The rise of Fulham

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June 2018: Transfer News

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Here's Raul Jiminez's attributes - very good for 7 mil. pounds I'd say.
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News about Fellaini: So, once his loan deal at Fulham finished, Man United decided not to offer him a contract and released him for free. I tried to sign him on a Bosman but our talks fell apart. He initially wanted a first team role but I told him clearly that it wasn't going to happen.
After a few discussions, he settled for a back-up role but wanted wages higher than key first team players like Baselli, Woodrow and Balanta. I couldn't give him what he wanted and so, Felli won't be joining us.
 
More man-management matters

Man City have been trying to lure our club captain Balanta away from us. They revealed to the media that they are willing to pay twice the wages he's earning here. Typical. Moments after I read the news, my phone buzzed. It was Baresi.
He informed me that Balanta has been having a lot of conversations with his agent at the moment and that he wants to talk to me regarding this City situation.

'Here we go again,' I thought.

Balanta came into my office. He brought up the issue about City being ready to pay twice the wages he's earning at the moment.

"Let's talk Balanta. I understand that money is a big motivator, but do you think you'd enjoy playing for Man City?," I asked. Before he could answer, I continued, "Remember our last season game against City when we beat them at Etihad? Their own fans booed them severely. Do you think you'll enjoy playing under such pressure?"

I further continued, "Sure, there's pressure here as well. But our supporters were behind us even during tough losses. Furthermore, judging by your performances last season, it was obvious that you were enjoying playing for us. There are bigger things in career than just money."

I gave specific examples from the past where he played with heart for the club.

After all that pep talk, Balanta realized his mistake. "You're correct, boss. Money isn't everything in football. I'm enjoying my football here and I think it's best if I stay here."

"Wise choice, Balanta. You are setting a really good example as the club captain," I said before concluding the meeting.
 
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Last transfer in?

We've already signed Jiminez, who will add good value to our strike force. I took a look at my squad and checked out the depth. 4231, 442 and 41311 are my favoured formations. This is how the squad depth looks at the moment:

GK: M. Bettinelli, A. Preece
CB: F. Amorebieta, D. Burn, E. Balanta, T. Casasola
LB: K. Stafylidis, E. Balanta, F. Amorebieta
RB: M. Lustig
MC: E. Hyndman, D. Baselli, M. Kranevitter, T. Vilhena
DM: M. Kranevitter
AMC: B. Ruiz, T. Vilhena, D. Baselli
M/AML: A. Kacaniklic, G. Williams
M/AMR: P. Roberts
ST: C. Woodrow, R. Jiminez, A. Finnbogason

The weak areas are obvious. Since Burn and Balanta are my first choice CB pair, I told the coaching staff to train Amorebieta for the right back position. Furthermore, Mike Roper, an U21 player seems to be the perfect candidate to take over Lustig. So, I expect him to make some appearances this season. Roper is a natural left back but he can play right back as well. That should solve the right back issue.

I'm not too concerned with the defensive midfielder position as I don't usually play that position unless against bigger clubs where we need to be strong defensively. Given how rarely I use that position, I didn't feel like increasing the depth of the squad in that area.

The last one is the right wing area. Williams can play the role if needed but I feel our wing areas need some back-up. I've been sifting through the scout reports compiled by Chief Scout Malcolm Elias and one name stood out - Pedro. Yes, the Barcelona man who was once labeled the next big thing. Pedro didn't develop as well as Barca would've liked and they have transfer listed him. I swooped in and made an offer.

Barcelona accepted my cheap 1.4 mil. bid. Woohoo! Quite a bargain. After some discussions with Pedro's agent, he agreed to join us on a 4 year deal.
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His attributes are pretty good for a 30 year old. And considering that Barca let him go for just £1.4M, this deal seems to be quite a bargain.
 
Nice value signing there mate. Will be more then handy as cover for Patty boy!
 
A look at WC 2018 and a new tactic for the club

All the players returned to the training today as we start our pre-season friendly tour. Some of them took part in the World Cup, which France won. Here's a little bit more detail for those interested:

WC 2018:
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The group stages had a couple of surprises - Spain and Brazil were both knocked out, which surprised many.View attachment 279948
Some more news:
  1. Matias Kraveitter scored his first goal for Italy in their group stage win over Australia.
  2. Daniele Baselli won his first Italy cap in the friendly against Venezuela, just before the WC. He made 4 appearances in the competition as well.
  3. Cauley Woodrow won his first England cap in England's second round loss to France. He also scored England's only goal from the penalty spot in that game.
I congratulated the trio on their firsts.
Tactics:

View attachment 279945I discussed the tactics for the new season with all my players - specifically a 433 tactic I designed for this season. With 4 strikers at my disposal and a fourth on his way (if things work out) and a rather creative midfield, I want to try this tactic.

I wanted the players to train on this tactic a lot more than usual because the players are used to playing with wingers and a formation without wingers might need some practice.

4231 formation with inside forwards like Roberts, Williams, Pedro will still be my primary choice but having an alternative attack focused tactic like this will be helpful.
 
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2018-19: Pre-Season Friendlies

We started off with a trip to Mexico to take on Chivas. It was a long trip and given our club owner Khan's reputation in US, there were quite a good number of supporters in Fulham shirts. A bit sad that we couldn't give them a victory to celebrate.

Then, we went to Belgium and Germany to face Brugge and Bremen respectively. Two cleansheets and convincing victories. I employed the 433 tactic in both these games and it worked out rather well. Then we played a friendly against Dortmund at home, which we lost. It was very disappointing to lose that game as we were the better team and created more chances.

We ended the pre-season set of friendlies with a win over Serie B team Perugia. Mike Roper and Murray Norton, the two youngsters were impressive in these games. Roper looks to be ready to take over Lustig in the near future.
 
2018-19: Community Shield

Goddammit! Yes, the game was a thriller but our defending was absolutely shocking. Chelsea scored three from corners. Yes, all their goals came from corners. Pretty disappointed with our defending there.

We went 2-0 ahead in under 5 minutes with goals from Finny and Hyndman. Both were really well worked goals with the midfield heavily involved. I started with the 433 formation and it put Chelsea on the back foot straight away. We had over 60% possession in the opening 15-20 minutes. But things changed in 10 minutes, starting in the 20th min mark.

A Chelsea corner wasn't well defended by the players and Costa found himself with a lot of space and the ball mercifully at his feet. They pull one back. Three minutes later, deja vu! Costa scored again from a corner, which was horribly defended by us. Five minutes later...more deja vu. Another corner, another Chelsea goal. This time, Zouma was the scorer.

So, 3 corners for Chelsea, 3 goals. Absolutely frustrating. View attachment 279938We pushed for a goal and finally equalized in the 58th minute from a 20 yard free kick by Vilhena which whistled into the back of the net. We pushed hard but couldn't scored.
During the 90 minutes, we hit the post 3 times (see right) which added to my frustration. So, with the score level at 3-3 after 90 minutes, the match was to be decided on penalties.

Fabregas started for Chelsea. After 3 successful penalties, Finnbogason missed one for us. There were no misses after that and when Zouma scored Chelsea's fifth, they won the game. It was a disappointing game to lose.
 
PatrickLFC said:
Bad luck there, lucky the community shield doesn't matter too much
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Any other team - I wouldn't have cared. But Chelsea are local rivals. I missed an opportunity to shut Mourinho up at the start of the season. Now, he's everywhere in the news.

The board doesn't care much though. So, it's fine I guess. :)
 
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Premier League 2018-19

View attachment 279913Good start to the Premier League season - a home win with a clean sheet. However, I feel that we should've won by a larger margin. Woodrow, Finny and Jiminez all started in the 433 tactic but they squandered way too many chances. The tactic is working rather well as we opened up Palace a lot of times but we failed to take advantage.
In what many might consider to be a 'backwards' move, I switched to 4231, and bringing on Pedro and Williams instead of Finny and Jiminez. Baselli came on for the exhausted Hyndman. And he made his impact minutes after he came on. He scored an absolute beauty. From 25 yards, he side-footed one straight into the top corner. Top technique. We continued to dominate after that goal and got out first points of this season.

Here's Baselli's goal:
[video=dailymotion;x2n8g3x]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2n8g3x_fm-15-baselli-25-yard-sidefoot-shot_videogames[/video]
 
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My thoughts:View attachment 279909 I know I just signed a striker Raul Jiminez. And while signing another striker may sound odd, I had to do it. Given his potential, he will only get better and his price will increase.

Flamengo accepted a similar bid from La Liga clubs and since they are our affiliate, they had to accept our bid too. He's just 20 yrs old and might play a big role in the coming few years.

Will Finnbogason leave now that I have signed two strikers? Tough to say. I am not going to list him but if some clubs are interested in signing him, I may accept the bid. He has declined a teeny bit over the past couple of seasons.
 
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United started just how I expected them to, at Old Trafford. They pushed a lot of players forward and I started with a counter mentality 4231 tactic with pacy wingers. United couldn't find a way past our defense and took over a dozen shots from over 25 yards. We had the 'better' chances as Woodrow and Roberts came close from under 10 yards.

The players kept United at bay but we finally conceded to a Falcao shot which was hit from 30 yards. Goddammit. There's absolutely nothing our defense could have done. I told the players to push forward and brought on Jiminez. But we were hit on the counter in the 84th minute and Mata scored United's second. That put the game beyond doubt for United.

A bit unfortunate to go down to a 30 yarder but a loss is a loss. The fans are a bit disappointed that we let United take over 25 shots in the game while taking less than 15 ourselves. Actually, that was the plan - keep the back four organized and stop them from building moves. If we had gotten atleast a point, the fans would've been more content.
 
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THIRD ROUND DRAW:
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Tottenham is going to be tough. But I think we can beat them. We have enough quality and our home advantage might give us the edge.
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UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE DRAW:
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We were the third seed in the draw. Real Madrid is going to be tough and Zenit will be quite a challenge too. I don't have much information about the Norwegian club but the away game against them might be a challenge. We went to Nou Camp last season and we'll go to Santiago Bernabau this time around. I'm quite happy for the lads!​
 
Well done on winning the league mate, always had a feeling you could do it!

Champions LEague group isnt too bad either, bar Madrid. If you can get a result away at Zenit I think you'll qualify!
 
xJamieWilliams said:
Well done on winning the league mate, always had a feeling you could do it!

Champions LEague group isnt too bad either, bar Madrid. If you can get a result away at Zenit I think you'll qualify!
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Thank you.

Yes, the Champions League draw isn't all that bad. But a result against Zenit is almost a must.
 
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