The rise of Fulham

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Proper dominance. Cardiff were close to the relegation zone and I View attachment 277639thought it would be a nice opportunity to secure a big win. I went with a 433 tactic with Woodrow, Jiminez and Finnbogason all starting the game. And it completely put Cardiff on the backfoot.

Jiminez scored in the 8th minute with a nice finish from 10 yards. Cardiff could barely put together a attacking move in the first 20 minutes. Finnbogason, playing as the false nine doubled our lead after latching onto a Baselli through ball.

Cardiff's goal in the 42nd minute was a disappointing one to concede. The players could've defended better, but oh well. Dan Burn restored our 2 goal cushion soon after from a corner. It was his first goal of this season.

In the second half, we put immense pressure on Cardiff. They had a few attacking moves every now and then but our players completely dominated the game.
A solid win. We seem to be hitting some form now, as this win extends our unbeaten run in all competitions to 11, and in the Premier League to 7.
 
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We are hitting form at the right time. We were in complete control of the game as NewView attachment 277634castle were brushed away. Woodrow scored the only goal of the game with a deft header from a left wing cross by Stafylidis. Despite our control of the game, Newcastle had their chances. Benzema should've equalized for them just before half time but he squandered a one-on-one opportunity by taking an extra touch when he shouldn't have which let Bettinelli close him down and save the shot.

The main talking point of the game was Patrick Roberts. Roberts had 3 clear cut chances and he missed all of them. He had two one on one opportunities but hit the post on one occasion and lobbed the ball over the goal on the other.

Roberts' dribbling and movement were absolutely brilliant. It completely bamboozled the Toon defense. But his finishing was rather bad - actually, it was terrible. Of our 17 shots, Roberts 6 of them and he should have scored on atleast 2 instances. I'll be working together with Pat on his finishing.
Meanwhile, we are at the top of the league with 37 points, one ahead of Liverpool and two ahead of Man United. Chelsea are 5 points behind us but have 3 games in hand!
 
Pat Roberts.....

Despite average ratings saying Roberts is the View attachment 277633second best, I think he has been the best player for us this season. When Woodrow, Jiminez and Finny were having a bad day in front of goal, he stepped up and made sure we scored. His quick feet and ball control are helping him open up defenses at will. But his Newcastle performance was a bit worrying.

He has all the attributes needed for a proper inside forward except finishing. I don't care much about his crossing as most of our crosses come from the fullbacks. So, I wanted to talk to him.

"Firstly, I wanted to congratulate you on your recent good performances. You have been repaying my faith with some top performances. Keep it up."

Roberts, who is just 21 gave a big smile, and blushed a little bit. "Thanks boss. I'll keep playing at my best level."

I added, "However, there is something missing in your game. And the Newcastle match clearly showed it, don't you think?"

"Ya, sorry boss. I am just unable to finish off the moves. I am a bit disappointed too with the Newcastle match."

"Don't sweat on it Pat," I said trying to cheer him up. "You're young and can improve. I have asked David Platt and Paul Scholes to work with you on that aspect. Platt will work on trying to mould you into a more striker-ish winger, and Scholesy will work on your shooting technique. How's that sound?"

"Sounds good, boss. I am looking forward to working closely with both of them," he said cheerfully before leaving my office.

View attachment 277632
 
Injuries

Our next game is against Watford, a mid-table team at Fulham Stadium. But two injuries set us back a little bit.

First choice GK Marcus Bettinelli will be our for a month or so. It's time for 17 year old Andy Preece to step-up. He has already played 6 league games this season due to Bettinelli's previous injuries and it's time to add a few more to that list.

Emerson Hyndman is the other casualty. He suffered a chest injury while lifting weights during a physical training session. Hyndman is my second choice central midfield playmaker, behind Baselli. But it's still nice to have him on the bench. We'll be slightly weak against Watford, but we should be able to manage!
 
We made this game tougher that it should have been. After squandering chances in the last game, Roberts sent his very first shot into the net, giving us an early lead. Woodrow soon doubled it with a powerful shot from a narrow angle. Williams did a great job to set up the goal.

Second half is when the bulk of the drama occurred. Zach Clough scored a goal minutes after restart, which certainly seems to be one of our most vulnerable moments. It was a good build-up by Watford. A comfortable 2-0 became a tight 2-1.

Jiminez scored our third, but Byers nullified it with a goal less than 10 minutes later. This was a very bad to concede. It was horrible defending (see video below). 3-2!

View attachment 277541And the goal flow didn't stop. Jiminez added his second from a lovely William's cross. It was a bullet header from the Mexican striker. Aaaaaaaaannnd, Watford canceled it just 5 mins later. An unnecessary foul to concede just outside the box and Tachtsidis curled one over the wall beautifully from 20 yards. Lovely free-kick, but a stupid foul to concede.

It was a nervous last 10 minutes until Jiminez scored his third of the game after making a run for almost the entire length of the field and score. Watford pushed everyone forward and it made the counter attack rather easy.

[video=dailymotion;x2o1jkx]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2o1jkx_fm-15-poor-defending-vs-watford_videogames[/video]

LEAGUE TABLE:
Still top of the league table. Arsenal were held by Liverpool at The Emirates. Man United hammered Hull 5-0 and Chelsea lost to Southampton 2-0.
 
Injury update and End of the year awards

With Bettinelli and Hyndman injured, the last thing I wanted wasView attachment 277534 another injury. But the Watford game resulted in another player being sidelined for 2 weeks.

Matias Kranevitter sustained a thigh injury during the Watford game and will miss our next league game vs. Crystal Palace and the FA Cup third round vs. Birmingham.

End of the year awards:
On the morning of January 1st 2019, I turned on my laptop to check who won the player awards for the year past year.

Barcelona's Lionel Messi won the World Golden Ball and the World Player of the Year. Chelsea's Alexander Lacazette came second in both of those.

Three EPL players featured in the World Team of the year - Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Kurt Zouma (Chelsea) and Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool).

One of my players, Raul Jiminez won the North American Player of the Year award. I sent Raul a message from my mobile congratulating him. The chap deserves it!

EPL monthly awards:
As for the Premier division monthly awards, Pat Roberts scooped up the Young Player of the Month for December. He has been outstanding of late.
 
14 without losing!

This win stretches our unbeaten run to 14 games, which equals my previous best unbeaten run in the 2016/17 season. Crystal Palace are struggling in the relegation zone and it was a good opportunity for us to secure another away win.

A 29th minute corner for us resulted in a foul when Woodrow was pushed in the box. A soft foul, but a penalty was given by the ref. And Woodrow continues to impress from the spot. He maintains his 100% record!

Baselli scored the goal of the game in our very first move after the restart. It was a lovely goal. Placed into the top corner from 25 yards. Beautiful strike by the Italian!

Woodrow added our third after the hour mark with a thundering volley. 3-0 up and looking good. However, Nicklas Bendtner pulled one back for them in the 87th minute. Yet another game where our lack of concentration in the final few minutes hurt us. A bad way to throw away a clean sheet.
[video=dailymotion;x2o1ska]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2o1ska_fm-15-baselli-long-range-goal-vs-crystal-palace_videogames[/video]​
 
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I asked Taylor to compile a report about the injuries. Some key first team players out for the FA Cup game vs. Birmingham, like Kranevitter, Bettinelli and Roberts. Hyndman is also a key figure in the side but he seems to be making a comeback soon.
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FA Cup 2018-19: Third Round

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Comprehensive victory. We went into this game without Bettinelli, View attachment 277341Kranevitter and Roberts. The absence of the first two was hardly felt as Birmingham never really tested our defense. The first goal came when Jiminez deflected a Baselli's long range effort into goal.

Both our central defenders then got on the score sheet from two corners. Both were headed goals as Burn and Balanta got the better of their markers during the set-piece. Kacaniklic all but sealed the deal in the 41st minute as his run was well picked up by Vilhena in the midfield. Kacaniklic went round the keeper and passed the ball into an empty net.

The second half produced more of the same but with Birmingham deciding to sit back and defend, it was a bit harder to break them down. But the lads did create several chances though.
 
After his side's loss, Birmingham manager Lee Johnson gave a rather interesting interview. This is what he said:
View attachment 277309
It was laughable really - Birmingham just had one shot on target and only 3 attempts and only had 40% possession. I responded in a similar controversial fashion.
View attachment 277307

In other news, we were drawn Newcastle away in the fourth round.
 
Sweet revenge.

16th game in a row without defeat, and 11th League game without defeat. And this was a really special victory. We defended bravely and kept Man United completely at bay. View attachment 277267We had both Pat Roberts and Pedro out injured for this game. So, George Williams, who is naturally a left wing player played on the right. And it was he, who scored the only goal of the game.

He made a clever run behind the United defense to latch onto a pass by Jiminez and slotted it away. We dominated the game both in attack and defense. De Gea was on top form as he kept out several shots by our players. We even hit the woodwork once.

Defensively, we never let United settle on the ball. We pushed them hard everytime they had the ball and they hardly tested Andy Preece. A fantastic victory.

We haven't lost a home game yet this season.

League table:
View attachment 277264 View attachment 277263
 
And there it goes...whoosh!

An absolutely disgusting performance. A slight deja vu of our performances at the start of this season. The players simply didn't show up. To let the opponents dominate so much is ridiculous.

WBA were dominant throughout the game. Roberts gave us the lead against the run of play but Berahino cancelled it just after the restart. Kranevitter's sending off changed the game. West Brom were pushing men forward at will and we simply couldn't keep up with the pace. RB injured, BWM sent off - it was tough for us.
View attachment 277235But I thought we did enough defensively to warrant a draw but Pyke scored a 92nd minute winner.

Having said all that, the refereeing performance was disgusting and horrific. Kranevitter received his second yellow for the simplest of touches on the opposition player where as a two footed tackle on Lustig, which ended up injuring Lustig (for 2 months, as reports say) didn't even result in a simple booking. Mike Dean, you absolute *****!
 
Unlucky with the West Brom match, lets hope thats not the turning point in your season, keep it up!
 
SamPeters said:
Unlucky with the West Brom match, lets hope thats not the turning point in your season, keep it up!
Click to expand...
Chelsea slipped up earlier with a draw against Liverpool. We failed to take advantage.

Hopefully, we pick up and start winning again. :)
 
Contrasting news reg. the full backs

As if Mike Dean's howler wasn't enough to **** me off, I got more disheartening news from my physio Mark Taylor. Tyrone Mings' two footed tackle on Lustig somehow ended up dislocating his shoulder (weird, huh?) and Taylor's reports say that he'd be out for 2 months. I still can't believe Mike Dean let a challenge of that magnitude slide. Punk! Anyway, he is my first choice right back and I don't really have a proper back-up for that position. Amorebieta, a center back by trade has been filling in for Lustig when needed.

However, I have contrasting news regarding my left back. Stafylidis put the thoughts of moving to AC Milan behind him and decided to sign a new contract with us. He has been a key figure in my first team and I am delighted to see him commit his near-term future.

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After 48 pages you can still do things with your layout that both surprises & delights me, well done mate! Absolutely love it!
 
Love your story, as Lippo said you find different ways to present things after 48 pages. Your story including Lippos, JamieWilliams and Brendn's hugely inspired me to do mine
 
Lippo255 said:
After 48 pages you can still do things with your layout that both surprises & delights me, well done mate! Absolutely love it!
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Until recently, I was doing multiple FM saves but I abandoned all but this one. Winning 10-0 against Barcelona as Man United is not all that fun. Plus, it really helps me take my mind off work-stuff after a tiresome day when I don't have much energy left, so why not? :)

Plus, I need to keep things interesting and flashy for the readers. :P
 
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