gaitan
Leandro Damiao


​
I played a formation that I hadn't used since the last time I played Chelsea, and it worked a **** of a lot better this time. All of the goals in the game came from the consequence of an indirect free kick, with Gaitan getting free in the area twice to slot home, Balanta rising high on the other occasion, while for them, it was Gary Cahil who connected with Juan Mata's lovely cross, which had been caused by Sissoko fouling Mata in the first place. Nonetheless, a fantastic result, we were more clinical than Chelsea were today and we reaped the rewards.

So, for the league. Here's how it stands as we go into April:


Four points clear of Chelsea, six on Man U, but both of them have a game in hand, and I play the Red Devils next, where I'm expecting St James' to be full to capacity. A real 6 pointer, if we win that game then I think we'll win the league, we lose it and we'll finish no higher than third. Both Manchester United and Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League, with Chelsea losing 4-3 after extra time, a 3-0 win for both home teams, Real Madrid managed a 104th minute winner at Stamford Bridge to go through, wheras Manchester United suffered to Paris St Germain, a 3-2 victory for both home teams in each leg, meaning they went to extra time, where the final score on the night was a 5-4 win for the reds, a 121st minute goal (and the completion of his hattrick) from Zlatan Ibrahimovic meant that PSG went through on away goals.

Player of the Month
Nicolas Gaitan
View attachment 444917​

A shout out must go to the winner of the Premier League Young Player of the Month (again) of Eder Alvarez Balanta, but nobody had a great month, and Nicolas Gaitan was the player who probably did the most this month for our cause, therefore he gets the award instead.

The next update will cover the end of April, and will feature games against Manchester United, Crystal Palace and Tottenham, where we are the home team, along with our second to last away game of the season, at Southampton, right after the Manchester United game.
 
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Changing the name of this story, btw. It's changing from Newcastle United: The Inspiration to The Return of the Entertainers: The Rise of the Geordies.
 
Low concentration and strength *could* be a problem for retraining him as striker. I'd go for a try on the wings, he has decent crossing already, decent pace, although stamina could use a boost. High determination means he can learn pretty quickly, and improve a lot.
 
Sherkey said:
Low concentration and strength *could* be a problem for retraining him as striker. I'd go for a try on the wings, he has decent crossing already, decent pace, although stamina could use a boost. High determination means he can learn pretty quickly, and improve a lot.
Click to expand...

Hmm, true, however neither of those attributes are deemed by the game to be very important to Advanced Forwards or Poachers, and I use either that or a DLF in my tactics. But you have a good point with the crossing, do you think he'd be a good IF on the left wing?
 
This time, I'm showing the fixtures of the three clubs in with a shout of the title.

Here are our fixtures.


Two Wins, two draws, not good enough in my opinion.

Here is Chelsea's.


Two wins, a draw and a loss means that we stay ahead of them, however they still have a game in hand. But it does mean that our poor performance wasn't overly threatening. We have conceded fewer than them this season, which was pleasing.

Here is Manchester United's.


Two wins, and two losses, they are now 5 points behind with 6 to play for. Almost no chance for them to win the title now. We've scored more than they have so far this season too.

Our first fixture this month was against Manchester United, with us having the home field advantage. This is how it went.

View attachment 444825View attachment 444830

RESULT: Newcastle 3 - 1 Manchester United​

First Team:
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Yohan Cabaye - Moussa Sissoko
Eduardo Salvio - Hatem Ben Arfa - Nicolas Gaitan
Leandro Damiao​

We deserved this victory, but I wish I would stop conceding world class goals. Van Persie's was a special one, very similar to his goal against Aston Villa last season, the ball dropping onto his extending left foot for him to volley the ball into the top corner. We had put the game to bed by then though, with goals from my inside forwards from inside the box accompanying a strike from Eduardo Vargas, who played the role of super sub today, meant we were never in danger. As for the formation, I felt that I had to play attacking to beat Manchester United, rather than relying on a goal from a counter attack. So we lost a defender, gained an attacking midfielder. Not bad, and that was the final title 6 pointer for the season, the title will now go to the team who did best against the weaker teams.

The next game was against Southampton, and we had to travel to St Mary's to face them. They had nothing left to play for, so I thought we should win fairly well. This is how it went down.

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RESULT: Southampton 0 - 1 Newcastle​

First team:
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Keisuke Honda - Yohan Cabaye
Eduardo Salvio----------------------Nicolas Gaitan
Leandro Damiao - Eduardo Vargas​

Boring. I switched formations because my assistant reported that Southampton were most vulnerable to facing a 4-2-2-2, it didn't work. The only piece of action in the game was when Keisuke Honda, returning from injury to replace the once again injured Sissoko, lead a counter attack to slot home past a helpless Boruc. Let's move on.

Crystal Palace were up next, we were at home, they would be relegated with anything other than a win, and were in extremely poor form, so I was confident of a routine win. This is what happened.

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RESULT: Newcastle 1 - 1 Crystal Palace​

First team:
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Eder Alvarez Balanta
Moussa Sissoko - Yohan Cabaye
Eduardo Salvio - Adavilson - Nicolas Gaitan
Eduardo Vargas​

Pathetic. We had to rely on an own goal from a player I shipped out as soon as possible in order to rescue a draw. Terrible. I made a couple of changes, Santon went out with an injury for two weeks, Yanga-Mbiwa replaced him with Balanta going wider, I brought Sissoko in in order to rest Keisuke Honda for the game three days later against Spurs, same with dropping Ben Arfa and Leandro Damiao for Adavilson and Eduardo Vargas. Moving on.

Tottenham at home was the final match of April, and was our last big test. Our remaining fixtures are Stoke away and West Ham at home. This is how this game went.

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RESULT: Newcastle 1 - 1 Tottenham​

First Team:
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Massadio Haidara
Moussa Sissoko - Yohan Cabaye​
Eduardo Salvio - Angel Correa - Nicolas Gaitan
Leandro Damiao
​

Ben Arfa misses the rest of the season, out for two months with an ankle injury, and Honda was less fit than Sissoko, so Sissoko played instead. Santon remained out, so Haidara came into the defence. Oh, I conceded a goal? Was it world class? Thought so. Goal of the month winner, Jermaine Defoe's lovely chip means we have conceded a huge number of world class goals this season. I'm almost terrified of going up against genuine world class players now, what'll they do? But we pulled one back through a hopeful punt forward from a free kick in our own half, Coloccini did well to keep it in and lay it off to Haidara, who was less than two meters away from the goal, and he wasn't going to miss. Neither team could then break down the other, so we walked away from this game with a point. Not bad, considering all of the talent Spurs have in their squad.

So, how does the league look?


View attachment 444826​

We are 5 points ahead of the next two challengers, we have 6 points left to play for, our challengers have 6 and 9 to play for. Manchester United are almost certainly not going to win the title this time round though. If Chelsea slip up against either Arsenal or Tottenham, we'll have almost certainly have guaranteed the title. We just need to win one of our games though, and we shouldn't be able to be caught. Winning both would obviously be preferable though.


Player of the Month
Eder Alvarez Balanta
View attachment 444831​

Young player of the month yet again, an average rating of 7.65 over the last four games means he wins my personal player of the month award again. The manager of the month was Stoke's manager, and I wasn't anywhere near the award, which was honestly deserved. I didn't deserve to win Manager of the month this time.

Final update of this season will be the next update, covering up until the end of May, and will cover who won the league, who got relegated, a quick look at the other fop European Leagues, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, along with the winners of the two Domestic competitions along with the Champions League and Europa League. Until next time, wish me luck.
 
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Let's have a look at May, our fixtures and who won the league.


We started off with a difficult game away at Stoke, who were in fantastic form, winning 5 out of their last 5 games. Here's how it went.

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RESULT: Stoke 1 - 0 Newcastle​

First Team:
Tim Krul
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta
Vurnon Anita
Yohan Cabaye - Keisuke Honda
Eduardo Salvio - Angel Correa - Nicolas Gaitan
Leandro Damiao​

We deserved to lose this, but I was sort of expecting it, starting a completely new formation due to a complete lack of cover at full backs, with Debuchy being less fit than the returning from injury Davide Santon. We were anything but fluid and they punished us, however thankfully Chelsea only managed to draw at home to Fulham, so we were not punished for our loss.

The final game of the season was at St James against West Ham, and if we won we would guarantee that we would be the ones lifting the title. So how did that game go?

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RESULT: Newcastle 3 - 0 West Ham​

First Team:
Tim Krul
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Keisuke Honda - Yohan Cabaye
Eduardo Salvio - Angel Correa - Nicolas Gaitan
Leandro Damiao​

YES!!!! We won the Premier League, first season of asking. I can think of a fair few games that we got very lucky to win or draw when a loss would have been fair, and those patches of luck are what won us the league. In this game itself, we scored after 20 seconds, from Angel Correa, who performed brilliantly today, and Eduardo Salvio doubled our lead only 7 minutes later. To put the game to bed, James Tomkins slotted the ball home for us trying to clear a cross from Salvio. Excellent job.

So what did the League end up looking like?


We would have won the league even if West Ham had beaten us. Good seasons for us, Stoke and Norwich, disappointing ones for Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton. Here are the individual awards, and player stats for the season.

Player Stats Overall
View attachment 444801

Players Player of the Year
View attachment 444793
Winner: Christian Eriksen

Footballer of the Year
View attachment 444794
Winner: Eden Hazard

Manager of the Year
View attachment 444795
Winner: Cillian Calvert

Players Young Player of the Year
View attachment 444796
Winner: Leroy Fer

Top Goalscorer:
View attachment 444797
Winners:
Robin Van Persie
Ola Toivonen
Frank Lampard

Team Of The Year
View attachment 444802​

I was named manager of the year. Oh, just so it's clear, Cillian isn't my real name, I'm just not willing to let it be known to people who I've never met. That's why there is the odd name change in the top left for these pics.

What about the other leagues, I hear you ask? Not really, but I'll cover them in a small amount of detail anyway.


Real Madrid won the league by two points, beating Barcelona to it.

Bundesliga:

View attachment 444788​

Bayern Munich dominated and won by a considerable margin.


AC Milan won the league by 9 points, Roma finished in the bottom half.


PSG won it, of course. Nothing else was to be expected though.

As for Europe? The Europa League final was a London Derby, Tottenham vs Arsenal. Arsenal ran out 2-0 winners on the night, a small consolation. Enough to keep Mesut Ozil? I doubt it.


As for the Champions League, Juve made up for their disappointment in Serie A by winning the highest honour in club football, beating Barca 1-0 in the final.



The next update will be a personal reflection on the season, might not be coming for another 12 hours, might come within the next 2. We'll see.
 
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We performed very well this season, but lucked our way through far too many games for me to feel comfortable going into next season. Some changed need to be made, and an overhaul of the squad may very well be needed. If we hadn't gotten kicked out of the cups so early, we wouldn't have been at the summit of the Premier League at the end of May, and I want to be competing on every front possible. This may seem like a big achievement, but until I've won everything, this means nothing.

OK, now let's review the players. Here is a list of all the players in my first team squad ordered by average rating.

As you can see, Eder Alvarez Balanta tops this list, and for that reason, he get's my personal award too.


Player of The Year
Eder Alvarez Balanta
View attachment 444757​

He performed in all of the big games, scored 7 goals and was our fan's player of the year as well as mine. A brilliant debut season from the young Colombian.

Second place for me went to one of the players who was already at the club when I got here.

Hatem Ben Arfa
View attachment 444752
​

He was one goal away from being out top goalscorer this season, I hope his spinal injury doesn't have any permanent consequences. Almost all the goals he scored were great, and I can remember him performing very well in the topmost games.

Here's another screenshot of Adavilson and Sergi Samper to show how much they've developed.

And a new award here:
Young Player of the Year Award
Angel Correa
View attachment 444759​

Going by the same rules as the Premier League awards of the Month, the winner of the full player of the year will never win this award, it goes to the best youngster who made a good impact unexpectedly. His determination still needs some work, but he performed great for me when he came into the team, and at the end of the season I had no qualms putting him in the side in place of the injured Hatem Ben Arfa.


Best Signing Award

Keisuke Honda
View attachment 444751​

Our second best performer over the course of the whole season, the Japan captain was probably my best transfer of this season.

Best Striker
Leandro Damiao
View attachment 444750​

Not much competition for this award, our leading goalscorer was always the only real candidate for it. I'm on the lookout for better options though, he disappointed me after how good he used to be in FM13.


The Rest
The names who were there but just didn't impress enough to win an award.
Davide Santon
View attachment 444758

After Balanta, he was our best defender this season, and he'll be a mainstay in the first team for a number of years.

Yohan Cabaye
View attachment 444741

Spent the first half of the season ****** off at me for wanting too much for him second half he refused to enter contract negotiations, Yohan Cabaye honestly ****** me off this year. I was going to let him rot in the reserves next year, but I got a huge bid from Paris St Germain, and so he'll be returning to France next year.

Tim Krul
View attachment 444742

Was at one stage leading the race for the Golden Glove, however his form dipped a bit towards the end of the season, and I'm bringing in a good quality replacement.

Nicolas Gaitan
View attachment 444744

A serious contender for the best signing award, Nicolas was a very good player for us this year, solid and was never far from the first team.

Mathieu Debuchy
View attachment 444749

A very good right back, who will stay there until my youth prospects have developed enough to take his place, most likely.

Moussa Sissoko
View attachment 444748

A good solid midfielder, did a good job when called upon, nothing spectacular though.

Fabricio Coloccini
View attachment 444753

Ahh the club captain. I think he has maybe 2 more seasons with us before he's too old to continue at this level, but he was very good this year, always giving his all, and not often doing anything wrong either.

Eduardo Vargas
View attachment 444754

A signing I made in the heat of the moment, getting distracted by the bargain price, he's off to Spain for 11 million come the start of next season. Could hardly believe my eyes when a team accepted my offering out of him, was expecting nothing.

Eduardo Salvio
View attachment 444755

Just minutes after this screenshot was taken he went back to SLB. He did well, but not well enough for me to justify paying 15 million for him when I could use that money so much better elsewhere.
​

Lastly, the Team of the Year announcement.


Out of interest, can anyone recommend a young (no older than 19 at the start of the game) central midfielder that can be a rotation option next season, as a sort of Cabaye replacement?

Next time will be analysing the various transfers that I've made while trying to defend my Premier League Crown.

​
 
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I've spent my transfer budget already, unless someone goes, no-one else is coming in. And that could be dangerous, all things considered.
 
OK, let's take a quick look at the World Cup. This is how it went.


France are the world Champions for the first time this century, beating England, Japan, Argentina and Portugal to claim the biggest award in football. A big disappointment for teams like Germany, the Ivory Coast and Holland. Only one of them got rid of their manager though, and I am waiting to hear if I can get an interview with Holland. Olivier Giroud got the golden ball and Eden Hazard was the best player in the tournament.

Anyway, onto the transfers. We were **** busy this transfer window, breaking our record sale and our record buy in the same window. Let's take a look.


I've highlighted the players who will be/were in or around the first team a lot. Let's start with the outgoings.

Yohan Cabaye played well for France at the World Cup, and nearly at the end of the Group Stages, PSG put in a bid of 27.5 million, with 15 million paid over 24 months, for Cabaye, and I was able to negotiate with them for 16.5 million straight up and 20 million over 18 months, so he became our record sale of 36.5 million.

The other two sales from near the first team were Vurnon Anita and Eduardo Vargas, going for 15 million to Barcelona and 11 million to Atletico Madrid respectively. I found this quite unrealistic on the part of the game, Anita had made 10 apps for us, and hadn't really done much, so getting Barcelona respond when I offered him out for 20 million (which I did to keep Liverpool away) for 3/4 of that, I snapped their hand off. Vargas wasn't great for us, but he managed a few goals, and Atletico's main man Diego Costa is out for 4 months with an ankle problem, so them responding to my offer of 11 million for him made sense. I offered him out to free up funds to sign a new player, who I felt was an improvement on him.

Onto the incomings. A couple of big names were bought this window, lets start with our new record buy.


The big one, I was right when I said that he wouldn't be happy with no champions league, he was transfer listed by request and was unhappy at Arsenal. I managed to broker a deal of 10 million upfront, 40 more over the course of 4 years, along with up to 7 million worth in add ons for landmark moments. He's worth it though, and is our best player now, I'm expecting big things from him. Only 25, I've got a fair few seasons of him, I'd say he'll still be going strong in 7 seasons time.

The next biggest transfer was from another north London club who missed out on the Champions League.

Christian Eriksen
View attachment 444602​

He was shortlisted for the Golden Ball last year, won the European Golden Boy award, and was the English Players Player of the Year last year. For 14 million upfront alongside 20 million over 4 years, he's ours to keep for a good few years, and he'll be seeing a good lot of first team action this year, with us competing on four fronts. I'm personally hopeful that he'll end up retiring with us.

The next biggest transfer was for the future.

Timo Werner
View attachment 444594​

We all know about him, he's one of the best prospects in the game and will be ready for week in week out first team football next season. Looked after properly, this guy will be fantastic for us in the future, and he will be well worth the 28.5 million we spent on him, with all of that bar 500k being paid over the next 4 years again.

Next on the line was a 9 million pound man from Man City who is criminally underrated in this game.

Alvaro Negredo
View attachment 444603​

He'll be the first team striker for the next season before Timo Werner takes his place, he'll do fine for this season anyway. The Beast was transfer listed at Man City, with Edin Dzeko above him in the pecking order. Way to go for realism! I'd be hopeful for 20-25 goals in all competitions from this guy this season, but so long as my midfield fire like last season I'll end up ok.

Next was the wonderkid I showed you, from Bayern.

Florian Walther
View attachment 444600​

Florian Walther looks like he could go on loan to some Premier League sides and become a first team regular there, he's our fifth choice AMC, and given that in some games I'll be playing with 3 AMC at a time, he'll get quite a bit of first team football, at the age of just 15. Best of all, in a few years he'll count as home grown for the Champions League, so I get to have him take up one of four annoying spaces that need to be trained at my club between the ages of 15 and 21. He'll end up being my best ever regen, on any of my FM saves. He cost 8.25 million, all of which was paid in March, and he'll prove worth every last penny of that.

The only other player we paid anything for was David Davis, who agreed a contract with us in March from Crystal Palace.


Certainly not bad, and for just under 600k he could prove worth it. The best english regen so far though.

The other players brought in were on frees, and there were some very big names amongst this bunch. Let's start off with the new first team goalkeeper.

Victor Valdes
View attachment 444593​

Tim Krul did nothing wrong, however Victor Valdes is a much better goalkeeper, and so I snatched him up before anyone else could. He'll be our number one for at least 2 years, by the end of which I hope to have bought Ter Stegen. He'll be a good influence on any young goalkeepers we get too, and will probably end up retiring with us.

The next name for in and around the first team is somebody who I really don't like in real life.

Gareth Barry
View attachment 444599​

He's got another season or two left in him, and will play a key part in our midfield, especially now that we've lost Cabaye. He's not getting any younger, so I'd not expect too much from him, but he'll definitely get a good few games, and hopefully he'll prove me wrong.

Thiago Motta
View attachment 444595​

He and Barry are the back up two for Sissoko and Honda, with Sergi Samper being next in line. Another one who's getting on a bit, but at age 31 he can still do a job for a little while.


The brilliant Brazilian was brought here to tutor. His phenomenal technical abilities remain, but I'm unlikely to play him in any game of any real importance due to the fact that, well, he's 42. Maybe an impact sub once or twice, I brought him here to tutor our young, and maybe coax him into staying here and being a coach for us.

Here's what the upcoming fixtures look like, preseason was unimportant.


I quite like these fixtures. I should be able to gather a lot of momentum before reaching Chelsea and the Manchester clubs, and we don't really have a very disjointed run for the first half of the season, the big teams coming all at once, the smaller teams providing good opportunities to build up momentum before the big games.

No new transfers, I think, unless someone comes in with a bid of 25 million or more for one of my key players. But they shouldn't. Til next time, when I will cover how the community shield match went, along with the first 3 fixtures of the new season as we try and defend our crown. And most importantly of all, we'll see what the Champions League Groups are like. We've a poor European coefficient, so I'm nervous about our group this time around. But as champions of England, we'll do our best.
 
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****, not a single reply between my posts again. Oh well.

August was a good month for me, aside from having my application to Holland laughed at, getting two big matches out of the way early on, along with the first chance of Silverware this season in the form of the Community Shield. Not the most prestigious award, but I'd be happy to win it.

Here's a look at the fixtures.

So, the opening game of the season, down in Wembley to face the Everton side who had won the FA cup. The match went like this.

View attachment 444458View attachment 444457

RESULT: Everton 1 - 2 Newcastle​

First Team: (Formation - 4-1-2-3)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Gareth Barry
Keisuke Honda - Moussa Sissoko
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Christian Eriksen​

The reason I changed tactic from last seasons is due to the lack of dominance we had in the games we played in, and so I've started using the Tiki Taka formation, available to download on here. It incorporates a sweeper keeper (attack), two wing backs and two central defenders, a half back, two advanced playmakers, two inside forwards and a deep lying forward. What makes it interesting is the position of the inside forwards, who are right next to the striker, so that the game reads them as being strikers on the left and right, so from future posts onwards, if the two inside forwards are on the same line as the striker, they are level with him, if they are not on the same line as the striker in my posts, they are further back. This formation should allow me to dominate matches a lot more than I was. Anyway, the match was a good one, we deservedly won it through goals from Mesut Ozil and Hatem Ben Arfa, both good goals from the outer area of the box.

The next game was the first league game of the season, at home to Liverpool. Here's how that one went.

View attachment 444452View attachment 444451

RESULT: Newcastle 3 - 0 Liverpool.​

First team: (Formation 4-1-2-3)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Gareth Barry
Keisuke Honda - Moussa Sissoko
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Christian Eriksen​

We deserved to win the game by as much as we did, and we were always in control of the match. But this reaffirms my belief in the new tactic, we swept Liverpool aside as if they weren't there. But if you thought that that was an attacking tactic, wait until you see my next two. Shout out to Negredo who assisted twice this game. The beast is waking up. Moussa Sissoko picked up Negredo's through ball and slotted the ball underneath the advancing Reina to open the scoreline. The second goal came just before half time, when Negredo chipped the ball over the goalkeeper and into the path of Eriksen, who couldn't miss. We killed the game off in the 70th minute, with a fierce volley from substitute Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, who came on for the injured Debuchy. I still can't figure out why he was so far up the pitch, we hadn't had a set piece for ages before he popped up to rifle home. After that it turned into a game of keep-ball.

Next up came a side that Mesut Ozil knew very well, Arsenal had to travel to St James on a Wednesday so that they could play Juve in the European Super Cup. This is how it went down on a cold Wednesday evening on Tyneside.

View attachment 444455View attachment 444454

RESULT: Newcastle 2 - 1 Arsenal​

First Team: (Formation 4-0-1-2-3)
Victor Valdes
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Steven Taylor
Davide Santon ------------------------------Eder Alvarez Balanta
Thiago Motta
Angel Correa - Florian Walther
Mesut Ozil - Timo Werner - Nicolas Gaitan​

A ridiculously offensive tactic, I played with 4 attacking midfielders and a striker all game. We deserved the victory, even if it took until the 86th minute to go ahead for the first time by a tap in from Taylor, which followed a volley from Nicolas Gaitan that cancelled out the goal we conceded by a misplaced back pass to the keeper which Jack Wilshere duly noted, intercepted and played into the path of Lukas Podolski to tap it into the empty net, caused by Valdes trying to run out to Wilshere. We created more, we created better, and we deserved the victory.

The final game this month was away to Aston Villa, who had lost main man Benteke to Chelsea in the summer. Here's how we went in this match, with our most attacking formation yet.

View attachment 444463View attachment 444462

RESULT: Aston Villa 1 - 3 Newcastle​

First team: (Formation 3-1-2-4)
Victor Valdes
Steven Taylor - Fabricio Coloccini - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa
Gareth Barry
Christian Eriksen - Adavilson
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Timo Werner - Nicolas Gaitan​

The only player not in his natural position was Mesut Ozil, by the way. But that is the most attacking I've ever been on an FM game, two strikers, 4 advanced midfielders, a box to box midfielder, 3 central defenders and an attacking sweeper keeper is something I'm unlikely to do often, but it paid off. I disagreed with the stats to be honest, we created many more chances that could have resulted in goals, but a brace from The Beast, courtesy of a left foot volley and a powerful header, alongside a composed finish by 18 year old Timo Werner were enough to seal the three points, despite Leandro Bacuna nicking a goal from a corner for them. A very good performance all around today.

So, we finish the month with a 100% win record having scored 10 times and conceding only thrice. What does the league look like then?


Three games into the season, we're already the only team to not have dropped points. The table means very little at this point in time, but let's hope that we stay where we are until the end of May.

The other big news this month was the Champions League, the groups. Here's how they look.


I know it looks bad, but given that at the end of the fourth seed, there were me and SK Rapid Wein, I'd say we got the better deal. A fair few groups that are going to be really tough for some people, Groups A, C, D and H are very competitive indeed. I'm hoping we can qualify, but failing to progress past the Champions of Germany and the Champions of Italy is not really that bad a thing. Least acceptable outcome is Europa League though. If Dynamo Kiev finish above us, I may well punch something.

A brief summary of the awards, I won the manager of the month, Felipe Caicedo of Reading beat Davide Santon and Steven Taylor to the player of the month award, Balanta won the young player of the month again, and for once none of the goals of the month were scored against me.

Last thing before I go to sleep is to decide who wins my personal award.


Player of the Month
Alvaro Negredo
View attachment 444464

2 goals, 2 assists, a player of the match award and an average rating of 7.45 means The Beast gets my award for the best Newcastle player of the month.
​

Next up, September. In this month, we play 6 matches, including playing AC Milan away and Bayern Munich at home, along with a Capital One Cup encounter with the mighty Notts County. The three league fixtures are away at Nottingham Forest, at home to play Norwich, and away once more to play Hull. Hectic much?

Til next time, NDU out.
 
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I loved this month. Only one minor blip, and considering what followed it, I really couldn't give a ****. Let's go in order of actual fixtures this time, as opposed to prioritising cup matches. Here's the fixture list anyway.


We started the month away to Nottingham Forest, one of the new boys in the premier league. This is what happened.

View attachment 444013View attachment 444012

RESULT: Nottingham Forest 1 - 3 Newcastle.​

First Team: (4-1-2-3)
Victor Valdes
Davide Santon - Steven Taylor - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Eder Alvarez Balanta
Gareth Barry
Moussa Sissoko - Keisuke Honda
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Nicol?s Gaitan
​

We conceded first following a good move by them, and they deserved the lead. We had done absolutely nothing by that point in time. But then Alvaro Negredo took the game by the scruff of the neck and bagged a fantastic hat trick, including a 25 yard volley that no keeper in the world could have stopped, and he single handedly won us the game. He only cost 9 million, you know! But nobody else seemed to try, indeed we only managed to get 4 people to have a rating higher than 7.

Next up in the fixture list, a match that Newcastle supporters will remind Sunderland supporters for years to come. A game in San Siro. You've never seen a mackem in Milan, after all. I've added in player performances in the Champions League matches, and I will for any cup match or title 6 pointer from now on.


First Team: (4-2-3-1)
Victor Valdes
Davide Santon - Steven Taylor - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Eder Alvarez Balanta
Moussa Sissoko - Keisuke Honda
Hatem Ben Arfa- Mesut Ozil - Christian Eriksen
Alvaro Negredo​

The team looks attacking, but in reality I set them up to defend for as best and as long as I could. I'd have happily taken a point, but almost at the end of the game, Timo Werner popped up from a corner to head home and get us a fantastic result from the San Siro. Frankly, I think AC Milan had the better chances, but we got lucky and we'll take that.

Next game was a league game at home against Norwich, and I was out for revenge after our 4-2 loss to them last season. The game progressed as so.

View attachment 444016View attachment 444015

RESULT: Newcastle 1 - 0 Norwich.​

First Team: (4-1-2-3)
Victor Valdes
Davide Santon - Steven Taylor - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Eder Alvarez Balanta
Gareth Barry
Christian Eriksen - Keisuke Honda
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Timo Werner​

A routine win, Negredo popping up in the box to finish a good team move. No real incident worth mentioning other than that though. Moving on.

Nottingham County became the second Nottingham club I was to face this month, after we got them in the Capital One Cup. I played a third team at best frankly, over congestion of fixtures meant I couldn't really do anything else. This is how the game went.

View attachment 444014View attachment 444006

RESULT: Newcastle 3 - 2 Nottingham County.​

First team: (3-1-2-4)
Victor Valdes
Steven Taylor - Fabricio Coloccini - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa
Sergi Samper
Florian Walther - Rivaldo
Nicolas Gaitan - Leandro Damiao - David Davis - Adavilson​

A second string squad at best, we nearly paid the price, coming down from behind twice in order to rescue our win with a 92nd minute strike from substitute Timo Werner, after Leandro Damiao and David Davis both cancelled out Notts County's two strikes which sent them in front. New formation, plus 6 purely attacking minded players on the pitch meant I could forgive conceding twice though.

The next game was against Hull, a game which I was almost unaware of given Bayern were coming to St James' in a few days time. This is how that game went.

View attachment 444024View attachment 444023

RESULT: Hull City 1 - Newcastle 1​

First Team: (4-1-2-3)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Davide Santon
Gareth Barry
Hatem Ben Arfa - Christian Eriksen
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Timo Werner​

A strong lineup, I felt good about the game. But our goal was magnificent, the first truly world class goal we've scored, in my opinion. Their goalkeeper kicked the ball to their right back from a goal kick, who won the ball, but Ozil robbed him of it, turned on the halfway line, and chipped the ball into the back of the net. It was almost a mirror image of David Beckham's famous goal against Wimbledon. Unfortunately, it was cancelled out by a near post header from a corner, and I ordered my players to take it easy in the second half because of Bayern, so we had to settle for a point.

The big game this month was definitely this one, and I saved the best for last.


First Team:

Victor Valdes
Davide Santon - Steven Taylor - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta
Gareth Barry
Moussa Sissoko - Keisuke Honda
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Christian Eriksen​

6. Yes, 6. Against Bayern Munich. 6. Holy S***. To understand how this could have happened, before the game, I spotted that Manuel Neuer was out for some reason, although he was fit enough for the bench, but they didn't look that good in the middle of the park either, with Javi Martinez partnering Kyriakos Papadopoulos in the center of the park. I felt I could exploit this, so I gave their entire backline the shout of "Always" regarding closing down, including the goalkeeper, and it **** well worked, creating 3 of the goals by forcing them into mistakes. Coloccini got us off to a fantastic start, finishing in the 6 yard box from our first corner of the game, with Bastien Schweinsteiger pulling one back for them. That was as good as it got for Bayern though, 3 minutes later Christian Eriksen put us in front by forcing an error off of the replacement goalkeeper Tom Starke, Alvaro Negredo pressuring Martinez into a mistake in the 26th minute causing another goal, quickly followed by a sublime finish from 20 yards out, I went into halftime a happy manager. In the second half, it only got better, Steven Taylor mimicking Coloccini's earlier goal perfectly, and Hatem Ben Arfa finished the rout for us by taking advantage of a poor back pass to cap a wonderful performance. I was expecting a demolition going into this game, but I rather expected it to go the other way. We played fantastically defensively too, they only managed one shot on target, and that was their goal. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. Here's screenshot's of their goalkeeper and two center backs.


No Dante, no Boateng, we were very happy indeed.

This is how our Champions League group looks right now.


We're top right now, 6 points from 6, and we've still got to play our new feeder team, Dynamo Kyiv, twice. I'm much more optimistic about qualifying from the group now.

And this is how the League looks.


We're top of the league, the slip up away to Hull the only one we've made so far, looking good. Negredo is currently topping the goals chart with 6, the highest goalscorer only got 18 last year, he might be able to get that award this year.

Player of the Month
Alvaro Negredo
View attachment 444010
​

For the second month in a row, he's my player of the month. 6 goals from 5 games, including both a memorable hat trick in the league and a brace against the all mighty Bayern Munich mean that he was our best performer this month. His average rating this month was 7.78, that says it all really. Great month by a great player. For only 9 million pounds too. I bet Manchester City are regretting this deal already.

Next update will concern October, when we play 5 games, including Dynamo Kyiv away, along with a title 6 pointer at Chelsea, along with a difficult Capital One Cup Tie away to Manchester City. Wish me luck. NDU out.
 
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October was not as good as September. Here's a look at the fixtures.


A draw and we're knocked out of a cup, but we didn't concede in the league at all this month, despite the attempts of Swansea, Chelsea and Everton. Let's have a look at the results in more detail then.

Swansea, last seasons 10th place finishers travelled up north, I was expectant of a win. Lets take a look.

View attachment 443633View attachment 443626

RESULT: Newcastle 2 - 0 Swansea​

First Team: (4-1-2-3)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta -Davide Santon
Gareth Barry
Christian Eriksen - Keisuke Honda
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Timo Werner​

Negredo got us off to a fantastic start, scoring a poacher's effort after just 2 minutes, after a good ball from Eriksen took out two defenders. He scored again, a header from Ozil's cross from the byline, and after that point we took our feet off of the gas and saw the game out. 3 points, not much of not here, other than the fact that Negredo is now only one goal away from equaling the number of goals our top goalscorer scored in the entirety of last season, in a quarter of the games.

The next game was the first title match of the new season, assuming you're not counting the match against Arsenal. Here's how it went.

First Team: (4-1-2-3)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Eder Alvarez Balanta -Davide Santon
Gareth Barry
Moussa Sissoko - Keisuke Honda
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Timo Werner​


Given the performance against Bayern, I decided to try and play a similar game, pressing the opponents backline a lot. Unfortunately, Chelsea's defense was a considerable amount better than Bayern's, and we couldn't make a clear cut chance all game. If there was going to be a winner, it was going to be Chelsea, so I shouldn't complain, especially as we left Stamford Bridge with a respectable point.

Next game was the Champions League game against our feeder club, Dynamo Kyiv. This is what happened.


First Team: (4-2-3-1)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa -Davide Santon
Gareth Barry - Moussa Sissoko
Hatem Ben Arfa - Florian Walter - Nicolas Gaitan
Timo Werner​

I rested Balanta, Honda, Ozil, Eriksen and Negredo for a game against what I considered to be inferior opposition. I nearly paid a hefty price about it though, as I found myself 2 down after just over 10 minutes. Fortunately, Ben Arfa woke up when nobody else did, and scored a quite wonderful goal, intercepting a wayward pass, running with the ball from the halfway line, beating 5 players and slotting home to spark our team into action. If it hadn't been him who had lost possession for their second goal, he probably would have finished the game with a higher rating. After that spark, Florian Walter picked up his game and played a very good ball for his fellow countryman Timo Werner, who slotted home professionally, before he was brought down in the area to give Werner the chance to score from the penalty spot to win the game. Nervous performance though, and I made it clear I expected better. Still, that means we have 9 points in our Champions League group, while at this stage I expected to have at most 5. Here's a look at the group.


AC Milan and Bayern drew in the other fixture, which practically guarantees our progression from the group. We only need one more win, or one more slip up from either of the other two teams, and we qualify. Right now I'd be disappointed to not top the group.

Next up was a game against Everton, at Goodison Park. Let's take a look.

View attachment 443634View attachment 443625

RESULT: Everton 0 - 1 Newcastle.​

First Team: (Narrow 4-2-3-1)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta -Davide Santon
Moussa Sissoko - Keisuke Honda
Christian Eriksen - Mesut Ozil - Hatem Ben Arfa
Alvaro Negredo​

We had the ball in the back of the net 6 times in this game, and we had a penalty. Two of the five disallowed goals were also clearly bad decisions, and I didn't get in trouble for protesting one of them, a goal from Negredo which was counted as offside when he wasn't. The result suggests that it was a tricky game, but we were in control throughout, although it took a good goal from a good team move resulting in Honda passing the ball into the back of the net after Negredo played him in. Because of Ozil's miss, he is no longer the main penalty taker when Werner isn't playing, Negredo is instead.

Final game of the month was the Capital One Cup tie at the Etihad stadium to face a strong Manchester City team. Let's take a look.

View attachment 443637View attachment 443630View attachment 443628

RESULT: Manchester City 2 - 2 Newcastle (6-5 pens)​

First Team: (4-2-3-1 Wide)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Eder Alvarez Balanta
Gareth Barry - Thiago Motta
Nicolas Gaitan - Angel Correa - Christian Eriksen
Alvaro Negredo​

I played a rotated team with half an eye on the Manchester United fixture, but after an early exchange of own goals, Mathieu Debuchy got sent off, and I considered the tie over from then on. Gaitan finished well from inside the area to give us brief hope, but Richards scored to peg us back from just before half time, and then we had to suffer through extra time and then penalties before we were kicked out, with Gaitan being the only player to miss in the shootout. A shame, but the Capital One Cup is not a priority for me this year, so it's not as bad as it could have been. Bad news however is that Debuchy is suspended for the title clash against Manchester United, and our central defence partnership at that point in time will have played 2 straight hours only three days beforehand. Not great.

So, let's look at the League before I decide on my player of the month.


We remain top, 2 points above Chelsea, who are also undefeated. Negredo is the current top scorer, above Rickie Lambert and Samuel Eto'o by one goal.


Player of The Month
Davide Santon
View attachment 443632

A good solid month from the Italian, with a series of fantastic defensive performances aiding us in only conceding twice in the four games he played this month, neither of which he did anything wrong when we conceded them.
​


Next month, we play Man U, West Brom, Stoke and Tottenham in the league, along with a sizable away trip in the form of Dynamo Kyiv, coupled with the Milan giants coming to St James' Park for the first time in their history. We have 4 home games, only going on our travels once in the league, to Tottenham, so I'm hopeful of a good month. Until next time, NDU out.
 
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Let's take a look at November. Here's the fixtures.


We lost our first game in the champions league, but other than that we had a perfect month.

First up was another title 6 pointer, against Manchester United. Let's have a look.


View attachment 443258 View attachment 443254 View attachment 443248


RESULT: Newcastle 3 - 0 Manchester United​

First Team: (4-2-3-1 Narrow)
Victor Valdes
Davide Santon - Fabricio Coloccini - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Eder Alvarez Balanta
Gareth Barry - Keisuke Honda
Angel Correa - Mesut Ozil - Hatem Ben Arfa
Alvaro Negredo
​

Yanga-Mbiwa got the man of the match award, but it was Hatem Ben Arfa who ran the show, and it was him who made the two goals he didn't score himself. He lead a counter attack before being brought down in the box for the penalty that Negredo converted, he ran down and gathered the ball after it had been cleared from a corner and put in the cross that Gareth Barry headed to Yanga-Mbiwa to convert, and then he struck a fierce volley from 20 yards out to give us the third goal that sealed the deal for us. A fantastic performance, and he deserved the man of the match award, even though he didn't get it.

Next up saw us play Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League, and I was hoping for a better performance than the last time I played them. This is how it went.


First Team: (4-2-3-1 Narrow)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Moussa Sissoko - Keisuke Honda
Christian Eriksen - Mesut Ozil - Hatem Ben Arfa
Alvaro Negredo​

We were in control of the game throughout, Balanta popping up from an indirect free kick, in the 28th minute setting the tone for the rest of the game, with Eriksen scoring well 10 minutes before half time, and after half time Santon finished off a good team move before a duo of Penalties, on from them one from us, both involving the same two players. Timo Werner fouled Oleg Gusev to give them a penalty, before he returned the favour 8 minutes later to give Werner his 6th goal of the season. This result means that we have qualified from our first ever Champions League group.

Next up came West Brom. Lets see how that went.

View attachment 443261View attachment 443247

RESULT: Newcastle 2 - 1 West Brom
​

First Team: (3-2-1-4)
Victor Valdes
Steven Taylor - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Fabricio Coloccini
Gareth Barry - Thiago Motta
Angel Correa
Mesut Ozil - Alvaro Negredo - Timo Werner - Christian Eriksen​

I messed my team talk up in this one. At the end of the game, I told my players we got away with it, they disagreed, I criticized Ozil and Coloccini, they didn't like that, I fined Coloccini for getting sent off and he thought it was unfair. He has now requested a transfer, and Ozil wants me to stop criticising him. I still think it was a poor performance, Angel Correa bailing us out with two good strikes from counter attacks, but Berbatov scored for them and after that every single highlight was for them. Not a good performance, but we got the win, 3 points on the board, that's all that matters.

Next up came a game against Stoke, who I had lost to the last time we had played them. This is what happened.

View attachment 443259 View attachment 443246

RESULT: Newcastle 1 - 0 Stoke​

First Team: (4-2-3-1 Narrow)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Steven Taylor - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Moussa Sissoko - Keisuke Honda
Christian Eriksen - Mesut Ozil - Hatem Ben Arfa
Alvaro Negredo​

A poor game all round, we only won because of a failed back pass that the keeper failed to gather, which rolled into the back of the net. Poor game, I let my team know it wasn't acceptable, let's move on. On the bright side, we made 4 Clear Cut Chances, and 15 half chances, so it's our finishing that is the problem, not our creativity, plus we had a good game defensively, stopping them from having a chance at all. Bad news though, Mesut Ozil is out for 2 weeks after picking up a knock in the 75th minute and playing until the end of the game. I had already made my three subs, so I couldn't take him off, and so we miss him, with his most likely return date being the 6th of December.

The next game was against AC Milan, as we welcomed them to St James' for the first time in their entire history.


First Team: (4-2-3-1 Narrow)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Davide Santon
Moussa Sissoko - Gareth Barry
Christian Eriksen - Florian Walther - Angel Correa
Timo Werner​

I played a rested squad because we had already qualified, so it didn't matter a lot. We went behind from two counter attacks, pulled one back through Timo Werner, but by that time it was too late. Our first loss in the Champions League, but we've qualified, and we still top the group, even with a difficult clash away to Bayern Munich remaining. If we beat them and AC Milan lose though, Bayern don't even get Europa League football for the second half of the season.

​
The final match this month was a trip to White Heart Lane, to face off against Tottenham, who started the year brightly. Let's take a look, as both teams try to end the other team's unbeaten record.

View attachment 443257 View attachment 443250

RESULT: Tottenham 1 - 2 Newcastle
​

First Team: (4-1-2-3)
Victor Valdes
Mathieu Debuchy - Fabricio Coloccini - Eder Alvarez Balanta - Davide Santon
Gareth Barry
Christian Eriksen - Keisuke Honda
Hatem Ben Arfa - Alvaro Negredo - Timo Werner​

I'd feel angry at the referee if I was a Tottenham supporter, two questionable penalties and a red card in the first half meant we really didn't have to do much after 30 minutes, and Siggurdson's strike in the 80th minute was a consequence of a lack of concentration from Coloccini. We were comfortable winners, and managed a 100% win record this month, which was enough to give me the Manager of the Month accolade.

So, here's a look at the League Table.



We're sitting pretty here, 1st place, 6 points above Chelsea, a whopping 15 above Manchester United, I might need to reconsider who the other challengers for the title are.

In other news, Alvaro Negredo has now managed to score more than our top goalscorer did in the whole of last year, before we've even reached the halfway mark, and Balanta won the Young Player of the Month again.


Player of the Month
Hatem Ben Arfa
View attachment 443256

​
Nobody really stood out in every game this month, with match winning performances all around, but Hatem Ben Arfa put in the best match winning performance of all against Manchester United, and for that performance, he gets my personal monthly accolade.

Join me next time as I play 7 matches in December, including the end of the Champions League group clash against Bayern Munich, who will be looking to avenge their defeat to us earlier on in the campaign, along with matches against Cardiff, West Ham, Wigan, Reading and Southampton in the League before we finish on New Years Eve with a clash against Manchester City. I would have called it a title clash, but they are currently in 10th place, with 20 points less than us, so they probably can't catch up. Until next time, NDU out.
 
As much as i hate newcastle doing well considering I am a Sunderland fan your doing well. I would just say more colour when it comes to highlighting teams and summaries the match rather than report it! Check the Tranmere story out for ideas on that.
 
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