United We Rise Again: A Manchester United Story

[doyce7]

Looking forward to April and beyond. We had draws for both the FA Cup and Champions Legue

We also had the NXG list come out and Musiala is considered the best wonderkid in the world

Some bad news, Ronaldo picked up and injury at the end of March. He'll miss the whole month of April, a month with a ton of games mind you.

Oh and Greenwood won young player of the month again but while only playing 1 league game

 

[doyce7]

April is a busy month. 8 games in total, and that without Ronaldo. We started off with a win away to Leicester 2-1. Then we traveled to Paris to take on the French champions and came away with a 0-0 draw. We then "welcomed" Liverpool to Old Trafford for a top of the table clash and we trounced them, Liverpool are perhaps a little unlucky to have not scored but the 3 points were never in doubt

Following that PSG came to town and the final score was close but we could have had 4 or 5 this game but all that matters is that we move on to the Semi Finals

Next up, Man City in the FA Cup Semi Final, this is the second time we play City at Wembley after the Carabao Cup final back in February. This one played out even better. We actually looked like much the better team in this game

A couple of 1-0 results followed as my team is kind of running on fumes at this point. Finally in the last game of the month we travel to Germany to take on Bayern Munich. Ronaldo made his return to the team after his injury and go back on the score sheet as well. 1-1 away to Bayern is a great result and sets us up nicely

 

[doyce7]

Here are the actual results from this hectic, but successful month.

Liverpool remain top but we do have 2 games in hand, so the title is in our control.

We'll be taking of Chelsea in the FA Cup Final next month.

Musiala after all those seconds wins young player of the month again with Greenwood finishing second this time.

 

[doyce7]

May will be another very busy month. We still have 6 Premier League games, the FA Cup Final and the Champions League Semi Finals against Bayern. We get started with the Manchester Derby, we played well, had 3 times the number of shots that City did but couldn't find a breakthrough until Ronaldo scored in the 71st minute. Unfortunately City were already up 2-0 at that point through 2 goals scored from corners. Not a great start but the title is still in our hands

The next game on the schedule was the second leg against Bayern. Our inept finishing is on display again as we fail to score at all. Lewandowski put Bayern ahead in the 34th minute with a long distance screamer and Sane put the game away in the 63rd with a back post header. The Champions League run ends at the Semi Final stage

The next games would be away to Chelsea and Burnley. At Chelsea it was a tight affair and again we are having a hard time scoring until Coates scores his first goal for the club in 81st and Ronaldo follows in the 87th for a 2-0 win. Burnley another tight game, Mcneil gave them the lead on 41 but Mctominay got us an immediate reply on 42 to level things. Wan-Bissaka then got sent off in the second half and killed the game, 1-1.
Next came Chelsea again, this time in the FA Cup Final. Continuing the theme, we have a hard time scoring but a well worked move ends with James Maddison putting the ball past Mendy and that was it. The FA Cup is coming home to Manchester!

 

[doyce7]

Getting back to the league, next up was Tottenham, the trend of not being able to score continues and really this team was running on empty for really the last 6 weeks. The depth at United was not great when I arrived and I hadn't addressed it enough when letting player go. Ndombele scored the only goal for Spurs and the title is no longer in my own hands. In fact if we lose to West Ham in game 37, we won't even have a shot going into the final day.

Luckily, West Ham was no match and the team was able to fight through the fatigue and deliver a 5-1 win to at least keep hope alive.

Going into the final set of matches, 3 teams had a chance to win the title. For us it was simple, we had to win, Liverpool had to lose. If this happens we are champions. Liverpool just need to avoid defeat against Crystal Palace who have to win to avoid relegation. Man City need to win, need us to not win, need Liverpool to lose and have a 4 goal swing in GD. Here we go

We did our part, winning 3-0 over Watford, relegating them in the process. But Palace were obviously no match for Liverpool and so...

 

[doyce7]

While it's obviously disappointing to not win the league, I'm very proud of the boys. With the depth issues we had, there was just no way we would be able to compete on all fronts at the highest level and the dam was going to burst at some point. At the same time there is no shame in winning the FA Cup and Carabao this season, nor with making it to the Semi Finals of the Champions League, nor even finishing 3 points off top in the league. It was a good season, next season the aim has to be winning the league.
With that in mind, the board have decided to back me with a huge 117M transfer budget and a 400k increase in wages. Couple that with my plan to try to move on De Gea, Varane and possibly Fernandes in the summer, we could be looking at a busy window.

The day after the season finished, Chelsea decided that 5th was not good enough and sacked Tuchel

Liverpool went on to win the Champions League 2-1 over Bayern

Shockingly West Ham! win the Europa League. Man City goes out in the Semi Finals after finishing 3rd in their Champions League Group behind Real Madrid and Club Brugge

 

[doyce7]

Ronaldo wins top scorer and Footballer of the year in the Premier League. He was pretty impressive but Greenwood also did really well as his backup and when Ronaldo was out through injury back in April. Greenwood ended up on 14 league goals in 29 league games, 20 starts, some on the wing as well.

Taking a look at the top players in the Premier League this season you can see just how important Ronaldo is to this team. Can he do it for 1 more season though? Whether he retires or not, next season will be his last at the club unless he is willing to half his current wage.

 

[doyce7]

I realized just now that I never showed you my tactic or explained how I planned to use this team. so I will rectify that now as I discuss what I want to do going forward. This is my tactic. It's basically a toned down Gegenpress. I know Gegenpress is a meme because it is so good but it's just the style I want my teams to play with. The main changes I make from a normal Gegenpress is that I play at a normal width, the tempo is a tick lower, I add play for set pieces. In transition I remove take short kicks from the GK instructions, I want them to sometimes kick it long. Out of possession the only change is we trigger the press 1 tick lower than Gegenpress.

As for the best 11, I may put Rashford ahead of Sancho, Pogba and Fernandes are the wrong way round, as are Varane and Maguire. We ended up playing 62 games in total, I believe. I played over 30 players over the season and something like 27 guys played at least 15 games.

That is it for season 1 which I would classify as a success. Just need to build on this and great things are on the horizon

 

[doyce7]

With the Summer comes the transfer window. And I've got a few for you here. I'm going to go in chronological order so you can see my thinking as I go through them.
First up, Jude Bellingham for 71M, flat. What an absolute bargain this is. Jude normally goes 90+ million. He actually had a 92M release clause but for some reason Dortmund did not make it hit that clause to get him. He will be Fernandes replacement at some point and I do intend to try to sell Fernandes but only for the right price. Welcome, Jude.

Next up another in, Fikayo Tomori. One of the best young English CBs. He's very quick, ok in the air and all in all pretty well rounded. He comes in for 40M which I think is good business. I mentioned him back in the January posts, back then Milan wanted over 40M up front and another 30 in installments and clauses. That 40 that I'm spending is a flat fee.

Next up, some outs. Alex Telles, good player who I needed to move on this summer. Real Madrid came in for 50M and I just decided, that was enough. I had other plans and I needed money to come in to do anything else.

Real Madrid also came in for Axel Tuanzebe with a 22M offer. I didn't plan on using him as he would be 5th choice behind Maguire, Coates, Tomori and Bailly(he gained English nationality during last season). That's now 72 million in, so basically Bellingham paid for.

I say that Telles and Tuanzebe paid for Bellingham. Well, Varane more than pays for Tomori. Varane moves to PSG for 44M. I feel like I should have gotten more but that's all I was able to squeeze out of them. But that's 4M more than Tomori cost me and saves almost 200k on the wage bill for a younger CB who, yes is not as good but is English. If this was a normal save I don't even think about selling Varane.

 

[doyce7]

With those sales, the budget is back around 120M with 300k or so of wage budget left to spend. I thought long and hard about what I was about to do. This may be controversial and it may not.
I signed Erling Haaland. I know, I know, I hear you. "Haaland is not English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh or American and you said those are the only players you can sign" I know what I said, I meant what I said, and I don't think that I have broken my rule. Haaland, as many know, was born in Leeds. I looked around online and as best I can tell, he would have been eligible to play for England if he had wanted to do so. To me, if a guy is eligible to play for a country that I'm allowed to sign AND he was born in that **** country, then I can sign him. So I signed him. 80M up front, 42M over the next 3 years, and 10M after 50 league games.

I think Haaland deserves his own post. Let me know what you think, does this signing break the rules or ruin the save?

 

[doyce7]

Phil Jones was let to leave on a free, saving the club 120k/w. He moves on to Vallecano and I wish him well.

With Telles gone, I needed a LB to back up Shaw. I had a few options I was looking at. Tyrick Mitchell, Mathew Target, Rico Henry. In the end I went with Luke Thomas. 18M up front, 18M over 3 years. Steep I know but I think it'll be worth it in the end. If I give him the same game time that Telles got then I know he will develop.

Two more outs, Andreas Pereira and Facundo Pellistri both move to Aston Villa for a combined 18M. 7.25 for Pereira and 10.75 for Pellistri. Both are player that really needed to be moved this summer to get any value for them, so just took what I could.

Last 2 ins before games start. both are players for the future. Alex Scott is a midfielder who, may not be as good as the other 18 year old brought in this summer, I think has a bright future. He played 43 games for Bristol City last season in the Championship and I'll look to loan him out to that level again this season. 7.5M paid up front but could rise to 13.5 if he ends up being a first team and England regular.

Leon King is a young CB that I think could become a good BPD in the future. Brought in from Rangers for 5.5 up front and could be worth up to 13.25. My coaches reckon he is League 2 quality right now so I'll be trying to loan him out to League 2 or lower League 1 teams this season.

That's it for transfer for now

 

[doyce7]

We did have the Community Shield against Liverpool and we kind of got wrecked. I wish I could say it was a rotated side but it wasn't. It was a strong team I put out. Hopefully not a sign of things to come

This is what I think my "best 11" is right now, on the eve of the league season. Yes, Ronaldo could play on either wing and it would be a stronger team but Ronaldo is 37. He will still play but I can't allow myself to rely on him so much this season.

First day of the season we take on West Ham. Haaland makes his debut, Bellingham sits on the bench after a knock in training and Tomori also starts from the bench. Of course Haaland gets a hattrick in his league debut. Aided for sure but West Ham having a man sent off but it was 2-0 when that happened.

 

[doyce7]

So before I finish the transfer window, I need to explain something. I am an American, I am also a Fulham fan. I was not aware until last night about what is going on with the Mason Greenwood situation. Now that I am aware, Greenwood will not make another appearance for me in this save. I spent the rest of the window trying to get rid of him but he rejected Chelsea, Inter, Milan and Arsenal. He will remain in the U23s until he can be sold.

 

[doyce7]

Let's finish the window now, there has been some business.
Firstly, De Gea is gone. He goes to Inter on a free. His money off the books allows for some other moves.

Heaton retired after last season, so I need a backup. I hemmed and hawed over who to bring in but I settled on Joe Bursik. Not the best keeper obviously but he's young and might develop and more importantly he's cheap.

Then as we got to deadline day, Bruno Fernandes decided to get upset that De Gea was let go, and that he didn't play every one of the first games and I decided to try to move him on again, which upset him further and now I HAD to sell him. Milan came in for 75M flat and even though this is lower than I would have wanted but it is what it is.

With that money and the De Gea contract money, I was able to bring in 2 players. The first is a young rotational option to play in midfield now that Fernandes is gone. Giovani Reyna becomes the 3rd Dortmund player brought in this summer. He had a 40M release clause and signed a smaller wage than most of the squad. He can play both midfield roles I use, though like Maddison he is much better as a mezzala.

The last move of the window is the Greenwood replacement. I only ever had one man in mind. It's Tammy Abraham. I love Tammy, while he is no Haaland, he's about the perfect man to back up Erling. Fairly quick, good work rate, there's a lot of him so he's good in the air. Tammy comes in at 40M up front, 18M over 3 years and 5M after 50 league games

 

[doyce7]

The season preview has us finishing 3rd

Yep Mbappe went to Man City and Liverpool signed Lewandowski. This should be fun.
We get Rangers in our group again. And of course we get Dortmund after buying 3 players off them. I wonder what they did with all that money. They would have received about 190M in up front fees from us. Not much apparently.

The last game of August gets the highlight this month. We drop all 3 points to newly Promoted Fulham. I'm conflicted, one the one hand we should never lose to Fulham, on the other I'm proud of my real life boys

The rest of the results were very good. 3 clean sheets and 12 goals. I think the Fulham match is just a blip and we are closer to the team that played Arsenal the week before.

 

[doyce7]

September brings injuries, apparently. First Musiala, then Haaland picks up a knock, then Sancho.

Games wise the month started out with a loss to Man City in the Carabao which I honestly could not care less. We followed that up with bad draw against Wolves and a convincing 4-0 over Rangers to start our Champions league campaign. We then took on Liverpool in the league and played very well getting a win over the title rivals. Unfortunately we did lose Luke Shaw in the process, he'll miss the next month so we are gonna find out fast if I made the right call bringing in Luke Thomas.

Right after Liverpool we traveled to Germany to face Dortmund. it's a return for 4 of our players that we though Jaden Sancho is hurt so won't play and Reyna will start from the bench but he did come on late on

 

[doyce7]

As for the rest of the Month

Of course we could not get out of September without 1 more injury though as Rashford went down vs Betis

Man City look like they may be on one this season and will be difficult to catch. Warms my heart as a Fulham fan to see them so high in the table, also lessens the blow of losing to them back in August. It's been a pretty good start to the season. I'm struggling to decide if we are better than last season. The depth is certainly better, Bailly is 4th choice CB now rather than Jones but Tomori is an unquestionable down grade for this season from Varane. Reyna being 4th choice at CM is much better than Barkley and Hannibal last season but again, Bellingham is step down this season from Fernandes. The wings are the same and up front Haaland/Abraham is probably an upgrade from Ronaldo/Greenwood, at least same level.

 

[doyce7]

One of the great almost comebacks I have had happen against me. Up 4-1, cruising, then leads scored 2 goals on 90+ minutes and even had another attack that could have made it 4-4. We hold on though.

Pretty straight forward month, Middlesbrough result aside. I did play a fully rotated side against Middlesbrough.

Just as Luke Shaw was coming back, Luke Thomas goes down. He had been playing pretty well in Shaw's absence, I feel much better about my choice to sign him.

Man City remain top but we are hanging in with them. Champions League group has been an easy ride.

 

[doyce7]

Not much to really write about in November. We only played 4 games, the last of which though, is away to City. About as evenly matched as it gets. Almost same number of shots, shots on target and xG, City lead by a healthy amount in possession but we don't play a heavy possession game. A draw was definitely a fair result.

I find this interesting, so far we have played City 6 times. We have played 2 at Old Trafford and lost both, 2 at the Etihad and drawn both and 2 at Wembley and won both. I don't think it means anything but I just found it interesting

Anyway, another exciting game that happened right before the City game was away to Chelsea and it was a goal fest. Up 3-0 after 15 minutes you think you can relax but Chelse came at us and got one on 18, Maddison restores the 3 goal lead on 31 but Werner makes it 4-2 on 39. Werner strikes again on 66 and now it's 4-3. Rashford and Abraham both get goals late on for 6-3 but I could do with less exciting games boys.

The other games we routine against Rangers and Everton

Here is the table going into the World Cup, we are now top thanks to City being a bit draw happy with 2 draws in their last 3. And the game in hand I guess, but I'd rather have the points on the board than the game in hand. Liverpool has now gotten back within striking distance if they win their games in hand.

We have 17 first teamers going to the World Cup. Mason Greenwood continues to play for the U23s but I hope to sell him in January.

Next post will be about the World Cup

 

[doyce7]

Shock as Wales beat Brazil! Less shocking, France wins the whole thing

Our boy Tammy is the top scorer. Quite impressive considering England only made it to the Quarters.