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-- Gordon Donnelly tells a couple newspaper reporters that he's now satisfied with our team's play. Good good.
October 5th, 2019 Ipswich(6-3-1, 1st) @ Norwich(5-2-3, 10th) We're very slim 6:4 favorites against our arch rivals on the road today, they're 13:8. The last time we promoted up we beat them 2:1 twice and are 4-2-0 against them over the course of this career, not much of a rivalry! We'll try to keep it that way here. GK: Carlos Antonio D: Kirkland/McKerr/Burke/Berthet M: Turgay Colak/Mills/Donnelly/Jackson ST: Hamilton/Constantino 3 midfield changes today, only Donnelly stays, entirely due to fatigue from so many matches on short rest. Standard mindset on the road. 11': We open the highlight beginning to attack, we almost lose possession and they try to break forward, but we tackle and win it back quickly, Hamilton controls 40 yards out, ahead to Mills, he controls it well and finds Constantino who turns by his man and beats the keeper! 1-0 39': We attack down the middle, a pass to Constantino 25 yards out, Jackson cuts in from the right, Constantino hits him, shot is right at the keeper though. 41': Whoa, we seem in total control, they try to attack here and it still seems like we're in total control, but they have a guy randomly shoot from 30 yards out and its an amazing shot, the pace and the bend on it I would expect to see when I play Chelsea, not Norwich. But the save is even better, Carlos Antonio dives to his left and makes an incredible save!! 43': Another buildup down the middle, Donnelly ahead to Hamilton, instead of trying to find anyone this time he just blasts one from where he stands. Its a rocket but right at the keeper and he reacts well to save. HALF: We shoot 7 times, they shoot 5, but only 2 on target from each team, so there was a bit of a lack of highlights in the middle. I dunno if its the one save I mentioned or what, but Carlos Antonio has a 9.0 rating at the half. He's hitting on most of his passes which keepers usually don't so that plus saves I guess? 46': yellow for defender Shotten. 48': They attack, there's a good give and go and some poor defending on our part to simply not cover the man that received the pass back... he gets into the area, earns a clear cut chance and finishes. That was quick. 1-1 57': mills is hurt, he looks noticeably slowed. 58': They attack and I didn't see much I was subbing Mills out. There's a through ball right up the middle, ST Miller is there behind our defenders and its just a very easy finish. McKerr took the hit for that I think. 1-2 58': Mariga in for the injured Mills. 75': Not a lot going on here, we'll try to attack. 86': We earn a corner, its taken to Constantino, he can't find a shot but gets out to the right and crosses, Mariga is there for a header... keeper makes a save. That was from real close range. 88': Another corner, they clear this one out, we control though and build up on offense. Donnelly has it 25 yards out, he passes into the area, Turgay Colak cuts inside perfectly, runs onto the ball behind the defenders and strikes it by the keeper to net us a very late tying goal. 2-2 91': Donnelly goes down hurt. He's got that nasty injury symbol and his fitness fell to 30%. Norwich 2 : 2 Ipswich We salvage a tie on the road against our rivals after they came out extremely strong early in the second half. Man of the Match: Carlos Antonio (8.9) Goals: Constantino (7.4), Turgay Colak (7.4) Assists: Donnelly (7.3), Mills (6.9) It had to have been that one save to give Carlos Antonio the crazy rating. -- Watford fire their coach and I'm considered the top candidate. Why i'd take that I don't know, but I release a statement saying I'm not interested. -- No injury for Donnelly, and Henrique resumes full training after the match today. |
-- Carlos Antonio and Fredy Guarin are named to the team of the week this week.
October 9th, 2019 Watford(4-5-2, 12th) @ Ipswich(6-4-1, 2nd) We're 4:6 favorites at home vs Watford today. Watford finished with the same number of points in the EPL last year that we did but are struggling in their quest to make it back up to the top. We're 4-3-9 lifetime against them, tying them on the road and losing at home. GK: Carlos Antonio D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Turgay Colak/Mariga/Donnelly/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino Mariga and Gordon are back in the midfield. Clive Jackson is away on international duty and unavailable today. Henrique starts alongside McKerr at DC. Vinny Burke is on the bench. 14': Mariga hits Neil Gordon in the area for a solid goal... but Gordon was offsides. I agree FWIW. 26': We have a corner, cleared easily though. We retain possession but the area is very crowded and we can't do anything. I issue the "work ball into box" instruction, Mariga loves his long shots and I always feel the need to use this when he's out there. 43': Brilliant play by Hamilton and Constantino. Hamilton receives a pass 20 yardso ut, they have 4 men back, a pass to Constantino, one defender takes a step towards Constantino, Hamilton cuts in, Constantino passes it back perfectly and Hamilton calmly beats the keeper!! Perfect give and go play in very tight space. That all occurred within just a few yards. 1-0 HALF: We are looking solid here, 9 shots to their 3, we've got 3 on target, they have none. They're tackling very well and that is likely the only reason we don't have a bigger lead. We'll try to keep the pressure on and find a second goal here. 59': We have a free kick, its sent in but headed away. They have a very very poor clearance, Neil Gordon heads it into the area from about 25 yards away, Hamilton is there, redirects it with his head from about 10 yards out and its perfectly placed into the right side of the net. Great goal! 2-0 70': We go defensive. This isn't a bad team, lets just secure the win. We end this one easily. Ipswich 2 : 0 Watford Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8) Goals: Hamilton 2 (8.8) Assists: Constantino, Gordon (7.1) Notables: Berthet (7.1), Kirkland (7.6), Henrique (7.0), McKerr (8.5), Mariga (7.0) Constantino man of the match? Well, lets look at the stats. One thing stands out... Constantino makes 16 runs with the ball. SIXTEEN. That's more than the rest of the team combined. One assist and so much control of the ball has to be the reason he gets the man of the match award over a 2 goal scorer in Simon Hamilton. Still, spectacular game for Hamilton as well. -- I keep forgetting milestones: Neil Gordon makes his 175th league appearance today. |
-- Carlos Antonio has finished tutoring Chris Mason. Mason says he didn't gain as much as he'd hoped but he did gain a bit in the mental game. He needs it so that's good.
Injury Update -- Oct 13th: Clive Jackson is hurt in training and will miss 3 weeks. -- Oct 14th: Turgay Colak is hurt in training and will miss 3 weeks. October 19th, 2019 Sheffield Wednesday(4-2-6, 16th) @ Ipswich(7-4-1, 1st) We're huge 1:2 favorites at home here. They're 9:2. We're 7-1-6 lifetime against them, pretty dang even. Unhappy DLC Zeki Fryers signed with Sheffield Wed this year after 3 seasons with Ipswich. He's starting for them, he's got 9 matches and 1 assist for them with a 6.60 rating. GK: Carlos Antonio D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Guarin/Mills/Donnelly/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino Guarin in for the injured Turgay Colak at ML, Mills in for Mariga in the midfield. Attacking at home today. 1': Oh look at the sportsmanship. They kick off, pass it back to their defense, Fryers passes ahead... and falls over hurt. He's on the ground. We intercept the ball, a quick pass to Hamilton, a pass to Constantino who has to run by Fryers on the ground on his way to the goal. He keeps going and gets a clear cut chance and scores. 1-0 14': We try to get a second goal here, a great long ball from Donnelly to Hamilton for an easy goal, but Hamilton was offsides. Love the pass, Hamilton just needed to time that a bit better. 18': This is all Ipswich. We earn a corner, Gordon takes it, but they clear it away to safety. We have 5 shots, all on target, just the one goal though. 30': We get the ball forward, a pass to Donnelly 25 yards out, he steps up, shoots, it hits the right post, bounces out but deflects off the back of the keeper who had dove for it, and falls into the net... that's an own goal. 2-0 HALF: We take a 2-0 lead to the locker room in interesting fashion with the own goal and the goal we scored with their defender hurt on the ground. We are dominating them though, 11 shots, 7 on target, they've only shot 1 time. Their shot was a clear cut chance apparently... it didn't seem like it, Carlos Antonio saved it really easily. Poor effort from them, I didn't think it was even worth mentioning when I saw the highlight. 58': Brilliant long ball from Mills from our own end right to the edge of the penalty area, Constantino is first to it, its a clear cut chance for us but saved. 66': McKerr goes down injured and is forced to come out immediately. Another hit to our DCs. Burke is in. 73': Yellow for midfielder McCalliser. 74': Mills with a great pass to Constantino through a ton of defenders for a clear cut chance, but Constantino can't finish! 76': Mills tries to feed Constantino again but they clear. We recover, Donnelly gets it and hits Constantino who puts in a great shot from 18 yards out and beats the keeper! 2-0 84': Gordon with a free kick from 30 yards out, its a great shot, bending around the wall, the keeper has to make a diving save to stop it. Corner is headed away but we recover and there's a foul 25 yards out. Gordon again with a free kick but this one is stopped. We finish this out easily, strong win. Ipswich 3 : 0 Sheffield Wednesday Their keeper is actually man of the match despite the 3:0 loss. We shot 20 times and put 16 on target and apparently were credited with 7 clear cut chances, he stopped 4 of them. So even though we picked up a 3:0 win their keeper kept it from being 7:0 or worse and gets man of the match. Goals: Constantino 2 (9.1), one own goal. Assists: Connelly 2 (9.0), Hamilton (7.6) Notables: Berthet (7.7), Kirkland (7.8), Henrique (7.6), McKerr (7.3), Mills (7.4) -- McKerr is out about a week, not too bad. -- After losing our opener we've now gone 12 league matches without a loss. |
-- Kirkland, Henrique, Donnelly and constantino are named to the team of the week this week.
Injury Update -- Not happy at all about this one, Steven Mills has a pulled hamstring and is going to miss 3-4 weeks. Mills has 5 assists and I've really enjoyed watching his passing in highlights. -- Jack Hughes resumes full training. European Championship Qualifying A quick update here as we've made it through group play. Automatic qualifiers (ie group winners) are: Croatia, Portugal, Germany, Holland, England, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Belgium and France Second Place Finishers will play a two leg playoff to fill the rest of the spots: Macedonia vs Denmark N Ireland vs Ukraine Romania vs Norway Turkey vs Albania Wales vs Scotland Russia is the host and I assume they get the 16th spot automatically. No huge upsets of teams being left out here. October 26th, 2019 Ipswich(8-4-1, 1st) @ Coventry(3-3-7, 21st) We're only 6:4 favorites on the road today against a relegation candidate. We are just 2-4-0 on the road so perhaps a draw is our most likely outcome. We're 7-3-4 lifetime against Coventry. They did finish 5th last year but lost int he playoffs. GK: Carlos Antonio D: Kirkland/Hughes/Henrique/Berthet M: Guarin/Mariga/Donnelly/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino Hughes starts at DC, Mariga MC for the injured Mills. Standard mindset on the road today. 14': The first highlights are for coventry, they earn a corner here, its taken to the far post... and our defending just sucked. We allow midfielder Melero to get to the ball without any of our guys challenging at all. Literally fell asleep there. Easy finish. 0-1 17': Donnelly with a yellow. I think that's his 5th and he'll miss next match. 24': They build up on offense, there's a cross in from the left, Hughes misses an interception and ST Brown runs onto it for a point blank shot and goal. Ouch. 0-2 25': Time to attack I guess!! Not good, not good. 26': We earn a corner on a shot by Hamilton that's saved. Corner to Constantino, he's tackled and we get a second corner. This one is cleared out wide but we recover... no luck though they win the ball as we try to build up. 31': They attack down the left, a pass goes to ST Keogh, Mariga comes back to defend but can't take the ball away, Keogh runs all the way to the 6 yard box without a serious challenge and he just puts it in... 0-3 33': Holy shit!!! A long ball ahead from one striker to another, a shot from 18 yards out before our defense catches up... what's happening!? 0-4 40': A nice play on offense, we get it into the area a couple times but they clear, finally Gordon with a good pass to Constantino and constantino sidesteps a defender and scores. 1-4 44': We're working it around on offense, Mariga pulls up and shoots from 25 yards, wish he'd keep passing it... we do end up earning a corner but they clear it. HALF: Oh my god! I let the team have it at halftime, totally unacceptable!! They're crushing us, 55/45 possession, 12 shots to our 4 and they're hitting everything! We only saw a couple offensive highlights. Our team's average rating is 5.96. Lets at least make it respectable. 46': they score right out of the gate... a couple passes ahead, Mariga misses a tackle, Kirkland misses a tackle, then Henrique misses a tackle allowing their midfielder Jones to make a long run into he area and score. 1-5 51': Its the closet thing I can do towards just calling the match and telling our guys to get it over with. I bring in Chris Mason for Carlos antonio, Troy Brown for Henrique and Ian Taylor for Constantino. Guys who aren't getting first team time and they might as well today. 65': After a number of passes they end up with a shot from 25 yards out for Midfielder Jose and it bends into the left corner of the net. 1-6 79': Donnelly shows that someone is still trying. He takes a pass 30 yards out, skips by two defenders and attacks the keeper, scoring nicely. 2-6 Coventry 6 : 2 Ipswich I break out the rare "declare your anger at the team" postgame talk. This was just a disaster from out of nowhere. Goals: Donnelly (8.3), Constantino (6.8) Assists: Gordon (6.2), Taylor (6.8) Henrique 4.8, Hughes 4.5, Kirkland 5.9, Guarin 5.1, Hamilton 5.4 WOW. No explanation at all for what just happened. Complacency after such a long win streak? -- donnelly will miss our next match after picking up his 5th yellow card. -- Wins by QPR and Bristol City bump them up and drop us down to 3rd. |
Injury Update
-- Simon Hamilon pulls a hamstring in training and he's going to miss 3-4 weeks. Time for Khan to step up. Hamilton has been great with 7 goals in 16 matches. -- Turgay Colak and DC Welsh return to full training. November Update -- We play on the 2nd, 5th, 9th, 23rd, and 30th. -- Random negative training report on our 26 y/o Keeper Carlos Antonio. One on One's(13), Reflexes(13) and Decisions(15) all drop. -- Constantino has won his 3rd straight Player of the Month award. Its ridiculous how much better he is than anyone else in the league right now. 8.22 average rating, #1 in the league is at 7.83. -- The board is pleased with my leadership. Constantino is the highlight, our 6:2 loss to Coventry is the low point. We lost $2.75M last month. November 2nd, 2019 Ipswich(8-4-2, 3rd) @ QPR(9-2-3, 1st) QPR are 5:4 favorites today, we're 7:4 to get a win. This is a huge road match for us at this point in the season, especially coming off that awful loss last week. We're 4-4-3 lifetime against them. GK: Carlos Antonio D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Hughes/Guarin/Mariga/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino QPR is led by Enrico Rocchini with 10 goals. Donnelly, Mills and Hamilton are all out today and that really hurts us bad against a top team. We're going to counterattack today. 11': Mariga hits Khan with a pretty pass for a goal... but Khan is offsides. 18': Constantino finds a hole in the defense about 25 yard out, Mariga hits him, Constantino has just too much room and he sprints into the area and scores. 1-0 27': Kirkland ahead to Hughes, ahead to Khan, Khan is at the left edge of the area, he centers it for Constantino, Constantino has a man draped all over him but he finds a shot and buries it! 2-0 43': They have a throwin near midfield, quickly send it to a man 25 yards out, a rocket of a shot comes bending in but Carlos Antonio sends it away. HALF: We've got 10 guys rated 6.8-6.9 and Constantino at 8.7. I'm really really happy with our play here, obviously. We shoot 6 times, 4 on target. They have 3 shots, 2 on target but 2 are from long range. It just seems like all of the highlights are in our favor and the rare time one isn't Carlos Antonio lays out to stop a great shot. Hopefully that loss to Coventry was a big wake up call at just the right time for us. 62': We've seen two highlights so far, both of us attacking and missing long range shots. 64': Mariga with a ball into the area from a good distance, Khan runs onto it perfectly and has a great look, but the keeper saves, not really taken that well. 80': McKerr with a foul about 25 yards out, they shoot on the free kick but its off the wall and behind for a corner. Henrique heads the corner away which is good b/c Carlos Antonio came too far off his line for it and didn't get it. Its a home clock today, 3 minutes of added time turns into 7 before the whistle is finally blown but we hang on for a strong road win. QPR 0 : 2 Ipswich Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8) Goals: Constantino 2 Assists: Khan (6.8), Mariga (7.8) Notables: Berthet (7.4), Kirkland (7.5), Henrique (7.2) We jump QPR for 2nd in the standings with this win. Bristol City wins and takes over first. We're just 1 point behind them. |
-- Clive Jackson resumes full training.
-- Kirkland and Mariga are named to the league team of the week. November 5th, 2019 Bristol City(10-2-3, 1st) @ Ipswich(9-4-2, 2nd) Back to back QPR and Bristol City, both teams in 1st place when I play them. This one's at home. Bristol got demoted out of the EPL the same year we promoted up so I've not seen them before as Ipswich manager, but Ipswich have a long history against them going 2-8-4 lifetime against them all in the Championship. Bristol's manager pokes at us a basically saying "if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best" and if we can't beat them then maybe I shouldn't have set our team's goals to win the league earlier in the year. I respond via the media saying that confidence is high at Portman Road and that Ipswich fear no one. Bristol's head coach responds openly wondering if I'm a good enough manager to lead this team to promotion. I leave it alone after that, not having a ton of experience with the mind games and not wanting to risk bothering any of my players by being too brash. GK: Carlos Antonio D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Turgay Colak/Mariga/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Donnelly is back from suspension and Turgay Colak back from injury, both are starting today. DC James Welsh may play but I start McKerr instead. McKerr is playing really really well of late, and Welsh had been on a bit of a poor run before his injury. Standard mindset at home against a top team. 9': Turgay Colak with a nice interception in the midfield as they try to attack, he gets it to Constantino who weaves through their defense brilliantly before earning a clear cut chance.. but he's a little far in and the keeper stops it. Goal of the year material there if he'd scored (counting the run he made by himself to create the chance). 12': They commit a foul on Kirkland out left, near the area but pretty far wide. Gordon crosses in, they head it behind, corner. Corner is cleared. 15': Mariga a yellow. 39': After a long buildup down the right Gordon crosses in and they head back for a corner. Gordon takes the corner, Mariga heads one over. They are playing very defensive. HALF: We shoot 6 times, just putting 2 on target. They only shoot once. We're controlling possession well but they are making it hard for us to do anything. I'm going to change to the "control" mindset to try to draw them out of their shell. 46': midfielder Coquelin with a yellow. 50': A long through ball from midfielder Wordsworth into the right side of the area, its played really well and their striker Will Keane is well behind our defense, he's at a fairly tough angle but puts it by Carlos Antonio. 0-1 54': We build up on offense quickly, Mariga ahead to Khan, Khan is in the area but well defended, but they've left Turgay Colak wide open just 15 yards away from goal, Khan finds him, he rockets a shot in... and maybe a little more touch would help... he hits the crossbar. 67': Three shots in quick succession... Turgay Colak free in the area again, not a clear cut chance but he could have easily scored, keeper saves and deflects away. They clear but we quickly advance again, a through ball to Khan, he shoots... right at the keeper, deflected again.. Constantino with a volley, wide. We now have 17 shots to their 2. 70': Mariga launches one from 25 yards out, on target but saved. 74': Jackson in for Gordon, Guarin in for Mariga, both fatigue related. gordon not having a good game. 79': Constantino receives a ball near midfield, their defensive line is set.. he runs by one man, has two more on him, boots the ball ahead, sprints between the two men and has our 4th clear cut chance, an amazing run... with no finish. He shoots wide to the left. 85': Berthet is hurt, he stays in. Tough, tough loss. Ipswich 0 : 1 Bristol City An agonizing loss as we shoot 20 times, finding four clear cut chances, two from the supremely reliable Constantino, only allowing 4 shots, but coming away empty. Their keeper is deservedly man of the match. Notables: Berthet (7.0), Donnelly (7.1) Constantino (6.0) and Khan (6.1) had our worst ratings. -- Berthet is out for 2 weeks. We drop to 3rd with that loss. |
November 9th, 2019
Derby(6-5-5, 12th) @ Ipswich(9-4-3, 3rd) We're big 4:5 favorites here, they're 3:1 to get a win. We're 6-3-6 lifetime against them, all in the championship but for one win in the league cup awhile back. We're on TV today. GK: Carlos Antonio D: Kirkland/Hughes/Henrique/McKerr M: Turgay Colak/Mariga/Donnelly/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino I give Jack Hughes a start at DC today as McKerr moves to DR. Standard mindset today at home. 2': Mariga shoots from 30 yards out without any buildup at all and I remember to turn on "work ball into box" 6': Mariga ahead to Khan, Khan has two men close to him but he has a half step perhaps, he fires from 20 yards away, and hits the crossbar, so close. 7': Gordon with a free kick from 30 yards out, he bends one around the wall, their keeper has to dive to get a finger to it, he does, but it hits the post and falls in the middle of the area. Constantino is there and puts it in the empty net. 1-0 15': They have a corner, it ends up being headed around a few times, one of our defenders heads one that Carlos Antonio could have held easily. We end up fouling them just outside the area, but stopping the free kick. They shoot 3 times in that little flurry, their first 3 shots of the match. 25': Donnelly a yellow. When did he become a foul machine? They have a free kick out near midfield, its taken short but then a pass ahead to ST Morgan, he's got a half step on Henrique, shoots from 18 yards out, Carlos Antonio came halfway out, not enough to really stop anything there and they score with a solid shot. 1-1 HALF: We dominated the first 15 minutes, shooting 6 times and controlling everything. But they controlled the last 30 minutes. We didn't get another shot or offensive highlight in the half, and they end it with 9 shots. We have a 52/48 possession edge, both teams are tackling and passing really well, everything's pretty even so far. We need to get the win at home though, lets go guys. I change to a counterattacking strat in case they keep charging forward on the attack like this. 52': We have a throwin in their end, a pass goes to Mariga 20 yards out, he turns and shoots and the keeper turns it over for a corner... we retain possession after they clear the corner and work the ball around for a good long time before Mariga takes a bad shot from 25 yards out that's wide. 58': We have a corner, they head it out wide but we recover, a pass up high for Donnelly, he spots Constantino and puts it into the area for him, Constantino is free, but he's tackled before he can shoot... its a penalty!! Constantino takes the penalty and buries it. 2-1 72': Mariga has taken a couple little hits, and Gordon is hurt. I bring Jackson in for Gordon and Guarin in for Mariga. 87': They earn a corner, Guarin with an awful clearance, allowing them a shot from 20 yards out but its high. 92': We counter after they try an attack, Jackson plays a ball ahead to Constantino, he cuts inside his man and loses him completely, Khan's man comes over to cover, Constantino to Khan and Khan doesn't look pretty doing it, a bad first touch forcing him to shoot right on top of the keeper, but he manages to put it in! 3-1 Ipswich 3 : 1 Derby Man of the Match: Constantino (9.0) Goals: Constantino 2, Khan (7.0) Assists: Gordon (6.9), Constantino Notables: McKerr (7.0), Kirkland (7.3), Henrique (7.0), Donnelly (7.9) QPR loses, Bristol City draw and we're back into second. No long term injury for Neil Gordon. |
-- Eight of our players are called up for international duty. I'm used to seeing 6, 8 is nice. Donnelly is hit or miss with Scotland. the other is the new youth ST I bought, Chris Bryan. The 16 year old is called up to the England U20 squad. Impressive! Speaking of impressive, he's made 18 appearances in the U18 league, scoring 16 goals, notching 9 assists and 8 man of the match awards.
-- Steven Mills resumes full training. Very happy to see that. -- I hadn't mentioned team morale in awhile, which is a good thing. Mariga still won't let me take him off the transfer list, but he's happy to be here. That has settled everyone else down, as has our winning I assume. The only player with issues is Henrique. His morale is still just fine, Very Good or Superb I believe, but he's unhappy I rejected all the offers for him and says he wants to leave the club. -- Stuart Kirkland puts up a 7.3 rating in the England U21 2:0 win over Cyprus, Euro Championship qualifier there. I thought that just finished, Qualifiers start back up right away? (looks briefly in game)... Guess so, every 2 seasons. A few days later Kirkland puts up an 8.0 rating in a 4:0 win for England's U21's over Faroe Islands. -- Troy Brown plays ok off the bench for Wales in their Euro Championship Qualifier against Scotland, but they lost. Injury Update -- On November 19th in the morning I get an update that our squad is fully fit, no injuries, for the first time in a long time. -- On November 19th in the evening I'm informed that DC James Welsh tore a groin muscle in training and is going to be out 6-8 weeks. -- On November 20th I learn that McDonald Mariga tore a calf muscle in an international match and is going to miss 3 months. Crap!! European Championship Qualifiers With 11 teams already qualified, we're down to a two leg set of playoff matches for the final 5 spots. Here's how they turned out: Denmark 3 : 0 Macedonia Norway 5 : 2 Romania Scotland 4 : 1 Wales Ukraine 5 : 2 N. Ireland Turkey 2 : 0 Albania November 23rd, 2019 Ipswich(10-4-3, 2nd) @ Wolves(10-3-4, 3rd) Wolverhampton are 4:5 favorites today against us, wow. We're jsut 3:1 to get a win at their place. They were relegated out of the EPL last year along with us and are determined to rise back up. We tied them both times we played last year and are 1-3-3 lifetime against them. GK: Carlos Antonio D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Turgay Colak/Mills/Donnelly/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino They're led by Sam Vokes with 9 goals. We've got a lot of guys healthy again and back in. Berthet at DR so McKerr back to DC. Mills takes the place of the injured Mariga, and Simon Hamilton is back up front next to Constantino. We're defending today at their place. 12': they take a long shot, it deflects off Donnelly and goes back for a corner. We head the corner away but they control it. They end up earning a throwin before we clear. 21': Berthet with a yellow. 25': Corner for us but cleared easily, they are flying around everywhere. They've got 9 shots, we have 1. They haven't put a single one on target yet but its starting to add up. 31': They shoot from very long range, first on target shot as Carlos Antonio tips it over for a corner. They commit a foul on the corner. 44': we have a throwin in their end, after a lot of scrapping to control possession we get a ball down the right side for Gordon, he crosses, Turgay Colak wins a header about 6 yards out, but keeper saves. HALF: To say we're being outplayed here is putting it lightly. We withstood 15 shots in that first half, only one was on target but that is a hell of a lot. We shoot 2 times, both on target but neither really threatening. We'll change to a counterattacking strategy in the second half, need to open thigns up at least a little to try to take some pressure off the defense. 64': we look to be doing much better here, Donnely finds Constantino who outruns an injured defender to get a solid shot off, but saved. 69': Free kick from 20 yards out... taken really well and put by Carlos Antonio, he didn't have a shot at stopping that. 0-1 71': We build up quickly after a goal kick, Mills has it near midfield, he lobs a ball over the defense and Constantino sprints between their central defenders, running onto it, rushing into the area and finishing perfectly! Mills with a perfect pass. Mariga's ratings always seem better but I like what I see from Mills a lot more. 1-1 77': Guarin in for a tired Hamilton, he drops back to DMC, only Constantino up front. Jackson in for Gordon. 85': Mills shouldn't be shooting much I don't think... the commentary says "Mills drives it low at goal!" The highlight on the pitch shows Mills in the right side of the penalty area, drilling the ball alright... almost straight to his left, it rockets out of play on the other side of the field for a throwin. Not even enough of an angle to have it go behind for a goal kick. He was kinda open but I'm laughing more than I'm annoyed at that one. That'll do it and we'll take a point on the road here and be glad for it. Wolves 1 : 1 Ipswich Man of the Match: Constantino (8.1) Goal: Constantino Assists: Mills (7.9) Notables: Carlos Antonio (7.1), Kirkland (7.2) We play better than them in the second half, we had more chances to score than they did by far but again, happy with the road draw. -- Donnelly plays his 200th league match. McKerr his 100th. |
Injury Update
-- Carlos Antonio "was in some pain" following training today and has a hip injury. Injections so he can play against Gillingham? 5-6 months. Physio? 3-4 months. Specialist? 2-3 months. Specialist it is. -- The same damn day, Turgay Colak tears a calf muscle in training. 4 months. Those are two positions where we all of a sudden get very very young when the starters go down. Guarin can play ML but Hughes is better suited for it. Both will see lots of action now. November 30th, 2019 Gillingham(7-2-9, 16th) @ Ipswich(10-5-3, 2nd) We're huge 1:2 favorites here, making them 9:2. Gillingham manager Marcus Tudgay tells me that he doesn't want my team to promote this year. Well screw you pal! GK: Mason D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Hughes/Guarin/Donnelly/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino Chris Mason obviously takes over at GK for the next few months. Hughes ML, and Guarin starts for Mills at MC. Mills is a bit tired after one match back after his injury. Against a bad team i'm hoping I can just attack to keep the pressure low on Mason. 14': Gordon intercepts a backpass and we have 3 men off to the races, Gordon plays it to Hamilton and he pulls up and slows things down. Hughes ends up with a cross in, Donnelly header, but high. 24': Donnelly to Hamilton, Hamilton could try to get into he area and score but he looks to pass first, hitting Donnelly, Donnelly has a clear cut chance in a good position... but its saved. 34': We earn a corner, Gordon takes it to Constantino, Constantino blasts it on a volley, and its by the keeper and in! 1-0 39': Donnelly is hurt. his fitness down under 50%. CRAP. 48': They get forward on a counterattack and our defense is out of position, a cross in from the right, a pass from one striker to the other and their ST Simeon Jackson is wide open and drills it by Mason. 1-1 HALF: We dominate most of the half before allowing the quick counterattack late. We shoot 5 times to their 3, 2 on target for us but 0 for them. Ratings are about the same but it seems like we dominate the highlights. Hopefully we'll pull ahead for good in the second half. 49': Kirkland with a great steal in their half of the field to start up an attack. He makes a run down the left, crosses it in, they win a header over Cosntantino but its just cleared out to the right. Gordon is there to control the ball, he comes into the area and puts a great shot by the keeper form a really narrow angle!! 2-1 53': We're pushing forward hard as the highlight open, Hughes passes ot Donnelly, Donnelly is 20 yards out, draws a defender and pokes a ball into the area for Constantino, Constantino shoots and scores! 3-1 66': A quick attack as a ball goes forward to Donnelly, he runs down the right, they're really not back well, Donnelly crosses it to the far post, Hughes is there all by himself, heads it... wide. He should have scored there. Solid second half. Ipswich 3 : 1 Gillingham Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8) Goals: Constantino 2, Gordon (8.2) Assists: Donnelly (7.7), Gordon Notables: Mason (7.3), Berthet (7.0), Hughes (7.1), Guarin (7.0) Injury Update Gordon Donnelly is out 3-4 weeks with a hamstring injury suffered today. We are hurting bad with Mariga and Donnelly both out long term. Guarin and Mills become our two guys that can naturally play MC. We may move our formation around and/or bring up some U18 kids to try to manage. |
Breaking Records in December
-- Constantino has won 13 man of the match awards (12 in league play and one in the league cup), breaking his own Ipswich record. Its December 1st and we're not even halfway through the season. Ridiculous! Injury Update -- Simon Hamilton hurts his back in training and is out 4 weeks. This is killing me. I go into our training schedules and bump all of the overall intensities down a notch. December Update -- We play on the 7th, 10th, 14th, 21st, 26th, 28th and 30th. December is always a really busy month and we have massive injury problems right now so I'm pretty darn worried. -- A training update says that Chris Mason trained well this past month. His Throwing (12), Anticipation (7) and Positioning (11) have all gone up. -- Constantino continues to own the league, winning his 4th straight player of the month award. -- The board remains pleased with my leadership. Constantino remains the positive, our 6:2 Coventry loss the negative. -- We lose $2.54M last month. Our profits on the year are already down to $3.8M and our cash balance is down to $10M. FA Cup 3rd Round Draw -- We're going to be playing on the road, but our draw is good, pending a replay we're going to get Grimsby from League 2 or Hastings Utd who are below the BSS/BSN level. December 7th, 2019 Ipswich(11-5-3, 2nd) @ Leyton Orient(3-2-14, 24th) We're crazy 2:5 favorites today, Leyton Orient 13:2 to get a win at their place. After bouncing between league 1 and league 2 for over 30 years they finally made the Championship. It doesn't seem like they're going to stay. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Hughes/Guarin/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Mills and Khan in for the injured Donnelly and Hamilton. We have 6 players injured right now. Every single one of them has 10+ starts for us. 28': A couple quick highlights so far but no real serious chances. But here we get fouled a foot away from the penalty area, Gordon shoots, it deflects off a couple people and goes behind for a corner, they clear easily though. 33': Jack Hughes is hurt. Hooray. 39': We win a ball in defense and Berthet sends it long down the right side. Constantino is first to it, a defender is right there next to him, but that one step is enough, Constantino pushes it ahead and takes off, into the penalty area and an easy finish. 1-0 44': We have a corner, taken to Constantino, he runs around a bit trying to get a shot off, he's tackled, its a foul, penalty given! Constantino takes the penalty and scores. 2-0 47': We try to counter after winning the ball in our end, but they intercept and catch us a bit off guard as we're going forward, a pass goes up to their ST German and he's by our defense and easily beats Mason. 2-1 HALF: McKerr takes the blame for that goal and goes into the locker room with a 5.8 rating. Possession is even but we're getting the best of it for the most part. 12 shots for us, 5 on target. They've got 4 shots, all 4 on target. Their attacks have been few and far between but when they were able to get forward they were a bit scary. We should be just fine but allowing that late goal gives them an opening. 46': We build up from the kickoff, getting the ball to Khan who turns and shoots from 20 yards out, its a solid shot but saved. 49': Another buildup on offense, we try to send it into the area but they head it away. Kirkland recovers it out left, a pass to Guarin, through ball close to the 6 yard box, Khan is there behind the defense and easily scores! 3-1 57': We switch to a counter attacking strat. 58': Mills has it 40 yards out, his passing is so accurate, a pinpoint pass into the area that is perfect for Khan, Khan shoots and its an easy finish of a clear cut chance, all the credit to Mills there! 4-1 74': Troy Brown in for Hughes, we drop to a 5-3-2 formation. Jackson in for Gordon. Guarin moves out left. 88': Jackson with a run down the right, he tries a cross into the 6 yard box, two of their guys go up to head it away and there's some confusion and it ends up getting headed into the net... an own goal. 5-1 92': Mills with another through ball to Khan and Khan has a hat trick! 6-1 It finally ends. Leyton Orient 1 : 6 Ipswich That last goal by Khan gave him man of the match over Constantino. Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (9.6) Goals: Khan 3, Constantino 2 (9.2) Assists: Mills 2 (9.1), Guarin (8.7), Berthet (8.4) Notables: Mason (8.6), Kirkland (7.9), Henrique (7.9), McKerr (7.6), gordon (7.2) A solid win, lets hope Hughes isn't hurt. ... Injury Update Jack Hughes is out for 3 weeks. -- The good news is that we take over first place with our win as Bristol City draws. The bad news is that we now have 7 players out with longish term injuries. |
-- We have 5 players named to the team of the week. Henrique, Berthet, Guarin, Mills, and Khan (no Constantino!?)
December 10th, 2019 Hull(6-2-12, 20th) @ Ipswich(12-5-3, 1st) Yes, the 20th place team at home, that's what we need while we heal up. We're 4:7 favorites today at home, they are 4:1 to win here. We're 5-8-3 against them lifetime. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Guarin/Mills/Jackson AMC: Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino With all the injuries we're getting to the point where we run a bunch of U18 guys or start really getting creative with our formations. Today against a worse team we're trying something quite agressive with this 4-3-1-2, Gordon AMC, Jackson starting out wide. 10': Gordon gets a ball up ahead to Constantino on a counter attack, they have one defender who was out to the side that charged in to try to close down, that prevents Constantino from getting a completely free run into the area, he pulls up 20 yards out and shoots but its saved and turned behind. We earn a second corner, and then put a shot wide. 20': They get a through ball into the area, it goes a bit deep, its a clear cut chance for their striker but pretty close to Mason and Mason is able to make the stop, the ball deflects out into play though and they followup, Mason with another reflex save! Two clear cut chances stopped. 28': We lose the ball in midfield, they get it ahead to ST O'Neil, he's pretty damn fast and is able to make a run into the area and beat Mason. 0-1 34': We build up quickly on offense, constantino passes ahead to Khan, he shoots from the edge of the box... off the right post, so close! They end up putting it behind for a corner... we earn a 2nd, then a 3rd corner, then a 4th... and finally they clear it away. 42': A backpass goes to Mason, he sends it to Berthet, a quick pass to Jackson who plays a great ball ahead to Neil Gordon, Gordon has a half step on his man, is able to keep that advantage into the area, he's got a clear cut chance, but he puts it off the right post! The second time that's happened for us. 44': A run down the left by Guarin, he goes deep towards the end line, crosses through the area, Clive Jackson goes down... its a penalty! Constantino takes it and buries it. 1-1 HALF: We end up with 9 shots to their 7, only 2 on target for us (despite 3 clear cut chances). They have 3 on target. Possession is pretty much even, but it feels like we aren't really playing great, maybe not a surprise with 7 guys hurt and a random new formation, most of our attacking has come on long balls ahead of the defense. We've got Constantino so that should work out for us in the end. 48': they counterattack and get well behind our defense, Kirkland is chasing down their attacker... a slide tackle in the area, he wins his tackle cleanly and it goes behind for a corner which we clear. 50': I drop back to a standard mindset and tell my defensive line to drop a bit deeper. We're getting beat a bit too often. 57': their left defender fails to clear, Constantion attacks him aggressively and wins the ball... he runs into the area from the left side, tries a pass through the area but its a bit wild, the ball goes back in to Gordon.. he goes down... another penalty! There's going to be some crazy controversy after this one. Constantino drains it. 2-1 59': We win the ball in their end, a long ball goes ahead, Constantino runs onto it, shoots from the edge of the box but their keeper has rushed out nicely for the save, but he can't hold it. Khan is trailing the play and he gets to the rebound and puts it in. Two very quick goals. 3-1 72': Again!! A counter attack, a ball ahead to Constantino, Constantino with a long run down the right, he cuts into the area... and right as he gets into the area he's tackled hard. Its yet another penalty. Constantino takes it and scores... its the worst hat trick ever, 3 penalty goals. 4-1 77': Burke, Brown, Taylor are in, Henrique, Gordon and Constantino out. Resting for the next match. We end this easily. Ipswich 4 : 1 Hull Man of the Match: Constantino (9.3) Goals: Constantino 3, Khan (7.3) Assists: Constantino, Gordon (7.0), Jackson (7.8) Notables: Mason (7.5), Kirkland (7.6), Jackson (7.8), Mills (7.7) Very weird game. I expect some controversy in the postgame... (later) ... not really, the first penalty it really seemed like Jackson may have dived. The others not so much. We're now 21 matches in, almost to the halfway point. We're tied with Bristol City with 44 points, Wolves are 3rd 4 points back. I'll update the league stats after a couple games. I said awhile back that I didn't think Constantino would do anything ridiculous like 50 goals, but that he might score 40 with 20 assists. But I think that might be dead wrong. There's a real good chance we hit the halfway point with him on pace for 60 goals and 30 man of the match awards. |
-- Super low league Hastings Utd upsets Grimsby in the FA Cup and we're going to be playing them in early january.
December 14th, 2019 Ipswich(13-5-3, 1st) @ Charlton(5-4-12, 21st) Another lower ranked team at home. We're 4:5 favorites here even on the road, they're 3:1 to get a win. We have totally owned Charlton in our history, 10-0-2 lifetime. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/McKerr/Burke/Henrique/Berthet M: Guarin/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Another lineup change today to try to account for our injury problems and short rest. Loaner DC Vinny Burke is in to make it a 5 man defensive line. Gordon back to MR and its a 5-3-2 wide formation which again seems kinda weird! But we have Constantino so we're ok. Standard mindset on the road. 25': Each team has two shots so far, a very slow game with little action. 36': A highlight opens with us heading the ball around in our end trying to clear.. they end up getting it out wide to the right, a pass in to one of their midfielders, he blasts a shot from 18 yards and Mason can't stop it, a really nice goal for them. 0-1 HALF: A real yawner but they've got the best of it so far. They end up with 7 shots but 5 are from long range and most aren't seen in highlights. We have 4 shots, just 1 on target. They have 55% of the possession, which is down from earlier in the half. We haven't really generated anything promising at all here yet. 55': We build up nicely down the left, a pass goes in to Khan, he sends it ahead ot Constantino, he controls it really well but he's too close to the keeper, his shot is saved and we get a corner. They clear that easily. 61': Jackson in for Henrique. Gordon up to AMC, Jackson MR, back to the formation we used last match that generated a lot more offense than this. 83': We've been attacking more but ending up having passes intercepted or long shots go wide. They're defending us well here. 92': We get forward and Gordon blasts a shot from about 20 yards out.. off the crossbar, so close! 93': More buildup, we're desparately trying to get a tie at this point, we eventually find Constantino but he has to shoot a tough shot from 20 yards away and its easily saved. We just can't pull this one out. Charlton 1 : 0 Ipswich A disappointing loss, no one was terrible but no one made anything happen either. Their keeper ends up man of the match for holding off our late charge. Bristol City with a draw today, they get 1 point up on us. -- My first legit chance to make a big jump in stature in england, Aston Villa fires their coach and I'm named as a likely successor. But as I had said in an earlier post about my dynasty goals I want to take Ipswich ot that level, or at least as close as possible. I release a statement saying i'm not interested. |
gofaster gofaster gofaster :)
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Quote:
hah things will probably slow some with football season arriving. |
-- Birmingham is struggling in the EPL and they fire their coach. My name gets dropped here too, I don't get to tell them(or the media) no yet though.
-- I learn in a coaches meeting that Chris Mason continues to train well, his Decisions (12) have gone up, and his Stamina (12). -- Jack Hughes resumes full training. December 21st, 2019 Ipswich(13-5-4, 2nd) @ Exeter(11-2-9, 8th) We're favorites today but its close, 5:4 to their 7:4. We're 5-0-1 against them lifetime. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Hughes/Guarin/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Exeter's Marius Stroe leads them with 12 goals. We bring Jack Hughes right away. We're counter attacking today. 7': We have a free kick near midfield, after a couple passes we get it to Constantino 25 yards out, he weaves through the defense and generates his own shot, its a clear cut chance but their keeper dives and tips it wide. HALF: Uh yeah. We shoot 5 times but we don't have another offensive highlight after that. They have 4 shots, just one on target, nothing remotely threatening. Boring boring! 57': They're up to 9 shots taken here but all waaaay off target. They are attacking a lot more. 77': Clive Jackson comes in for Neil Gordon. 84': We get our best shot of the half, a long ball to Constantino, he's into the area but out a bit wide to the right with the defense closing down, he takes a shot but puts it wide left. 88': We have a throwin in their end, its thrown to Kirkland, he passes to Guarin about 20 yards out well left of center, Guarin strikes it towards the near post, its bending a bit, it seems like the keeper is there but he doesn't have it, its off the keeper and in!!! 1-0 We hold on, they were trying to pressure a good bit but couldn't put anything on target. Exeter 0 : 1 Ipswich Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (8.7) Goals: Guarin (8.0) Assists: Kirkland Everyone else on the team was within the 6.7-6.9 range. -- After the match we learn that backup ST Ian Taylor is out for 2 weeks, but Gordon Donnelly has resumed full training. That works in our favor I think. |
The entire league now sits at 23 matches played. Lets take a brief look at things at the midpoint of the season.
2019/20 Coca Cola Championship Mid-Season Standings 1. Bristol City - 48 pts 2. Ipswich - 47 pts -------------------------- 3. Wolves - 46 pts 4. QPR - 42 pts 5. Leeds - 41 pts 6. Leicester - 40 pts -------------------------- 7. Cardiff - 40 pts 8. Norwich - 38 pts 9. Exeter - 35 pts 10. Derby - 34 pts 11. Watford - 34 pts 12. Coventry - 33 pts 13. Stoke - 32 pts 14. Fulham - 32 pts 15. Scunthorpe - 30 pts 16. Sheffield Wednesday - 29 pts 17. Gillingham - 27 pts 18. Middlesborough - 26 pts 19. Bolton - 24 pts 20. Charlton - 23 pts 21. Hull - 21 pts --------------------------------- 22. Barnsley - 17 pts 23. Swansea - 15 pts 24. Leyton Orient - 15 pts Our goal differential blows away anyone else in the league. We have 54 goals, next best is 42. We've only allowed 27, Bristol City doesn't allow many goals but our scoring is just incredible. Our +27 Goal Differential is 8 better than Wolves and 9 better than Bristol City. And now for the truly ridiculous: Goals 1. Constantino - Ipswich - 28 goals 2. Lee Smith - Derby - 15 goals 3. Orlando Sa - Bristol City - 14 goals 3. Tom Matthews - Norwich - 14 goals 3. Brian Browne - Coventry - 14 goals 3. Sam Vokes - Wolves - 14 goals Constantino may not need to play another match to lead the league in goals. Simon Hamilton is tied for 20th with 7 goals. Khan is tied for 27th with 6. Assists 1. Enrico Rocchini - QPR - 9 1. Marvin Elliott - Bristol City - 9 3. Danny Swanson - Stoke - 8 3. Steven Mills - Ipswich - 8 3. Ryan Stone - Exeter - 8 3. Matty Fryatt - Derby - 8 Neil Gordon and Constantino both have 7 assists, both tied for 7th. Simon Hamiltion has 6. Man of the Match Awards 1. Constantino - Ipswich - 13 2. Enrico Rocchini - QPR - 7 Many tied - 5 Average Rating 1. Constantino - Ipswich - 8.17 2. Enrico Rocchini - QPR - 7.65 3. Victor - Derby - 7.55 4. Jamie Proctor - Scunthorpe - 7.49 5. Sam Vokes - Wolves - 7.46 Gordon Donnelly is 6th at 7.41. Steven Mills is 8th at 7.37. Kirkland 7.21, Mariga 7.18, Hamilton 7.16 are also in the top 30. It's just unbelievable how much better Constantino is than anyone else in the league right now. |
Contract Update
-- Early in the season I made sure to lock up Stuart Kirkland to an extension, its Christmas Day and I get my next notice on the rest of the expiring contracts. -- MC Fredy Guarin - He's going to be 34 at the start of the next season. He's lost pace and accel and strength in the last 6 months. He makes $35k/wk now, he'd want $22.5k/wk to stay for another year but I'm not sure that's really a good idea. No offer now, probably time for him to go. -- MC McDonald Mariga - Mariga will turn 33 this year. He's lost a slight bit but he's still playing great and is way more talented than Guarin, I'd be more likely to keep him. But right now he's hurt for 2-3 months. I'll wait here too to see if he starts to fade anymore after he comes back from injury. -- DRC Michael McKerr only makes $9500/wk. He'll turn 30 this year and his ratings aren't great but he was acceptable, especially at this price, as a backup in our EPL season. I offer him a new contract at $10,500/wk, less than he wants but with a bit bigger signing bonus. -- ST Ian Taylor doesn't seem to be developing well enough to make the team, but there's some interest in him and he's appropriately affordable, he's asking for $200/wk. Sure thing dude. -- ML/DLC Jack Hughes I don't think is good enough either. And the biggest problem I have with him is that his ratings seem to clearly suit him to play DL which just won't happen as long as Kirkland is here which is hopefully for a long time. I don't offer anything just yet though, I'll wait til after the transfer window b/c he wants a little more than the measly $850/wk he makes now. I hold off just in case I make a move in January and need the salary room. -- DR/MR Clive Jackson is playing better than Hughes and training better than Hughes. He wants a much bigger salary too which I want to do I think but I have the same feeling as with Hughes. Hold off til after January. December 26st, 2019 Barnsley(4-5-14, 22nd) @ Ipswich(14-5-4, 2nd) We're ridiculous 1:6 favorites here, after beating them 5:1 at their place earlier in the year that seems fair. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Jackson ST: Khan/Constantino Donnelly gets back in today, Guarin back out left. Clive Jackson starts at MR. We play again in two days, ick. 12': We have a corner, Gordon takes it to the near post, Constantino with a header... its off the keeper and rolls left along the goal line just staying inches in play... wild stuff, but McKerr gets to it and pokes it in before they can clear. 1-0 25': We win a ball in our end, a pass ahead to Khan, Khan with a good run down into the left corner, he has a man on him but gets a beautiful cross around his man, to the far post and Clive Jackson is there and heads it in!! 2-0 29': We have it in the offensive end again, the area is very crowded after some sort of buildup, we try to push it in, they head it away but we control. Mills puts it back into the area and again its inch perfect, only Constantino can get to it, and he does, and he finishes. 3-0 46': A throwin in their end, Donnelly ends up shooting but its blocked and back out into play, Kirkland recovers, to Mills, and again a great ball into a crowded area, Constantino is first to it, and its another easy finish. 4-0 HALF: We look for a crushing easy win here today. I love watching Mills pass the ball. Hughes in for Guarin. Troy Brown in for Donnelly and back in defense. Trying to rest them. 56': Mills receives a pass from Clive Jackson, he's a solid 30 yards out and just launches it... its off the keeper... off the left post... and in! Har! 5-0 77': Mills sends it out wide for Jackson, Jackson crosses into the area, Khan gets his head to it and its such a crazy blowout here. Its in. 6-0 Ipswich 6 : 0 Barnsley Man of the Match: Constantino (9.5) Goals: Constantino 2, Mills (9.4), Khan (9.1), McKerr (8.7), Jackson (9.4) Assists: Mills 2, Jackson 2, Constantino, Khan Notables: Mason (7.3), Berthet (8.4), Kirkland (8.2), Henrique (7.9), Guarin (7.0), Donnelly (7.0) |
-- Hamilton resumes full training. We're getting better!
December 28th, 2019 Middlesbrough (7-6-11, 18th) @ Ipswich(15-5-4, 2nd) We're 4:6 favorites, making them 7:2 to get a win. This is actually our first meeting against them. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Hughes/Donnelly/Guarin/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Hughes at ML, Guarin MC, Mills needs a rest. Gordon back in the starting lineup too. Hamilton isn't ready to start just yet. 4': Khan is hurt, injury symbol and all, he can play though, we'll check on him later. 10': Gordon with a long throwin to Constantino, Constantino receives it at the right corner of the penalty box, he runs left by a defender, strikes a hard shot far post, and its by the keeper and in! Great goal. 1-0 31': Oh so so pretty. WOW. We clear a ball out of the defensive end, Constantino picks it up and makes a long run down the right, he crosses to the penalty spot, Khan goes up and heads it down to Gordon, Gordon lays it off to Donnelly who is trailing the play, Donnelly blasts it into the net!! Just a beautiful string of moves to get a really easy goal. 2-0 37': We set up on offense but attack very quickly, Henrique passes it up to Donnelly, Gordon cuts inside, Donnelly hits him , timed perfectly, Gordon shoots and scores! 3-0 43': My god we are playing great. Another attack, Hughes into the area for Khan, Khan with a pass back to Guarin on his first touch, Guarin on his first touch blasts it from 18 yards out into the net! 4-0 46': They get one back to take the wind out of our sails at least a little (ok not much). There's a cross in from the right, Mason comes out for it... and heads it? That's what it looks like. He could have picked itu p!! Maybe he tripped, I dunno. Its a really weak header and Mason goes down, the ball falls to one of their men in the area and he puts it into the wide open net. 4-1 HALF: Some very very pretty goals that half. Great stuff! 63': While I'm making subs we get a goal as Gordon finds Constantino open in the area and he has an easy finish. 5-1 63': Jackson in for Gordon, Brown in for Constantino and back in defense, 5-4-1 the rest of the way. Mills in for Donnelly. All for rest, we play again in a few days. No more goals, that'll do it! Ipswich 5 : 1 Middlesbrough Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (9.4) Goals: Constantino 2 (9.1), Gordon, Donnelly (9.1), Guarin (8.1) Assists: Gordon 3, Donnelly, Khan (7.4) Notables: Berthet (7.2), Kirkland (7.9), McKerr (7.1), Henrique (7.3), Hughes (7.3) -- To be honest I haven't gotten quite as much out of Neil Gordon as I'd hoped this year, though maybe that's just the way it is with Constantino at this level, just get him the ball and let him work, Gordon's crossing and such maybe will have a bigger impact at the next level. I'm really happy to see the 3 assist game out of him today though. |
So many of our goals are just "pass to Constantino, watch him score", it was really nice to see 4 guys involved (starting with the Constantino cross) in a goal like this one, it was a fun one to watch, even if it was against a weaker league opponent. As always, full screen is probably required to see what's going on:
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-- Bristol City get a draw in their last match and our winning streak allows us to jump back into first. We have 53 points, Bristol 52, Wolves 50.
December 31st, 2019 Ipswich(16-5-4, 1st) @ Leicester(5th) After a nice run of soft opponents we hop back on the road to play a playoff contender. They're favored 6:4 here, we're 13:8, pretty close to even. This is why I rested key guys last match like I did. We lost to them 2:0 at our place earlier in the year. Leicester identify Steven Mills as our dangerman and state in the media that he must be stopped. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Guarin ML, Mills MC, Hamilton not really fully ready yet and Khan has been playig pretty well so I'll stick with this for an important match. Counter attack today. 14': We have a corner, taken to Henrique, passed out and crossed back through, headed out wide... Donnelly recovers it, passes to Guarin 18 yards out, he shoots, keeper makes the save but can't hold it, the ball squirts free in the area and McKerr is there to poke this one in again! He doesn't score much but that's two in two matches. 1-0 20': Khan earns a clear cut chance running on to a long ball on a quick counter attack.. he's wide open 18 yards out, but puts it off the right post. 34': They have a free kick at midfield, they send a ball straight forward, ST Carroll wins a header over Mills, he flicks it into the area and their other ST Madine is there to put it past Mason and in. 1-1 45': We have a throwin deep in their end, Gordon throws it into the area, we head it into the 6 yard box but they clear. HALF: A solid half, some long attacking moves that led nowhere in those final 10 minutes. They actually have 9 shots, 4 on target, but we didn't see most of htem. We shoot 6 times, generate 3 clear cut chances but just one goal. The miss by Khan that would have put us up 2-0 was pretty bad. We'll keep doing what we're doing though. 53': McKerr with a yellow. 58': Hamilton in for Khan, Khan is way off today and Hamilton can give us a half. 63': Hughes in for a tiring Guarin. 65': We get what's counted as our 4th clear cut chance, we build up and Donnely puts a ball almost to the 6 yard box, Constantino gets there but its sent too far ahead, there's no angle to shoot by the keeper here. 67': Donnelly tries again, a ball from 35 yards out into the area, Constantino controls it well, has a step on his man and scores from 15 yards out! 2-1 73': Very very poor defense here, they build up and a man cuts in from the right... Kirkland just loses him completely, he controls it and runs at Mason... before he can shoot Kirkland tries to save face with a tackle, but its a penalty. ST Madine takes it... and Mason saves it!!!! No goal!!!! 81': We switch from Counter to defensive and tell the guys to hang on to the ball more. 86': Neil Gordon is hurt.. and forced to come out immediately. I use my last sub to bring Clive Jackson in. 89': Berthet goes down hard... and he's hurt. He can stay in but his fitness hits 45%. We'll check on him after the match. Leicester 1 : 2 Ipswich That'll do it, two injuries that worry me a lot, but we get a big win over a playoff team on the road. Their ST Andy Carroll is man of the match today. We just didn't have anyone that played that great, we did enough to win though. Goals: McKerr (7.6), Constantino (6.9) Assists: Donnelly (8.0), Guarin (6.9) Notables: Kirkland (7.1) Khan had a terrible game, 5.5 rating. Chris Mason comes up huge stopping a penalty that held our lead for us in this one, great stuff! Injury update Neil Gordon pulls a hamstring, 3-4 weeks. Sylvain Berthet... stubbed his toe... out a week. |
Are you going to yank Mason when Antonio is healthy again? Will seem tough to disrupt the hot streak like that!
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If he came back right now I probably wouldn't pull Mason right away. Still a looooong two months before he's healthy again though, if we're still able to stay in first place when March rolls around then yeah I may well let him finish out the season, especially if its improving his skills. |
January Update
-- We play on the 4th, 11th, 18th, and 28th. Presumably we also play on the 25th in the next round of the FA Cup, unless we go and lose to a team not even good enough to get into the Blue Square leagues. -- The training report shows that Clive Jackson has trained well this month. Since the start of the season he's shown gains in Acceleration (17), Reflexes (6), Teamwork (13), Off The Ball (8), Anticipation (12), Dribbling (12), Flair (15), Concentration (12), Composure (6)... he's being mentored by Neil Gordon and I think its safe to say he's learning a little something. -- Constantino is the December Player of the Month in the Championship. -- Stuart Kirkland is the young player of the month in the Championship. Clive Jackson is 3rd in young player of the month voting! -- I am the manager of the month in the Championship. We went 6-0-1 in December with over 1/3 of the senior roster hurt. -- The board is pleased with my leadership. I guess since we're expected to win the league I can't do much better? Also, hemorrhaging money can't help. The capture of Steven Mills is the new highlight. I'm cool with that, I really like him. -- We lost $3.35M last month, a new record, ouch! -- Uh-oh, did we just find Stuart Kirkland's dream club? Everton offer $5.75M for him, I've been declining offers for him all season, but finally he says something about it, he's unhappy I won't let him go play for Everton. January 4th, 2019 FA Cup 3rd Round Ipswich (1st, CH) @ Hastings Utd We can't totally write them off, they did beat a League 1 Grimsby to get here, but then again, they are 30:1 to win today. We are 1:20. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/Brown/McKErr M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Jackson ST: Khan/Taylor We start as many backups as we can. Welsh just came back form injury and I toss him in. Hughes gets a shot at his seemingly natural/best position at DL, Jackson at MR, and Constantino isn't out there today. He'll come in if there's anything remotely close to a scare, don't worry. Only commentary today. 30': We have 8 shots, 1 clear cut chance by Clive Jackson, but can't find the net. 46': Took long enough! And its an impressive shot, Guarin between two defenders well out wide to the left 25 yards away, bending near post by the keeper. 1-0 HALF: We control 58% of the possession, have 11 shots to their 2 and generally dominate most stats. Our passing is actually pretty poor, only 68% completion rate. Should be fine though. 46': Buildup down the left, Khan gets a pass way out wide in the area, passes to Guarin, cuts inside, receives it back and puts it by the keeper. 2-0 53': Taylor with a nice ball into the area for Clive Jackson who cuts behind the defense and finishes nicely. 3-0 We get a couple more attempts but and up coming away with a nice easy win to advance to the next round. Hastings Utd 0 : 3 Ipswich Man of the Match: Jack Hughes (8.3) Goals: Guarin (8.3), Jackson (7.9), Khan (7.2) Assists: Hughes, Guarin, Taylor (7.9) Notables: Mason (7.3), McKerr (7.5), Welsh (7.4), Donnelly (7.0) -- As important as anything else, no injuries today. -- After the match, USA.. err... Tottenham Boss Jurgen Klinsmann notes that our young defender Jack Hughes is showing a lot of promise. Tottenham are one of many EPL clubs showing interest in Hughes. |
-- Birmingham bid $8M for DR Sylvain Berthet. That's a crazy amount for him! I've been declining offers for all of my guys but Berthet was one of my biggest disappointments last year in the EPL and that's enough for me to pause and consider this one. I look around a little more... many of my coaches believe that Clive Jackson is my best DR. I hem and haw, look over the team a bit more. Berthet makes 4 times what Jackson will even after re-negotiating him. I've been talking about Jackson as my most exciting young guy for awhile over Jack Hughes, he's trained so well... and I talk myself into this one. (about 10 minutes of poking around the game, typing something here, poking around, etc, went into this decision, to try to make sure I wasn't just taking a big money offer just to be taking a big money offer).
-- With the expectation of money coming in I go look through my shortlist at ML and MR. Neil Gordon is clearly the man at MR but if Jackson is going to get a shot to become my starting right back then I need depth behind Gordon. And with additional money in general ML is our weakest spot looking ahead to next year. I would only fill it now if I find someone of an EPL level quality, not just someone who will play well in the Championship. FA Cup 4th Round -- Not quite as good a draw in the 4th round of the FA Cup. We're going to be playing Newcastle on the 25th, it is at home so that's nice. Injury Update -- Stuart Kirkland has a fracture in his arm after a fall in training... 4 weeks. 4 weeks for "broken arm" seems good. Also its a light month for us, as good a timing as possible. Transfer Out Sylvain Berthet quickly agrees to a deal with Birmingham and this is done within a couple days. Berthet spent 5 1/2 seasons at Ipswich, playing in ~175 matches with an average rating around 6.75. He scored 2 goals and made 23 assists over that time. Ipswich bought Berthet from Stoke for $4.1M and a clause to give them 10% of the profit from his next deal. We made $4M profit so we give them $400,000 and keep $7.6M for ourselves. January 11th, 2019 Stoke(9-9-8, 12th) @ Ipswich (17-5-4, 1st) We're even money favorites today at home. They're 11:5 to get a win here. We tied them 0:0 at their place earlier in the year. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/Henrique/McKerr M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Binks ST: Hamilton/Constantino MR: Binks? What? Who? Exactly. Here's how awesome I can be at managing my squad. Clive Jackson has food poisoning. I didn't notice that. So I get to lineup selection before I realize Jackson is out and Gordon is still hurt for a week or so. So here's a random kid on my U18 squad starting in a league match. Awesome! Simon Hamilton gets his first start since his long injury at ST. Standard mindset today. 9': Binks with a pass ahead to Constantino, Constantino turns by his man and attacks, he shoots from 18 yards out... its saved by the keeper, but there's a rebound. Hamilton is first to the rebound and puts it into the net!! 1-0 25': They get their first shot around the 20th minute and the next 4 attacks are all for Stoke, but nothing doing. 28': We clear out a corner and a long ball goes ahead to Constantino. He's got it 40 yards out with nothing but space in front of him... long run by Constantino, but he goes too far, almost to the 6 yard box, before trying to shoot, their keeper cuts off his angle and saves it. 42': Our 3rd clear cut chance of the match, we control the ball, Mills gets it ahead to Hamilton who flicks it on to Constantino, just the keeper to beat from 15 yards out... and wide. Dude is a little off today it seems. HALF: We're doing just fine but could be up by a lot more. We have 9 shots, 4 on target, 3 clear cut chances. They have 5 shots, putting 2 on target. Stoke actually have good possession, 57/43 over us, they're passing better and not playing awful, but we are preventing them from generating anything dangerous so far. 52': An attack from Stoke, one of their men dribbles in from the right, pulls up and shoots from 20 yards... off the crossbar and back into play, there's a rebound to stoke, another shot, this one is on target and Mason makes a good save. 59': Another attack from Stoke, they get down the left... cross into the area, they win the header and Mason has to make a reflex save. It goes behind for a corner, which we clear. 60': I change to a counterattacking strat. 62': We have a throwin in their end, a few passes through the middle... Mills spots Constantino in a good position and makes the pass, Constantino finishes this time, sending it by the keeper to the far post. 2-0 81': Buildup down the left side... a quick pass into the middle for Mills, a beautiful ball into the area for Hamilton, he's got a clear cut chance, but finds a way to put it wide... we should be up like 6-0. 86': Donnelly with a yellow and a foul just over 20 yards from the goal. They shoot off the free kick but can't put it on target. We were a little sloppy today but we definitely got the job done! Ipswich 2 : 0 Stoke Their keeper is man of the match making so many saves today of clear cut chances. Goals: Constantino (8.5), Hamilton (7.3) Assists: Constantino, Mills (7.8) Notables: Mason (7.1), McKerr (7.2), Henrique (7.7) Contract Update A possibly devastating error as I decided to wait to offer Jack Hughes and Clive Jackson contracts last month to see what shook out in January. Well, one thing that can shake out is that those guys are now open to receive offers from other clubs to move for free at the end of the season. Scotland's Rangers offer Jack Hughes a contract. The second I see that I realize my error and offer both Hughes and Jackson more than what they're asking for. Oops. |
So how did JarJar do in his debut?
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Was wondering why you'd play with fire on your Bosmans. Fringe benefit: since they're young, you'll get nice compensation if they go.
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Its really a credit to how great the Match Engine is, I do believe. He ended up with a just fine rating of like 6.7 or 6.8 I think, but the highlights told the real story. Constantino is in the center of the field, Binks has it safely without any pressure at all and just launches it to the right sideline where only a defender can get it. A highlight shows us trying to start our offense and it goes to Binks and the offense stops. I see the passes Neil Gordon might try to make, this guy doesn't. He turns around and passes it back to McKerr (our DR trailing behind him when we're positioned well) almost every time. So he completed some passes, but even just watching the key highlights its completely obvious that he's a terrified little kid every time he touches the ball. No crucial mistakes, so I was perfectly happy with it! |
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They're both staying. I didn't sim ahead to play the next match yet but I went forward a few more days and both have signed their new contract offers. Whew :) That's one of those things I won't ever overlook again after just seeing the offer made to one of my guys. |
-- We have very limited success in searching out a starting level ML that we'd want to keep after this year.
-- Jack Hughes signs the extension I offer him. Whew. New Signing I find what I hope to be the perfect target for added depth in my midfield as I spend $975,000 and buy 25 y/o MRC Darren Johnson from Hibernian in Scotland. Our scouts feel that Johnson is a fairly good player. My expectations aren't extremely high here but as we've run into injuries I've realized that we simply don't have enough coverage if the wrong couple guys are hurt at the same time, especially in the midfield, and especially with Berthet leaving and Jackson assuming the DR role. Physical: Pace 13/Accel 13, Str 15/Sta 14, all others but jumping 11-13, he's not getting up in the air. Mental: 15 determination/16 work rate/17 creativity. All others between 10-12. Technical: Passing 13, Tackling 13, Technique 13, Marking 13, Crossing 14, Finishing 14. Not gonna win us a lot of headers but he can adequately get back to help defend and help the passing game moving forward. Johnson is an affordable signing, $11,250/wk for the next 4 years(counting this one). Perfect to add some depth. If we don't make another signing I think we're ok to get through this year now. Anything else we do would be to try to get some talent for next year. -- Clive Jackson signs his new deal with Ipswich as well. We dodge a potentially major bullet. Could you imagine the writeup if I sold Berthet because I wanted to give Clive Jackson a chance to earn a starters spot in defense, and then days later because of a contract mix-up he committed to another club? I feel better now! January 18th, 2019 Ipswich (18-5-4, 1st) @ Fulham(11-4-12, 13th) We're 4:5 favorites on the road to beat Fulham, they're 3:1 to win, their current 13th place is solidly above expectations. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Johnson ST: Hamilton/Constantino I decide to start my new signing Darren Johnson right away at MR, and to start Clive Jackson, now recovered from food poisoning, at DR. Neil Gordon may be back for our next game. 5': We get the first shot, a clerance to Hamilton, pass ahead to Constantino, he spots Donnelly on the other side of the area and hits him, Donnelly blasts a shot but its saved. 12': They have a free kick, we clear it out, Guarin picks it up on our side of the field, passes to Constantino at midfield, he splits two defenders and takes off, staying ahead of everyone, making it into the area and finishing easily. 1-0 18': They get forward quickly after a free kick near midfield, ST Havranek pulls up from 25 yards and just launches a shot, we didn't close down well, he had the ball for way too long there, and Mason can't get to it, into the left side of the net. 1-1 HALF: Only a couple highlights for the rest of the half here. They end up with 5 shots, 3 on target. We shoot 8 times, 4 on target, but also 4 from long range, I'd like to do better there. We have a big 57/43 possession edge and are winning in every area, they're completing less than 60% of passes successfully which is pretty darn low. We'll wear them down this half hopefully. 53': They get the first couple aggressive highlights of the second half and I drop into a counterattacking strategy, with Jackson and Hughes at fullback and a new guy in the midfield maybe best to be a little safer. 72': They have a corner, taken to the far edge of hte 6 yard box, Welsh goes up with the attacker... and brings him down, penalty. Ugh. They bury it. 1-2 75': We will attack the rest of the way, and Khan is in for Hamilton who is having an off game. 77': McKerr in for new guy Darren Johnson. Jackson to MR, McKerr DR. 86': We build up on offense, a cross comes in from Jackson, header Khan... off the crossbar, close! 88': we give up two free kicks in their end and they take forever to set up and kick them, stallllllll. 89': We finally win a ball and get forward quickly, they put it out for a throwin. They clear out well when we try to get it into the area though. 90': We get forward again, Constantino passes over ot Mills who gets into the area from the right side... but his shot is off the crossbar. 93': Hughes with a yellow. No magic to be had here, we haven't lost in a bit though. Fulham 2 : 1 Ipswich A poor penalty and poor defending to allow a goal from 25 yards out is our downfall. We were better overall today but didn't score enough and had a couple lapses. Man of the Match: Constantino (8.3) Goal: Constantino Assist: Guarin (6.8) Clive Jackson a 6.1 today. New Midfielder Darren Johnson was fine, but nothing special, with a 6.7 rating before being subbed out. He completed most of his passes but lost out in the air, 1 for 5 on headers. He won't win a lot there though. No key playso f any kind but no mistakes either. |
More Records
-- Constantino now has 35 league goals, which breaks his own Ipswich record of 34 set in my first Championship season. In League 1 for Woking he had 48 league goals, something he's on pace to demolish right now. -- Neil Gordon resumes full training on the 21st. Dunno if that is going to be time for him to be ready for Newcastle or not. Injury Update Its a short one but it matters. Constantino catches a cold and if I keep him around for our Newcastle match I risk him getting his germs all over everyone. So I choose to send him home, meaning he isn't available for Newcastle. January 25th, 2019 FA Cup 4th Round Newcastle(4th, EPL) @ Ipswich (1st, CH) We're 7:2 to win here today at home, they're 4:6 favorites. Without Constantino I'm sure that's much, much worse. And without Constantino I choose not to try to rush Neil Gordon back in the lineup. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Johnson ST: Hamilton/Khan Same as last match but Khan at ST. We defend, ask our guys to hang on to possession when possible and drop our defensive line back. 19': They come out attacking hard, 7 shots already but just 2 on target and both seemed like easy saves for Mason. 28': A run into the area... Hughes tackles the ball away... but its a penalty??? Not a sliding challenge, that seems a very harsh call. They score though. Hughes with a yellow I think for complaining. 0-1 47': Hughes with a foul in the midfield.. that's a second yellow and he's gone. Ugh. Clive Jackson can play DL, I move him over, bring in McKerr for Khan and go 4-4-1. HALF: They have 12 shots to our 1. Mason is playing well but our prospects of doing anything at all on offense seem slim with 10 men. 71': ST Lewandowski burns James Welsh badly and scores easily after geting into the area. 0-2 83': Simon Hamilton is hurt... 84': They get midfielder Weiss into the area after what appers to be another Welsh miscue, I guess he's not taking all the blame here b/c his rating is fine but I'm seeing him stuck out of position badly. Another easy finish as things fall apart. 0-3 Ipswich 0 : 3 Newcastle Jackson 5.6, Hughes 4.5 with the red and the penalty given. Nasty stuff. Injury Update Simon Hamilton has a groin strain and is out 3 weeks. Just getting out of this injury free would have been fine, but now Hamilton misses 3 weeks and Hughes is suspended for our next match with Kirkland still injured. Yuck. |
-- As we near the end of January I don't feel that we're going to be able to sign someone who can help us next year (assuming we make the EPL again) so I decide to just pocket my profits from selling Berthet. We've been losing money at a fast rate so that helps us retain cash for a little while longer.
January 28th, 2019 Cardiff(11-11-6, 7th) @ Ipswich (18-5-5, 1st) We're big 1:2 favorites at home, Cardiff is 9:2 to get a win here today. Cardiff are 4 points out of a playoff spot, while we are now tied for first again after losing our last league match. Cardiff have Rob Lewis, the young attacker I sold last season. He scored their goal against us in a 1:1 draw back in September. GK: Mason D: Jackson/Welsh/Henrique/McKerr M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino With Hughes suspended and Hamilton hurt we once again have 7 players out today. 5 of them have 10+ starts for me this season. Clive Jackson starts at DL, McKerr DR, Neil Gordon is back in the lineup for the first time in a bit. I want to attack from the outset here and try to get an early lead. 8': Khan receives a pass from the midfield, he turns by his man and runs into the area.. he's tackled and its a penalty! Constantino takes it and scores. 1-0 11': They begin to work their offense, a pass goes to MC Ledley 25-30 yards out, he just runs straight forward... pulls up 20 yards out, shoots, and bends a really nice shot by Mason. Not challenged at all here again. 1-1 25': Khan gives the ball away in the midfield allowing them to attack before we're set in our defense, Welsh misses a tackle and throws things even further off... a pass into the area for Lewis, a shot, but Mason with the save! That was a clear cut chance for them, good stop for Mason. 35': Yellow for midfielder Suarez. HALF: Not a single highlight after the 25 minute mark. We end up with 6 shots but just 2 on target, they shoot 4 times, putting 3 on target. Their tackling is awesome, 87%, while we're at 52%, our defenders are tackling well, Gordon/Guarin/Constantino(who has 4 attempts for some reason) are particularly bad. 50': Donnelly a yellow. 52': We fight for the ball in the midfield, Donnelly wins it in a good position and passes to Khan... there's a man on him but as the pass is made up ahead his man is cutting over to help cover Constantino... this mistake leaves Khan wide open with a free run into the area, he puts a shot near post by the keeper! 2-1 57': We get forward again, Khan receives a pass 20 yards out and he turns and fires a shot.. keeper can't stop it, but, its off the crossbar. ... 20 minutes without a highlight. 80': Ian Taylor in for Constantino, Burke in for Welsh, New Mid Johnson in for Donnelly. We drop back to defend the rest of the way. 88': Free kick for Cardiff, they shoot from 20 yards out... a shot around the wall, but Mason dives to save it. A great stop. We clear the corner. We hang on and win here. Ipswich 2 : 1 Cardiff They shoot 10 times and put 6 on target, one was a clear cut chance, but Mason passed well today also, looks like a lot of backpasses allowing him to get easy passes completed to boost up his rating, leading to: Man of the Match: Chris Mason (9.3) Goals: Khan (8.4), Constantino (7.3) Assists: Khan, Donnelly (7.3) Notables: McKerr (7.4), Jackson (7.0), Welsh (7.1) Good to get back on the winning side of things. Wolves lose and Bristol City tie so we build up a few points of a lead on the rest of the league again. We're at 62, Wolverhampton 59, Bristol 57, Leeds 56. |
-- HOORAY!! McDonald Mariga, still out for 3-6 weeks, has requested to be taken off the transfer list and wants to stay with Ipswich. With this, II look at his skills, esp. his physical ratings and they aren't tanking too hard yet. I offer him a contract to play for me next year. He is willing to take a pay cut from $36,500/wk to $26,500/wk, his signing bonus of $100k helps ease the pain there but I'm just fine with that.
-- The Champions League is down to its knockout rounds. France's Olympique Lyonnais, one of the top 10 teams in Europe's rankings, fails to qualify, Celtic and Stuttgart come out of their group instead. Sheffield United, a surprise top finisher last year to earn the spot, get crushed by Juventus and Monaco going 1-1-4 in their group and finishing last. Arsenal and Chelsea both win their groups to save some face for England. Goalkeeper Update -- Carlos Antonio resumes full training. He allowed 22 goals in 18 league matches with 4 shutouts before he got hurt with a 6.96 rating. Chris Mason has 12 league matches (11 starts). He's allowed 10 goals, had 3 shutouts and has a 7.33 average rating. I see no reason to change my starting keeper for now. Mason it is. February Update -- We play on the 1st, 8th, 11th, 15th, 22nd and 29th. We play our rivals Norwich and at the end of the month we play Leeds, currently in 4th. The biggest showdowns with Wolves and Bristol City are still a good ways off. -- Jack Hughes is noted to have trained well, his Anticipation (13), Concentration (15) and Teamwork (16) are all up. -- Wolverhampton striker Sam Vokes is the player of the month with 3 goals in 3 matches. Constantino also had 3 goals in 3 league matches, only good enough for 2nd in the voting. -- Our GK Chris Mason is 3rd in the young player of the month voting. -- The board is pleased with my leadership. Signing Steven Mills is the highlight and our 0-3 loss to Newcastle is the latest small complaint. -- We made a profit of $4.19M in January. That's after making $7.6M for selling Berthet, heh. February 1st, 2019 Ipswich (19-5-5, 1st) @ Swansea(4-7-18, 23rd) We're big 4:5 favorites over relegation favorites Swansea today. They're 3:1 to win at their place. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Hughes is back at DL, Jackson DR. Kirkland is getting close to full health. 3': We try to push the ball into the area, they head it away. Clive Jackson recovers, passes to Constantino, he turns but Khan is in a better position, Constantino finds him, Khan shoots near post and easily beats the keeper! 1-0 10': We have a corner, taken short and passed back to Gordon... Gordon to Jackson who is 20 yards out, he tries to shoot but its blocked. Guarin to the rebound, ahead to Mills who is open and he scores! 2-0 18': Gordon with a really pretty pass into the area for Khan, he's got our 3rd clear cut chance but can't finish. Its saved and turned behind for a corner. Gordon takes it to Henrique, he's tackled in the area but its a foul, penalty! Constantino buries it. 3-0 Just commentary from here, lets get this one done. 31': Mills to Constantino, he beats one man to generate a clear cut chance and scores easily. 4-0 HALF: Yup, looking good. Johnson in for a tired Mills at the half. 55': After a throwin, Gordon passes to Donnely, he shoots from just inside the area and beats the helpless keeper. 5-0 69': No shutout today, a long run for ST Olsen who had a 4.7 rating before this, into the area and beats Mason for a goal. 5-1 78': Hughes with a yellow. Swansea 1 : 5 Ipswich Man of the Match: Gordon Donnelly (9.0) Goals: Constantino 2 (8.9), Mills (8.0), Donnelly, Khan (7.6) Assists: Donnelly, Constantino, Gordon (7.7), Henrique (7.7) Notables: Jackson (7.6), Hughes (7.5), Welshe (7.1), Guarin (7.3) Oh wow. Swansea have broken their record for games without a win. They haven't won in 25 matches. Twenty five!! They were 4-1-3 in league play on September 21st. They're now 4-7-19 with a league cup loss and an FA Cup tie and then loss in the replay... 7 ties/18 losses. |
-- Stuart Kirkland resumes full training. I'm going to give Jack Hughes a number of starts at DC to see how he does. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with him. He absolutely has a place on the team since he has the versatility to play 3 positions. I'm unsure about our new DC signing this year though, James Welsh, and Henrique will be 34 soon. So I want to give Hughes a good shot at DC as long as he doesn't go getting any more red cards. It seems safe to say already that I will spend a lot of money on DC's if we make it back to the EPL regardless.
February 8th, 2019 Scunthorpe(12-8-10, 10th) @ Ipswich (20-5-5, 1st) We're even money favorites over the 10th place team at home, making them 11:5 to get a win today. We tied them 1:1 at their place earlier in the year. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/Hughes/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino We're thrilled to have Kirkland back. Hughes at DC. 17': We win the ball in defense and slowly work up on the offensive end. Gordon receives a pass a solid 45 yards out, sends a ball in the air to Constantino, he shows great control to win it with a defender draped on top of him, turns and after a quick step into the area drills it far post by the keeper. 1-0 24': Defensive lapse by Hughes I think, allowing a through ball and a very close range shot, but Mason makes a reflex save of their first clear cut chance! Great stop. 32': they're trying to attack rather hard here, they have 9 shots to our 6. 36': A throwin in their end, taken to Constantino, a pass to Donnelly, he spots Guarin in a good position, passes into the area for him, and its a goal! 2-0 41': Ok something weird here. Mason with a free kick from our own penalty area, he takes it long... too long it would seem. Their keeper is right there, it seems like he should just catch the ball. But Constantino is bearing down, the keeper appears to simply not go for the ball, and Constantino heads it into the net. Very strange! 3-0 HALF: They out-shoot us 10-8 but its a 3-0 lead for us. 54': Donnelly with a yellow. Pretty sure that's his 10th and another suspension is coming. 64': Welsh in for Henrique, Taylor in for Khan, Johnson in for Mills, all to rest up since we play again in 4 days. 77': Hughes gives up a penalty. WTF Guy. They score and its a Yellow for Hughes. 3-1 We finish it easily. Ipswich 3 : 1 Scunthorpe Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8) Goals: Constantino 2, Guarin (7.6) Assists: Donnelly (8.0), Mason (7.5) Notables: Kirkland (7.6) Jackson/Hughes/Henrique all put up 6.9 ratings. -- Donnelly is suspended for 3 matches. |
We're now 31 matches in and Bristol City has hit a small slump with just 1 point in their last 3 matches. There are still other competitors fighting for promotion here but that slump makes things look like more of a 2 team race right now.
With 15 to go: 1. Ipswich - 68 pts 2. Wolves - 65 pts ---------------------------- 3. QPR - 59 pts 4. Leeds - 59 pts 5. Bristol City - 57 pts 6. Leicester - 54 pts --------------------------- 7. Watford - 48 pts 8. Cardiff - 47 pts 9. Stoke - 46 pts 10. Coventry - 46 pts |
Bosman ruling from wikipedia.
For your needs : contracts are generallly ending in end of June. What it means is that all your players with expiring contracts are free to sign with anyone on January first of that year. Hence the messages you got in January. |
To build on what Alf said, before you go too much farther I would do some checking to see if there are players coming off contract that you would like.
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February 11th, 2019
Ipswich (21-5-5, 1st) @ Watford(13-9-9, 7th) Watford are even money favorites over us today, we're 11:5 to get a win here. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/Hughes/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Johnson/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Darren Johnson in for Donnelly who is suspended. We counter and drop our D-line back today. 1': A long ball ahead to Khan after they try to attack, Khan is well ahead of the defense, its a clear cut chance right away, it by the keeper, but hits the right post, doh!! 20': They build up and there's a pass to one of their forwards, their other FC Brooks cuts into the area, a pass to him and a clear cut chance... easy goal. 0-1 29': We clear a ball out of the area, Constantino tries to pass it back t Clive Jackson to start the offense... but he mishits it and passes it back to our own penalty area, their man Brooks is there and he takes our gift and scores easily. A very rare critical mistake by Constantino. 0-2 39': Gordon with a beautiful ball ahead for Khan, well ahead of the defense and into the area, its our 3rd clear cut chance of the match... and he puts it wide. Oh lord. HALF: Hughes and Henrique, Khan and Constantino are all taking huge hits here today... we're capable of coming back but we need a much, much better effort. We shoot 9 times, they shoot 8. We've got 2 on target and they have 4. The biggest deal is that we have 3 clear cut chances and no goals. 50': After a couple passes around the midfield Mills plays a beautiful ball from 40 yards out into the area, Constantino is there perfectly timing his run behind the defense, and he gets this one into the net easily. 1-2 53': Throwin in their end, Mills challenges their man who receives the pass just inside the penalty area... and commits a foul on him. We give up a penalty, they drain it. 1-3 58': Jackson with a yellow. 80': Guarin with a yellow, they're holding us off well after getting that 3rd goal. 84': Another turnover on our part, Hughes trying to get a ball ahead to Johnson and Johnson just doesn't run onto it, allowing an interception in the midfield and a quick counter. They get a ball forward quickly and ST Baxter has their 4th goal. 1-4 Watford 4 : 1 Ipswich We were just off today, damn. Goal: Constantino (6.8) Assist: Mills (7.4) Mason 5.7, Jackson 5.3, Hughes 5.2, Henrique 5.2, Khan 5.6. Guarin and Kirkland 6.0. No one was immune to playing like crap today! Wolverhampton win and we're once again tied for first, we each have 68 points. 3rd has 62. |
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I've looked through the positions where I have the biggest needs (ML/DC) without much luck, I'll look all over to see if there are any bargains in general to be found. |
New Signing
We've had good luck buying and loaning guys from Aston Villa, Constantino & DC Marc both were from there. So we give it another try. In my searches to see if I can find some bosman guys to just offer contracts to, I find a ML that my scouts like that I believe can contribute for me at the next level. This transfer won't go through until the new season but we'll welcome 23 y/o DL/ML/AML Lee Burton to Ipswich. He's a natural ML which is where I intend to use him. In loans down to the champtionship he's performed extremely well (7.43 rating and 15 assists in 30 matches for Hull a couple years ago). But for now he's just stuck in the reserve squad doing nothing. Physical: Pace 16/Accel 14/Agility 14. Strenght 9, other ratings 13-14. Mental: Determination 17, Tearmwork 15, Work Rate 15, Bravery 16, Creativity 14... other ratings 10-12, including Anticipation and Off the Ball play. Technical: Crossing 17, Dribbling 13, First Touch 13, Marking 11, Passing 12, Technique 13. So we've got a fast kid, a determined hard worker who is acceptably good at figuring out where to be and what to do at any given time with great skills at crossing the ball and pretty decent skills getting back to defend when need be. Burton was valued at $2.1M but wanted out and was listed for less, we ended u paying $1.6M with no other clauses, I tried to get him for less than $1M with a % of profits clause but they wouldn't bite. Burton is very reasonable with his salary demands, asking for just ~$11,000/wk until he proves he's worth better. Again this wont' go through til the start of next year, but it gives us someone we believe can succeed in the EPL at that position out of this year's budget, so that's solid. February 15th, 2019 Norwich(13-6-13, 14th) @ Ipswich (21-5-6, 1st) We're 4:5 favorites at home against our arch rivals today. I would like to beat them into the ground. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/Hughes/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Johnson/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino No lineup change today. 9': Two clear cut chances for Constantino early, the first he just mis-hits the shot it seems. The second their keeper makes a good save. Its raining really hard and that could have an impact. 12': Kirkland with a yellow. 15': There's a fight over the ball in the midfield and we make two great plays, one Mills wins a tackle and takes the ball straight away from one of their mids, he passes over to Darren Johnson, and Johnson makes a high quality pass into the area from near the midfield stripe for Constantino. Constantino runs onto it and finishes eaisly with no challenge from the defense. 1-0 25': We build up down the left side but as we get forward we quickly rotate through the middle, a pass from Guarin to Johnson, to Mills, Mills puts it into the right side of the area where Neil Gordon is cutting in behind his man... Gordon to the ball, his shot beats the keeper and is in! 2-0 27': Darren Johnson with a ball ahead for Khan on a counter attack, its like their defenders just aren't there, these are ridiculous easy goals. 3-0 33': Darren Johnson is everywhere today. They get a strong shot from 20 yards out, saved by Mason but it runs free, one of their attackers is first to it but Johnson makes a key tackle before he can shoot to dispossess him. HALF: We shoot 9 times, putting 6 on target, 4 of them are clear cut chances. Our midfield is playing great today setting everyone up. They've got 10 shots but just 2 on target and we haven't seen many of those shots. 71': Hughes a yellow. 85': Kirkland a yellow. I went to commentary only for that second half and we get out of there with a nice 3-0 win. Ipswich 3 : 0 Norwich I'm always happy when what I feel like I'm seeing in highlights is accurately reflected in the ratings: Man of the Match: Darren Johnson (8.9) Goals: Gordon (7.9), Constantino (7.6), Khan (7.2) Assists: Johnson 2, Mills (7.3) The entire team gets between 7.0-7.4 outside of those mentioned above. Great stuff! |
-- Henrique requests to be transfer listed. He's been unhappy for awhile now that I was rejecting contract offers but unlike Mariga I guess he doesn't see our hopeful rise back to the EPL as enough reason to want to stay. He wants out. I delay his request for now. He is slowly losing his skills but he was the only reliable DC I found in my last trip up. Even if he's slowing down I would really like him around next year if at all possible and see if he would be happier back in a higher league.
February 22nd, 2019 Bolton(11-5-17, 18th) @ Ipswich (22-5-6, 1st) We're 4:5 favorites again today at home against a Bolton club that was predicted to be relegated but is fighting well to stay up. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/Hughes/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Johnson/Mills/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino Simon Hamilton is back from injury and starting today. 17': Our first shot comes as Constantino passes to Hamilton in the area for a clear cut chance, but they cut off the angle and Hamilton can't finish. 18': They commit a foul about 20-22 yards out. Gordon takes the free kick and sends it into the area instead of shooting, they clear. 21': Mills to Constantino, he turns by his man with insane ease, clear cut chance... but saved. 32': They have a corner, Johnson with a nice tackle to win it away after its passed in, but they control, and there's a shot from 25 yards out, Mason dives... gets a hand to it, but its still on target, in the net. 0-1 35': Henrique misses an interception as one of their forwards passes ot the other on an attack and allows ST Gray into the area for an easy finish... uh oh. 0-2 HALF: Well that's a bit of a problem. We seem to control the first 20 minutes well but fail to score on 2 easy chances before collapsing and allowing two goals. If we can get one back early we could still do ok here. We don't exactly have a commanding lead in this league though we can't afford to give games away like this. 47': Simply beautiful passing, Hamilton is 30 yards out, a pass to Constantino, he hits it forward to Guarin with his first touch and its just perfectly placed. Guarin controls it well and beats the keeper! 1-2 53': Mills and Hamilton with a few passes back and forth trying to get something set up, finally Mills hits him, Hamilton beats his man, into the area, shoots far post past the keeper who is rushing out, and scores!! Lets keep it up. 2-2 56': Quick buildup on offense, Darren Johnson hits Gordon in the right side of the area, Gordon charges towards the goal to attack, he's able to beat the keeper and we've got 3 goals in 11 minutes!! 3-2 68': They have it... a couple passes, a through ball for ST Mills, he's into the area for a very easy finish. Henrique takes the blame for that goal and his rating drops from 7 to 5.9. 3-3 89': After 4 or 5 attacking highlights for us showing us squandering possession they get forward again and Henrique seems beaten yet again but Mason makes a diving save to keep it tied... corner is cleared, but they work it ahead again for a second corner. This one we get out of there for good. That'll do it. Ipswich 3 : 3 Bolton After an awful first half this is a decent result but against a poor team it really hurts to give away 2 points at home. Man of the Match: Constantino (8.4) Goals: Hamilton (7.3), Gordon (7.5), Guarin (7.4) Assists: Constantino, Mills (7.4), Johnson (7.2) 5.9 from Henrique. Is the bastard going to tank because I don't' want him leaving? -- Fredy Guarin scored his 25th league goal today. |
-- Wolves won their last match and we fell to second. We do remain 4 points ahead of 3rd and our next match is against 3rd place Leeds. Its at their place, but we have a big opportunity here to really increase the distance from the top two auto promote spots and that 3rd place playoff spot.
Injury Update -- All of a sudden we're struggling to keep Stuart Kirkland on the field. He strains his calf in training and is out 3 weeks. February 29th, 2019 Ipswich (22-6-6, 2nd) @ Leeds (22-2-10, 3rd) Leeds are 5:4 favorites here, making us 7:4. They were picked 9th in the preseason and a win over us here would put them within striking distance of 2nd. We really want a win badly for just that reason, we could put some distance between 3rd. But hell we're on the road against a top team, this is a spot where we'll play for a point if we have to. We did get a big 4:1 win at home earlier in the year. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino Hughes to DL, Welsh at DC with Kirkland hurt again. Donnelly has finished serving his suspension and is back in at MC. We counterattack today. 23': All Constantino all the time! They have a corner, we win a header and head it away, its a nice strong header that sends the ball out towards midfield... Constantino picks it up on our side of the pitch, turns right and begins his run. He blows by everyone, cuts back inside to get into the penalty area, goes all the way into the 6 yard box to challenge the keeper and buries it! 1-0 35': We build up on offense down the left side, Hughes to Donnelly, Donnelly to Hamilton about 20 yards out, he makes a nice turn and is into the area, firing a strong shot that the keeper can't stop! 2-0 HALF: Each team only shoots 5 times, 1 on target for them, 4 on target for us. We appear to be in full control here though as our defense is playing well. 51': They build up and work their way into the penalty area... Hughes with a tackle, but its a penalty, guhhhhh. They hit it. 2-1 56': Donnelly with a ball from 35 yards out to the edge of the penalty box, Hamilton scoots behind the defense which was up a bit high there, he is first to the ball, shoots from there and puts it into the right side of the net, well done! 3-1 72': Johnson in for Mills. 91': Lets add one more for fun, Constantino receives a pass on a counter attack, a run down the left, the defense is tracking well though... he pulls up outside the area, sends a cross into the 6 yard box, Hamilton is there and he heads it home for a hat trick!! 4-1 Leeds 1 : 4 Ipswich Man of the Match: Simon Hamilton (9.6) Goals: Hamilton 3, Constantino (9.0) Assists: Donnelly 2 (9.0), Constantino, Gordon (8.3) Notables: Mason (7.1), Jackson (7.3), Welsh (7.5), Henrique (7.6) Bristol City and Wolverhampton tie. That makes up the 2 points we lost last week and puts us back in first place. And beating Leeds puts us 7 points away from that 3rd place spot that we want to avoid so much. With 11 matches to go: 1. ipswich - 75 pts 2. Wolves - 75 pts -------------------- 3. QPR - 68 pts 4. Leeds - 68 pts 5. Bristol City - 61 pts 6. Leicester - 58 pts ------------------------- 7. Watford - 55 pts 8. Stoke - 54 pts 9. Cardiff - 54 pts 3 are tied for 10th with 52. |
March Update
-- We play on the 7th, 14th, 17th, 21st, 24th and 28th. 14th vs Coventry, a rematch of our worst loss of the season, an inexplicable 2:6 drubbing. 21st vs QPR, 24th @ Bristol City, teams currently in 3rd and 5th. -- Jack Hughes is at the top of the list of players that have trained well this month. The only immediate change is an increase in Balance though. I need an increase in "doesn't commit stupid fouls in the penalty area" more than anything from his dumb ass. -- Simon Hamilton is the league player of the month! He came back from an injury with 4 goals in 2 matches. Donnelly is 3rd in the voting here. I guess they just don't want to give it to Constantino every month, ignoring his 7 goals in 6 matches and 8.25 average rating on the month. -- Constantino does get the goal of the month for his goal in our last match against Leeds where he took it from our half of the field all by himself to score. -- The board remains pleased. 3-0 win over Nowrich is the highlight, 4-1 loss to Watford the lowlight. -- We lost $2.3 Million last month. -- McDonald Mariga resumes full training! March 7th, 2019 Ipswich (23-6-6, 1st) @ Sheffield Wednesday(11-10-14, 16th) We're 5:4 favorites on the road, they are 7:4 here. We beat them 3:0 earlier in the year. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino Mariga is available to come off the bench today. We'll do our counterattacking thing on the road. 16': Welsh with a yellow. 17': They have a run down the right, midfielder McCalister beats Hughes down the sideline and gets a cross in, its a great cross, our defense is there but its put right where it needs to be so only they have a shot with it, midfielder Green runs onto it and scores. 0-1 28': they take a corner to the near man, he takes a shot... no chance for Mason but our man on the line clears it, whew! 33': Hamilton with a yellow. 34': Hughes with a yellow. HALF: We controlled just the first 10 minutes here with a few good looks but they really felt to be in control of the rest of the half. McKerr is in for Henrique, dude is just not playing well, overuse of the old guy or he's pouting because I won't transfer list him, I dunno. Either way McKerr has played well at DC this year and he's in. 47': yellow for midfielder Cox. 70': 20 minutes with no highlights is too much, I change to attacking, they are not letting us do anything at all here, we have to force the issue. 72': the results are instant. A goal kick, taken short to Hughes, we quickly work up the pitch, Donnelly to Constantino about 25 yards out, Constantino spots Gordon cutting in from the right and hits him, Gordon centers for Hamilton and he passes it into the net, great play! 1-1 93': One of their defenders is hurt. That's all I can say. I'm fraps'ing it. Constantino receives a pass at midfield, he's got two defenders between him and the goal, but one is hurt... he runs with them, pokes the ball ahead and somehow gets to it first, continues his run, both defenders are still there, he splits them on his way into the area and finishes into the right side of the net. Unbelievable. 2-1 Sheffield Wednesday 1 : 2 Ipswich Good win after falling behind early. Man of the Match: Constantino (9.0) Goals: Constantino, Hamilton (7.0) Assists: Hughes (7.3), Gordon (7.1) Henrique had a 5.6 rating when he got taken out. None of our players not involved with a goal put up a 7.0+. Lots of 6.8-6.9 though. -- Simon Hamilton scores his 50th league goal. |
Full screen as always. Ridiculous is the only word I have for this. |
That was sick
BTW, how do you get the ratings screens onto the match view, is that a mod or something I am missing? |
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Up near the play/pause button in the top right is a "match day info" dropdown, it lets you select from a ton of different pieces of info that can be displayed on the screen. |
Injury Update
Carlos Antonio turns his ankle in training and is out 3-4 weeks. At age 25 when I bought him he'd been hurt one time in his entire career, missing 12 days in 2017 with a hand injury. Since joining our team 15 months ago he's missed 20 weeks injured. March 14th, 2019 Coventry(13-14-9, 11th) @ Ipswich (24-6-6, 1st) We're 4:5 favorites today, Coventry 3:1 to get a win. I don't even need to look up the previous match, I remember it well. 6:2. Coventry scored the first 4 goals of the match and embarrassed us. Today is about revenge. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino No changes. Mariga needs reserve team play to get fit (or subbed in later). 3': Constantino to Mills, into the area, easy finish. Suck it Coventry. 1-0 6': Mills puts a ball into the area for Guarin, good look but saved. 18': Some *amazing* passing. 7 or 8 passes after a free kick, Mills into the area for Gordon, one touch out wide to Jackson, one touch into the area for constantino, he beats his man, shoots, the keeper tries to save it but its off of him and into the net! 2-0 23': They get forward quickly and shoot from 20 yards out, Mason has to make a diving save, and does so well. 27': Defender Angelov with a yellow. 33': Yellow for Defender Singh. 42': They attack down the left, there's a cross into the area, we head it away before it gets to the target man.. but Donnelly brings down the target man and its a penalty. They score on the PK easily. 2-1 HALF: We're playing great and dominating the match but that penalty makes it close. We shoot 12 times to their 4. 5 shots to their 2. Lets get 4 more goals guys. 53': Clear cut chance as we intercept an attempted clearance, a pass to Constantino, pass ahead to Hamilton, but he puts it wide. 64': A very quick strike! A fight over the ball in midfield, Donnelly wins possession, immediately ahead to Mills, one touch to Hamilton and a great finish this time! 3-1 72': Steven Mills is hurt, he can stay in but injury symbol and 45% fitness, ouch. 74': Mariga in for Mills, Turgay Colak (freshly fully fit) in for Guarin. In both cases I'm hoping to hold our lead and get them a little closer to match fit. Maybe a bit of a stupid risk but meh. I would not have brought them in if it were still 2-1. We do hold on for the win easily. Ipswich 3 : 1 Coventry Its not 6:2 but I'm satisfied with our revenge. Man of the Match: Constantino (9.0) Goals: Constantino, Mills (8.4), Hamilton (7.3) Assists: Mills, Constantino, Jackson (7.1) Notables: Mason (7.1), Welsh (7.3), Guarin (7.0) -- Sunderland fire their manager and I'm expected to be the candidate to take over. I decline interest to the media. -- Steven Mills is out 5-7 days. Could be worse. -- Troy Brown requests a transfer. He's not in my plans anymore and I grant it. It ends up being a fairly big day for us. Leeds loses and Wolverhampton draw. We're 10 points up on 3rd with 9 to go so our chances to auto promote have really shot up. 1. Ipswich - 81 pts 2. Wolves - 79 pts ---------------------- 3. Leeds - 71 pts 4. QPR - 70 pts 5. Bristol City - 65 pts 6. Watford - 59 pts ------------------- 7. Cardiff - 58 pts 8. Leicester - 58 pts 9. Stoke - 57 pts 10. Derby - 55 pts |
March 17th, 2019
Ipswich (25-6-6, 1st) @ Derby(15-10-12, 10th) We're even money favorites here making Derby 11:5 to win. They're running out of hope to make the playoffs, an upset win over us would help, we'd like to prevent that. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/McKerr/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Johnson/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino We're on 3 days rest here and play again in 4 days. Johnson in for Mills who is still injured, McKerr in for Henrique. 2': Donnelly!!! A ball ahead to Constantino, he gets into the area with a nice long run, passes back out wide to Gordon, Gordon to Donnelly who is 20 yards out, Donnelly hits it on a half volley and drills it into the lower left corner of the net, a great shot by Donnelly! 1-0 6': Welsh goes down trying to win a ball in the midfield. He's hurt... he can stay in but injury symbol and all. Hope he's not out too long. 24': McKerr with a yellow. 43': We build up down the right, a pass goes in to Constantino, he hits a great little ball to Hamilton who gets our first clear cut chance, sends it low to the left... keeper dives and makes a good save though. HALF: We're in good control here, just need a second goal. 6 shots, 5 on target. They have 4, none on target. Our possession is great, 57/43 in our favor. 52': Our 2nd clear cut chance, 3 passes through the area, Constantino to Hamilton to Donnelly to Guarin who gets a really great look from the left side, but keeper saves it, corner goes nowhere. I liked the passing an awful lot to find the best shot possible. 63': They break down our defense, catching McKerr out of position, ST Smith into the area, their first clear cut chance... but Mason makes the stop! 73': Mariga in for Johnson, Turgay Colak in for Guarin, Burke in for Welsh. 74': We have a throwin, taken short then a cross into the area, we og up for a header... they foul and its a penalty! Constantino takes it and scores easily. I'm not sure who drew the penalty. 2-0 That'll do it! Derby 0 : 2 Ipswich Man of the Match: Gordon Donnelly (7.7) Goals: Donnelly, Constantino (7.3) Assists: Gordon (7.1), Turgay Colak (6.9) Notables: Mason (7.1), Jackson (7.4), Hughes (7.4), Welsh (7.1), Guarin (7.0) Really happy to see Jackson and Hughes both play so well. -- Kirkland resumes full training. Leeds loses again. We play QPR next match, the new 3rd place team. 1. Ipswich - 84 pts 2. Wolves - 82 pts ------------------- 3. QPR - 73 pts 4. Leeds - 71 pts 5. Bristol City - 68 pts 6. Cardiff - 61 pts -------------------- 7. Leicester - 61 pts 8. Watford - 59 pts 9. Stoke - 58 pts 10. Coventry - 56 pts |
-- I lower the amount I'm asking for for Troy Brown from his current value of only $230k to $100k. Lets get his $20k/wk out of here for next year.
-- We host QPR in our next match, and we're expected to sell over 30,000 tickets for this one. March 21st, 2019 QPR(22-7-9, 3rd) @ Ipswich (26-6-6, 1st) We're again even money favorites, QPR is 11:5. They spent 4 straight years in the EPL before falling back down in my first year at Ipswich. The year we promoted up they finished 6th and lost in the playoffs. Last year they finished 3rd and lost in the playoffs. Here they are again in 3rd. They are once again a near lock for the playoffs, but their shot to auto promote is quickly fading. They're 9 points out of 2nd and 11 points behind us in first. If we win here its all but over for their chances. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/Welsh/McKerr/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino So the two top goalscorers in the championship are playing today. On one hand you have Enrico Rocchini with 24 goals for QPR. On the other you have 46 goals for Constantino. Har. Kirkland is ready to roll at DL. Mariga starts at MC, no way he'll finish the match. Khan is in for Hamilton. Mills is unavailable today, he's pretty much ready to go but I leave him off the list for a little more rest. 5': they attack, crossing into the area from the right, we head it away, they recover and send it back in, they get a man deep out wide left, McKerr missed an interception to allow that, a pass to the middle for ST Hernandez and a powerful finish. 0-1 18': They have it, a backpass goes to their keeper and he clears it to midfield. Mariga wins a header and sends it forward... Constantino is there about 20 yards out. The keeper has run out and is in no mans land but the ball takes a very high bounce. Constantino heads it and its great, a lob over the keeper that comes down just in front of the goal and bounces in. Great stuff from both Mariga and Constantino! 1-1 28': our first clear cut chance, we win a ball in midfield, pass to Kirkland and plays a pretty pass into the area, Khan controls it well and shoots, but its saved. HALF: Little action after that. We have 6 shots, 4 on target. They have 7 shots, 2 on target. QPR are dominating possession here. 46': A clear cut chance right out of the gate, Khan runs forward, from about 35 yards puts a perfect ball into the area, Constantino reaches it with a step on his man, shoots... but saved. He usually scores there. 55': A throwin for us near midfield, we win a couple headers that we normally lose out on from guys like Khan and Donnelly, control the ball and build up, Donnelly hits Constantino, he turns and shoots from 18 yards out and its struck well into the right side of the net! 2-1 58': Donnelly yellow. 62': Johnson in for Mariga. 81': Lets defend the rest of the way. We're playing great but they're a solid team and can pressure well. 89': We've controlled the last 10 minutes but they get a shot off here and Mason has to make a save and allows a corner. We clear it very nicely. They recover it at midfield, we make them work hard to get it back forward, with good interception attempts and tackles by Donnelly and Kirkland. They finally put a cross in but we clear. That'll do it! Ipswich 2 : 1 QPR Man of the Match: Constantino (9.0) Goals: Constantino 2 Assists: Donnelly (7.4), Mariga (7.2) Notables: Kirkland (7.2), Welsh (7.0) -- Before we look at our game something jumps out at me here... a baseball game breaks out between Barnsley and Derby, hell, practically an early season Miami/FSU football game! Barnsley scores in the 15th minute. Derby ties it 1:1 in the 24th. Derby up 2:1 in the 36th. Tied back up at 2 in the 38th. a 45th minute goal makes it 3:2 derby at the half. 54th minute Derby up 4:2 on a penalty. 55th minute Barnsley gets one back, 4:3. 60th minute an own goal makes it 5:3 Derby. 70th minute Barnsley makes it 5:4. Derby seems to seal it in the 84th minute making it 6:4 but Barnsley doesn't give up, scoring in the 86th minute, its 6:5... but that's where it ends, Derby 6, Barnsley 5. Dang!! -- More importantly, we beat QPR and Wolves tie Charlton. Ipswich have clinched a playoff spot With 6 matches left we are 13 points up on Leeds for 3rd. If we win and they lose we could clinch promotion in our next match. We are 4 points up on Wolves. 7 to go. |
Transfer Out
Troy Brown is going to Sunderland. I don't get it. He fell off so dramatically for us. Why does Sunderland want us? Maybe he'd be ok as our 3rd/4th best DC, I dunno. But he's not even seeing the field for us here, he's just fallen too far out of favor for us. This will take place during the offseason. We'll make $100,000 on the deal. March 24th, 2019 Ipswich (27-6-6, 1st) @ Bristol City(19-11-9, 5th) We're 5:4 favorites on the road here, they are 7:4. They have no shot of auto promote but they are only 6 points above 7th so they need to make sure they make the playoffs. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/Henrique/McKerr/Jackson M: Turgay Colak/Mills/Mariga/Gordon ST: Hamilton/Constantino Henrique starts for welsh, Turgay Colak and Mills in for Guarin and Donnelly. Hamilton back in up front. 36': They take a shot from 25 yards out, it deflects off a defender and into the area, ST Keane is first to the bounce and is able to put it by Mason... quite unlucky. 0-1 HALF: The two shots Bristol takes for their goal are the only ones they took all half. We shot 7 times but 5 were from long range and I only saw a couple. Not a single one on target yet. 48': We work the ball to the middle of the pitch outside the area, its crowded but Mills puts a perfect ball through the defense and into the area for Hamilton, he beats the keeper and scores! 1-1 75': defender Clark with a yellow for them. 75': Johnson in for Mariga, fatigue. 86': they attack, a cross comes in from the right but we head it away... they recover, a pass to midfielder Wordsworth 25 yards out and he shoots from there through a very crowded area and its a goal. Doh, for once it looks like we don't get the late winner. 1-2 88': Simon Hamilton goes down hurt... we'll check on him after. Yep, not a lot of highlights, tons of long range shots that I didn't see, and they get the win. Bristol City 2 : 1 Ipswich One of their scorers is man of the match. Goal: Hamilton (6.8) Assist: Mills (6.7) Notable: Kirkland (7.2) 6.5-6.8 for the rest of the team. Injury Update Simon Hamilton is out for 2-3 weeks. The 4 point lead we'd built keeps us in first place. With 6 to go: 1. Ipswich - 87 pts 2. Wolves - 86 pts ------------------- 3. Leeds - 77 pts 4. QPR - 76 pts 5. Bristol City - 71 pts 6. Stoke - 62 pts ------------------ 7. Leicester - 62 pts 8. Watford - 62 pts 9. Cardiff - 61 pts 10. Derby - 61 pts Two things left to decide realistically... the last playoff spot and whether Ipswich of Wolverhampton win the league. |
Injury Update
Jack Hughes is hurt in training and out for 2-3 weeks. March 27th, 2019 Leyton Orient(5-10-25, 24th) @ Ipswich (27-6-7, 1st) Leyton Orient are 10:1 to win here. We're 1:6 to win, huge huge odds. Lets go get it. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/Henrique/McKerr/Jackson M: Guarin/Donnelly/Johnson/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Lots of midfield changes, Guarin/Donnelly/Johnson in. Khan for the once again injured Hamilton. Just commentary here. 17': Khan with a nice pass ahead to Constantino for an easy goal from the penalty spot. 1-0 20': Donnelly to Khan, Khan turns by his man, into the area, easy goal. 2-0 30': Darren Johnson to Khan, Khan easy finish. Really really happy with Darren Johnson. 3-0 40': McKerr is hurt. 44': we give one back, ST Gornell with a nice finish, they caught us off guard a bit with a long header winning a short clearance by Mason. 3-1 HALF: 3-1 lead and all seems well. Burke in for the injured McKerr. Constantino took a bit of a knock and his fitness is down too. I see no reason at all to risk an injury in this one, so I bring Ian Taylor in for the second half. 49': Hm, they attack quickly after winning a ball in our end, two very nice passes leave midfielder Long wide open in the area and he scores. 3-2 63': Khan with a really long run for anyone but Constantino, he's like 45 yards out, their defense is back, there's just a bit of a hole and Khan keeps going and going, beating one defender on his way to the area and its a goal! 4-2 66': Guarin wins a ball in our end, a long ball to Khan, he's got a half step on his man at best and shows beautiful control, he shoots from 20 yards out as the keeper rushes out and beats him! 5-2 92': One last goal just for fun, Donnelly to Ian Taylor for an easy close range finish. 6-2 Ipswich 6 : 2 Leyton Orient Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (9.9) !!!! Goals: Khan 4, Constantino (7.5), Taylor (7.0) Assists: Donnelly 2 (8.9), Khan, Johnson (8.0), Guarin (8.0), Jackson (8.1) Notables: Mason (7.1), Kirkland (7.3), Henrique (7.1), Gordon (7.2) great to see such a dominant performance by Matthew Khan. Wolves beat Leicester today. With 5 to go: 1. Ipswich - 90 pts 2. Wolves - 89 pts ------------------- 3. QPR - 79 pts 4. Leeds - 78 pts 5. Bristol City - 71 pts 6. Stoke - 65 pts ------------------ 7. Cardiff - 64 pts 8. Watford - 63 pts (One less match played) 9. Leicester - 62 pts 10. Derby - 61 pts |
-- Chelsea lost to OM (france) in the first knockout round. Arsenal got by Feyenoord 2:0. Barcelona, Inter, Real Madrid all advanced.
Quarterfinal Matchups: Inter vs Real Madrid Arsenal vs Roma OM vs Celtic Ajax vs Barcelona Inter have won twice in a row. April Update -- We play Wolverhampton on the 4th in a match that could easily decide who wins the league. After that, 13th, 18th, and 25th. -- Chris Mason has trained well in the last month. Real well! Command of Area (9), Communication (9), Reflexes (17), Composure (14), Agility (14), Balance (15), and Strength (9) are all up. He's still just 18 but the Command of Area, Communication and Anticipation ratings (7) worry me more and more when we look at his ability to be a legit EPL keeper. For now though its great to see improvement and he could still make it for sure. -- Constantino is 3rd in player of the month voting. -- Constantino has the goal of the month vs Sheffield Wednesday. Khan vs Leyton Orient has the #2 goal of the month. -- I am manager of the month in March after leading Ipswich to a 5-0-1 record. -- The board is pleased. Our win over Norwich is still the high, 4:1 loss to Watford still the low. -- We lost $2.77M last month. We're now sitting on a profit of $137K on the year and $6.2M in cash. -- Watford play their extra match and win it, vaulting themselves into 6th place, 1 point up on the final playoff spot. April 4th, 2019 Wolverhampton(27-8-6, 2nd) @ Ipswich (28-6-7, 1st) The bookmakers feel its an even match, we are 6:4 favorites but they're right there at 13:8, this could go either way. We tied 1:1 at their place back in November. We're ahead of them by one point, so right now we both control our own destiny. Win out including this and win a title. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/Henrique/McKerr/Jackson M: Turgay Colak/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Turgay Colak starts at ML, Donnelly/Mills in the middle. I use the "control" strategy. They're playing a 4-1-4-1, very very defensive looking, lets control possession and draw them out here. 15': We build up, Donnelly with a ball into the area, Khan breaks for it perfectly, he has a half step on his man at best but its enough, first touch shot and its by the keeper! 1-0 18': I drop back to counterattacking. 35': After a long break with no highlights (despite 12 total shots) Gordon earns us a corner here, they clear it though. 39': midfielder Adagsmar with a yellow. 43': We build up for a really long time, a couple minutes of possession here passing around, they try to clear as we attempt passes to the forwards but we recover a couple times and keep it going, finally Mills puts a ball into the area for Khan and its just like our last goal, Mills plays it to a perfect spot, Khan with the perfect break on the ball and the finish! 2-0 HALF: Matthew Khan is reminding everyone there's more than one striker on this team!!! We end up with 10 shots, 6 on target, didn't see a few of those, a few were in a crowded area where it seemed unlikely we could find anything. They shoot 6 times, not one on target yet. We look spectacular today. 58': They break through with a great through ball into the area, a clear cut chance, but no! Mason dives and stops it! Corner is cleared. 69': We fail to clear out of our end and I'm freaking stunned because their striker is like 4 yards offsides... its not til the replay that I realize that it wasn't passed to him, that Mills tried to clear the ball and it bounced off one of our guys and just looked like a perfect through ball... their dutch striker with what may be my favorite name ever Ricky van Wolfswinkel gets an easy goal. Really, van Wolfswinkel!!! 2-1 80': Mariga in for Mills. 82': Long possession on offense, Khan tries a shot, blocked, it falls to Mariga 25 yards out, he blasts it... crossbar! doh! 85': A fight for possession in our defensive half, they win it, there's a ball into the area for star striker Sam Vokes, its a little deep, but its still a clear cut chance and Mason is there to make the stop!! We hang on and get a really solid win against the #2 team in the league! Ipswich 2 : 1 Wolves Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (8.8) Goals: Khan 2 Assists: Donnelly (7.0), Mills (6.9) Notables: Kirkland (7.0) Mostly 6.8-6.9. Constantino was not to be found today with a 6.5. The optimist is thrilled to see the rest of the guys step up around him. The pessimist points out that Wolverhampton are the other EPL quality team in the league and question how well he'll do in the EPL next year. Ipswich have clinched promotion to the English Premier Division -- the usual pleasantries, the fans are thrilled that I've brought the squad back up. The board praise me and are happy to see us go back up. With 4 to go: 1. Ipswich - 93 pts 2. Wolves - 89 pts ------------------- 3. QPR - 80 pts 4. Leeds - 79 pts 5. Bristol City - 74 pts 6. Watford - 67 pts ------------------ 6. Stoke - 65 pts 7. Cardiff - 64 pts 8. Derby - 64 pts QPR and Leeds have clinched playoff spots. to close out the post: Ricky van Wolfswinkel. Just think of the nickname potential! Wonder what his friends call him? |
-- Its a non-Constantino record!! Steven Mills has an awesome 18 assists, breaking a team record of 17 set by Gordon Donnelly in our last promotion effort in 17/18. I am thrilled with Steven Mills.
Injury Update -- Gordon Donnelly is suffering from crushing depression after having a record broken.. no, wait, he hurt his chest lifting weights. He's out 2 weeks. -- Chris Mason hurts a finger in training and will miss a couple days. This comes pretty close to our next match so he might miss it. April 13th, 2019 Ipswich (29-6-7, 1st) @ Gillingham(14-12-16, 16th) We're 4:6 favorites at Gillingham, they're 7:2 to win. Their 16th place is considered a huge success this year. GK: Mason D: Kirkland/Welsh/McKerr/Jackson M: Turgay Colak/Mariga/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Welsh in for McKerr. Mason starts, he's had a day extra to come back from his little injury. Mills/Mariga with Donnelly hurt. Simon Hamilton is healthy again but there's no way in hell I'm sitting Matthew Khan right now. 1': They build up and Welsh lets a pass by him to ST Daly, its a 24 second goal. Whoops. 0-1 33': We try to get it ahead to Khan, they head it away.. Mariga is there to send it back into the area, Mills is there, he finishes easily. 1-1 45': Kirkland with a long clearance out of the defense, Khan is there 45 yards from goal, he controls it, sends it ahead and sprints to it, he's into the area and its an easy goal! 2-1 HALF: After the embarrassing start we appear to have settled down. We shoot 3 times, 2 clear cut chances, both goals. They are trying to attack, 7 shots, 1 on target, but 6 are off target. 51': Mills and Jackson pass back and forth to build up, Jackson passes to Constantino, he skips by a couple defenders and gets a solid goal. 3-1 76': I didn't note the yellow earlier but Stuart Kirkland got one earlier, and he gets another one here, he's sent off. Guarin in for Khan and back at DL. Gillingham 1 : 3 Ipswich Man of the Match: Constantino (8.3) Goals: Constantino, Khan (7.0), Mills (7.6) Assists: Kirkland (7.5), Jackson (7.4), Mariga (7.5) Notables: Mason (7.0), McKerr (7.2) Wolves have an embarrassing home tie vs #24 Barnsley. That puts us 6 ahead with 3 to go. With 3 to go: 1. Ipswich - 96 pts 2. Wolves - 90 pts ------------------- 3. QPR - 83 pts 4. Leeds - 82 pts 5. Bristol City - 74 pts 6. Derby - 67 pts ------------------ 7. Watford - 67 pts 8. Coventry - 66 pts 9. Leicester - 66 pts 10. Norwich - 66 pts 11. Stoke - 65 pts 12. Cardiff - 64 pts 7 teams fighting for the last playoff spot. Watford give up their lead and Derby have it for the moment. |
April 13th, 2019
Ipswich (30-6-7, 1st) @ Hull(9-7-27, 21st) We're 4:7 favorites on the road, Hull are 4:1 to win. Hull have 5 points on Barnsley and 6 points on Swansea and Leyton Orient. They aren't totally safe yet but one of those relegation teams would have to find 2 wins in 3 matches at minimum. GK: Mason D: Hughes/Welsh/McKerr/Jackson M: Turgay Colak/Mariga/Mills/Gordon ST: Khan/Constantino Hughes is back to full training and covers for Kirkland while he serves the suspension for his red card. 2': Free kick for Hull from 30 yards, its taken well and Mason has to dive to stop it, it falls back into play, they pounce on it and score. 0-1 29': Turgay Colak and Khan have both missed clear cut chances. 31': There we go. Mills to Khan as they try and fail to clear, Khan puts this one home. 1-1 46': Constantino with a run down the right, into the area, a ball into the 6 yard box for Khan, Khan gets to it and scores! 2-1 46': In the final moments of the half, Turgay Colak goes down hurt and must be subbed immediately, I guess this is right while the whistle blows. The sub can be made at the half. HALF: We've got this barring some bad mistakes. Guarin in for Turgay Colak. 10 shots to 2 for us. 53': Hat trick!! Gordon to Mills, Mills to Khan and Khan is in the area for an easy finish. 3-1 91': The pressure we put on them int he last 40 minutes is immense. It could be like 10-1 right now. Their keeper deserves man of the match I believe. We get a final goal here, Constantino has a shot blocked but it falls to Guarin for a very easy finish. Hull 1 : 4 Ipswich We shoot 28 times, we put 16 on target, we have NINE clear cut chances. It was just non stop aggression in the second half. Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (9.5) Goals: Khan 3, Guarin (7.5) Assists: Constantino 2 (7.5), Mills 2 (9.0) Notables: Mason (7.4), Jackson (7.2), Hughes (7.7), Gordon (8.0) -- Matthew Khan scores his 100th league goal today. -- Turgay Colak is done for the year, out 6-7 weeks. He's a loaner and not one we'd go hard after for the EPL. He's done for Ipswich presumably. With 2 to go: 1. Ipswich - 99 pts 2. Wolves - 93 pts ------------------- 3. QPR - 86 pts 4. Leeds - 85 pts 5. Bristol City - 77 pts 6. Derby - 70 pts ------------------ 7. Watford - 70 pts 8. Norwich - 69 pts 9. Coventry - 66 pts 10. Leicester - 66 pts 11. Stoke - 65 pts Likely down to Derby/Watford/Norwich here. Wolverhampton have clinched promotion. Since we're up 6 points here with 2 left we'd have to lose both, they'd have to win both and make up a 13 goal differential. |
-- Since we've got first unless we start losing by 4 or 5 goals, lets knock this out.
April 25th, Charlton (20th) @ Ipswich (1st) Constantino gets two clear cut chances in the first 15 minutes, but the first goal is to Khan, Donnelly hits him in the 28th minute. They tie it up in the 34th though as we foul them 18.00001 yards out. Free kick for a goal, hard to stop from that range. 36th minute Khan does it again, and the pass again comes from Donnelly! We start to run away with it at Constantino hits Gordon who puts a great shot near post from a tight angle in the 41st minute. We keep it going in the 2nd half, Neil Gordon gets his second goal running on to a wonderful pass from Mills made near midfield. Ipswich 4 : 1 Charlton Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (9.0) Goals: Gordon 2, Khan 2 (8.8) Assists: Donnelly (8.7), Constantino (8.1), Mills (8.5) Mason 6.9, Jackson 7.0, Kirkland 7.4, McKerr 7.3, Welsh 7.1, Guarin 7.2. Ipswich have won the Coca-Cola Championship The fans and the board love me. It was a done deal already but now its a mathematical certainty. Watford win and Derby lose. With 1 to go: 6. Watford - 73 pts ----------------- 7. Derby - 70 pts How good is this? Watford travel to Derby for the final match of the season. Derby have a significant goal differential advantage. If Derby wins, they're in the playoffs. May Update -- Just the one match left on May 3rd then we're done. -- Steven Mills gets singled out for training well. His set pieces improve but they're still awful so meh. But his Anticipation (13) and Decisions (13) go up and that's awesome. -- Matthew Khan is second in player of the month voting... QPR's Enrico Rocchini scores 8 goals in 4 matches to win that award. Khan did the same thing, oh well. -- I am manager of the month for April. -- The board is Delighted with my ledership now after winning the league. -- We lose $2.73M last month. May 3rd: Ipswich (1st) @ Middlesbrough (18th) They score first in the 21st minute, Jackson is back too far out right and allows one of their forwards to hang out behind our defense for an easy pass and finish. We shoot 9 times to their 3. We'll get something in the second half. We finally get one in the 69th minute, Constantino with a nice ball ahead to Gordon on a counter attack and Gordon scores. Middlesbrough 1 : 1 Ipswich Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (7.5) Goal: Gordon (7.5) Assist: Constantino (7.3) Notables: Welsh (7.0), Mills (7.2), Mariga (7.1) -- Derby and Watford draw. That's all Watford needed. The playoffs will consist of Leeds, QPR, Bristol City and Watford. Champions League A quick update. Quarterfinals 2-leg series Inter 6 : 2 Real Madrid Arsenal 3 : 2 Roma OM 2 : 0 Celtic Barcelona 6 : 1 Ajax Semifinals Inter 4 : 2 Barcelona OM 2 : 1 Arsenal Inter gets a chance for a 3rd straight Champions League title. OM is Olympique de Marseille from france. This is the first time they've even made the champions league since 2014 when they made the final 16. That's it for now. We'll cover the Euro Championship during the offseason and prepare to go completely insane spending money on left midfielders and central defenders. Also, do we try to buy Simon Hamilton? Khan came on so well here but we need that target man don't we? Do we try to ride into the EPL with Carlos Antonio or do we consider looking in another direction? We'll be better prepared for the EPL this time around but I think there are still going to be big questions about whether or not we can stay up this time.. |
Exciting times! Glad to see you won't get the parachute payment after all :).
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Grats!
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Goalkeepers
**GA = Goals Allowed | SO = Shutouts This is two years in a row that Chris Mason came in and played slightly better than Carlos Antonio during his injury problems. Defenders
**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game Kirkland and Jackson I'm thrilled with. Henrique is aging and unhappy and James Welsh did not impress this year leaving me with big questions as to what I can expect from him at the next level. I do think he's closer to Henrique than Troy Brown who just doesn't have the physical ability to hang at the next level and completely falls apart. McKerr always seems to do well despite being rated lower than many others here. |
Hip Hip Hurray !
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Midfielders
**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game Dear lord our midfield was good this year. Steven Mills earned every penny of that huge contract. Attackers
** GL = Goals | Drb = Dribbles/Game Constantino was amazing as expected, but how about Matthew Khan's run to finish the season with 23 goals? He turned it on when Hamilton got hurt a couple times and became a complete terror in the last 2 ½ months of the season. Most of our questions going into the EPL revolve around our defense, but the target man question is an important one up front. Do we try to buy Hamilton from Southampton? |
Ipswich 2019/20 History/Leaders
Team History Woking 2009/10 - BS South - 1st - 24 W - 12 D - 6 L - 62 for - 39 ag - +23 GD - 84 pts 2010/11 - BS Premier - 17th - 14 W - 10 D - 22 L - 60 for - 65 ag - -5 GD - 52 pts 2011/12 - BS Premier - 4th - 26 W - 12 D - 8 L - 87 for - 51 ag - +36 GD - 90 pts 2012/13 - BS Premier - 1st - 26 W - 11 D - 9 L - 88 for - 56 ag - 89 pts 2013/14 - League 2 - 18th - 12 W - 17 D - 17 L - 50 for - 54 ag - 53 pts 2014/15 - League 2 - 9th - 20 W - 9 D - 17 L - 57 for - 58 ag - 69 pts 2015/16 - League 2 - 1st - 30 W - 8 D - 8 L - 102 for - 50 ag - 98 pts 2016/17 - League 1 - 1st - 24 W - 14 D - 7 L - 103 for - 61 ag - 89 pts Ipswich 2017/18 - Championship - 1st - 28 W - 12 D - 6 L - 91 for - 42 ag - 96 pts 2018/19 - Premier League - 20th - 5 W - 5 D - 28 L - 30 for - 77 ag - 20 pts 2019/20 - Championship - 1st - 32 W - 7 D - 7 L - 121 for - 54 ag - 103 pts This year: Top Goalscorer - Constantino - 52 goals Top League Goalscorer - Constantino - 50 goals Most Assists - Steven Mills - 21 assists Highest Average Rating - Constantino - 8.09 Most Man of the Match - Constantino - 22 My god we scored 121 goals. |
Contract Updates
-- Right around the time the regular season ended I changed my mind on Fredy Guarin. He was willing to take a pay cut from $35,000/wk to $18,000/wk to stay on for an extra year. He'll turn 34 June 30th and he's definitely shown decline, I can't put myself in a position where he needs to start 25 times or anything, but for $18k/wk I thought it would be worth having him next year. -- Chris Mason asks for a new contract. He was my starter for much of the year. He wants a raise from $1000/wk to $9000/wk. Ok, you twisted my arm, its yours. Championship Playoffs Semifinal First Leg Bristol City 3 : 0 QPR Watford 0 : 0 Leeds Semifinal Second Leg QPR (2) 2 : 1 (4) Bristol City - Bristol City advance Leeds (1) 1 : 0 (0) Watford - Leeds advance Finals Bristol City 4 : 1 Leeds Bristol City will be coming up to the EPL along with Ipswich and Wolverhampton. -- Chris Mason starts for the England U19 squad in U19 Euro Championship Qualifying against Hungray. England wins 4:0 and Mason puts up a 7.3 rating. Perhaps more impressive is that our youth striker Chris Bryan comes on in the 70th minute of the match and scores twice to earn a 8.5 rating! -- England's U19s crush Scotland 5:0 a few days later. Mason plays 90 minutes again in goal, a second straight shutout and a 7.4 rating. Chris Bryan starts, scores 1 goal and makes 1 assist, and leaves in the 66th minute with an 8.9 rating. -- England 3 : 1 N. Ireland, Mason a 6.8 rating, Bryan 7.4. Bryan plays the full match today, getting one assist. FA Cup -- Exeter may have only finished 14th in the Championship, but they won @Bolton, @Sunderland, @Coventry, vs Tottenham and vs Huddersfield to make a crazy improbable run to the FA Cup Finals. Its not meant to be though as Chelsea wins 2:0 in the finals. -- Our loans are about to end. I go through a number of screens on Simon Hamilton, and the training screen gives me the push I need to make a decision on whether to go after him or not: "Kevin Hayward has indicated that he believes Simon Hamilton is somewhat prone to injury". Hamilton would be a big investment, and that's enough for me to shy away. -- We pay out $2.3M to the players for winning the league. |
2019/20 Championship Final League Standings
1. Ipswich - 103 pts 2. Wolves - 97 pts ------------------------------ 3. Leeds - 91 pts 4. QPR - 90 pts 5. Bristol City - 80 pts - won playoffs 6. Watford - 74 pts ------------------------------ 7. Leicester - 72 pts 8. Norwich - 72 pts 9. Derby - 71 pts 10. Scunthorpe - 69 pts 11. Stoke - 69 pts 12. Cardiff - 67 pts 13. Coventry - 67 pts 14. Exeter - 60 pts 15. Gillingham - 58 pts 16. Sheffield Wed - 57 pts 17. Fulham - 56 pts 18. Middlesbrough - 54 pts 19. Bolton - 49 pts 20. Charlton - 45 pts 21. Hull - 37 pts -------------------------------- 22. Leyton Orient - 32 pts 23. Barnsley - 30 pts 24. Swansea - 28 pts Goals 1. Constantino - Ipswich - 50 2. Enrico Rocchini - QPR - 33 3. Steve Carroll - Leeds - 27 4. Tom Matthews - Norwich - 26 5. Lee Smith - Derby - 26 Matthew Khan was 9th with 22. Simon Hamilton was 21st with 15. Assists 1. Steven Mills - Ipswich - 21 2. Gordon Donnelly - ipswich - 17 3. Constantino - Ipswich - 17 4. Enrico Rocchini - QPR - 17 5. Lee Smith - Derby - 16 Neil Gordon is 7th with 14. Score that many goals and this is what happens I guess. Man of the Match Awards 1. Constantino - Ipswich - 21 2. Enrico Rocchini - QPR - 14 3. Andy Carroll - Leicester - 12 4. Danny Gilligan - Leyton Orient - 9 5. Sam Vokes - Wolves - 8 Average Rating 1. Constantino - Ipswich - 8.11 2. Enrico Rocchini - QPR - 7.65 3. Sam Vokes - Wolves - 7.63 4. Gordon Donnelly - Ipswich - 7.58 5. Victor - Derby - 7.50 Steven Mills is 7th at 7.42, Matthew Khan 9th (7.38), Stuart Kirkland 14th (7.24). -- The goal that I posted to youtube from Constantino is the Championship goal of the year. A second Constantino goal against Leeds is the #2 goal of the year. -- I am Manager of the year in the Championship. Congrats to me. -- Stuart Kirkkland, Steven Mills, Neil Gordon and Constantino are all named to the Championship team of the year! |
Congrats on another championship.
My sense from reading along is that you need to find an EPL level GK for the start of the season. Carlos Antonio doesn't look to be the answer and Mason simply isn't ready yet. Troy Brown is turning out to be a dog for me, too. I picked him up from Ipswich in my game after a contract dispute shortly before you got the job there. I'm managing a League 2 side, though, so I thought he'd fare better. So you were still playing and posting at 5 AM this morning? When do you sleep?!! |
-- Mcdonald Mariga is getting up there in years but he's still the captain of the Kenyan National team and he has a busy summer ahead of him with World Cup Qualfying:
Kenya 5 : 0 Comoros - 8.6 rating - 1 goal Gabon 3 : 1 Kenya - 7.1 rating Egypt 3 : 0 Kenya - 6.0 rating - 53rd minute red card June Update -- The Euro Championship is this month. England is grouped with Holland, Norway and Turkey. Germany, Portugal and Spain are grouped together so that should be fun. -- The board is delighted with my leadership. -- Thanks to the squad bonuses we lose $5.94M in May. That puts us at a net loss of $8.6M for the year leaving us with -$2.4M cash. -- Gordon Donnelly is called up by Scotland to play in the European Championship. New Signing Recently we got a report on youth players that were released. Man City is overloaded with young keepers and they let go 17 y/o GK Michael Rogers. He was the highest rated and highest scouted player I saw amongst those that were let go and I was able to grab him for free. Physical: Balance 18, Jumping 9, Strength 11 Mental: Anticipation 7, Bravery 17, Composure 9, Decisions 12, Determination 12 Goalkeeping: Aerial 9, Command of Area 11, Communication 10, Handling 8, One on Ones 10, Reflexes 16, Rushing Out 12. Like some other guys I've signed I don't know if he could ever really play for Ipswich but hey he came for free, I don't have a GK on my U18 squad, and maybe even if he wouldn't ever play for me I can make some cash off him. June 13th News Report: Real Madrid are rumored to be interested in signing Ipswich's 24-year old midfielder Neil Gordon for a fee in the region of $49.5M Well its just a rumor. Last year when someone came after Gordon I shrugged and counter-offered saying I'd sell him for $50M. Is this where that kind of thing goes? European Club Rankings 1. Barcelona - 165.343 (no change) 2. Olympique Lyonnais - 158.738 (+4 spots) 3. Inter - 153.111 (+1) 4. Chelsea - 145.501 (-2) 5. Man Utd - 145.501 (+4) 6. At. Madrid - 142.343 (was not in top 10) 7. Real Madrid - 137.343 (+1) 8. Liverpool - 135.501 (+5) 9. Benfica - 127.531 (-2) 10. Newcastle - 127.501 (not in top 10) Leverkusen and Man City fell out of the top 10. Arsenal is 13th, Man City 19th for the other top England squads. Ipswich are rated 120th. |
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I would have expected him to fare better as well. He did great for me my first year in the Championship, he was just so bad in the EPL that he totally fell out of favor and got cast aside. I'm surprised he'd struggle in League 2. Quote:
I work from home part time (5-25 hours/wk depending on what I'm needed for) and help take care of my dad whose health is pretty darn bad. On a typical day I can work whenever I feel like it and start checking in on my dad around 2pm (mom and sister doing more for him in the mornings and me more in the afternoons/early evenings). So my schedule has gravitated around a day that starts at 1pm or so about 90% of the time. If dad has a morning emergency or work needs something in the morning(which happened today) shit goes haywire. :D I think you're right about the keeper. I want to loan Chris Mason to a Championship squad this year if possible, and my confidence in Carlos Antonio to a) stay healthy, and b) perform well enough to keep us from relegating back down is very low. |
I'm not liking Carlos Antonio myself.
I'd personally still think aboit acquiring Hamilton depending on what the price is. |
European Championship
Top two teams from each group make the quarterfinals Group A Italy - 2-1-0 - 7 pts Belgium - 2-0-1 - 6 pts Scotland - 0-2-1 - 2 pts Russia - 0 1- 2 - 1 pt Gordon Donnelly played a total of about 60 minutes and was average. Group B Holland - 1-2-0 - 5 pts England - 1-2-0 - 5 pts Turkey - 1-1-1 - 4 pts Norway - 0-1-2 - 1 pt England beat Turkey on the last day to advance, pretty close. Group C Spain 2-1-0 - 7 pts Denmark 1-1-1 - 4 pts Portugal 0-3-0 - 3 pts Germany 0-1-2 - 1 pt I don't think Denmark was supposed to come out of this group! Group D France 3-0-0 - 9 pts Croatia 1-1-1 - 4 pts Ukraine 0-2-1 - 2 pts Czech Republic 0-1-2 - 1 pt Quarterfinals England 2 : 1 Italy Holland 2 : 1 Belgium Spain 1 : 0 Croatia France 3 : 1 Denmark Semifinals France 4 : 2 England Spain 1 : 0 Holland Finals France 3 : 0 Spain France has now won 2 of the 3 European Championships that have taken place in this career (2012 and 2020). Croatia won in 2016. |
Fans Player of the Year
-- Constantino, duh. Ipswich Best Eleven GK: Mason D: Kirkland/McKerr/Henrique/Berthet M: Guarin/Mills/Donnelly/Gordon F: Constantino/Khan Bethet is the only one that wasn't a sure thing. Clive Jackson took over in defense a bit late in the season I suppose. Ipswich All Time Best Eleven GK: Brian Murphy (396 apps/6.79 rating) DL: Stuart Kirkland (124 apps/7.14 rating) DC: Alex Bruce (234 apps/4 goals/6.73 rating) DC: Troy Brown (240 apps/2 goals/6.79 rating) DR: David Wright (166 apps/2 goals/7.11 rating) ML: Mario Licka (115 apps/8 goals/7.23 rating) MC: Gordon Donnelly (238 apps/33 goals/6.97 rating) MC: Owen Garvan (263 apps/18 goals/6.82 rating) MR: Sylvain Berthet (191 apps/3 goals/6.91 rating) ST: Constantino (128 apps/102 goals/7.63 rating) ST: Matthew Khan (156 apps/79 goals/7.06 rating) Kirkland, Constantino and Khan are all new to the starting all time 11 this year. Good stuff!! No active players are among the list of backups at this point. Promotion Raises My confusion continues. The entire team has promotion raise clauses. The entire team has relegation salary drops. Here are the players listed that received raises for promotion: Stuart Kirkland, Constantino, Jack Hughes, Troy Brown, Michael McKerr, McDonald Mariga, Darren Johnson, Steven Mills, James Welsh, Clive Jackson, Ian Taylor, Dominic Johnson, Rob Kershaw, Chris Bryan. -- Lots of these guys are new to Ipswich in the last 2 years and get a pass. But why did Kirkland, Constantino and Khan get raises?? Their salaries didn't drop when we demoted. -- Why did Gordon Donnelly, Henrique, Neil Gordon, Carlos Antonio, Fredy Guarin and Chris Mason NOT get raises?! -- I don't understand what's going on, but seeing Donnelly not get that raise sets me at ease. I'm now convinced I just don't fully understand what's happening here, not that there's a massive bug screwing me over. -- Steven Mills with that raise now makes $73,000/wk. We'll see where things end up as far as my budget shortly but that's a damn lot of money! TV Contract -- We receive $48,510,000 for TV Rights. right on. Season Expectations -- We clearly just want to attempt to avoid relegation. With that expectation, we are allotted $20.5M in transfer money and a payroll of $575k/wk. We're currently spending $479k/wk. We can play with that a lot. A $17.2M transfer budget allows for $650k/wk in payroll. We have a lot of room to get a lot done. Youth Intake -- We bring in 9 new players. Lets see if anything is worth getting excited about. Well.. 8 of them are 1* or less as far as potential. Yuck. The most exciting player is DC Sam Barnett. Unfortunately he gets a 1 1/2* recommendation and is scouted as "a good League 1 central defender in the future". We cut so much dead weight last year I assume I want to at least spend a season training these guys to see if there's a boom/bust thing happening here? Premier Division Odds Chelsea are favorites to win the league at 3:1. Behind them are Man City and Arsenal at 6:1, Man U 8:1. Newcastle and Tottenham are 20:1. We're 2000:1 as we were last time we came up. With that we have our transfer money, we're pretty close to July 1st, we're getting our friendlies set up and its time to figure out how to throw around all this money available to us this year. The biggest advantage I think I have this year as opposed to the last time we promoted up is that I'm much, much more confident in who can perform at this level and what my needs are. I feel that the team needs are pretty clear: ML, DC, GK, Target Man/ST. |
-- We've sold 4868 season tickets but expect to sell 22,000 by the time we're done.
-- I get a raise from $13,500/wk to $23,000/wk and a new 4 year deal to go along with it. -- My coaches recommend a Turkish striker that looks amazing who wants to leave his squad and I go making an offer there. -- I go through all of my scouts' work over the last year and look for goalkeepers, requesting some updated reports, I also look at players transfer listed all throughout europe. Heavy focus on GK right away. July Update We've got a couple friendlies but we need to get a couple more set up. -- The board is pleased with my leadership. signing Darren Johnson is the highlight. -- We made $4.11M in June. July 1st Player Moves All of these have been mentioned in the past: -- DC Troy Brown is out, we get $100k and he goes to Sunderland. -- Youth GK Michael Rogers signs on a free transfer. -- ML Lee Burton comes over from Aston Villa for $1.6M Burton could start at ML but according to my assistant he would still be my worst starter. He's a huge upgrade over Jack Hughes though. To cover my assistant's view of my lineup: 4* - MR Gordon 3 1/2* - DL Kirkland, MC Mills, ST Constantino 3* - GK Carlos Antonio, MC Donnelly, ST Khan 2 1/2* - DR Jackson, DC Henrique, DC Welsh 2* - ML Burton The need to upgrade the defense remains a huge obvious need. -- Contracts expire and english squads all over release players. I go through the list pretty closely, looking at all of the guys dropped by the Chelsea's and Arsenal's of the world. I scout most of them as well, looking to see if there's an old guy or two who have one more EPL year left in them that might help me. -- As July 8th rolls around my top DC target chose to go to Everton. I have an offer out on a GK but a couple other teams are going after him as well. I'm looking for a short term signing for a ST target man. I was looking at a potentially huge signing at ST but the guy makes like $200k/wk. A little much. -- There's a quality DC in Germany that a lot of teams are going after, he'd be way better than any of our defenders, valued at $5.7M. I don't know what offers are being accepted, but I've tried $7M, $9M and $11M and all have been rejected. I don't think I can offer more than $11M. I've attached lots of profit clauses to the offer too. -- I give up on the German DC. I've got a loan-to-buy offer for a french DC that would be promising as well. -- On the 12th I lose out on my top GK target, he chooses Roma over us. -- As the 14th rolls around I've done a lot more work with GK's. Burnley has a very, very good keeper, they relegated out of the EPL last year. I'm trying to get him at almost any cost. I have a couple other leads on solid keepers that I'd be happy with if this doesn't work out. -- German DC Liam Rees, the one that I went as high as $11M on, ends up signing with FC Bayern for $17M. -- We're at the halfway point of the month. We're going through each day slowly, lots of negotiations, a few spots of just waiting players out, but so far we haven't really improved the team. We're working on it! |
The Burnley keeper sounds ideal because it seems like he'll be able to handle the losing and occasional shallacking without huge roll-off effects.
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New Loan
-- I'm clearly looking to spend the bulk of my money on my defense this year, so even though I'm concerned about the injuries I go back to the well, loaning in ST Simon Hamilton. I have paid $1.7M for the right to loan him this season with a clause that I may purchase him for $5M at any point during the loan should I choose to do so. Hamilton is a solid looking target man, tall, jumps well, heads well, positions well. He had a strong year for me in the Championship. My fitness guys say that he's potentially injury prone and that slows me down a lot as far as buying him... but I feel the investment in loaning him in while I spend bigger elsewhere is an acceptable one. -- The superstar keeper that Burnley have that I want so bad is out. They finally come back saying that they want $23.5M for him. If I had unlimited funds I would do it. He'd be a huge, huge upgrade and would be the best player on the team. But I don't have unlimited funds. I do think I've got my guy though, I have an offer for Liverpool's backup GK accepted and am in the contract negotiation stage. New Signing One of the players released at the start of the month by Chelsea has decided to come to Ipswich. This will be similar to say the Fredy Guarin signing I made last time I hit the EPL, a guy that I hope can contribute but that I don't expect to be a star. Welcome 34 y/o ST Alvaro Negredo to Ipswich. Chelsea bought Negredo from Sevilla for $23M in the 13/14 season. He scored 19 goals his first season there and had a few more 10 goal seasons. Physical: Strength 14, Balance 16, Jumping 15 (Pace 12/Accel 10) Mental: Nothing lower htan 9. Determination 15, Off the Ball 13, Anticipation 13. Most ratings 11-13. Technical: Heading 16, Finishing 15, Technique 12, First Touch 12, Dribbling 12, Passing 11. I made this offer weeks before I tried to snag Simon Hamilton, he took a really long time to decide. However, I am perfectly happy having both on the roster, especially with the concerns over Hamilton's injury issues. Negredo is here for $17,000 for this year only. He knows he's getting old and is happy to have another year in the top league it would appear. Friendly #1 We start with a trip to Old Trafford to play Man U. It pays well /shrug. A few guys are out on international duty and Neil Gordon is out for a couple weeks with an injury he picked up that I may have missed between the 7000 scouting reports I've been reviewing. They score twice early, star striker beats defense, scores. We get a goal near the end of the half as Darren Johnson takes a great free kick, keeper has to drive to stop it, and Hamilton is there to put the rebound in. We sub everyone out at the half. They get 3 more goals with some really young guys of ours in there, we get a 90th minute goal as Khan puts in a rebound. Man Utd 5 : Ipswich 2 -- As of July 16th we have 5 outstanding offers at various positions that we are waiting on. A few we've been waiting on for a couple weeks that would make a big difference. New Signing Welcome 25 y/o GK Michele Capitani to Ispwich. Capitani has been a backup for Liverpool for a number of years. The last two seasons each he played 11 matches, putting up ratings of 7.05 and 6.95. We paid Liverpool $4M for the rights to Capitani and will pay him $26,500/wk for the next 4 years. He scouts to be on a similar level as Carlos Antonio, which *should* be good for us in a bid to finish in the top 17 in the EPL. Carlos Antonio just did nothing over the last 2 years to earn my confidence. Physical: Strength 19, Stamina 16, Jumping 18. Everything else 11-15. Mental: Determination 15, Positioning 12, Concentration 17, Anticipation 11. Goalkeeping: Aerial Ability 18, Handling 17, One on Ones 16, Reflexes 16, Communication 12. Weaker areas are Command of Area - 9, and Rushing Out - 3. With the changes we've made we are now spending $559,244/wk on salaries. Our current Payroll budget is $575,848/wk. We've spent just under $6M on the transfer market. Without increasing our payroll budget we still could spend $14,900,000. But we obviously have to increase payroll. I drop Transfer budget to $11.2M and get a payroll allowed of $650,000/wk. And right after I do that my next signing comes in. New Signing Welcome 25 y/o ML Adagsmar to Ipswich. We payed Wolverhampton $4.2M for his services. He scouts out as a significantly stronger player than Lee Burton, the other ML signing we made during the offseason. We needed to sign another ML and it was just a question of whether we signed someone cheaper and rotated Burns/new guy or if we tried to improve on that and get a clear starter. I believe we've gotten ourselves a clear starter at ML now. Adagsmar will make $35,000/wk for the next 5 years. He had a long history of 7.1-7.25 ratings for Benefica in Portugal before coming to Wolves last year where he put up a 7.1 rating in the Championship. Physical: 16 pace/17 accel/14 sta/14 agi. Other ratings 12+ except he cant jump at all (5) Mental: Determination 15, Off The Ball 14, Teamwork 12, Work Rate 14, Anticipation 13, Decisions 13. Composure is only 9, he has a little creativity as well. Technical: Crossing 16, First Touch 15, Passing 11, Technique 12, Marking 7, Tackling 10. This gives us wide midfielders on both sides who can send quality crosses into the box for our big guys. This leaves us with $7M in transfer funds that are entirely dedicated to the DC position. I have two offers out now there and am not frustrated necessarily but a bit apprehensive that the position that killed us so bad in our last trip up is the one we're having the hardest time upgrading! Henrique and Welsh are a step up from Brown/Bruce, but I am still worried that its not enough. -- And on July 20th the top remaining DC target signs with AC Milan and we go back to work Things are coming together fairly nicely, I believe I've better identified our holes this year and better filled them than I did last time around, but I'd like to do just a little bit more. |
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Yeah, by the time I gave up I'd offered 65% of my transfer budget for him which would have prevented shoring up these other positions at all basically, but I think would have totally been worth it. Hopefully what I ended up with will work out instead. |
On the DC's, do you scout/sort by transfer-listed players at all? Often time when I have a "smaller club" moving up to top flight you can find some veterans available at knock-down transfer fees or even 1 yr loan deals with an upfront fee who are transfer listed.
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-- So basically there are a lot of defenders I can sign that are equal the level of James Welsh and/or Henrique. If I need to shore up depth at DC and go that route I can do so very easily. Finding any sort of players better than them that I can afford and that will come play for me has been an impossibility to date.
Friendly #2 We travel to Shrewsbury, one of our mandatory friendly feeder clubs. We get an early Constantino goal but its pretty slow from there. They tie it back up after getting a man wide open on an unlucky deflection after a long shot is blocked and score. After that its over, we have one goal called back for an offsides, We get a few more clear cut chances but its a 1:1 draw. Shrewsbury 1 : 1 Ipswich Friendly #3 We travel to Brighton today. Clive Jackson gets us an early goal and we take a 1-0 lead into the locker room. Donnelly gets us a goal in the 75th minute and that'll do it. Brighton 0 : 2 Ipswich Friendly #4 We travel to Aberdeen. Constantino hits Donnelly for a 4th minute goal. Constantino scores but its offsides in the 13th minute. No offsides in the 35th inute, Mills to Constantino for a nice goal. Mills and Adagsmar both come down hurt in the first half, I sub them both at halftime. They get a penalty in the 81st minute and score. 85th minute Khan hits Mariga for a goal. Aberdeen 1 : 3 Ipswich -- Steven Mills is going to be out for 8-10 days. August Update -- We hit August with no significant update on our DC situation. We had a loan offer accepted for a Naples defender but he isn't interested. A couple other negotiations are ongoing. -- We open at Huddersfield on the 15th, Liverpool 18th, Man City 22nd, Bristol City 29th. -- Our training report for August indicates that Chris Mason continues to train well. -- The board is pleased still. -- We lost $1.46M last month. We spent $11.5M buying players, so that works for me. -- All of a sudden we end up with 4 offers accepted for DC's that I'd been negotiating for all at once. One player is happy in Italy and has no interest in coming to Ipswich. the other three I offer deals to. These are all guy s at the same level of James Welsh. We're not signing a superstar here. What I'm hoping for is to sign at least one, maybe two of these guys and find a good rotation. Hopefully we find another Henrique in here and they don't all turn into Troy Brown. -- August 2nd we've sold 21,170 season tickets. Injury Update Matthew Khan hurts himself in training and will miss the first 2-3 weeks of the season. -- And one of the three guys we're trying to sign at DC turns us down to stay in France... New Signing Welcome 28 y/o DLC Cestor Mike to Ipswich. We buy him for $3.5M from Tolouse in League 1. I really wanted Mike, not necessarily because I'm convinced he'll be the defender to work out best, but because I really wanted Mike + 1 of the other guys we were looking at. Cestor Mike is an athlete. He's got ok technical abilities but he's by far the best athlete in our defense and hopefully that helps us out. Physical: Pace 16/Accel 15/Sta 17/Str 16. Others 11+ Mental: Positioning 12/Teamwork 14/Work Rate 13/Decisions 11, Determination only 9. Ok but not great. Technical: Heading 13/Marking 13/Tackling 13/Technique 9. Again, ok, but not great. Mike will rotate in with Welsh and Henrique (and possibly McKerr) and hope that these guys can hold their own in this league. Friendly #5 We travel to Sevilla for our last friendly. Hamilton scores a nice 4th minute goal to put us ahead early. They use a nice through ball to get the tying goal in the 20th minute. Hamilton to Constantino for a solid goal in the 25th for us. 2:1 halftime, Hamilton to Constantino again in the 46th minute for a 3:1 lead. Constantino returns the favor with a pass to Hamilton for a 64th minute goal. Sevilla were 4:5 favorites here and they are a solid Serie A team, nice win! Sevilla 1 : 4 Ipswich A few days after the last friendly we make our last signing. New signing We pay OM in France $3.5M for 32 y/o DC Jonathan Quartey. Quartey has been a very consistent and successful DC for OM, a top 5 French League 1 team and the winners of the Champions League last year. So this guy has some legit experiences under his belt. Physical: 16 str/16 balance/15 jumping, 12 pace/13 accel/14 agility. Mental: Positioning 15/Teamwork 14/Work Rate 16/Anticipation 16/Concentration 14/Decisions 15. Determination is 11. Every mental attribute but flair is 11+ and most are 13+. Technical: Heading 14/Marking 14/Tackling 14/Passing 12 Where Mike is more of an athlete and we hope he uses his speed to stay in front of players and keep us from getting beat, with Quartey we have a guy who is solid and consistent everywhere. Our scouts view Henrique/Welsh/Mike/Quartey all as very similar levels of talent. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Henrique was a perfectly fine EPL defender once I brought him on two years ago, and all his issues with unhappiness went away once we promoted. We started my last EPL season with Brian Murphy, Alex Bruce and Troy Brown at GK/DC/DC. We are light years ahead of that. The question is whether it'll be enough or not. Our midfield with Mills/Donnelly/Gordon is a lot better than what we took to the EPL last time too. We have now spent everything, we maxxed out almost perfectly. None of that was spending just to spend, I think every move I made serves a solid purpose to make the team better, we improved our scoring chances, improved massively at ML, improved at keeper and I believe have given ourselves enough options at DC that something will stick. We're as ready as we're gonna be! We are spending $663k/wk on salaries. Our limit is $650,000/wk. We'll look at contract renegotiations soon to see if we have some guys willing ot take little cuts to get under that. And of course just to lock up our best players. Last thing before we start the season, we'll look at our depth chart to get all these new names out there. GK: Capitani/Carlos Antonio DL: Kirkland/Hughes DC: Henrique/Welsh/Mike/Quartey DR: Jackson/McKerr ML: Adagsmar/Burton MC: Donnelly/Mills/Mariga/Johnson MR: Gordon/Johnson ST: Hamilton/Constantino/Khan/Negredo We come into the season witht he most depth/most players we've ever had on our roster. guys like Jack Hughes and Fredy Guarin are extremely marginalized with the way we've built up our team. Guarin is someone we could very well look to sell to get under payroll if we have trouble locking up players like Constantino to extended contracts because we're over our wage budget right now. With that we go into the new season!! |
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Yeah. When it came down to it I didn't have trouble finding a couple guys (as you can see in the above post). I held out for a long time though trying to find someone who was a super clear upgrade over what I currently have. Once I decided that I needed to find guys who were decent players and find the ones that seem to best fit in with the team it came together pretty well. Steps I took to try to identify players: 1 - ask my assistant for a loan report on DCs (that yields a list of 15ish players throughout Europe). 2 - Go through all of my scouts reports for the prior year, look at all the DC's they recommended, get new scouting reports if necessary and look for deals. 3 - Look for Transfer listed players. 4 - Look for "available for loan" players, looking to do fee + potential to buy loans. I had 3 or 4 of those approved this year for guys that were promising but all chose to go elsewhere. 5 - Look at players released by top clubs 6 - Look in general at free transfer players. There may have been more but those were the primary ways I came up with lists of players to go after. Similar process was followed for the other positions as well. Some players came in via coach meeting suggestions. I had a striker I was highly interested in who was unhappy at his team that one of my coaches found for me. I could have bought him for $11M but was trying to negotiate that down as I didn't' want to spend half my budget on a ST when I had other needs that were bigger. It fell apart in the end though when I realized the player was going to want to be paid at minimum $150k/wk and maybe $250k/wk. |
Before we start playing out the games we did get our early season notice about contract expiry. With multi-year deals being more common at this level its not 20 people a year like it was at Woking so that's nice. We've only got 7 players expiring this season.
-- ST Alvaro Negredo - signed to a 1 year deal, he'll be 35 early in the season, I can't imagine he'll be here next year. -- DC Henrique - while I still hope he can help us this season, he is starting to degrade and he'll turn 34 this year. Its extremely unlikely that henrique comes back next season either. -- MC McDonald Mariga - Mariga has shown great resiliency to age so far. We'll keep an eye on his training and see what's up. He'll turn 34 in April. -- DR Michael McKerr - he'll turn 31 this year but he's one of those guys who is affordable and his ratings aren't the best in the world but he always seems to come through for me. He'll actually take a $1500/wk pay cut down to $15,250/wk. -- MC Gordon Donnelly - Clearly someone to retain. He makes $52,000/wk right now and will take a 4 year deal for the same amount. I offer it happily. -- ST Constantino - Makes $35k/wk right now. He wants $47,500/wk. I offer it. The 7th guy is Simon Hamilton, a loan guy. Donnelly and Constantino quickly agree to their new deals. Giving Constantino a raise puts me a little more over my wage budget. We could stand to cut about $26k/wk. If the board isn't bitching and if we're still able to make a profit I'm not in a huge rush to do so. |
Training Question:
Last year we were allowed a max of 10 coaches and that worked out just about right to get decent training going in every area. At this level we're allowed to have up to 17. What advantages should I be looking for if I expand past 10? I could try to find guys that specialize more with the youth squad vs the first team squad. But if I have a 4* tactics guy that is 4* for both the senior squad and U18s (and he's a "coach" so he's allowed to train both, is having a 4* tactics guy on the first team and a 4* tactics guy on the youth team better? If I have two 4* tactics guys and I put them both training tactics, is that better than having just one? |
I can talk to part of that. You don't necessarily need to max out your coaches. The main thing I typically look at is coaches workload. If its "Light" and 4* or better in a category then it's fine, if it's "Average" or higher then I might look to hiring another coach to help with that category. As for the First Team/Youth, I've always looked for high star coaches who can train both and had pretty solid results with that.
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I did some playing with that recently myself and the answer appears to be that yes, kind of at least in 11. In 11, even if the workload was "light", having two guys of higher skill did seem to boost the ratings, but if you're working with less than perfect coaching there is still a limit to how effective the training will be. If you have 10 guys who are all 1 star working in an area it's not going to get you to 5 stars, but it might get you to 2/2.5. |
League Cup 2nd Round Draw
After 1 round without the EPL teams, we're inserted in. We get a solid draw, we'll be hosting Plymouth, a team that just promoted to the championship up from League 1 (though most of their history in this dynasty is in the Championship, they're just coming off a dip down). August 15th, 2020 Ipswich @ Huddersfield Its opening day! Huddersfield are 5:4 favorites at their place today, there are worse prospects with which we could be starting the season. Huddersfield promoted up with us 3 years ago but when we fell back down they stayed up. We lost to them both times that last EPL season and are 6-3-7 lifetime against them. They finished 17th each of their 2 seasons in the EPL, though last year they were 6 points better. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Mike/Henrique/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon F: Hamilton/Constantino Available off the bench: McKerr, Hughes, Negredo, Mariga, Johnson, Welsh, Burton. That leaves Guarin and our new DC Quartey unavailable. Matthew Khan is hurt. Definitely the deepest team I've ever had. We'll counter attack and use a deep defensive line. 10': We manage the first shot after a nice series of passing on the right side, Donnelly with a strong shot but right at the keeper. 15': We win a ball in midfield, Donnelly ahead to Constantino, he's got a step on the defense out right, he cuts into the area, its a pretty tough angle, but he pulls up and shoots low to the far post, its by the keeper, hits the post and bounces in!! 1-0 22': They attack quickly, a pass to the edge of the box, a shot is by Capitani but it hits the post and bounces away to safety. 32': Clive Jackson is hurt and has to leave the pitch for a time. Injury Symbol and all, we'll see if he needs to come out at halftime. 41': They try to send a ball forward but Kirkland clears it, their defender near midfield recovers, but Constantino is aggressive and takes it away and is off to the races! He's down the right side of the field, the defense is tracking hard... Constantino deep down the side, into the area but he doesn't have a shot, he lays the ball back to Mills who is 15 yards away, he blasts it with his first touch, goal!! 2-0 47': They earn a corner, they get a shot off it and Jackson has to clear it off the line, whew! HALF: They control possession 52/48, they have 7 shots/2 on target. We have 5 shots, 4 on target. We've just created a couple really great chances and finished them. They did have a clear cut chance on a rebound and put it over so we got lucky there, but we're playing so great right now. Lets keep it up! I start the second half dropping into a defensive mindset and telling the guys to retain possession, worried about the typical mega-attack that killed us in many EPL games after good halves. 65': Donnelly with a yellow. First highlight of the half. 68': Mariga in for Mills, Burton in for Adagsmar, fitness, etc. 72': We have a corner, it comes back out to Donnelly after he sends it in, donnelly with a long run to the middle of the pitch, nicely avoiding two tackles, bu he takes a stupid shot that's blocked and triggers a counter attack... we get back well though and Mariga is able to tackle the ball away for a throwin. We clear nicely. 75': Yellow for midfielder Kula. 77': Darren Johnson in for Gordon. 84': stupid stupid stupid. They counter after winning a cross... but we're back on defense. There's a pass to their star striker Platas like 30 yards out. Mike is back there and he's fast, he can stay in front of him... instead, he goes for a tackle 30 yards from the goal, misses, and that allows their best player a free run into the area where we aren't about to stop him from scoring. 2-1 91': A counter for Huddersfield as we lose the ball trying to build up on offense. Our defense is really out of position here and they take quick advantage, a pass goes ahead, then another to their other striker who is wide open but onsides b/c we're so out of position... an easy finish and we are very sad. 2-2 The match ends soon after. Huddersfield 2 : 2 Ipswich On one hand, we open our season with a well played match and a point on the road. On the other hand, ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that was painful!!! Their striker Platas is man of the match. Goals: Mills (7.6), Constantino (7.5) Assists: Constantino, Donnelly (7.8) Notables: Kirkland (7.0) Defender Cestor Mike takes the blame for at least one of those goals, maybe both? He ends up with a 6.3 rating, he played pretty well I do believe, but that mistake to allow the first goal was just awfully unnecessary. Injury Update Clive Jackson will miss ~2 weeks. |
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Thanks. I had hired a couple coaches when we re-promoted just because "wow these look like great coaches!" but it turns out they were 4* just like the guys I already had. I stuck them where they were best anyway. |
August 18th, 2020
Ipswich @ Liverpool Liverpool are 4:6 favorites, we're 7:2 to get a win at their house today. We're 1-1-3 lifetime against Liverpool. The win was an FA Cup match in 2010. The tie was at the tail end of our last EPL season when we had a few really strong games after we'd been relegated. Liverpool has finished 7th the last two seasons. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Welsh/Henrique/McKerr M: Adagsmar/Mariga/Mills/Gordon F: Hamilton/Constantino McKerr starts for Jackson at DR. Welsh in for Mike and Mariga in for Donnelly since we're going in on short rest. 8': They take the first shot, a crazy 35 yard strike that bends a ton and just hits the post. 10': A quick buildup on offense, Mariga ahead to Hamilton, Hamilton passes to Constantino, he beats his man into the right side of the area, stops and fires to the left post... the keeper dives but he can't react fast enough, its by him and in!!! 1-0 19': We have a throwin deep in their end, they head it out of the area, Mariga puts it back in, Hamilton is there and has a clear cut chance, a great look... but saved, dang! 26': Kirkland clears down the left side, Adagsmar picks it up at midfield and makes a great run down the left, he crosses to Constantino... but they win the header and clear. 38': They try to set up their offense but we win a ball out near midfield, pass ahead to Hamilton, he makes a run, the defense is keeping up though, he cuts out left, crosses, mills gets his head to it... but the keeper saves it. A great counter attack, good effort. 42': They earn two corners, Capitani seems to show really good poise when balls fly through the 6 yard box, he's getting to everything he needs to. HALF: Another wonderful first half from Ipswich! Now what can we do to make sure the second half is as good as the first? They make all their subs, I hold off for now, we'll see what we should change. We have 8 shots to their 7 but we're totally getting the better of it, 5 on target to their 2. Possession 50/50, passing both around 66%, we're tackling a bit better and heading at the same rate as them. They have a couple long range shots struck with ridiculous pace and I'm worried that even if we play near perfect that they'll sneak in a goal from long distance. No change to start the second half. 46': We kick off and set up our offense, but when a pass goes to Hamilton they win it and pass to the keeper, the keeper sends it long, and they've got a man out ahead of the defense, Welsh comes in and makes a tackle about 22ish yards out... and I audibly gasp and say out loud "that's a red"... Welsh walks slowly over to the ref... and receives a yellow card. We just got a massive gift. That seemed like a very obvious red card to me. They take the free kick... off one of their attackers standing near the wall and out for a goal kick. 53': They counter after a bad Constantino pass, a very quick pass up ahead as we were trying to start our offense, there's a shot from 20 yards out and Capitani makes a great save. However, the rebound falls to ST Dalla Valle and he is unmarked at the edge of the box. He fires into the left side of the net and there's no chance to stop it. 1-1 60': Negredo in for Hamilton who got hurt and is a bit slowed, and Johnson in for Gordon who isn't playing that great. 77': They have a throwin, a pass quickly goes to bakcup striker Aubameyang, he turns by Welsh and drills a shot from 20 yards out that Capitani can't stop. 1-2 82': Donnelly in for Mariga. I tell the guys to attack, assuming they will sit back a bit more. No chance in the final 10 minutes. Liverpool 2 : 1 Ipswich This was a constant issue against good teams last year, though last year it was usually "well ok we came out of the first half 0:0 now lets watch them score 4 goals in the second half when they wake up". We've had two great starts and we're seeing some strong play, I wonder if there's something I can try to do different in the second half. Maybe mix in a little more aggressive play at times to try to throw them off? I'm not sure if this is just a good team expecting to run over the new guys and playing one complacent half, or if they're getting used to us sitting in the same strategy for 90 minutes and finally break it down. Goal: Constantino (6.9) Assist: Hamilton (6.8) Notable: Mariga (7.4) Our wide midfielders had the worst time today, 6.2 from Gordon and 6.0 from Adagsmar. Neither are strong in the air so they miss a few headers and crosses just weren't connecting. I was thrilled with Constantino's goal though, he's showing some great touch on those two goals he got, our first trip up to the EPL he came out missing everything and just not having the pace on his shots to beat EPL keepers when he was on target. |
-- I list Chris Mason for loan. I may be a bit picky though, more SFraser goodness, I remember him mentioning being picky about finding good coaches to send your players off to so you know they'll get the best development possible. I'd really like to see him spend a year in the Championship starting every match.
-- We're expecting a sellout in our first home match. August 22nd, 2020 Man City @ Ipswich The fans are up for our first home match. Unfortunately its against Man City, but we've played pretty well on the road so far, lets see what we can do at Portman Road. They're even money favorites today, we're 11:5 to get a win. After a run of 5 straight seasons in the top 4, Man City has missed out on Europe 2 years in a row, 9th and 10th the last 2 years. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Quartey/Henrique/McKerr M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon F: Hamilton/Constantino Donnelly back at MC, Quartey gets his first shot at DC. I start Lee Burton at ML to see what he can do. 3': We get the ball first but they take it away when we try to get forward.. on defense they get a quick through ball and clear cut chance but Capitani makes a good save. They recover and Mils commits a foul just outside the area... shot goes off the wall for a corner, which we clear. They recover again and push... This takes a few minutes but its all highlights from the opening kickoff and they've got 5 shots, 4 on target right away. 8': They win a ball in our end and attack fast, a long ball from midfield to AM Jovetic, it looks like he's barely onside if at all, but no call, he's behind the defense and in the area and makes a trivial finish. 0-1 13': We go up the middle on offense, Hamilton receives a pass, spots Burton coming in from the left, good pass, clear cut chance.. but tipped wide by the keeper. Corner is cleared. 16': We have a throwin, a couple passes up the right side, Gordon spots Burton open out left and crosses field. Burton into the area... tackled, its a penalty!!! Constantino takes it and buries it. 1-1 18': They are just putting a lot of pressure on us with long crisp passes that are perfectly controlled every time... another long pass here to Jovetic, he's in the area and has a clear cut chance... but Capitani makes another good save. They have 3 clear cut chances, we have 2. 32': Just like their first goal, they start to attack and bam, pass from near midfield well forward, a run timed perfectly, first touch is perfect, no chance for anyone here. ST Cavalieri with the goal. 1-2 36': Highlight opens with a random shot from Lee Burton from 25+ yards out that is just off the left post, wow close! HALF: OOPS. Sometimes I'm dumb. I had our default tactic last year set for our defensive line to play up a bit, wanting to be aggressive in the Championship, so even with the "drop deeper" instruction we were still just in a kinda normal setting... I went in at the half to just pull everything much further back and noticed that. DOH. Mike in for Quartey at the half too, more speed, Quartey was getting killed out there. They put immense pressure on us that first half. 14 shots, 7 on target, 4 clear cut chances. We shoot 8 times, 6 on target, 2 clear cut chances, we're really playing fairly well here, I'm not unhappy except for with the fact that I didn't think to doublecheck all the settings in my tactic before any games!~ 49': They have a free kick, we clear and a ball goes ahead to Neil Gordon, he's able to get to the edge of the box before they catch up, he shoots, deflected wide though. Corner is cleared. 56': Guarin in for Burton, Burton is playing well but not ready for 90 minutes yet, Guarin just to get him some minutes. 59': A goal kick for us, its played up ahead and Constantino controls, he dribbles forward, skips by a tackle, plays a great pass to Gordon coming in from the right, its our 3rd clear cut chance of the match... but saved. Damn! That should have been the tying goal, seriously. 64': Mills with a yellow. 66': Mariga in for Mills, fresh legs and make sure no stupid second yellow comes out. 70': Mariga with a nice sliding tackle to win us the ball near midfield, a pass up to Constantino, a nice run forward, a centering pass to Donnelly, shot from 20 yards out, the keeper has to dive for it but makes the stop. 73': They get forward, there's a strong shot from 20 yards, Capitani with a very good save, but theres a rebound, they get to it.. another shot, Capitani again!! Great great play from our keeper. 76': They commit a foul out left of the penalty area, yellow for defender Neven Subotic. They clear Gordon's cross into the area. We recover but give it away too easily. 87': Some very nice passing in tight spaces allows them to get their 3rd goal, AM Jovetic with a strong shot from 15 yards out. 1-3 90': Constantino with a yellow. That'll do it. Ipswich 1 : 3 Man City They shot 21 times, putting 12 on target, 6 clear cut chances. We managed 14 shots, and again I'm seeing things that make me happy compared to our last start in the EPL, we're generating chances that we struggled a ton to get last time. Goal: Constantino (7.0) Assist: Burton (6.9) Notables: Capitani (7.1), Mills (7.0), Donnelly (7.0) McKerr and Quartey got burned today, 5.6 and 5.7 ratings. Gordon 6.1 missing a couple really great chances to get on the board. The ratings kinda jive with what I felt I was seeing in the highlights... we gave up a couple very quick goals but we played really well most of the match against a clearly superior team. Next up we host Plymouth in the League Cup. After that is a critical early game against Bristol City, a team we dominated last season in the Championship. This script is real similar to our last time up. A couple early games against teams we aren't supposed to beat, then an early season showdown against another relegation contender. Last time around we lost every one of these matches. I expect different this time. |
-- I go change my tactic back closer to its default, in fact dropping my defensive line back a notch or two behind normal.
August 25th, 2020 League Cup 2nd Round Plymouth (CH) @ Ipswich (EPL) We're big 4:7 favorites today, making Plymouth 4:1 dogs. This will be our 4th match in 10 days and we play again in 4 more days so we'll be getting some backups playing time today and hope we can still win. GK: Carlos Antonio D: Hughes/Quartey/Welsh/Haskins M: Adagsmar/Guarin/Mariga/Johnson F: Negredo/Constantino Kinda wholesale changes here. Youth player Denis Haskins in at DR as McKerr is exhausted and Jackson is still hurt. 16': Tons of possession here, they try to tackle a ball away as we build on offense, it comes to Guarin who lobs it into the area for Adagsmar, running in from the left, he shoots far post, by the keeper and in! 1-0 23': Mariga with a pass to Negredo who shoots to the same spot that Adagsmar put our first goal, both of them get their first ever Ipswich goals today! 2-0 30': Mariga to Constantino for what looked like our 3rd goal, but offsides. HALF: Another great first half, I'm a little more confident in our ability to hold this one. 49': Perhaps I spoke too soon. A couple great headers in the area generate a wide open look for ST Sears and he scores. 2-1 56': Mariga to Constantino to start a counterattack, Constantino with a long run into the area, he's tackled before he can shoot... penalty! Constantino takes the PK and buries it. 3-1 83': Khan, who just resumed full training, in for Constantino. Easy enough. Ipswich 3 : 1 Plymouth Man of the Match: McDonald Mariga (8.3) Goals: Constantino (7.8), Adagsmar (7.6), Negredo (7.3) Assists: Mariga, Guarin (7.8) Notables: Hughes (7.0), Quartey (7.7), Johnson (7.0) Easy enough, and hopefully the solid win here keeps the morale up heading into the Bristol City match. DR Denis Haskins is 16 years and 1 day old. That's the youngest ever to see the field for the Ipswich senior team. He's dead weight, one of the guys that is 1/2 star potential from our very poor youth pulls this year that I just didn't cut yet to see if any of those guys magically work miracles in training or something (I'd pared down the U18 squad a ton previously so there was some room). |
-- Clive Jackson resumes full training.
-- Reading have made a couple offers for Jack Hughes now. He's been marginalized a bit here but we're not ready to give up on him quite yet. League Cup 3rd Round Draw Down to 32 teams so lots of EPL teams to run across. The only way our draw could be worse if it were on the road. We are playing the 2 time defending EPL Champion at home in round 3, Chelsea. August 29th, 2020 Bristol City(0-1-2, 18th) @ Ipswich (0-1-2, 17th) Huge match today. Most years a team needs 32ish points to avoid relegation (some years more/some less but generally). Our last time up we got 20. Matches like these are our best shots for 3 points, at home against teams that promoted up to the Championship with us last season. We cannot squander these chances this year. We're 5:4 favorites at home, Bristol are 7:4 to win. We're 2-8-6 lifetime against them, we actually lost both matches last year when we won the Championship. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Mike/Henrique/McKerr M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon F: Hamilton/Constantino Back to the starters today. Mike and Henrique at DL. 8': They're in a 5-3-2 and sitting pretty far back. I switch to a Control strategy to try to draw them out. 11': We are in total control so far but of our 6 shots 4 are blocked. 26': A throwin on the right near midfield for us, after a couple passes Gordon finds Constantino with a great pass, he's in the area free... but runs a bit far and the keeper has an easier time blocking his shot than he should have. It was a clear cut chance and he usually scores there with a bit better control. HALF: We see them put a few shots off target to close out the half. We're in full control minus the goals, dammit. 11 shots, but just 2 on target. 5 blocked. They have 6 shots none on target yet and 4 from long range. We have a dominant 65/35 possession edge, we've just got to break them down here. We open the second half attacking, lets try to get more men forward and pressure more and hope it doesn't backfire. 63': After watching Ipswich pass it around forever, unable to break down their defense still, we finally see a shot on target for Bristol City, a strong shot that Capitani does a good job in saving. Corner is cleared easily. 66': Burton in for a tired Adagsmar. 78': Johnson in for a tired Gordon. 80': And there it is!! After more passing and more passing and even more passing McKerr hits Constantino with a quick ball, he turns as his man closes down, gets into the area and scores!! Whew, finally. Now hold it. 1-0 82': We try to give it away, they get a through ball into the area, a clear cut chance... but Capitani makes a great stop! 88': Welsh in for Henrique. 90': Mike with a foul just outside the area... they shoot on the free kick, the wall does its job, it goes behind for a corner. Mills makes the clearance on the corner. that's it! Ipswich 1 : 0 Bristol City A strong performance against a team doing everything they possibly could to secure a 0-0 draw today. Man of the Match: Gordon Donnelly (8.3) Goal: Constantino (8.0) Assist: McKerr (7.8) Notables: Capitani (7.2), Kirkland (7.1), Henrique (7.1), Mike (7.2) I continue to really struggle to get the best out of my wide midfielders. Neil Gordon is so damn talented but he just seems wasted here since we score most of our goals with pinpoint passes from the middle to Constantino instead of great balls flying in from out wide. Adagsmar 6.2, Gordon 6.8 today. It feels great to have our first win of the season behind us and to come out of August with 4 points. |
-- McKerr, Donnelly and Constantino are named to the EPL team of the week.
September Update -- We play on the 12th, 19th, 22nd (League Cup), and 27th. Early in the month are a bunch of international matches. -- The board is pleased with my leadership. Signing Simon Hamiltion is the highlight. Our 2-2 draw with Huddersfield is the big complaint. -- We lost $5.71M last month. We spent $7M purchasing two players in August. As of right now we've lost $1.4M on the year and have a balance of -$5.4M. Usually that'd be awful but we've spent our transfer budget and hopefully the TV Deal allows us to slowly gain cash throughout the year. We're spending $800k/mo more this year than we did in our last EPL season on salaries so that will hurt us but we should still make 2-3M most months I think. -- Stuart Kirkland 8.1 rating in a 4:0 win for England U21's over Sweden in Euro Championship qualifying. -- DC Jonathan Quatey 7.5 rating in a 5:0 Ghana win over Lesotho in World Cup Qualifying -- MC McDonald Mariga 6.9 rating in a 0:1 Kenya loss to Gabon in World Cup Qualifying. Injury Update Lee Burton hurts his heel in training, 8-10 days. He'll miss a match or two. September 12th, 2020 Ipswich (1-1-2, 13th) @ Sheffield Utd (1-1-2, 14th) Sheffield United are 4:5 favorites at their place today, we're 3:1 to get a win here. We're 2-1-10 lifetime against them, we lost twice in our EPL year and in the league cup last season. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon F: Hamilton/Constantino Clive Jackson is back in the lineup, Welsh/Henrique at DC. 3': They work it down the left side, there's a pass in the area... Mills and Henrique are there covering their midfielder Barazite, but somehow they both let him turn around them and get an open look, shot is put into the net, awful defending. 0-1 9': We build up on offense, Mills to Gordon, Gordon to Constantino who is 25 yards out, Gordon cuts into the area, Constantino hits him perfectly, Gordon with the shot, its by the keeper and in! 1-1 17': A classic counterattack, we win a ball in our end, Henrique quickly to Mills, a pass ot Donnelly, he is at midfield and their defense isn't fully back yet, Donnelly with a long ball, Constantino gets behind the defense, into the area and he beats the keeper! 1-2 20': They get a man behind our defense deep in the area, a clear cut chance but Capitani saves! They earn a corner, then a second corner. we clear that one, we try to counterattack but pull it back at midfield and build up on offense. Donnelly with a ball into the area, they clear it out to the side, throwin deep in their end... soon after there's a foul out wide to the left, Gordon with the free kick... headed behind for a corner. Donnelly takes the corner, Constantino heads it... saved. Loooong sequence there. 35': With an eye on mixing things up so they won't always know what we're doing, we change to a Control strategy for the rst of the half. 37': They earn a corner, and its the first time I've seen Capitani make a huge mistake in the 6 yard box. Cross goes to the far post, Capitani tries to dive out to catch it, doesn't get to it and they win the header and score. 2-2 HALF: They are pressuring hard, they shoot 9 times with 5 on target, only 2 from range so they are getting some close looks. They have 63% of the possession and are better passing and heading. We shoot 3 times, all on target, 2 goals. Seems like one where we're destined to lose but maybe we can steal another goal or something! 47': Back to counter attacking. 58': They have a free kick, a couple passes before its sent into the area, a shot from the left side, Capitani has to make a diving save and its a corner. They earn a second corner, then a third. Then we clear it out safely. 68': Guarin in for Hamilton and moves to DMC, 4-1-4-1, Hamilton is playing bad and I want the extra man back. McKerr in for Jackson, he's struggling and I want the experience out there. 77': they have 17 shots to our 6, desperately trying to hang on for a point. 85': Gordon sends a free kick in from 30 yards out, off the crossbar! they clear it behind for a corner for us. That's cleared safely. 85': Defensive/retain possession, get that point! 89': 4 minutes of added time, Contain/play even safer, get that point! We get the tie on the road! Sheffield Utd 2 : 2 Ipswich A very exciting first half and a nail biting second half for me as I keep seeing us make nice clearances and every time a highlight opens up I am hoping we can just avoiding giving up the game winning goal to them. They shoot 19 times, we shoot 7. Not a shot on target in the second half for us, but we got our job done for sure. One of their goal scorers is man of the match. Goals: Gordon (7.5), Constantino (7.4) Assists: Constantino, Donnelly (6.8) The fans are pleased with the draw here. 5 matches, 5 points. Notable: Mills (7.1) Simon Hamilton couldn't win anything in the air, 6 for 14 on headers, he didn't take any of our shots. 5.3 rating there. Clive Jackson 6.1, James Welsh 6.0. Everyone else in the 6.8-6.9 range. |
September 19th, 2020
Nottingham Forest(3-1-1, 7th) @ Ipswich (1-2-2, 13th) They're even money favorites at Portman Road today, we are 11:5 to get the win. We're 4-2-7 lifetime against these guys, a few years in the Championship. The last time we were in the EPL they won both matches. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Quartey/Henrique/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon F: Negredo/Constantino Their star Ivan Popov has 4 goals already, but he's not starting today, Chris Wood is at ST instead, they run a 4-1-4-1. Quartey in for Welsh in defense, Negredo in for Hamilton up front. 13': they try to take it away from us in the midfield as we buildup on offense. Donnelly does a nice job keeping control of the ball and there's a really weird hole in the middle of their defense. Negredo fills it, Donnelly lobs the ball ahead, Negredo runs onto it at about 25 yards out, gets into the area and is able to put a shot by the keeper!!! 1-0 31': A highlight opens with us deep in their end on a break, Negredo crosses through the area, they head away but its a very weak header.. Gordon controls it 20 yards out, passes to Negredo who is wide open about 8 yards out, he turns and fires and scores! He was unmarked but they ahd many defenders back behind him in other spots in the penalty area. Very strange. 2-0 37': We build up on offense, Mills with a great ball into the left side of the area for Adagsmar, a clear cut chance coming in from the left, but its safed. 40': Throwin in their end, taken to Aadagsmar, he passes to Constantino in the left side of the box, he dribbles into the center of the area, dodges a tackle and buries a shot!! Holy crap!! 3-0 HALF: HELLO! We control 55% of the possession, they have 4 shots, all off target. We have 5 shots, 4 on target, 2 clear cut chances, we've gotten our guys in great positions to score and we've finished incredibly well. 46': Defender Jensen with a yellow as we attack right out of the gate. Gordon shoots 25 yards out, off the wall and behind for a corner. 55': Mills with a really stupid yellow card giving them a free kick 25 yards out. Its shot but put so far over its silly. 60': We build up on offense, they try to clear but Quartey wins a ball to keep it in the offensive end. He passes up ahead to Constantino, he's 25 yards out, he turns by his man, into the area and its an easy finish! That looked like Constantino vs a Championship opponent. 4-0 71': Hughes in for Kirkland, Mariga in for Mills, Mike in for Henrique. 75': We have a corner, taken into the area but headed away. Adagsmar recovers the ball, shoots from somewhere around 30 yards out, its a slow bending shot, the keeper dives for it but its placed absolutely perfectly, by the keeper and into the upper left corner!!!! 5-0 77': The shutout isn't meant to be, they get forward and get a cross in from the right, a header is won in heavy traffic and ST Wood heads it in. 5-1 We finish it off after that!! Ipswich 5 : 1 Nottingham Forest Hooooooooly crap! Man of the Match: Constantino (9.1) Goals: Constantino 2, Negredo 2 (8.9), Adagsmar (8.3) Assists: Adagsmar, Donnelly (8.2), Gordon (8.2), Quartey (7.3) Notables: Capitani (7.0), Jackson (7.5), Kirkland (7.5), Henrique (7.7), Mills (7.4) We only shot 13 times today to get our 5 goals. Nottingham Forest have spent 8 of the last 10 years in the EPL. They've never finished in the top 10, they're pretty consistently good for 11th-15th in the league. I'm simply shocked at what we just pulled off. That's 7 goals in 6 league matches for Constantino. He scored his 100th league goal for Ipswich today. |
Hip Hip Hurray Constantino !
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Whoa way for Constantino to step up! And did Negredo just steal Hamilton's starting spot?
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For real. |
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He'll be starting the next time he's rested that's for sure. Both his goals were kinda flukey, he had to finish, but in both cases the man who should have been defending him had wandered off. Since the whole idea a big guy to send crosses in to isn't really playing out(and if Constantino can score like this against EPL level talent there's no reason for me to force the issue) I may try Khan/Constantino a bit more as well. |
-- Five of our team are picked in the EPL Team of the Week after that destruction of Nottingham Forest. Henrique, Gordon, Adagsmar, Constantino and Negredo.
September 22nd, 2020 League Cup 3rd Round Chelsea (EPL) @ Ipswich (EPL) Not surprisingly, Chelsea are 4:6 favorites today, we're 7:2 to get a win. Chelsea are off to a slow start for them this season, just 2-2-2 (the same as us). They're dealing with not just the league cup but the Champions League group play as well, so we can hope to get Chelsea's 2nd team and have a shot. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Mike/Henrique/McKerr M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mills/Johnson F: Hamilton/Constantino We make a few changes since we're on short rest. Mike and Henrique at DC, McKerr in for Jackson at DR, Johnson in for Gordon at MR and Hamilton back in at ST. Drop deeper and play narrower. Chelsea plays a 4-1-2-1-2 with the DMC/AMC so we narrow up a bit to defend that. 8': Johnson in to Mills, Mills to Constantino 20 yards out, he's into the right side of the area and draws 3 Chelsea defenders, one tries a tackle and misses, Constantino to the baseline, passes up to Donnelly at the 18 yard line, Donnelly reverses it to Adagsmar on the left who is at point blank range, their keeper goes down but can't stop the shot, Adagsmar puts it in!!! A beautiful, beautiful goal. 1-0 15': They build up and attack for a good long while but we keep making good tackles to disrupt them, finally forcing a bad shot high. 28': They have 7 shots but 5 are from range and only 1 on target. they earn a corner here but we head it out of the box and they take a long shot that goes miles wide. 38': We continue to do a great job disrupting their attacks, here after a tackle there's a deflection and they get a solid shot from 20 yards out, but Capitani dives and makes a solid save. We clear the corner. They have 14 shots to our one now. 40': A strong Chelsea attack, they get it to a forward just outside the area and have midfielder Alvarez streaking in, good pass and no one comes back to cover him. There's a clear cut chance, Capitani gets to the shot but can't deflect it wide enough, it is off Capitani and into the net. 1-1 HALF: The early goal we got was a thing of beauty, but the pressure Chelsea was able to apply after that was impressive as well. By the half Chelsea has 16 shots to our 2. They only put 3 on target and take 10 from long range but with their talent the long shots are scary too if they start making Capitani dive around to stop them. Hamilton is once again playing pretty poorly. Khan isn't match fit after coming off injury and Negredo is tired too, I could use him but instead I decide to bring Guarin in for Hamilton and drop to a 4-1-4-1. I change to defensive and "retain possession" at least ofr the start of the second half. 57': We attack, cross into the area from the left, Donnelly goes down, and its considered a dive, yellow for Donnelly. 68': They build up on offense, a ball to the right edge of the 6 yard box, Capitani doesn't go after it, he sits on the line, but Balotelli blasts a shot by him with perfect precision. 1-2 70': They attack again, a pass to Balotelli 20 yards out, he turns by Henrique and shoots from there, again perfect precision and Capitani can't sotp it. 1-3 74': Mariga in for donnelly, Negredo in for Constantino, resting them for the next match. Ipswich 1 : 3 Chelsea We caught them off guard early with a beautiful goal, but that just woke them up and they pressured us non stop for the next 82 minutes. Goal: Adagsmar (7.4) Assist: Donnelly (7.0) Notable: Capitani (7.0) Mike (5.3), Henrique (5.8), Hamilton (5.7) struggled today. |
-- Our expectations were to make the 3rd round of the leauge cup and we did that, so the board is pleased with us still.
-- DC Cestor Mike has been our worst defender, and his morale is very poor when the rest of the team is all happy. I tell him I'm giving him a week off (afraid that just benching him due to morale will make it worse) and will drop my DC rotation to Henrique/Welsh/Quartey for now. September 27th, 2020 Wolves(1-1-4, 17th) @ Ipswich (2-2-2, 9th) We're 4:7 favorites today, damn! Wolverhampton are 4:1 to get a win at Portman Road, I guess we've been impressing the bookies. We beat them once and tied once last season in the Championship, in the EPL the year before we tied twice, 2-4-3 lifetime. And yes, for this second at least, we are in the top 10 in the EPL! GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mills/Johnson F: Negredo/Constantino Welsh/Henrique today, Jackson back at DR, Negredo up front with Constantino. 12': Gordon with a shot from out pretty far wide right, keeper has to save and send it behind for a corner, our first on target shot. We earn a second corner, they clear that one out. We have 4 early shots but all from range. 15': The highlight opens with them clearing a ball out of the box, Mills recovers, sends it to Constantino, he gets into the area and shoots, its saved but there's a rebound, Neil Gordon is there, he shoots and its a goal!! 1-0 20': A nice move down the middle, Adagsmar to Mills to Negredo who spots Donnely coming into the area with a nice pass, but they clear it away for a throwin. We build up after the throw but they again clear out of the area when we try to send it in. 30': We are putting a ton of pressure on them, 66/33 possession, only 6 shots but we are winning everything. 35': We build up on offense, Mills ahead to Negredo, he's 30 yards away or so. He stands strong and shrugs off a tackle, Constantino comes into the area from the right, Negredo hits him with a great pass and Constantinio drils a shot far post by the keeper! 2-0 HALF: Somehow Henrique comes out of this half with a 5.9 rating, the rest of the team is 6.8+. We haven't allowed a goal, only two shots, we have 61% of the possession, what could he possibly doing so poorly. 3/13 on headers is it, but I think since we control so much of possession a lot of that is out near midfield or something. Anyway, very strong half, 10 shots to 2, none on target for them. 48': We give up two corners before clearing. Its cleared to midfield, Constantino wins the ball there and charges down the right side, crossing into he area, they head it away. We retain possession but they get it out of there after giving up a throwin to us. 60': Hamilton in for Negredo, Quartey in for Henrique, whose rating has continued to drop despite everyone else playing great. 64': Mills with a yellow. 80': Defend/Retain Possession, no late crap please. 80': We attack from the midfield, Gordon has it out right and lobs a beautiful ball ahead to Constantino, he draws a defender from the middle and slides a pass over to Hamilton, Hamilton into the area and he buries a shot by the keeper! 90% of the credit there goes to Neil Gordon. 3-0 86': Donnelly with a yellow. Ipswich 3 : 0 Wolves A simply beautiful performance from start to finish today. We controlled 59% of the possession over the course of the entire match and only allowed them to take 4 shots, all off target. Man of the Match: Constantino (9.1) Goals: Constantino, Gordon (8.1), Hamilton (7.1) Assists: Constantino 2, Negredo (6.9) Notables: Jackson (7.7), Kirkland (7.6), Welsh (7.2), Mills (8.0), Donnelly (8.1) Henrique is 3/17 on headers today and ends with a 5.6 rating. Welsh has a very solid game and Quartey does well off the bench. A second straight win bumps us to 7th place. If the season were to end today we would qualify for the Euro Cup. *ahem* ok settle down, but it feels great to be getting some wins. |
October Update
-- We play on the 3rd, 17th, 24th and 31st. Sunderland, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton, all but Aston Villa on the road. It'll be very interesting to see our status after this month, our schedule has been easy so far, we've played the 3 teams sitting in the bottom 3 spots. -- Newcastle's Vladimir Weiss is the EPL Player of the month. Cesc Fabregas at Arsenal is 2nd, Ipswich's own Constantino is 3rd! -- Stuart Kirkland is the EPL young player of the month! As good and reliable as he is for me its crazy to realize that he's still only 21. -- Adagsmar's long range goal vs Nottingham Forest is the #3 goal of the month for September. -- The board is pleased with my leadership (pleased!? Just pleased!? We're in 7th bitches!). Signing Alvaro Negredo is the highlight, signing Cestor Mike is the weak point. -- We made a profit of $840k last month. That's not much, but the board isn't complaining about us being a bit over wage budget. October 3rd, 2020 Ipswich (3-2-2, 7th) @ Sunderland(2-1-4, 11th) Sunderland are 5:4 favorites over us today, we're 7:4. Only 4 matches ever against Sunderland, we're 0-0-4, 3:0 losses both times we met last time we were up in the EPL. Sunderland have 3 goals in 7 matches, they're struggling to score badly. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Welsh/Quartey/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon F: Hamilton/Constantino Troy Brown plays for Sunderland. Well, he sits on their bench, he doesn't actually play. I still don't understand why they purchased Brown. Henrique sits today, Welsh/Quartey. Mariga gets a start for Mills, and Hamilton starts up front. 7': They put 2 early shots on target, earning a corner on the second one, but we clear. 9': Donnelly with two quick fouls, the second one sets up a free kick 20 yards out, the wall blocks the shot behind for a corner. Mariga heads out the corner, they recover and shoot very high. 13': Mariga is hurt, he can stay in, Mills will probably play the second half though. 13': Donnelly with a yellow. 20': their star Nuno Gonclaves receives a pass 25 yards out, turns by Welsh and gets their first clear cut chance, but Capitani makes the stop! 23': We earn a corner, its headed out, Mariga follows up with a shot, its our first shot of the match, blocked and its a second corner which they clear. 38': Another ball to Gonclaves, another clear cut chance, this one is off the right post! Whew. 43': Midfielder Fontas with a yellow for a hard tackle as Constantino skips by him. Gordon takes the free kick, crossing towards the far post, Hamilton gets his head to it... off the crossbar, damn! HALF: We got a little bit going late in the half, but its all Sunderland right now and we're quite lucky to be scoreless. They shoot 10 times, putting 3 on target and earning 2 clear cut chances. We shoot 4 times, just 1 on target. They win 85% of their tackles, winning everything in the midfield where we have been getting some occasional breakaways from, Sunderland are getting all of those little advantages today. I use two of my subs at the half. Guarin in for Donnelly who is just committing too many fouls with his yellow and I fear a red badly. Mills in for the injured Mariga. 47': We control and build up on offense, Mills puts a beautiful ball into the area, Adagsmar runs on to it and shoots from 15 yards out... its saved, rebound to Hamilton, he shoots... saved! Damn!! 49': They build up, Gonclaves has it 25 yards out... Kirkland sees something shiny on the ground and stops defending, allowing midfielder Sinclair to hang out behind him until Gonclaves finally spots him, he gets an easy finish... wtf Kirkland!! I think that was just a very, very poor attempt at an offside trap. Very poor. 0-1 67': defender Hutchinson with a yellow. So this just isn't working, we aren't getting anything done here, I decide to get a little frisky. McKerr is in for Kirkland. Gordon AMC, Jackson MR, 3-4-1-2. 85': They earn a corner, its taken to the near post, a header goes into the net.. but the goalscorer is called for a foul. 87': Constantino with a yellow. 90': Awwwwwwwwww, we finally get something going, Guarin to Mills, a great through ball to Constantino for a clear cut chance and a goal... but he's deemed to be offsides. That was a very very close call. Sunderland 1 : 0 Ipswich No one is really great today on either side, one of their defenders earns a 7.5 and man of the match today. Notable: Jonathan Quartey (7.0) Adagsmar with a 6.1, Hamilton a 6.2, Constantino 6.4. Fairly solid defending to keep it 1:0, they shot 22 times and kept the pressure up pretty well. We just struggled so much to generate chances, they tackle so so well and keep us from building up any kind of an attack. Injury Update McDonald Mariga has a turned ankle and is out for 3-4 weeks. |
Injury Update
-- Chris Mason is hurt in training and out for 3 weeks. This is his second significant injury this year. -- Stuart Kirkland starts at ML for the English U21's against Hungary in a 3:0 win, putting up a 6.8 rating. First time Ive seen him used outside of DL. -- Gordon Donnelly earns a 6.6 rating, James Welsh 6.7 as a sub in a 1:1 tie for Scotland against Slovenia in World Cup Qualifying. -- Jonathan Quartey puts up a 7.1 rating for Ghana in a 2:0 win over Mozambique in African World Cup Qualifying. The second round of qualifying in Africa has ended. That was a massive stage with 12 4 team groups, Every group winner and many 2nd place teams continue on. Ghana went 6-0 in their group to advance. McDonald Mariga's Kenya fails to advance. The next round consists of 5 groups, 4 teams each. the winner of each group qualifies for the world cup after home and home round robin play (6 matches total). Quartey's Ghana is grouped with Morocco, Burkina Faso and Benin. It seems they should be heavy heavy favorites. October 17th, 2020 Ipswich (3-2-3, 8th) @ Tottenham(3-1-4, 9th) Tottenham are very slim 6:4 favorites today, we're 13:8 dogs. They finished 4th in the EPL last year and are doing well in the Champions League very early on. Similar to Sunderland we've played them 4 times and never won. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Welsh/Quartey/Jackson M: Burton/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon F: Negredo/Constantino Lee Burton needed a little reserve time action to get match fit and I go ahead and start him today to keep him that way. Mills back in at MC, Negredo up front. Khan is match fit as well and I need to get him some playing time. Tottenham's Jan Molnar is worth $20M, makes $130k/wk and is a great striker. He's got 3 goals in 5 league matches (he's crushing the champions league with 4 goals in 3 matches). He's their biggest threat by a lot. 1': We kick off and build up on offense, but a pass back is intercepted by one of their midfielders. They rush forward and earn a corner, a header comes in off the corner but Capitani easily catches it. 14': We try to build up on offense, Gordon plays a ball in from the right side, it seems like its aimed at Constantino but it bounces ahead and Negredo is able to run onto it at the penalty spot... no one between him and the keeper, but a very poor first touch allows a defender to come in and clear. 25': They have 2 shots, we have none. We are getting forward a fair bit but not getting anything out of it. We are keeping the pressure off the defense. 26': Donnelly makes a great run from midfield to get us into an attack position, he draws a couple defenders, passes to Negredo who shoots from 20 yards out but its wide. 38': Donnelly is having a hell of a match, he's been making some great plays... here Mills sends a ball out right for Neil Gordon, he makes a run down the right and crosses into the area, Donnelly is playing extremely aggressively here and charges in to win a header... its off the crossbar. The keeper leapt for the shot and seems to come down awkwardly, he's slow to recover. The ball comes back into the area, Constantino is there and basically walks it into the net without a challenge from the keeper. 1-0 HALF: We quickly make it to the half and I have to say that the scoreline accurately reflects the play I'm seeing in the highlights. We look great. Tottenham are still sitting on 2 shots, we have 5, 2 on target. We've got 55% of the possession and have been passing extremely well. Gordon Donnelly has looked great, he's made some very nice runs that I don't expect to see out of him to get us in some strong forward positions, and he was attacking hard on our goal. To start the second half I drop to defensive and "retain possession", at least for now. 54': Donnelly with a yellow. That's his 5th and he'll miss our next match. 57': They have a free kick out left, a pass goes to defender Chukwu 20 yardso ut, he shoots, not a lot of pace, it seemed to me like Capitani should have stopped it... but its by him and into the net to tie it up. Steven Mills takes the blame for missing an interception. 1-1 60': Back to our default counter attacking strat. 62': We have a free kick on our end but they win the ball and get forward quickly, there's a strong shot by Molnar from 25 yards out, Capitani has to dive and makes a great save on a shot that was rocketing towards the net. Its behind for a corner which we clear. 71': Guarin in for Negredo, back to DMC, 4-1-4-1. Adagsmar in for Burton at ML. We haven't found a shot this half, they have 8. We see them attack a bit more but we defend well to finish it off and earn a point on the road. Tottenham 1 : 1 Ipswich We didn't take a single shot in the second half. Their goal scorer is the man of the match. Goal: Constantino (7.3) Assist: Donnelly (7.4) Notables: Kirkland (7.2) Jonathan Quartey struggles today with a 5.3 rating, he won 11 headers, more than anyone, but he challenged for the ball in the air 27 times. We hang on to a top 10 spot with a point here, we've got 12 points now, I'm fairly certain that we made it into February before we got 12 points our last EPL season. |
Injury Update
-- Jack Hughes pulls a hamstring in training and is out 3-4 weeks. -- Simon Hamilton has a groin strain and is out 2-3 weeks. October 24th, 2020 Aston Villa(7-0-2, 4th) @ Ipswich (3-3-3, 9th) Aston Villa are even money favorites today, we're 11:5 to get a win. We beat these guys on the road at the very end of our last EPL season, making us 1-2-3 lifetime against them. Only 5 places separate us in the standings but this is a really, really strong team. Aston Villa are led by 32 y/o FC Eren Derdiyok, he's got 5 goals in league play so far. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Johnson/Mills/Gordon F: Khan/Constantino Lots of changes, Henrique back in, Darren Johnson starts for the suspended Donnelly, Adagsmar back in at ML, Matthew Khan gets a start today. 2': They get a shot from 20 yards out right away, Capitani makes a diving save and its behind for a corner. We clear that. 4': We have to fight to keep possession a couple times here but end up getting it to Constantino 20 yards out, he's able to make a turn and get a shot, its actually a clear cut chance, he shoots near post but its saved and turned back for a corner which they clear. 11': They attack quickly, a quick long ball from the midfield into the area for Ismail Sevini, one of their mids, and he finishes nicely. 0-1 14': we have a good shot to get that goal back, Johnson with a through ball for Constantino, his second clear cut chance and this is a really good one, but its saved... I expected a goal watching this one. 20': They try to put it into the area, Welsh heads it out and its sent ahead to Constantino. He pulls up and passes to Mills as our offense sets up. Mills puts a ball into the area from 35 yards out, Khan breaks on it beautifully and has our 3rd clear cut chance of the day... keeper dives and makes yet another stop, damn! 36': Yellow for midfielder Sandro. 40': Constantino has been hurt twice in the first half here, he's got no long term issues but his fitness is way lower than everyone else. He might not finish this one. HALF: Its a very even match, 8 shots for us, 6 on target, 9 shots/4 on target for them. But we generated better shots and we really ought to be in the lead here. Not getting at least one goal out of those looks that we got is a big problem. 48': We counter attack, a pass to Constantino, he sends it over to Khan near the midfield circle, Khan takes off, he dribbles between two defenders and makes a crazy strong run, he's almost in the area... and tackled. I swear that ought to be a red, I'm making umpire ejection motions sitting in my chair... but nope, yellow for defender Long. Gordon shoots and its off the wall for a corner, they clear it. 56': They build up on offense, a pass goes to ST Valpoort 25 yards out, Henrique makes a challenge and fails completely, allowing his man to go by him, get into the area and score. Very poor play by Henrique. 0-2 67': Negredo in for Constantino, Burton in for Adagsmar. I tell the guys to attack, I don't expect much, we've had our chances here and squandered them and that second goal really makes it difficult. 76': We work the ball forward after winning it in defense, Burton to Negredo, Negredo with a brilliant ball from 35 yards out to Khan who cuts by his man. Khan earns our 4th clear cut chance and this one is in, he puts it into the lower left corner of the net and we have a chance! 1-2 83': We have it already working our offense, Negredo spots an opening in their defense and passes a ball for Khan, Khan seems slow to break on it, seems like we could have done better there, they tackle it away. 87': We have a free kick 20-25 yards out a bit wide left, Gordon shoots, its a strong bending shot that the keeper barely gets to... they clear it behind for a corner which we can't do anything with. That's it. Ipswich 1 : 2 Aston Villa Its at least a bit of a positive that we can end a match against a team fighting for a spot in the Champions League and legitimately feel that we were the better team today. We should have won this. Goal: Khan (7.7) Assist: Negredo (6.8) Notable: Kirkland (7.1), Mills (7.1) Matthew Khan was damn good. I'd been wanting to bring him in for awhile now, it took me too long to realize he was very far out away from match fitness and to get him some action on the reserve team. He made some moves there today that he just didn't have in him the last time we were up here. |
Injury Update
-- Steven Mills strains his groin in training and is out 2-3 weeks. -- McDonald Mariga resumes full training, that helps a little to balance out the Mills injury. -- On the 28th Kirkland catches a cold and we send him home for a couple days. He may not play against Everton. October 31st, 2020 Ipswich (3-3-4, 10th) @ Everton(2-3-5, 15th) Everton are even money favorites at their place today, we're 11:5 to win. We're 1-1-2 lifetime against Everton. GK: Capitani D: Mike/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon F: Khan/Constantino Mike starts at DL, Donnelly's suspension was just 1 match so he's in, Mariga too. 7': We've taken a bad free kick and allowed 3 corners without giving up a shot, that's all the early highlights. 20': We have a goal kick, Capitani sends it long, their defenders don't track it well, Constantino receives the ball 20 yards out, his first touch is beautiful, perfect control with a step on the defense, he's into the area and finishes!!! 1-0 24': There have been a *lot* of highlights so far, due to the 7 free kicks and 4 corners that Everton have taken, tons of quick crosses and poor headers off of these set pieces. 6 shots, 2 on target for Everton so far. 28': Make that 9 free kicks and 6 corners... a free kick leads to a corner here, we head the cross out of the area but barely, they recover 20 yards out and Mariga commits a foul, earning a yellow and setting up ST Brian Kelly from a very dangerous spot. Kelly shoots around the wall and into the left side of the net, Capitani had no shot. 1-1 36': Everton's 12th free kick shows up here and I finally go about realizing this isn't going to change and issue the "Stand-off Opponents" order. 46': We build up down the left side, passes between Mike and Donnelly and Adagsmar, Adagsmar sends a ball into the area from 35 yards out near the sideline, its met perfectly by Matthew Khan with a half step on his man, he controls it and blasts it into the right side of the net!! Great pass and solid finish. 2-1 HALF: We manage 5 shots, 3 on target, scoring on both or clear cut chances. They shoot 8 times, 3 on target and the one set piece goal. Hopefully our fouls will be limited going forward without allowing them too much easy access to generate chances. No changes going into the second half. 49': Hey look they earn a free kick 25 yards out, the wall blocks the shot and they earn a corner. Welsh heads it away, they head it back in and Mike goes up for it... and comes down injured. 53': Oh this blows. We clear a ball out of the area, they win it and send it back forward... our defensive line is basically fine except that Cestor Mike has just run back on the field after receiving treatment. That leaves their forward onside a few yards behind Welsh and Henrique... and its an easy finish after the pass comes in. 2-2 53': Burton in , Mike out. 67': A run down the right for Everton, a cross comes to the far end of the 6 yard box, a header... Capitani jumps for it, dunno if he touches it or not, its hard to tell, but it hits the underside of the crossbar, bounces nearly straight down... just over the line and in for a goal. 2-3 69': Gordon with a foul coming in from behind on a man just outside the area, free kick... saved by Capitani and turned behind. Whew. Darren Johnson is in for a tired Mariga, we clear the corner. They send it back forward though and there's a scorching shot by defender Scheepens after Darren Johnson misses a tackle and its by everyone and in... 2-4 74': We build up on offense, Donnely with a ball into the area, a perfectly timed break by Constantino, its a clear cut chance from 10 yards out... but saved, ugh! 92': Yellow for defender Cicman just about 20 yards out going for a through ball with Constantino. Gordon shoots, of the wall and behind for a corner. They clear the corner and that's the end of the match. Everton 4 : 2 Ipswich We were not the better team today, no sir. It was a weird match though, we score off a goal kick, allow a goal entirely because an injured player took the field at the wrong time, have a header hit the crossbar and bounce straight down and just go in... but they were definitely better and earned this one. Goals: Constantino (7.4), Khan (6.9) Assists: Capitani (7.5), Adagsmar (6.9) Giving up 4 goals will make your defense look bad. Jackson 5.4, Mike 5.8, Henrique 5.4, Welsh 6.0, and Burton 5.9 after coming in early in the second half. -- Cestor Mike is out for 8-10 days with the injury he picked up today. -- That concludes a tough month for us with 3 road games against solid teams and a home game against a top 4 team. We only managed one point but we finish the month sitting in 11th place. November won't be much better with 3 teams in the top 6. We do get a home match against Blackburn who are in a relegation position now and we'll see if we can pull than one point out of November. |
I love that whenever it is I happen to log on, there will almost certainly be some Ipswich goodness waiting for me. Good to see Constantino continuing to put up numbers in the EPL, and great to see that Ipswich has a very good chance of staying up here and possibly contending for the title in the coming seasons.
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November Update
-- We play on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. Man U (1st), Blackburn (18th), West Ham (3rd), and Chelsea (6th). -- The board is delighted with my leadership, damn right! Alvaro Negredo is the highlight, Cestor Mike the lowlight. -- We actually lost money last month, $41K. We did play only once at home, our revenue was down $1.5M from the month prior. November 7th, 2020 Man Utd(9-2-0, 1st) @ Ipswich (3-3-5, 11th) Man U are 2:5 favorites today, they are off to a brilliant start without a loss in 11 matches. We're 13:2 to get a win, 11:4 to tie. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon F: Khan/Constantino Kirkland and Quartey start today, Welsh has randomly Poor morale and sits. 12': They earn a corner, taken to the far end of the 6 yard box, a strong header from midfielder Wynter and a goal, we looked quite outclassed on that. 0-1 30': We are forward attacking, Mariga passes to Constantino who is coming in from the right, he's got a great look, shoots, its saved but the rebound falls right to Neil Gordon and the keeper hasn't recovered yet, Gordon easily puts it in!! 1-1 34': We work to win the ball in the midfield and after a good bit of back and forth finally do, Gordon plays a great ball ahead to Khan, he's got a clear cut chance from the edge of the box, but the keeper saves it. 39': We're really taking it to them, two more quick attacks, Gordon with another great pass to Constantino, into the area, he's coming in from the right and has a tough angle, it seems like he could hit Khan coming down the middle, but instead he shoots and its a really weak shot right at the keeper and saved. 40': Clear cut chance #4 as Donnelly finds Khan who loses his man.. but again its saved, we earn a corner but its cleared. HALF: Man that was fun. We seriously took it to them for the final 10 minutes, that was great to watch. I don't expect us to come out ahead (maybe if we had a 3-1 lead from a couple of those chances!), but we are putting up a great fight here. We have 8 shots, 6 on target and 4 clear cut chances, they have 6 shots, 1 on target for their one goal. 59': Henrique picks up an injury and has to leave the pitch for a few minutes. 64': Welsh in for Henrique, Johnson in for Mariga, Henrique injured/Mariga tired. 67': midfielder Parejo with a yellow for a tackle on Donnelly. 78': They're attacking hard this half but our defense is coming up big, they're really only getting shots from long range and haven't put another on target yet. 83': We build up on offense, Jackson ends up passing ahead to Constantino, he's into the area, tackled... its a penalty!! but Constantino is hurt and won't be taking the PK. Neil Gordon takes it instead.. and its saved by the keeper. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. They clear and we recover, Johnson with a through ball, Khan is there and puts it into the net.... but he's offsides... NOOOOOOOOOOOO 86': They have a throwin in their end, a couple passes lead to a shot from 20 yards out, on target... but saved nicely. 88': Kirkland wins the ball from their mid Parejo, Parejo tries ot get it back, but fouls Kirkland, that's his second yellow, he's out! 91': Oh man, Neil Gordon goes down injured... two of their men are hurt today too. The whistle blows and we earn a point! Ipswich 1 : 1 Man Utd Much like the Aston Villa game, we just played one of the best teams in the world and come away from the match with a point... and feel disappointed because it seems like we were really the better team today. But hell, its a spectacular result. Their keeper is man of the match. Goal: Gordon (6.7) Assist: Constantino (6.8) Notables: Kirkland (7.2), Mariga (7.1), Donnelly (7.4) 5 clear cut chances for us, zero for them, including a missed penalty shot in the final 10 minutes. Neither Henrique or Neil Gordon have long term injuries, so we feel quite lucky/happy for that. 12 matches in we have 13 points and sit in 8th place (though a couple teams below us have 11 matches and we'll likely drop to 9th or 10th). We're actually only 6 points clear of Blackburn in 18th for relegation, we play them next though with a chance to widen the gap to 9. Also while its awesome that we're in 8th there is a very clear gap between the haves and have nots in the EPL this year and its between 7th and 8th place. Chelsea 6th with 21 points, Newcastle 7th with 20 points, Ipswich 8th with 13 points. There's a big gap there. |
-- Jack Hughes, Simon Hamilton and Steve Mills all resume full training. None will play vs Blackburn but very nice to have them back, especially Mills.
November 14th, 2020 Blackburn(1-4-7, 18th) @ Ipswich (3-4-5, 10th) We're slim 6:4 favorites today, they're 13:8 to win. Important match for both teams, winning against other relegation candidates is the best way for us to guarantee we stay up. GK: Capitani D: Kirkland/Welsh/McKerr/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon F: Khan/Constantino McKerr starts at DC instead of Henrique who has had a rough time lately. 11': Clive Jackson comes down with an injury, didn't see how, he can stay in and we'll check on him postmatch. 21': We have 3 shots to their 1, a pretty darn slow start. 32': They earn a corner, we clear it out, they try to retain possession... Mariga makes an outstanding sliding tackle to win the ball, it goes right to Khan and he plays it long immediately for Constantino who outruns everyone, gets into the area and easily beats the keeper. Mariga made that happen, so awesome! 1-0 41': I had gone to a standard mindset around the 20th minute, it seemed they were playing real defensive. After scoring I drop back to counter attack again. 47': Mariga gets a yellow for a bad tackle, much like the one he made to trigger out goal, except here there wasn't much upside and he missed pretty badly. HALF: Its a pretty slow match minus the one very quick counterattacking goal we scored. Each team shoots 5 times, we put 2 on target, they put 1 on target. We're seeing a fair number of highlights in their offensive end but we are defending rather well so far. 60': Pretty poor defending, we allow their best striker Griffiths to get wide open in the area, McKerr is too far back allowing him to stay onsides behind Quartey and we don't handle it well, once they get him the ball its an easy finish. 1-1 67': Highlight opens with Constantino attacking, looks like we just won possession and are trying to get forward quickly, two defenders converge on Constantino, one pokes it away but it falls right to Donnelly, Donnelly puts a ball forward to the edge of the box, Khan runs onto it and drills it in the left side of the net! There was a big hole there as they were scrambling to close down on Constantino and got out of position. 2-1 67': I'd already called for 3 subs, Welsh in for Jackson (McKErr to DR, Welsh DC), Johnson in for Mariga and Negredo in for Khan. After the goal I woulda left Khan in, oh well. 76': They have a free kick out left deep in our end, a pass into the area... Neil Gordon brings down his man and its a penalty. PK is taken... Capitani dives and makes the save!!!!! We clear it away. 78': Johnson intercepts a pass near midfield to start our attack, ahead to Constantino, he tries to turn by his man but there's a nice sliding tackle to dispossess him. Gordon recovers the ball and sends it forward again to Constantino, he gets a shot off, its saved... but rebound to Negredo, he follows up well and buries it!! 3-1 We close out the rest of the match easily. Ipswich 3 : 1 Blackburn A nice 2 goal win but it was much closer than that and Michele Capitani made a critical save of a penalty to keep the lead 2-1 late. Man of the Match: Gordon Donnelly (8.1) Goals: Constantino (7.7), Khan (7.4), Negredo (7.1) Assists: Donnelly, Constantino, Khan Notables: Kirkland (7.6) Neil Gordon had a 6.1 rating in no small part to allowing the penalty I would assume. He passed very poorly today as well. Everyone else on the team had a 6.8-6.9 rating. -- This was the last straw for Blackburn, they fire their manager and its speculated that I'll be their next manager if I want the job. I release a statement saying that I'm not. -- Blackburn drops to 19th with their loss. A Wolves win moves them up to 18th. The win moves us to 9th and we're now 7 points clear of relegation. -- Constantino has 11 goals and 6 assists in our first 13 league matches. That's tied for first in the EPL in goals and tied for second in assists. |
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