The rise of Fulham

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The Artur Toledo show. Given our good defensive record at home, it needed a great goal to beat Bettinelli. And Sean Morrison produced exactly that in the 16th minute. A 25 yard strike from the corner of our box by Morrison whistled straight into the top corner. What a goal! We're 1-0 down for the second home game in a row.

Then, Artur decided to produce a goal of true magnificence. When Vilhena passed it to Artur, his first touch took the ball away from a Cardiff defender, then he sprinted towards goal and dribbled past two players on the way and finally scored. It was a fantastic goal by the Brazilian (goal below).

At half time, I gave everyone but Artur a telling off. I told them to pick up their game. And their response was superb. Cardiff barely found time to put together attacking moves in the second half. Artur scored two more but both were the result of a good midfield play. It takes his tally for the season to 18 goals in all competitions and 16 in the league.

Artur's first goal:
[video=dailymotion;x2sjcq1]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2sjcq1_fm-15-artur-goal-vs-cardiff_videogames[/video]
 
League table and stats

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Artur is in near the top in a lot of these. Jimenez is joint top goalscorer in the league along with Munir. Bettinelli is doing a brilliant job in goal as he has already kept 14 clean sheets for us, and we have the best defensive record in the league too!
 
I was going to ask about Artur, do you have a screenshot of his attributes? He's playing incredibly!
 
This game made me pull my hair out at the touchline. We were dominant through out the game but only came out of the game with a point. Jimenez continued his scoring form with a 2nd minute goal. After that, we completely dominated the game in the first half. Swansea couldn't put together a decent attack, but it didn't seem to bother them. To their credit, Swansea defended magnificently. At half-time, I was wondering how we were only 1-0 up.

Swansea played differently in the second half as they tried to counter a lot more. Just before the hour mark, Swansea got close two times on the counters . I saw the warning signs and changed the tactic a bit so that we had enough men at the back. But it didn't help ultimately. A corner was converted by Jordan Rhodes who volleyed it home from close range. Given how the game was going, I felt that we couldn't score a goal. And my fears came true as Swansea held onto the point.

They defended valiantly, but our front line could've done a bit better with the accuracy of their shooting. 2 points dropped!
The FA Cup 5th round game was just 3 days before the Champions League game. So, a few key names were rested. We were 3-0 up in the first half. Woodrow was absolutely brilliant in the opening 45 minutes. Woodrow slipped a back heeled pass for Kacaniklic to open the scoring. Palace were a bit determined to attack but their final pass was poor and couldn't put us under any pressure.

Woodrow then scored two in five minutes to take us 3-0 up. The brace takes his number of Fulham goals to 178, level with Gordon Davies at the top. What a player!

More key players were taken off in the second half as we were comfortably ahead. Unfortunately, in 10 second half minutes, Nabay and Hyndman picked up slight knocks and I only had one sub left. With Baselli out injured, I needed both of them fit for the Dortmund game. **** it!

With the game heading to a 3-0 win for us, Palace scored two in the final minutes of the game. Tronstad scored a superb volley from 25 yards - a bit like Zidane's champions league volley. With less than a minute left, Byram scored a header from a corner. It was too late for Palace but our defending and concentration towards the end was appalling.

Through to the sixth round!
​
 
ECC 2020/21: First Knockout Round Leg 1 (vs. Dortmund)

Fantastic performance from the boys! With half the midfield injured, I started Amorebieta in midfield. He is a natural center-back but he is vastly experienced and is fantastic at marking and so, I used him to man-mark Memphis Depay.

We played the perfect counter-attacking game in the first half. Dortmund had close to 60% possession but we had the greater number of chances and shots at goal. In the stoppage time at the end of first half, Jimenez opened the scoring. It was an absolutely magnificent goal. I could describe the beauty of the goal but I'd rather let this video do the talking.

[video=dailymotion;x2sz5v0]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2sz5v0_fm-15-jimenez-goal-vs-dortmund_videogames[/video]

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The second half produced very much the same. Amorebieta did brilliantly to keep Depay quiet. He was unable to create much for the German side. I changed the tactic a little bit to be more solid defensively. A Dortmund corner in the 76th minute was well cleared by us and we countered from the left flank. Stafylidis crossed the ball from deep and it was turned in by Roberts arriving at the far post.

A 2-0 win away from home in the first leg is superb! We are the favourites to qualify now!
 
What a strike! What a player this Jimenez is!

Its your year mate, I can feel it! :)
 
Sorry about the lack of updates.

Work has been rather taxing for the last week and FM had to take a backseat. Hopefully, I'll have an update next week.
 
amazing read! great story man...

by the way... I saw Lahm was in the team of the year... could you please post the screenshot of his profile?

also, why don't you sign a few legends for your team, in all honesty, they could be great tutors for these young lads you are trying to bring up...

keep it up!
 
xtremeRED said:
amazing read! great story man...

by the way... I saw Lahm was in the team of the year... could you please post the screenshot of his profile?

also, why don't you sign a few legends for your team, in all honesty, they could be great tutors for these young lads you are trying to bring up...
Click to expand...
Here's Lahm:
View attachment 254468

I did try to bring a few big names in the past but I couldn't strike a good deal. I did bring in a few experienced players, not necessarily superstars to train the younger players.
 
View attachment 254467

Pedro has been unhappy in England recently and wanted to go back to Spain. I gave him a leave of absence and he is still slightly concerned.

I told our director of football Mike Rigg to contact a few clubs in Spain that would be interested in making an offer for Pedro. There were a few bids and Valencia was one of them.

Pedro is an experienced player and definitely deserves to be in a team that competes in Europe regularly. So, I accepted Valencia's offer for Pedro. It's not a lot but I don't want to keep a player unhappy at the club. Moreover, we are financially very strong (I have about 187M pounds in my transfer budget!) and I don't really want big money.

Pedro has been a good player for us in the 3 seasons he has been with us and has helped in developing a few younger players!
 
Hard-fought win. I decided to start with offensive mentality but Hull were very good in counter-attacking and came close to scoring a few times. We dropped off a little bit in the second half and tried to counter attack ourselves. But Hull were resilient. They had answers to everything we created and managed to create chances of their own.

Finally, Jimenez broke the deadlock with a lovely header from a Vilhena's cross. The goal was set-up by a magical piece of play by Lustig on the right flank. Hull kept knocking on the door but our defense held solid. Duffy's sending off in the 88th minute for a professional foul meant we were able to finish the game with relative ease!
​

View attachment 254134Comfortable victory. Time flew by very quickly after the Hull game. Training sessions went by as planned and so did the game. Jimenez got us off to a flying start with a 16th minute goal after a neat interplay in the midfield. We were in total control of the game and Everton striker Lukaku couldn't do anything to threaten our goal. With the first half almost coming to a close, Roberts produced a moment of brilliance. He dribbled past Leighton Baines and shot the ball into the top corner with the outside of his boot. 2-0 ahead at half time, and we were looking very good.

I brought on Woodrow at half time and switched to a 442. Woodrow got his goal just 8 mins after his introduction. It was a thunderbolt from the edge of the area. Typical Woodrow goal! After that, it was plain sailing for us. Everton looked out of ideas and couldn't create many chances.
 
ECC 2020/21: First Knockout Round Leg 2 (vs. Dortmund)

View attachment 252033
We won 3-1 on aggregate but boy, oh boy was I nervous during this!

​
We went into this game following a 2-0 away win. Dortmund's game plan was obvious - attack, attack, attack! I started a bit defensively with a 4123 counter formation. And it backfired. Very badly. Mkhitaryan scored with a powerful shot after Depay played him through on goal. All of a sudden, Dortmund were back in it. If they scored one more, they're back on level terms.

For the first 20 minutes or so, it was all Dortmund. We barely had a good chance where as they had 4-5 good ones. I told my players to hang on till half time. They did, barely. I made several changes at the break. Went more aggressive and tried to push them back. I told the players it was my fault for being defensive and told them to forget about the first half and put on a better show in the second half.

It worked. Dortmund couldn't create much in the second half. But the game was still evenly poised. A goal for Dortmund would tip the game in their favour. The clock kept ticking and as the fourth official held up the board displaying 3 mins of added time, substitute Foday Nabay scored the equalizer on the night. It was a clever run into the box, which was not picked up by the Dortmund defense.

That put the game beyond the Bundesliga outfit, and we go through to the quarter finals. It was a nervous game but we managed to scrape through thanks to our amazing first leg performance.
 
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER-FINAL DRAW

Here are the teams that made it to the quarter-finals.View attachment 252020

THE DRAW:
View attachment 252019

Tough task ahead!!!

This is the first time in my managerial career I am facing the Die Bayern. Not an easy task, but it'll really test our credentials. We travel to the Allianz Arena for the first leg, with the return leg at Wembley.

Real play Chelsea in the other big clash of the Quarter Finals. Celtic are a surprise package in the quarter finals. Current Champions League holders Man United are out and the team that beat them in the first knockout round was Bayern Munich. This'll be interesting!​
 
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