FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

Originally Posted by law90026

Pace is important at the higher level as well I think. I also had Troy Brown in my game but he was too slow to cut it (it might be different in your game of course!).

I think he may be. Concern about Alex Bruce is so high that Brown is a second thought at this point. I also think Murphy is done. I made a run at Lukasz Fabianski who is 33 y/o and backup keeper for Arsenal, but they just want too much for him. Our scouts rate him as dramatically better than Brian Murphy, but if I brought him on I would be 100% done for the season as far as my ability to acquire players.

[Radii]

We've got 10 matches played, and the teams above us have snagged a few wins here and there to make our situation look really grim. Not that long ago we could get out of the final 3 spots if we could find a win. Now... not so much. Here's a look at the entire league for now:

1. Aston Villa - 11 G - 26 pts
2. Sunderland - 11 G - 24 pts
3. Chelsea - 10 G - 21 pts
4. Man Utd - 10 G - 20 pts
5. Sheffield Utd - 11 G - 20 pts
6. Arsenal - 11 G - 18 pts
7. Newcastle - 10 G - 18 pts
8. West Ham - 10 G - 16 pts
9. Man City - 11 G - 15 pts
10. Southampton - 11 G - 15 pts
11. Blackburn - 11 G - 15 pts
12. Birmingham - 10 G - 14 pts
13. Everton - 11 G - 13 pts
14. Liverpool - 10 G - 13 pts
15. Huddersfield - 11 G - 13 pts
16. Tottenham - 10 G - 10 pts
17. Nottingham Forest - 11 G - 10 pts
---------------------------------------------
18. Wolves - 11 G - 9 pts
19. Ipswich - 10 G - 3 pts
20. Watford - 11 G - 3 pts


There's an epic Ipswich/Watford match coming up in the near future.

[Radii]

Injury Update

-- Zeki Fryers turns his knee in training and is out 2-3 weeks. McKerr just got back to full training so I guess that's a wash? Well, except McKerr doesn't hate me.


-- Man City's backup keeper is younger and cheaper than the Arsenal backup we made a run at recently. They've accepted an offer and we've offered a contract. The Brian Murphy era may be over in Ipswich come January. That deal is in the works as our next match approaches though, more on that momentarily.



November 10th, 2018

Ipswich(1-0-9, 19th) @ Wolves (2-3-6, 18th)

Wolverhampton are 4:5 favorites today, we're 3:1 dogs. The best we've seen on the road in a good while. We're 1-1-3 lifetime against them but haven't played since our last EPL run in 14/15. This one is critical not just in that we desperately need points, but we also need to keep teams like this within our reach.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/McKerr/Brown/Adriano
DMC: Guarin
MC: Mariga/Donnelly
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Wolves dangerman is ST Sam Vokes, he's got 5 goals for them in 11 matches, a 29 y/o striker valued at $10M. He's 6'2" and dominant in the air. I'm worried about that given how poor we've done in the air. We bring two recently healthy guys back into the lineup, McKerr at DC where Fryers was last match, and Neil Gordon is in at AMC freshly back from injury.

We try to counter today as usual.

9': Mariga with a steal in the midfield, their defense is still set though, and playing pretty far back. Khan takes off though and Mariga makes a great pass up ahead. Khan shows solid control of a very pacey pass... but the keeper rushes out and cuts into the angle some. Still, its Khan's 4th clear cut chance in the last 100 minutes of football... and he's 0 for 4 as the keeper makes the save.

20': We give up a corner after an awful pass ahead by Troy Brown is intercepted. We do clear the corner though.

25': They get a cross into the area, a header, not struck hard but its low... Murphy goes down and makes a good clean save.

29': Gordon makes a great tackle to win us a ball as they are forward to attack.. he gets it to Constantino and he's a bit faster than the defenders, he goes out wide, crosses in... and they win the header and clear. We push it back ahead and a shot is blocked to earn us a corner. That is cleared out though.

45': Fredy Guarin is hurt, I'm unclear what happened... but he's got to come out immediately. In the spirit of doing at least some things differently, I drop Donnelly back to DMC and bring in Kang to play MC along with Mariga.

HALF: We're playing well again today. Each team has 4 shots, we've only got one on target, they've got 2 on target. We dominate possession which is extremely rare for us this year, we have a 60/40 edge. We're passing well and passing better than them, they're dominant in the air though. No other changes aside from handling the Guarin injury.

51': Neil Gordon picks up a knock and his fitness takes a huge hit. No long term injury concern here but I'm unsure if he will go 90 now.

56': We give up a corner... oh my dear god. The ball ends up 25 yards out, a hard shot, it looks like its going wide left, deflects off a defender... sails past Murphy... hits the crossbar and goes out to the right where we push it behind for another corner. That was terrifying. We clear this corner out.

62': we've seen this before... the second half starts and they bring the pressure... how long can we handle it? Do we change our mindset? For now we change back to Defensive.

73': Coutts is in for Gordon.

84': We change back to Counterattacking for the last bit, I meant to do this earlier but a highlight free segment pushed us closer to the end.

90': Alex Bruce is in for Coutts, who picked up an injury int he last couple minutes... 5 defenders here as the pressure continues to mount and we have a full 5 minutes of added time.

96': Bruce with a foul about 25 yards out... maybe the last chance, but we clear the free kick.

Finally 97 minutes in the whistle blows, a bit extra time for the home team there, EH?

Wolves 0 : 0 Ipswich

With 9 losses in 10 matches its just nice to get a point here. And after each team took 4 shots in the first half, Wolverhampton shot 12 times in the second half to our zero.

Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (7.8)
Notables: Adriano (7.1), McKerr (7.3)

Kirkland remains our most reliable ball winner in the air and that earns him the rating today.


I see 15 messages after the match... really, sup?

Injury Update

-- Coutts is only out 4-5 days.

-- DMC Fredy Guarin is out 4 weeks with a fractured cheekbone. Ouch!



-- The fans are disappointed today. Nothing but a win eh? And Khan pissed them off, so they wished that Bojinov had started in his place. Just one week ago I got a message that signing Bojinov was my biggest mistake so far this year. Make up your minds!


Ohhh, new keeper inc! That explains a few of the extra messages, and a few more were FA Cup notes. Kingstonian... a part time club below the conference/blue square level... upset League 1 Milwall in the first round. Ouch! They'll be hearing about that for awhile.


Watford picked up a draw in their match too so we're still tied for last in points with Watford. Both of us are 6 points behind Tottenham, Wolves, and Nottingham Forest. Next up.. tottenham at home.

[Radii]

New Signing

Its November 11th and the transfer won't officially take place until January 1st, but we've paid Man City $1.2M + 20% of the proceeds from his next sale for 25 y/o GK Carlos Antonio.

Two notes before we get into Antonio... Chris Mason isn't ready yet. The kid is 17, so that's ok. But he's not progressing at some magical rate that leads me to believe if I can just steal one more year from Murphy that Mason will slide right into my lineup for the next 20 years. Second, I don't think we're squeezing another year out of Murphy. He's slowly degrading, though his key keeper skills are in tact, and he's just not quite up to the standard we need to try to stay up here. I obviously need to make something happen and Alex Bruce is the biggest weakness and will hopefully be addressed as well, but Murphy was the #2 problem as far as our scouts views of how our starters fare at this level.

So with that, Carlos Antonio is coming to Portman Road.

Physical: 16 balance, 18 jumping, 11 agility, 13 stamina, 14 strength

Mental: 18 bravery, 13 anticipation, 16 decisions, 17 concentration, 13 determination

Goalkeeping: 16 Aerial Ability, 15 Command of Area, 13 Handling, 13 Reflexes.

In terms of goalkeeping abilities, Murphy is still better in many areas. Murphy is a better communicator and has better reflexes. Antonio dominates the mental and physical side of things though, Jumping, Balance, Bravery and Decision Making Antonio just has a massive, massive edge.


We've got 9 more matches until January 1st. After those 9 matches Brian Murphy's 9 1/2 year run as the starting keeper for Ipswich will come to an end.


EDIT: Didn't even think to mention it! Antonio got a 4 year contract that will pay him $27,500/wk. Murphy makes $30,000/wk right now.

[Radii]

-- It must have been a slow week on the right side of the defense in the EPL.. I get notice that one of our guys made the EPL team of the week and am shocked to see that its DR Michael McKerr and not DL Stuart Kirkland.

-- I hope I didn't screw up by doing this now instead of waiting until January, but surely the writing is on the wall? I offer Brian Murphy out to other clubs. I can't afford to pay two keepers nearly $30k/wk. I get a ton of offers from teams in lesser leagues around Europe. None in England oddly enough, the Portugese love him I guess, 3 offers from their top league. I won't make much here, just $400,000, but the salary clearance will help allow me to try to bolster the defense a bit more.

-- Tottenham finished 6th in the EPL last year, and they seemed out of place in the grouping at the bottom of the league... a day after our tie with Wolves, Tottenham goes on the road and upsets #1 Aston Villa... I guess that shows what we have to look forward to here.

November 14th, 2018

Tottenham(4-1-6, 14th) @ Ipswich(1-1-9, 19th)

We're huge 13:2 underdogs today, making them 2:5 favorites. Oof.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Bruce/Brown/Adriano
MC: Mariga/Kang/Donnelly
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

30 y/o ST Felipe Caicedo leads Tottenham with 5 goals so far this year, but their scariest player is by far Jan Molnar, valued at a whopping $19.5M and making $120,000/wk, Molnar has 4 goals in 11 starts and has a 7.24 rating so far this year. He's been identified as Tottenham's dangerman.

With Guarin out I decide to make a little change here... I drop the DMC and go with 3 MC's instead, running a 4-3-1-2. I don't think its ideal or a ton better or anything, just trying something different. Kang and Mariga are looking to attack a bit more on the outsides while Donnelly is a bit more defensive minded in the middle.

6': We earn two early corners that go nowhere. They counter after one of them and generate a shot but its a weak one off target.

7': They counter again after we try to get forward, a long ball goes ahead and striker Steur is well ahead of the defense... he shoots and its a clear cut chance here, but Murphy makes the save.

15': After they clear out a corner, we recover and push the ball back ahead, a pass goes to Khan and he takes what is officially considered our first shot, but its blocked nearly immediately and goes out sideways before they recover.

20': They're attacking here and a couple quick passes see them get it into the penalty area... Bruce goes to tackle it and win the ball back for us... and brings down his man, penalty given. Steur takes it and buries it. 0-1

39': We've taken 4 shots now but 3 are from long range.. here a free kick is blocked to earn us a corner... which is cleared right away.

42': We watch Tottenham quickly build up their attack, there's a pass to a man cutting in from the right, he's got a solid look, their 3rd clear cut chance of the day actually, he blasts a shot.. off the far post and out wide, whew!

HALF: Bruce has a 5.3, Adriano 5.7, Gordon a 5.9, Khan a 5.9. Its nasty out there. Constantino is the only one with really bad morale, but a few guys are starting to trend to just "okay" and have me worried. We've got enough injuries that we don't have a ton of subs available anyway, so I just sub out the forwards before they just fall over and start crying on the field. Honestly in the first half Constantino touched it a couple times and seemed like he was just trying to get rid of it ASAP without anything bad happening. Bojinov and Lewis are in for Khan and Constantino. I don't expect any better from them though.

52': Donnelly receives a pass and just shoots from 30 yards out. Its on target but right at the keeper. We've got 9 shots... 7 from long range. I issue the "work the ball into the box" order, at least try guys!

69': Yebda in for an exhausted Neil Gordon. Kang to AMC, Yebda MC. In general I'm happy to see that they aren't getting everything this half, but our attacks aren't pretty.

73': We clear a ball out of our end but they recover, a quick pass back forward, laid off to Caicedo in the area and he's lost the defense... easy easy finish there and this one is over. 0-2

82': They counter after we try a shot and have it saved, and they're just too fast, no, we're there, but, its Alex Bruce again... he just gets dominated on a header way too close as Jan Monar heads a cross into the net from about 7 yards out. 0-3

90': Its just IMPOSSIBLE to score... We build up on offense, Mariga to Kang, Kang to Donnelly, Donnelly with a brilliant controlled run around a number of defenders from the left to the right, and cutting into the area, he's earned us a clear cut chance here, he drives it low to the near post... and the keeper manages to get a hand to it and push it just wide.

92': We earn a corner after that brilliant move by Donnelly. Of course they clear the initial effort but we recover, sending it wide to Donnelly. He crosses in, Lewis heads it down, Kang is there and he blasts it into the net from close range!! I'm not sure if Lewis did that on purpose or not. But we needed a goal so bad, it seems like forever since we scored. 1-3

And that's how it ends.

Ipswich 1 : 3 Tottenham

Their star Molnar is man of the match.

Goal: Kang (7.2)
Assist: Donnelly (6.8) -- so clearly Lewis didn't mean to do that on the assist. It was a deflection leaving Donnelly with the assist still.

Murphy 5.9, Bruce 5.0, Gordon 5.9, Khan 5.9, Lewis 5.6. Bad times, man.


Next up is Southampton before our Toilet Bowl clash with Watford to decide who is the clear worst team in the EPL!

[BYU 14]

Dang, not looking good for staying up. If you don't survive hopefully the cash reserves will help with a quick return.

[BYU 14]

Hey Radii, just curious how or even if you use shouts?

[Izulde]

This scares me if I ever get to the PL.

[Barkeep49]

I agree with those who are suggesting it might be time for a formation change. While Counter/Defensive/Control are all great to adjust, coming up with a formation designed to promote those tactics was something I found very worthwhile. I would say what have you got to lose at this point and doing a midseason formation adjustment, after you work out the kinks and they get used to it, might be helpful? I've not gotten as good of a sense with Ipswitch as I did with Woking what kind of play your players would excel at so I hesitate to offer a formation suggestion, but I think it could do you pretty little harm given your current string. Would really love to see you be able to stay up.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Hey Radii, just curious how or even if you use shouts?

I'll use the play higher up/drop deeper and wider/narrower instructions sometimes based on my coaches pre-game recommendations for my opponent. We don't really have a great target man in the air so if I see a lot of highlights where we are able to get forward but are just having cross after cross headed away to safety I'll use the "exploit the middle" instruction.

Originally Posted by Izulde

This scares me if I ever get to the PL.

Its my first time here, so I'm cool with being in over my head. I'm kinda happy that I'm not just having instant success and have to learn more about tactics and work to succeed, especially given how easy the run has been up to this point.

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

I agree with those who are suggesting it might be time for a formation change. While Counter/Defensive/Control are all great to adjust, coming up with a formation designed to promote those tactics was something I found very worthwhile. I would say what have you got to lose at this point and doing a midseason formation adjustment, after you work out the kinks and they get used to it, might be helpful? I've not gotten as good of a sense with Ipswitch as I did with Woking what kind of play your players would excel at so I hesitate to offer a formation suggestion, but I think it could do you pretty little harm given your current string. Would really love to see you be able to stay up.

I think you're right. When I looked ahead in the schedule and saw games against all the teams around me in the standings I decided to play out those games before making a change. Our upcoming match against Watford will signal the end of that stretch and I'll look to make a change then.

I honestly don't know what to change either. I believe I have one of the not too terribly old "tactics and theorems" manuals that had been put out and I'm going to go back and re-read that, I read it a long long time ago but at the lower levels it didn't matter, I was just able to overpower teams with talent.


I've still got a few million in transfer money I can spend though tbh I wasn't intending to use all of that. At this point i've done nothing but improve the team in mostly reasonable ways. In a couple cases I gave 2 year contracts to guys where 1 year would have been more ideal, but that's it. So if we hit January and we're in dead last and are.. I dunno... 12-15 points behind the 17th spot, maybe we don't use that money and we just revert back to a safer plan of preparing to fall back to the Championship in much, much better financial shape.

Anyway, the reason for diverting off into finances and transfers... without bringing on an extra defender or two drastic formation experiments won't happen. Sylvain Berthet was an accomplished MR when I took over. Adriano is a natural ML. Neil Gordon plays MR. So I've got some options if I want to look at say a 3-5-2 formation or 4-5-1 or something like that. But anything that involves putting midfielders our wide drains the defensive depth heavily. Though scratch a 3-5-2, my only reliable player this year is DL Stuart Kirkland and he isn't flexible as far as where he plays, so we're not putting anything out there that shelves him.

Back to the original short answer. After the Watford game we're absolutely going to be trying some new things. What exactly we're going to try... uhh, I dunno

[law90026]

I'm actually using a 4-1-2-1-2 formation as well, which I suspect is similar to yours.

If you don't have a great target man, maybe make sure all crosses are drilled in (if not already done)?

I make sure my pitch is the minimum size, so short and narrow since my formation doesn't use the wings.

My strikers are played as a poacher and an advanced forward.

These minor tweaks might not be enough to help because, as Barkeep said, it might just be that a formation change is the way to go.

Loving this dynasty though.

[Radii]

-- Brian Murphy demands $7500/wk for us for the rest of the year if he is to accept a transfer out. That'll save me $20k/wk, so I say ok.

-- I make a role change for Gordon Donnely, giving him a defensive role at MC as a deep lying playmaker, asking him to stay further back to help defend and let Mariga and Kang do most of the work up front.

November 17th, 2018

Southampton(4-3-5, 12th) @ Ipswich(1-1-10, 19th)

We're 3:1 to win today, they're 4:5 favorites, a draw 2:1. Southampton has fallen back to the Championship a few times and Ipswich played them during thsoe phases, going 0-2-3 lifetime against them as they pushed right back up each time.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Bruce/Brown/McKerr
DMC: Yebda
MC: Mariga/Donnelly
AMC: Kang
ST: Khan/Constantino

Southampton's ST Tomas Necid has 6 goals in 12 appearances so far this year and seems their biggest threat. His partner up front Daniel Sturridge has 4 goals in 10 matches as well.

6': They get an early chance on a long cross in, a header goes right to Murphy. We get a chance as Khan flicks a ball ahead for Kang who is able to get a decent shot off but its pretty much right at their keeper as well.

8': Kang is fouled about 25 yards out earning us a free kick. Kang is going to take it, lays it off to Troy Brown who takes a bad shot. That was silly.

14' Their ST Sturridge receives a pass near the penalty area, he blows by Bruce and then Kirkland to get a clear cut chance... but Murphy is able to make a stop.

15': We build up, McKerr to Mariga down the right side, Mariga passes to Constantino, hes 20 yards out, he cuts right, by one defender, by a second, he's into the area, earned himself a clear cut chance, he fires it near post... GOAL!!!!! He beats the keeper!!! Oh man what a relief. A great, great individual effort by Constantino and finally he finishes. His first goal of the season. 1-0

26': Mariga with a nice tackle on the right side, we try to start the counter, but a pass back slows it down... we end up moving the ball down the left side and Khan earns us a corner as a cross is blocked. Corner is cleared, we try a couple times to push it back forward but they get it out.

40': They earn a corner, didn't see how. First one is headed back for corner #2. Second one, Mariga heads it away to safety. Khan gets to the ball and sends it long to Constantino, he can't outrun the defense but we save possession. We earn a throw.. and they make a good tackle as we try to get the offense going, they actually get a strong counter attack but Kirkland wins a key header to stop them.

44': We counter hard after a clearance, Kang gets it to Constantino, he's 35 yards out, but he turns by a defender in a great move and sprints towards the area... he's out a bit wide to the right, but he's uncontested into the area, its his second clear cut chance, but this one is saved by the keeper.


HALF: Strong half for us. We had a lot of highlights getting forward and finally Constantino finds a goal. They do earn 2 clear cut chances and can't convert either. We control possession 59/41, they shoot 5 times, we shoot 4. Most shots are on target (4 for them/3 for us). In our highlights Donnelly being further back has been really noticible, Mariga has a 7.5 rating and has made a number of fine plays and Donnelly is a bit back as a safety net and to reset the offense without a much longer backpass. Typically these teams have put massive, massive pressure on us in the second half. We're going to open the half using a Contain strategy just briefly to try to avoid a quick equalizer, expecting a strong, strong attack. We also use the "Retain Possession" instruction to try to keep the ball longer for now.

52': We have a backpass intercepted as we control the ball on offense, they get a quick counter and their man Sturridge gets a long run into the area, we do force him a bit wide for a tougher shot, and Murphy closes his space well and pushes a shot away.

53': They retain possession but shoot wide. Murphy takes the goal kick long.. Their keeper comes out to the edge of the penalty area... but the goal kick isn't quite that far. He has to come out of the area to challenge for the ball, and Khan got out behind their defenders. Khan gets to go up for a header against their now helpless and out of position keeper. He wins it and directs it on target, its in the net!!!! 2-0

53': After the goal we change to defensive mindset, keeping the "retain possesion" option on.

68': Lots of time passes without a highlight... we see one finally and its of them getting forward but putting a shot way over. They're up to 12 total shots now but we haven't seen many of their second half shots.

69': We clear the ball out but they get it back, a pass out wide right, a long cross comes in and I think this is on Troy Brown. He goes to cover the wrong man and leaves Necid wide open at the penalty spot... the cross is to him and he has a free shot on goal and puts it by Murphy. Ugly. 2-1

80': They earn a corner, its taken out to a man 20 yards out, he ends up earning them a throw with a pass out left that we kick out.. the throwin comes into the area but Sturridge commits a foul going for the ball.

81': Kirkland came down with an injury a few minutes ago, I take him out and bring Adriano in. Kang is out, Gordon in as well.

87': We fall back to a Contain mindset to try to kill off the final few minutes.

90': They have a throwin in our end, its taken and quickly crossed into the area... there's a header, Murphy dives for it, its off the crossbar... Murphy is a bit slow to get up, but we get to it first and try to kick it away. Its blocked and one of their men tries a volley but its a very hectic crowded area and he just pops it way over.

93': Alex Bruce goes in hard for a tackle and he hurts himself... there's another minute of extra time and he has to come out right away. That's two defensive injuries and we've already got a couple men down. This is scary. Yebda moves back to DC which he doesn't really play well and Coutts comes in. If both of these guys are out for any stretch of time we are gonna be bringing up some U18 kids. This is real real bad.

With the injury to Bruce 4 minutes of added time turns into 7, but we hold on!! We get a huge win here today!!

Ipswich 2 : 1 Southampton

Man of the Match: McDonald Mariga (8.3)
Goals: Constantino (8.3), Khan (7.2)
Assits: Murphy (7.5), Mariga
Notables: Kirkland (7.3)


Constantino ends a goal scoring drought of 893 minutes.

Khan ends a goal scoring drought of 428 minutes.


The win was really big but man getting Constantino a goal seems like it may be even bigger.


Injury Update

Oh man, Alex Bruce BROKE HIS ARM landing awkwardly as he dove into a tackle trying to help us seal the win late. He's out for 6-7 weeks.


Transfer Out Finalized

-- After promising to subsidize part of Brian Murphy's salary the rest of the year he accepts a deal to go play for Manisaspor, currently sitting in 5th place in the Turkish Premier Division.

They'll pay us $400,000 for Murphy. He'll leave on January 1st, the same time our new keeper will be coming in.


We're still in 19th, but that win helps us out so much. We're 6 points away from 17th, the spot needed to avoid relegation. In a week we play at Watford, the worst team in the league, a chance to win two in a row!

[Radii]

Originally Posted by law90026

I'm actually using a 4-1-2-1-2 formation as well, which I suspect is similar to yours.

Sounds like it is, yeah.

If you don't have a great target man, maybe make sure all crosses are drilled in (if not already done)?

Done! One of those things where I was in the past very rarely looking at detailed tactical settings and need to pay more attention to these kinds of things.

I make sure my pitch is the minimum size, so short and narrow since my formation doesn't use the wings.

I like that advice, if we stick with this going into next season I'll make sure to do this.

My strikers are played as a poacher and an advanced forward.

Same. Constantino is my poacher. I tend to put Rob Lewis in the poacher role as well when he's in, Khan and Bojinov are the advanced fowards.

Loving this dynasty though.

Thanks!

[Radii]

-- Berthet and Fryers are almost ready to come back, that'll help the defense a ton. For our next match though I promote DC Steve Dempsey up from the youth squad. If he has to play he has to play. *gulp*

-- All it took was one goal for Constantino. Morale up from Very Poor to Good immediately.

November 24th, 2018

Ipswich(2-1-10, 19th) @ Watford (0-5-8, 20th)

Ahhh, a team on our level. But its still a road game. They're 5:4 favorites, making us 7:4 to get a win today. 7 years in the Championship together have given us a 4-2-8 record lifetime against Watford. Last year we tied 1:1 on the road and won 2:1 at home.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/McKerr/Brown/Adriano
DMC: Yebda
MC: Mariga/Donnelly
AMC: Kang
ST: Khan/Constantino

Adriano starts at AMR, McKerr at DC. I almost put Gordon in at AMC instead of Kang just to keep them rotating a bit but Kang is playing leaps and bounds better this year... I keep Kang in here. I wonder if I should play differently against a bad team here, but I go ahead and start out in the same counter attacking strategy that hopefully we're becoming more comfortable with.

16': A nice attacking move for us, Donnelly to Mariga who quickly puts it ahead for Kang who is charging in from the right. His shot is considered a clear cut chance... but he just sends it really weakly at the keeper. Poor poor shot.

17': They get forward, a ball goes into the penalty area but its long and over everyone. McKerr is there and should just clear it away, but he controls it poorly... one of their forwards attacks him and steals the ball... he's able to get a free run on Murphy, but Murphy goes down and turns the ball away as he tries to shoot. Whew, Murphy saves the day there.

25': A counter attack for us... McKerr sends a long ball down the left... Constantino is first to it about 35 yards out, and he's got a speed edge on their defense. He pushes forward as their defense collapses, lays a ball off to the trailer, Kang... who takes a really really bad shot, another super weak effort right at their keeper. Whats up dude?

36': We build up on offense and here Kang takes a much stronger shot, its from 20 yards out and the keeper has to dive to turn it away. Corner is cleared but we recover and begin a slow buildup on offense... in the end we can't do anything though, they intercept a pass and clear.

42': They build up on offense, sending it out left over a couple passes, a ball goes into the area, Brown seems like he has a chance to clear it away but misses a header, it comes down to ST Grimes and he puts it into the net... 0-1 Ick!

HALF: Not what we want to see here... we need 3 points dammit. They shoot 10 times to our 6, stats are pretty even but as usual we're not doing well in the air winning just 46% of our headers... do I tell our guys to attack? These guys aren't better than us, could pressure them into mistakes? I go for it, if we lose to Watford we're pretty screwed, so we need to sell out here to get this goal back.

62': Well this just isn't working. All the highlights are theirs. I sub Gordon in for a tired/ineffective Yebda. Gordon AMC, Kang MC, no DMC.

78': We get a couple attacking highlights that go nowhere.

79': They get a corner, we head it away. One of their men recover but Constantino charges and tackles it away. He takes it and begins a run down he right side, Khan sprinting down the middle... they have a central defender heading over to constantino's side and he sees Khan open and onside. He sends a long pass forward from 45 ish yards away. Its perfect!! Amazing long ball from our Poacher. Khan controls it well, is into the area and he beats the keeper easily! Great, great effort there. 1-1

82': We try to strike again, Kang with a nice through ball ahead to Khan, its a clear cut chance but the keeper is able to get down and make the save, turning it behind for a corner. Corner is cleared easily.

There's a lot of back and forth in the final 5 minutes but very little actual shooting. We walk away from this one with a point, something we shouldn't be too unhappy about on the road, but damn I wanted 3 here today.

Watford 1 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (7.9)
Goal: Khan (7.0)
Assist: Constantino (6.8)
Notables: Murphy (7.0), Mariga (7.0)


As Wolverhampton lose today we gain a point on 17th. Wolves in 17th with 13 points, Nottingham Forest 18th with 10 points, we're 19th with 8 points. I scroll ahead. I expect us to be in dead last when January rolls around.

Next 7 matches: Arsenal, Man City, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea

Or, just looking at their rankings: 5th, 9th, 4th, 3rd, 8th, 18th, 1st.

[Radii]

-- Kirkland is named to the EPL team of the week this week.

-- Zeki Fryers and Sylvain Berthet resume full training. Hooray! I move our kid Dempsey back down to the U18 squad where he belongs.

-- Everton offer my assistant coach, Mark Seagraves, their Assistant Coach job. Hey, assholes, leave him alone! He makes $2400/wk, I'm assuming he'll take it... and yep, a few days later he takes the job.

-- I do some searching and make an offer that would actually be a nice upgrade, we'll see what happens.

December Update

-- DL Stuart Kirkland is named the EPL Young Player of the Month!!!! Our first award of any kind in the top division.

-- Constantino's goal vs Southampton is the #2 Goal of the Month in the EPL.

-- The board is still pleased with my leadership, with the increase in stature a positive and the Bojinov signing a negative. Our poor performance isn't being brought up as an issue so I feel ok here.

-- We made a profit of $570k last month. For the year so far we've turned a profit of $15M and have $6.8M in positive cash balance.

New Assistant Coach

Steve Burns was the youth coach at Tottenham. He seems happy to get a promotion up to assistant, and while he is best with youngsters, he's a lot better overall than our old assistant and will only make $300/wk more. The fee we received from Everton for our old assistant will go right back out to Tottenham to bring in Burns. Man Management 14, Mental 13, Tactical 13, Working With Youngsters 18. Determination 12, Judging Ability 16, Judging Potential 16, Discipline 16, Motivation 16. Seems pretty well rounded.


Formation Change?

Do we make a change just for the sake of making a change, or ride what we were doing the last couple matches. I play around with the default tactics and settle on one that we have the personnel for and still basically fits our best players well. We're going to try out a 4-4-1-1. With a more support and defensive oriented midfield, and with a wider formation maybe we'll be a little more sturdy out there? I stick with the default roles here. Donnelly the defensive MC, Mariga the Attacker.



December 1st, 2018

Arsenal(7-4-3, 5th) @ Ipswich(2-2-10, 19th)

Arsenal are big 1:2 favorites today, we're 9:2 to get a win. We've played the 3 times, in a friendly once and twice in our one season rise to the EPL before I took over. All three were losses, no surprise there.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/McKerr/Brown/Berthet
M: Adriano/Mariga/Donnelly/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Constantino

Adriano and Gordon are both naturals at ML/MR. Berthet plays a solid MR as well. We don't really have the depth at ML until we either sign someone new or Jack Hughes comes off his loan in January.

Arsenal runs a 3-4-3. ST Federico Macheda has 1 goal on 4 matches. He recently came from Man U to Arsenal for $7.75M, he had a few 10+ goal seasons for Man U but isn't used as much here. Young ST Bugra Yildirim from Turkey is their star it appears with 6 goals and 5 assists in 12 matches. He's a huge threat. He has more '20' ratings than I've ever seen on any individual player with 5 of them (finishing/first touch/free kicks/heading/composure). He's 21 y/o and valued at $29 million. Cesc Fabregas is still their star midfielder at age 31, valued at $33 Million.

We'll try to counter as usual here.

2': Solid highlights for the first 2 minutes as they kick off and work it up the field before settling for a 30 yard shot that Murphy saves. We then control and show some nice passing to get it up the field, a low cross in from Kirkland is headed by Constantino but wide.

4': We have a throwin deep in their end but its taken away and they counter. A long ball goes down the right to Bugra Yildirim... instead of passing though he drives up the right side, into the area and blasts a shot with incredible pace by Murphy. Crazy. No chance. 0-1

22': We're just watching them shoot from everywhere. Every shot is terrifying whether 10 yards away or 40. We've shown some nice passing here and there and hey maybe we'll steal a goal but for now I'm just hoping to get this one over with.

27': Mariga pulls up from 25 yards out and sends a shot in, our first one on target, but right at the keeper.

28': Defender Thiam with a yellow tackling Constantino about 30 yards out on a goal kick. Gordon with a very solid shot from that distance, but their keeper is so good, its a strong shot, bending to the left side of the net, but their keeper makes it look easy.

41': They have a free kick on their end of the field, their keeper takes it and they set up their offense... Fabregas gets forward and crosses it in from the right side, ST Macheda is there with the header and its on target and past Murphy. 0-2

HALF: We do manage 10 shots though 8 of them are from range. They shoot 16 times, putting 8 on target. We're just so massively outclassed here.

50': Berthet is tiring quickly in his first game back from injury. I move McKerr to DR and put Fryers in at DC.

59': Fabregas a yellow.

67': Defender Wilson with a yellow.

70': Coutts in for Adriano, Khan in for Constantino.

84': Kang makes a really nice pass up ahead from inside our own end to Khan, Khan is able to keep possession deep in the right corner while our offense fills in, he finds Gordon in the area and he's got a great looking shot if he wants it, I'd dare say a likely clear cut chance... that he turns down to try to make an extra pass to Donnelly which they intercept.


Ipswich 0 : 2 Arsenal

Murphy 7.0, Mariga 7.2 today. Berthet struggled with a 5.8 and Gordon a 6.3, bad day for the right side of the pitch I guess.


I liked our passing in this new formation, it seemed like we had more space to move the ball around, but against Arsenal, they're so much more talented than we are, its hard to really judge anything.

[Radii]

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw

-- Chelsea draws Arsenal, one of them is going out way early here. Ipswich on the other hand lucks out and draws BS Premier Side Yeovil. It'll be at their place but uh, we ought to be able to handle that. This match will take place in early January.

Training Updates

We receive a number of updates on player training during a coaches meeting.

-- Stuart Kirkland has improved his Marking (11), Compsoure (12), Creativity (13), and Balance (13). The note also mentions strength, which has actually skyrocketed from 10 to 13 over the past 12 months.

-- Constantino's Off the Ball rating is up to 15. He's reported to have made Strength gains as well.

-- Rob Lewis also is reported to have improved his strength, which is only 7. He hasn't really shown a ton of progression lately.

-- On the other end of things, Alex Bruce shows a drop in pace, stamina, strength, work rate, and tackling. He's olllllllllllld.

-- Hassan Yebda and Adriano show drops as well.


December 8th, 2018

Ipswich(2-2-11, 19th) @ Man City(5-5-5, 10th)

Man City are 4:7 favorites today, we're 4:1 to get a win. Ouch. We're 0-0-4 lifetime against them with two matches in the EPL and 2 FA Cup matches.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Fryers/Brown/McKerr
M: Adriano/Mariga/Donnelly/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Constantino

Man City are led by 26 y/o ST Alipio who has 7 goals in 14 matches. No one else has more than 2 goals for them. The most he's ever scored in an EPL season is 14 goals.

Fryers starts at DC today, McKerr DR, Berthet gets a rest, he's still getting back on his feet really. Counter counter.

7': They get the ball to Alipio about 20 yards out and he just turns straight around Troy Brown as Brown goes in for a tackle. We don't cover well after that mistake and he's got a free run into the area and a clear cut chance that he won't be missing. 0-1

28': They have a free kick from 30 yards out. Midfielder Modric takes it, its fired strong towards the right side of the goal.. Murphy is able to get a hand to it, but it just slows it down, he can't redirect it away... its a goal. 0-2

30': We try to attack, Donnelly has it near midfield and passes ahead to Constantino. He's 35 yards out probably, and his man over-commits just by a step.. Constantino shows a burst of speed and blows by his man. The defender recovers but isn't fast enough to fully recover and get back in a position to maek a tackle... Constantino into the area, a shot near post, and its by the keeper!!!! Great effort! 1-2

33': Kang with a foul about 25 yards out, their man Modric takes it... and does the same thing as before. WOW. Two free kick goals in one match. Bent around the wall and easily into the right side of the net. 1-3

39': Fryers with a yellow.

HALF: Lets just get this over with.

48': A random shot from 35 yards out by midfielder Fabio Vezzoli is aimed perfectly into the upper left corner of the net and Murphy is just helpless. That's 3 long goals today. 1-4

54': We counter after winning a ball in our own area... a long ball is played forward and Kang makes a great run and is behind the defense... its only our 4th shot here but our second clear cut chance as Kang shoots... and puts it right on the keeper. Wow. Weak, weak effort.

63': Midfielder Vezzoli with a yellow.

67': Khan in for Constantino, Guarin (just back from injury) in for Adriano, Berthet in for Gordon at MR.

71': We build up down the left side, Guarin passing to Kirkland to Kang, Kang with a through ball into the area, Khan runs onto it beautifully, its our 3rd clear cut chance and Khan looks sure to score here, the keeper can't get to it if he hits it properly near post... but he sends it wide... guh.

74': They get back on the attack while I'm typing all that up above, there's a through ball and ST Jovetic breaks through our defense and gets a point blank shot that he buries. 1-5

79': Carlos Tevez comes in off the bench and piles on, a nice little give and go sees Tevez get open in the area for a trivial finish. 1-6

83': We have a throwin in their end, Donnelly receives it, passes to Berthet who passes to Mariga at the edge of the penalty box out right a bit.. Mariga fires one in.. and beats the keeper! 2-6


Ouch!!!

Man City 6 : 2 Ipswich

What can you say when the other team scores 6...

McKerr 5.7, Kirkland 5.5, Brown 4.0, Fryers 4.9, Adriano 5.9, Kang 5.9. Constantino put upa 7.0 and Mariga an astonishing 8.0 given the rest of the team.


With wins by some of our relegation competition things start to look worse. 17th place has 16 points, 18th place has 14 points and we have 8 points. We're 16 matches in, getting close to the halfway point of the season. I have a feeling that come January we're just going to be saving our money.

[RPI-Fan]

I think you are being a little too negative. When you are trying to avoid relegation, things can change very, very quickly. A quick two game winning "streak" can completely change things, even if you had lost 10 in a row prior. Keep on keepin on. I would not be afraid to spend money to stay up come January.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

I think you are being a little too negative. When you are trying to avoid relegation, things can change very, very quickly. A quick two game winning "streak" can completely change things, even if you had lost 10 in a row prior. Keep on keepin on. I would not be afraid to spend money to stay up come January.

Would you be setting a goal for how close you need to be to that coveted 17th spot to go for it, or is this pretty much a "use your resources and give it your best" no matter what idea? Right now we're 8 points back, if we could keep it that close I think I would 100% agree with you (whether its because we sneak out a few more points or the teams above us lose a lot). But what do you think if we fall 12 back or worse by the time the transfer window opens back up?

Thanks for the advice!

[Radii]

-- Records are set! But not in a good way. 8 goals total in our 6-2 loss is a new Ipswich record for total goals in a match, surpassing a 4:3 loss to Sheffield Utd years ago in the Championship.


December 15th, 2018

Newcastle(8-6-2, 4th) @ Ipswich(2-2-12, 19th)

Newcastle are 1:2 favorites at our place today, we're 9:2 to get a win and 13:5 for a draw. Back in 09/10 Ipswich beat Newcastle twice in the Championship, but have lost 3 times since, 2-0-3 lifetime.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Fryers/Brown/McKerr
M: Adriano/Mariga/Donnelly/Berthet
AMC: Gordon
ST: Constantino

ST Edinson Cavani is their star striker with 11 matches played and 6 goals/2 assists. He came to Newcastle from Palermo for $30 million 2 years ago. In Seire A he had 9 seasons in a row with 10+ goals, scoring 15+ in 7 of those. AMC Marek Hamsik has 4 goals for them, as does AMC Vladimir Weiss.

I make a couple changes here today, giving Berthet a start at MR and Gordon at AMC. Kang has poor morale and has really missed some easy chances for us recently, I give him a break.

5': Midfielder Hamsik with a yellow for Newcastle.

11': We pass the ball around the left side, Donnelly centers it to Gordon between 20 and 25 yards out... he rifles a shot in, and its just wide right, a really strong shot for Gordon there, good try.

20': They take their first shot of the match, crowding the area but taking a tough shot from a tight angle to the left, Murphy saves it but can't hold, it goes behind for a corner. They get a header off the corner but its high.

29': We have a throwin in their end, its crowded down there, Constantino receives a pass but there's not much he can do, he passes to Berthet who shoots from 20 yards out, he finds a small opening in the defense to get the shot thorugh, but it sails left, pretty close there too.

35': Newcastle is up to 6 shots with 2 on target, they just put one wide from 25 yards out after a long buildup.

42': Midfielder Torric with a yellow fouling Gordon. Free kick is blocked and they win possession. They end up with a shot from 30 yards out but its way high.

HALF: Well the downside is that we took 7 shots but couldn't put a single one of them on target. The upside is that it felt like we really played a solid half, doing a good job forcing them to shoot from distance and clearing balls out of the area. This is where we usually fall though as these great teams just turn it on in the second half to beat us and there doesnt seem to be anything we can do about it. I drop back to straight defensive to start the second half.

48': They try to get their early goal here but midfielder Mata was very clearly offside on a through ball.

49': Berthet lobs a ball over the defense that Constantino gets to first, he can't get into the area but he makes a good run down the right to earn us a corner. They clear the corner but we get a throwin to try to build up again... Mariga settles for a really really long shot, its on target but not threatening.

57': Berthet with a yellow.

60': Having weathered a bit of an early storm I change back to counterattacking.

63': We dodge a bullet as Troy Brown misses an interception and allows one of their men to get a shot off in the area, but he ssent it way high.

66': Khan in for Constantino, Guarin in for Adriano.

76': And there it is, they build up and get it to star Cavani. He turns by Troy Brown *sigh we need better DCs*, he pulls up and fires from the edge of the penalty area and drills it into the left side of the net. 0-1

87': A long ball ahead to Khan, he's got two defenders all over him but he shows amazing control, he recovers the ball and pushes forward, making a move to skirt by one defender, he's into the area and takes a shot, keeper makes a good save. Khan gets to the rebound on the right sideline, he takes another shot from a near straight side angle, he puts it on target but its just too narrow an opening, keeper is able to stop it too. Great effort but that was a lot to ask.

That'll do it. We really played a solid match today, but we're just not good enough.

Ipswich 0 : 1 Newcastle

Their goal scorer is man of the match.

Notables: McKerr (7.1), Mariga (7.2)

Brown slumped down under 6 when he allowed their goal but he recovered to a 6.4 rating. Good try guys. I'm pleased with what I saw today really.

[Radii]

December 18th, 2018

Aston Villa(10-4-3, 1st) @ Ipswich(2-2-12, 19th)

Aston Villa are 4:6 favorites today making us 7:2 dogs. The top of the EPL has been pretty crazy with Aston Villa, Chelsea and Sunderland all sitting in first on occasion, Newcastle is right there as well. For this moment, Aston Villa are in first and they're going not going to want to waste a chance to get 3 vs us. We played well against Newcastle and I'd love to see another good effort today.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Fryers/Brown/McKerr
M: Guarin/Mariga/Donnelly/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Constantino

30 y/o ST Eren Derdiyok has 10 goals, 6 assists and 5 man of the match awards in 15 games for Aston Villa. ST Gabby Agbonlahor is a 32 y/o who has 7 goals in 15 matches. Neither of these guys start against us today. Instead ST Arsenio Valpoort (4 goals/13 matches) and Nathan Delfoouneso (3 goals/4 matches) get starts today. They're resting their stars for us, but the backups are pretty damn good!

A few changes for us on short rest today. Guarin ML, Gordon MR, Kang AMC.

3': They push straight down the pitch attacking, earning a throwin in our end, and getting their first shot in that Murphy saves and turns behind for a corner. We clear the corner well, they try to push it back in, we clear again and they get a throwin.. this time they move quickly to the right corner, a cross comes in and their man Valpoort wins a header at the 6 yard line as Murphy tried to rush out for it but didn't get there first... once he wins the header, easy goal. 0-1

13': We work it around on offense, play breaks down a bit with some confusion at the edge of the penalty box after a weird deflection, Constantino is able to scoot free, Kang finds him and he's got a great look... but tries to run in a bit closer before shooting and allows them to close down.. he needed to fire right away there. We do earn a corner, taking it short to Fryers, and he turns by his man really nicely, shoots, and the keeper has to dive to save this one... it deflects away but they are first to it to clear. Close!

24': Each team has 3 shots, 2 on target at this point. The early goal allows them a huge advantage here but we are doing some decent things out there I think. Kang's shooting really, really worries me though in this formation. His shots are quite simply weak. I don't know if this is a morale/settling issue or if its something he's just not good with... after some nice buildup we get it to Kang 20 yards out and he just pokes it weakly at the keeper.

35': They earn a corner with a long run down the right as we miss two tackles before finally blocking a cross back for a corner. We clear the corner well.

40': We earn a corner, they clear it out of the area but we push it back ahead to Gordon, he puts a cross into the area, Mariga gets up for the header, but puts it over.

46': We counter, a long ball to Constantino, he gets down the left and puts a pass into the area... they have two defenders there, but the pass makes it through. Mariga runs on to it and strikes it from about 8 yards out with his first touch... he's closely covered but he hits it cleanly.. right to the keeper. That could have so easily been a truly beautiful goal. Doh!!

HALF: The early goal skews things so much. But again I feel alright about our play. We're passing well, building up some chances, this is a very, very good team and we're generating some solid chances here. We have 8 shots, 4 on target. They have 12 shots, 4 on target. One thing I see today is that we're actually winning more headers than usual, and the gap isn't as bad, 56% for us, 60% for them.

47': We build up nicely down the left side, Guarin and Donnelly controlling it well as they try to close down... Donnelly puts it into the area for Kang, he's a bit out left, tough angle... but again, weak, weak shot. Its wide, not struck with any pace, this is really bothering me.

51': we again control the ball well in the offensive end, passing around looking for an opening... Mariga makes a very nice pass into the area, its just a little far... Gordon tries to run to it but their keeper comes out and covers it first.

56': Short highlight, after a pass Donnelly blasts one from 20 yards, its too high though.

58': They counter attack against us, a quick run down the left, a cross from midfielder Treacy, striker Drediyok(subbed on for one of their forwards) gets above Fryers, heads it down into the ground and its under a diving Murphy and in. That one hurts, because it was really fun to watch some solid, controlled play for the first 10 minutes of the second half. 0-2

66': Coutts in for Gordon.

70': Yebda in for Mariga. We play a lot on short rest here and I need these guys when we aren't 2-0 down.

72': Donnelly with a yellow.

76': Constantino receives a pass and begins a run, he's got 3 defenders tracking him, but he is controlling it really well... he's brought down outside the area, and defender Rinaudo picks up a yellow. We earn a corner as the free kick is blocked by the wall. Corner is cleared easily.

81': Yebda with a pass to Constantino, he's got it 20 yards out, he turns, he beats his defender, into the area and its a clear cut chance... he shoots near post... but the keeper saves and its wide.


Nothing the last 10 minutes.

Ipswich 0 : 2 Aston Villa

Much like Newcastle, I'm really not too disappointed here. Yeah, we need to steal some points, but just watching the highlights it feels like we have better control in the midfield and generating chances the past couple matches.

Kirkland and Guarin both put up a 7.0.

[law90026]

If you have budget, might as well spend it on PL quality players. Even if you go down, the additions may make it easier to go back up next year.

Also, you get parachute payments for bring relegated so finances shouldn't be a huge concern if you can re-promote after 1 year back in the Championship. Based on your previous season, it shouldn't be that bad imo unless you lose a lot of players after being relegated.

Alternatively, perhaps youngish championship level players that have the potential to develop to PL quality, since they might be cheaper.

[RPI-Fan]

I like law's idea of buying the best Championship players without tons of regard to cost (assuming they are young-ish). Also, maybe try and swoop into some more obscure Eastern European leagues and spend some money on the top up-and-comers there. You aren't going to get to have nearly as big of a transfer budget next year, so I'd spend a lot on transfers now and perhaps try to keep wages lower by giving huge signing bonuses (which I think comes out of the transfer budget).

[Radii]

Thanks for the tips guys. And as we near the end of December, the teams above me haven't pulled away yet. Still a few matches to go but I'm sold on the idea. We'll be looking at picking up a new DC in January, maybe two if I can afford it, but we only have $4M in transfer money remaining so we'll see what we can find. Also remember I do have a new keeper coming in on Jan 1.

Also, up and coming DLC/ML Jack Hughes is coming off loan Jan 9th. I'm not going to loan him out again and will make a push to get him playing time with the 1st team the rest of the year as a backup. He's the 3rd highest rated player for Hull in the Championship over the course of his loan, he's doing better than I expected.

[Radii]

-- Nottingham Forest approach my current Youth Coach and offer him a job as their youth coach. I guess that means I did a good job hiring my youth coach! They're not having a good year and are serious relegation candidates as well but I assume he'll take it.

-- A few days later our youth coach does leave. We get $85,000 in compensation.

-- I bring on a new youth coach quickly, and damn there are guys out there better than ours that I just didn't work hard enough to go find at each spot. For $100k and $1200/wk I sign the youth coach away from West Brom, a team that demoted down to the Championship last year. Dan Ashworth is a Regionally known coach. 20 Working with Youngsters, 17 Man Management, 14 determination, 16 discipline, 14 motivating. Seems really strong!

December 23nd, 2018

Ipswich(2-2-13, 19th) @ Liverpoo(10th)

"Ipswich Face the Impossible" is the headline as the odds are revealed today. Much like Man City and Man U, Liverpool aren't at the top of the table right now but they're still ridiculously talented. They're 1:6 favorites at their house making us 10:1 to win and 5:1 to even get a point. We play again in 3 days against Nottingham Forest, the team currently in 17th. We're going to rest anyone who needs it this match to make sure we're up for the next one.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Fryers/Brown/McKerr
M: Guarin/Yebda/Newman/Coutts
AMC: Kang
ST: Lewis

Liverpool are led by Lauri Dalla Valle, a 27 y/o worth $19M who has 9 goals in 12 matches. Midfielder Moussa Sissoko is identified as their dangerman, he's worth $28M and is 29 y/o. He's got a 7.27 rating in 21 matches across all competitions wit 4 goals/5 assists.

I use 3 backup midfielders to give Mariga and Donnelly and Gordon a rest today. Rob Lewis gets the start up front.

3': Reserve MC Dave Newman rockets a shot from 20 yards away after about 4 passes of buildup that just goes over.. that would have been a wild goal.

15': Next highlight is theirs and not until 15 minutes in... Sissoko puts it forward, Fryers clears but its back to Sissoko, he puts in another through ball and midfielder Mollo is there, free in the area for a clear cut chance. Murphy can do nothing about this one. 0-1

24': They work the ball up the left side, there's a pass from one striker to the other, Andy Bailey takes a pretty soft shot from 18 yards out but its inch perfect into the right side of the net... seems like Murphy should have been able to get that though, it just wasn't struck that strongly. 0-2

42': Goal #3 comes as their star striker Dalla Valle rockets one.. i dunno, its like a QB scrambling right and throwing back across his body, he receives a pass cutting to the left side of the area, he's still going that direction, strikes it with ridiculous pace into the right side of the net by a diving Murphy. 0-3

HALF: Lets get this one over with.

58': Wheeeeeeeee. Rob Lewis controls a ball 35 yards out and reserve MC Dave Newman is streaking to the goal, Liverpool are... well probably bored, but they're also really out of position leaving a giant hole that Newman can get in while remaining onsides. Lewis puts the ball forward, Newman runs onto it and he shoots from 15 yards out and sends it by their keeper!!! 1-3

74': Their midfielder Mollo gets his second goal, receiving a pass 20 yards out a bit out to the left of center, cutting inside and rocketing a shot by Murphy. 1-4

85': A backup striker gets one from 25 yards out almost the exact same way as goal #4, turn to the right, launches it, Murphy can't stop it. I'm hoping our new keeper will do a better job at stopping these types of shots. 1-5


Liverpool 5 : 1 Ipswich

The good news is that we injured 3 of their players including their keeper during the match.

Goal: Newman (7.2)
Assist: Lewis (6.5)

Murphy 5.7, Kirkland 5.1, Brown 5.8, Fryers 5.1, Guarin 5.3, Yebda 5.1, Kang 5.6.

[Radii]

A few teams are still sitting on 18 matches but most teams, including the bottom 5 teams in the league, are all at 19 matches played and thus the halfway point of the season.

Mid-Season Standings

1. Aston Villa - 40 pts
2. Chelsea - 40 pts (1 less match played)
3. Arsenal - 36 pts
4. Newcastle - 34 pts (1 less match played)
5. Sunderland - 34 pts (1 less match played)
6. Man Utd - 32 pts
7. Sheffield Utd - 32 pts
8. Man City - 30 pts
9. Liverpool - 29 pts (1 less match played)
10. West Ham - 28 pts (1 less match played)
11. Blackburn - 27 pts
12. Tottenham - 23 pts (2 less matches played)
13. Southampton - 23 pts
14. Birmingham - 21 pts
15. Everton - 20 pts (1 less match played)
16. Wolves - 17 pts
17. Nottingham Forest -16 pts
--------------------------------------
18. Huddersfield - 16 pts
19. Ipswich - 8 pts
20. Watford - 6 pts


The top of the table is pretty crazy given that the teams that typically qualify for European Competitions haven't changed too drastically over the last decade. Man City, Man U, Tottenham, Liverpool are all struggling to get up to that top 5-7 range. Of course there's a long way to go for them too and they can buy what they need I'm sure.

League Leaders

Goals

1. Eren Derdiyok - Aston Villa - 11
2. Brahim Ba - Birmingham - 11
3. Lauri Dalla Valle - Liverpool - 10
4. Tomas Necid - Southampton - 10
5. Sam Vokes - Wolves - 10

Matthew Khan leads Ipswich with 4 goals in league play which puts him in a tie for 31st in the league.

Assists

1. Sergio Canales - Chelsea - 9
2. Daniel Parejo - Man Utd - 7
3. Moussa Sissoko - Liverpool - 6
4. Bugra Yidirim - Arsenal - 6
5. Emilio Nsue - West Ham - 6
6. Eren Derdiyok - Aston Villa - 6

We've got a few guys with 2 assists to lead us.


Average Rating

1. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 7.76
2. Eren Derdiyok - Aston Villa - 7.68
3. Tomas Necid - Southampton - 7.61
4. Sandro - Aston Villa - 7.58
5. Adam Hiousek - Man Utd - 7.53

McDonald Mariga leads us with a 6.99 rating which is tied for 87th in the league.

Kirkland 6.85, Khan 6.78, Donnelly 6.78, Constantino 6.78, Guarin 6.71...

On the other end, Zeki Fryers 6.24, Alex Bruce 6.31, Neil Gordon 6.35, and Troy Brown 6.39 are struggling the most.

Champions League Update

The group stages are over and we've got 16 teams left in the tournament. All four English teams are still alive. We've got a powerhouse matchup between Chelsea and Barcelona in the round of 16. Arsenal faces FC Bayern from Germany. Man City vs Benefica and Man Utd vs M Haifa from Israel.

The EURO Cup is down to 32 teams and in its first knockout stage as well. Liverpool, Newcastle and Tottenham have all made it to this stage.


The only other big thing going on is the qualifying for the 2020 Euro Championship. That's still in its very early stages though with less than half of the group matches played.

[Radii]

Contract Updates

We have a large number of player's contracts expiring and are kinda unsure how to handle many of them going forward! As has been suggested, if we demote back down we won't have as big a transfer budget next year.

-- DLR/ML Adriano is a one year rental, he's gone. ($23,500/wk currently)

-- DMC/MC Hassan Yebda is a one year rental, he's gone. ($13,000/wk)

-- DC Alex Bruce is gone. ($10,750/wk)

-- MC Paul Coutts will turn 31 before next year and he makes too much for a backup with his skills, he's gone. ($17,250/wk)

-- DLC Zeki Fryers hates being here, despite seemingly having what it takes to be a decent backup. He's gone. ($23,000/wk)

-- DR/MR Sylvain Berthet is struggling some this year and has been hurt some this year, but he's still a clear starter when fully healthy. He'll take the same rate he makes now plus a signing bonus of $375,000. He wants to add 3 years to his deal. I try to get him to take a smaller signing bonus but he's a guy we're going to want to keep.

-- MC Gordon Donnelly makes about as much as anyone on the team, but he's 24 y/o and putting up one of the better and more consistent ratings this year, we need him. He wants a relegation release clause of $10M that I try to remove from the offer.

-- ST Matthew Khan makes $49,500/wk. The switch to the 4-4-1-1 has been weird since it keeps either Khan or Constantino on the bench. But he's still one of my best players and I feel I ought to hold on to him. I don't make an immediate offer though.

-- AMC/MR Neil Gordon wants $24,500/wk, that's a small raise from the $20,000/wk he makes now. I lower it just a bit.

-- ST Rob Lewis is really cheap but again I wonder if I should maybe sell him. He's not a target man type with poor jumping and poor heading, so he fits the same type of striker role that Constantino and Khan do without the speed. I'm seriously considering trying to sell him since he just doesn't get the first team reps for me. He's not going to improve to be better than Constantino or Khan and if we drop back down we'll be back in a spot where loaning people in becomes reasonable again. I go ahead and offer him out to other clubs to see if I can make a bit of money. I probably should have done this last year as soon as I brought in Constantino.


-- We're actually letting go more than I expected.

December 26th, 2018

Nottingham Forest(3-7-9, 17th) @ Ipswich(2-2-15, 19th)

We're 7:2 to get a win here today, 9:4 to draw, they're 4:6 favorites. They beat us 2:1 in the season opener at their place. They've spent some time in the championship and we are 4-2-6 lifetime against them. They're the first team out of a relegation position currently and we're 8 points behind them, so I think its fair to say that this match is of critical importance at this stage in the season.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Fryers/Brown/McKerr
M: Adriano/Donnelly/Mariga/Berthet
AMC: Gordon
ST: Constantino

ST Ivan Popov leads them with 6 goals.

Back to a starting quality midfield today, Berthet starts at MR, Gordon AMC since Kang has been so vexing.

4': Shit. So so frustrating First highlight of the match, long pass upfield, a quick pass to the middle, Kirkland is just caught out completely and midfielder Aqbarov gets behind him, receives a pass and puts a shot by Murphy. Just instant failure. 0-1

5': We try to attack but they win a ball in the midfield, there's another long pass up ahead, this one down the left side and McKerr isn't there! Come on guys! Its their second clear cut chance of the first 5 minutes but this time Murphy gets in front of it and makes the stop. They earn a corner... then a second corner... then a throwin before we clear.

16': We have a free kick 40 yards out to the right. Gordon sends a cross into the area, Mariga gets up in space, gets his head to it, and drills it by the keeper!! Great goal!! 1-1

19': We counter attack after winning a ball in defense, a long ball up to Constantino, he runs out wide left and waits for help, passes back to Kirkland, Kirkland with a low ball into the area, Neil Gordon is there and he redirects it goalward... and scores!!! The keeper dives to his left but can't stop the shot. 2-1

42': We have one offensive highglight otherwise we see 20+ minutes just fly by.

44': They have a throwin in our end, a hard low cross is played into the area after the throw by Fryers heads it away. They push it back forward, a pass going to ST Popov, he turns and spots their scorer Aqbarov cutting in from the right again... its on Kirkland again, the ball goes forward, Kirkland loses his man, and he buries it low by Murphy. 2-2

HALF: I don't see how Kirkland doesn't have a 5.0 rating, but he's not taking the blame specifically for these goals apparently. When I watch it looks to me like he's losing sight of his man and getting burned. I've got us playing a deep line to try to specifically prevent that type of thing but they're just beating it. We got two really strong goals though to make this a really exciting match so far. They're definitely the aggressor, with 8 shots, 3 on target and 3 clear cut chances. We've got 3 shots, 2 on target for 2 goals. Possession is exactly 50/50, stats are all even with each team right around 60% in the air, an area where we've struggled.

51': Donnelly picks up a yellow.

54': Berthet tries a shot from out right, its blocked and we earn a corner. They clear very easily. We win the ball and pass back to Murphy to reset the possession.

56': They win the ball and build up down the right side, their star Aqbarov burns Kirkland again, this time making a run deep down the right side before sending a cross in. Troy Brown takes the blame for missing a header here and midfielder Chris Curtis heads it by Murphy to lose not only our lead but draw as well. 2-3

64': Midfielder Curtis with a yellow for Nottingham.

66': Guarin in for Kirkland. Guarin ML, Adriano back to DL. I would have done that at halftime but I honestly don't think Adriano will do any better. With 3 goals being driven by the same guy though I feel like I have to try something.

68': Berthet comes down with an injury.. he can stay in but we'll see how bad it is later.

74': Kang in for Berthet, Kang AMC, Gordon MR.

77': Troy Brown FTL. We win a ball on the right side, McKerr passes to Brown. Brown stands around waiting for someone to pass to, but their striker Popov attacks him aggressively, steals the ball away, rushes the keeper and shoots, scoring very easily. 2-4

77': Khan in for Constantino.

82': Yellow for midfielder Muamba. Gordon with a free kick from 35 yards out but its into the wall.

That'll do it.

Ipswich 2 : 4 Nottingham Forest

That was a tough one. Kirkland ended with a 6.9 rating but I felt it should have been much worse. Our DC's however got what they deserved.

Goals: Gordon (7.7), Mariga (7.5)
Assists: Kirkland (6.9), Gordon

Murphy 5.9, Brown 5.3, Fryers 5.7, Adriano 5.8, Constantino 5.8.


Nottingham Forest move up a place. We are now 8 behind Huddersfield for 18th and 9 behind Wolves for 17th.

[Radii]

-- Donnelly accepts his new offer.

-- Neil Gordon rejects his and I go ahead and offer him what he wants.

-- Berthet signs his deal


-- We're finally getting out of December, this is our last match before our new keeper arrives (actually we play on 1/1 so if we're lucky there will be an AWESOME travel period where new guy hasn't arrived yet and Murphy is gone. Lets watch!)

-- That last match must have taken a lot out of us. For the first time I start to see a lot of poor and very poor morale amongst the team.

December 28th, 2018

Ipswich(2-2-16, 19th) @ Chelsea(12-4-3, 2nd)

Yea, @Chelsea. December can't end soon enough.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Bruce/Brown/McKerr
M: Guarin/Yebda/Mariga/Berthet
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan

Guarin starts for Adriano, Alex Bruce is healthy again and starts for Fryers, Khan gets the start up front today. Yebda starts for Donnelly. All of these but Khan are done for morale.

1': 30 seconds in they move straight down the middle of the pitch and take two shots, the first hits the crossbar and bounces back into play. The second hits the right post and bounces out.

7': ML Fredy Guarin is hurt... ugh. He can stay in but he's noticibly slowed.

10': Mario Balotelli receives a pass just inside the penalty box and blasts a shot that Murphy has no shot at. Alex Bruce got turned around trying to intercept that and was looking the other way as the shot went off. 0-1

27': Backup ST James Holland gets his first goal of the year, a give and go with midfielder Gourcuff and a shot from 15 yards out. 0-2

38': Midfielder Gourcuff shoots from 20 yards out, McKerr is right on him and trying ot stay in front of him but he just turns and shoots like McKerr isn't even there. 0-3

47': Gourcuf gets his second goal. 0-4

HALF: I'm sympathetic to my team's plight and wish them mercy.

60': Fryers in for Brown, Coutts in for Berthet, Kang in for Gordon. We play again in 4 days, rest up!

74': They put in a cross to no one, their whole team seems to be forward, Guarin picks up the ball and sends it long to Khan. Khan pushes out left and runs down to the corner, he gets a nice cross in around a defender trying to block him off. Their keeper goes after the cross, misses, Mariga wins the header and scores! 1-4


Chelsea 4 : 1 Ipswich

Not much we could do there, of course, nice to get a goal. Mariga continues to put up stellar ratings when the rest of the team fails, he's got an 8.0 today with his goal. He's the only one above 7 today. McKerr 5.9, Kirkland 5.7, Brown 5.0, Bruce 5.1, Berthet 5.9, Gordon 5.5.

[Radii]

Injury Update

-- Fredy Guarin is going to miss 2 weeks with an injured elbow.


-- Neil Gordon signs his adjusted offer.


Transfer Out

Rob Lewis is going to Cardiff. We got $1.1 Million for him, exactly his value. When I first took over at Ipswich he looked like a nice young prospect, and hey he still is. But we aren't really playing him very much and we've moved to a 1 striker formation for what will very likely be the rest of the season here. Lewis just doesn't have a place here, and hasn't since we signed Constantino. The next striker we bring in, whether its at the EPL or Championship, we need to look for a target man type I do believe.


January Update

-- We play on the 1st, 13th, 19th, and 29th in league play. We play in the FA Cup on the 5th, assuming that we win there we'll play again in the FA Cup on the 26th.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. The fans are pretty unhappy with a lot of individual play they're seeing, but they love McDonald Mariga, as do I. Troy Brown's inability to do anything out there is a serious concern.

-- We lost $510k last month.

-- New Keeper Carlos Antonio arrives at Ipswich... injured. LOLZ. He'll miss a couple weeks and will be covered by backup keeper Dominic Johnson.


January 1st, 2019

West Ham(10th) @ Ipswich(2-2-17, 19th)

West Ham are 1:2 favorites at Portman Road on new years day. We've played them twice this year, losing 3:2 at their place in August and losing 1:0 at our place in the League Cup.

GK: Johnson
D: Kirkland/Bruce/Brown/McKerr
M: Adriano/Donnelly/Mariga/Berthet
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan

Emilio Nsue I remember from the first match with West Ham. He's got 9 goals on the year.

Dominic Johnson starts for us today *gulp*. We counter and drop our back line deep.

7': After winning a ball in defense a long ball goes from Kirkland up to Adriano.. he's behind the defense, he's not quick but he's got a ton of space here... he gets to the edge of the area, not considered a clear cut chance but its a pretty good look... keeper makes the save though.

12': Mariga tracks way back in defense to make a key tackle after one of their men beats Troy Brown and is about to challenge our inexperienced keeper. Corner for them, but we clear. They push it back forward and earn a second corner. We clear this one out wide for a throwin and finally clear to safety.

24': A couple throwins for us in their end... we get a shot from Mariga from pretty long range, blocked for a corner, they clear easily.

31': Couple more highlights of shots going over the bar, Donnelly got a decent look for us but put it high and they got one off a free kick.

34': A solid counter for us, a long ball to Constantino... he's a long way out and shoots before getting into the area and before they can close down.. keeper makes a nice save.

HALF: We see a few more highlights for both teams but the only shot is a really long effort by Mariga that had no chance. We've played well this half but we'll see if we can weather the storm in the second half, we've been here before. This is a team we could stand a reasonable shot against at home though. We have 8 shots to their 5, 3 on target to their 2. They're controlling possession pretty well 57/34, stats are even across the board except for headers where we're actually winning more than they are, that's a refreshing change. We've done a good job packing it in and protecting our keeper today so far.

46': They start with the ball but Mariga charges and wins it right away... a pass up to Constantino, then out wide to Berthet, back to Mariga who fires from the edge of the box... blocked for a corner. They clear the corner.

58': Gordon with a free kick from 20 yards out, didn't see how we earned it. He tries to bend it around the wall but it hits the last man and goes out for a corner. They clear it but we send it back forward... a cross into the area is headed away though, no luck.

72': They build up and get a man deep down the left, Brown tackles a ball away for a corner before he can try to pass it in... we win the ball away on the corner and try to counter, getting it quickly to Constantino. We pull it back and set up our offense though... and do nothing. Ah well.

76': Kang in for Berthet, Kang AMC/Gordon MR. Yebda in for a really tired Mariga... I hesitate making this change as Mariga has been a part of nearly all our goals lately, but I hope fresh legs work.

89': A highlight opens with us having a throwin near their end line... we back it up and try to build up... Kang shoots and puts it 1000 yards wide.

94': They earn a throwin in our end, getting nothing but a speculative shot from 20 yards out that goes high.

That's it, its been a long time since we got a point and we'll happily take it.

Ipswich 0 : 0 West Ham

This was a very beatable team but we are on such a long losing streak that a draw is good. Their keeper ends up man of the match.

Notables: Kirkland (8.1), Mariga (7.2), McKerr (7.5)

[Radii]

-- I don't see any clear DC targets that are currently transfer listed. I go back through the work my scouts have done so far this year and look to see if there are any reasonable targets that they've found, no obvious luck there either. Guys that would help me and that I can afford are too valuable to their teams, etc. I do a search for a couple stats (determination/marking/pace all 13 or better) and scout a ton of guys to see if I can find something. I look at guys available for loan and scout a few as well.

-- A few days go by and scouting reports start to come in. I make a number of offers but all of these guys are liked by their current teams so we're hoping to see some counter offers or something.

-- Hull ask to extend the loan for Jack Hughes. I reject the offer. I want him playing for me the rest of the season.

January 5th, 2019

FA Cup 3rd Round

Ipswich(19th, EPL) @ Yeovil(12th, BSP)

We're slight favorites today, 1:8 to get a win, har. Yeovil are 12:1 underdogs. We're 2-0-0 lifetime against them, once from the league cup and once in a friendly. Hopefully we can take out some of our frustration today on them.

GK: Johnson
D: Kirkland/Bruce/Brown/Berthet
M: Adriano/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Constantino

Berthet back to DR today, gordon MR, Kang AMC.

7': We shoot early and often, 5 shots so far, Constantino got us a clear cut chance in the 2nd minute and couldn't finish it, blasting it at the keeper.

18': Our second clear cut chance has Donnelly putting a ball into the area that Adriano runs on to, but he puts a shot wide.

35': 12 shots to their 1, Mariga and Gordon just both missed shots high from fairly close range.

HALF: Right, struggles to score, of course. But we're all over them and its just a matter of time.

50': Mariga with a long bending shot that is just wide.. he's shooting from range far too often, I tell the team to work it into the box.

58': Gordon with a free kick from 25 yards out, just wide.

62': Adriano is hurt. He can stay in.

64': We build up down the left, the ball comes in to Kang, he puts a through ball into the area and Constantino is first to it. Its a classic poacher's goal that Constantino is so good at vs players who aren't as physically gifted. 1-0

66': Berthet with a yellow.

75': Coutts in for Adriano

77': Kirkland sends it forward for Constantino, its pretty crowded but he finds space for a shot from 18yards out.. the keeper parries it away, but Kang is first to it and buries the followup before the keeper can recover. 0-2

79': We'll defend to make sure we hang on to the lead.

92': We're passing it around and just killing clock when Kang turns and shoots from 25 yards out, its struck with good pace, the keeper dives, gets a hand on it, but cant stop it, its through and into the back of the net! 3-0

Yeovil 0 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Kang Soo-Jin (8.9)
Goals: Kang 2, Constantino (8.4)
Assists: Kang, Constantino, Berthet (8.3)
Notables: Kirkland (7.7), Brown (7.2), Bruce (7.2), Gordon (7.1), Mariga (7.1), Donnelly (7.3)


This is what was supposed to happen of course, but I'm glad we got the job done.


-- We receive $110,000 for this win.


-- Adriano is out 4-5 days.

[Radii]

New Signing

-- With this, we're done for the year. Welcome 32 y/o DC Henrique to Ipswich. He was valued at $1.5M but was in the first team at West Brom, a team trying to hop back up into the EPL after being relegated last year. They accepted $4.1M after a few offers went by. We scouted a large number of guys that were as good or better than Troy Brown, Henrique came with the "quality signing" and "a lot better than our best DC Troy Brown" praise, and was really the only guy we looked at that we had a chance to sign. All other offers rejected flat out.

Henrique is getting up there in years a but he's retained his physical abilities very well so far. All of them are 14, except Jumping/Strength are 15.

Mental: Positioning 17, Determination 14, Decisions 14, Composure 15, Bravery 15

Technical: Heading 16, Marking 15, Tackling 14

Henrique is going to make $37,500 for the next two seasons.

-- Henrique has spent the last 5 years with West Brom, so he has four years of EPL experience with them, playing 30+ matches every season and putting up ratings in the 6.8-7 range in all of those seasons, including the one where they relegated back down.


-- I'm not sure I've mentioned it but our board has a mandatory 25% Promotion Raise/Relegation Drop clause. I'm not allowed to alter it in any way. I assume at least, from my reading of the FM11 thread, that this is unique to my board and not a game wide thing. So all these contracts and signings and all have a 25% salary drop in them should we demote back down.

-- With this, we'll be playing the rest of the season with 3 new players. Keeper Carlos Antonio, DC Henrique, and DLC/ML Jack Hughes. Antonio and Henrique appear to be decisive upgrades, while Hughes is a very promising youngster that will provide some first team cover and get some experience.

[Radii]

FA Cup 4th Round Draw

We get a home game against Leicester in the Championship. A solid draw with 32 teams left in the field, we had about a 50/50 shot of getting an EPL team.


-- Our "other" young defender, Clive Jackson, goes out on loan to Reading, the team leading the Championship. Jackson isn't as promising as Hughes.

-- Carlos Antonio resumes full training the day before our Huddersfield match.

January 13th, 2019

Ipswich(2-3-17, 19th) @ Huddersfield(5-2-15, 18th)

Huge match, both Huddersfield and Ipswich have gone 9 matches in the EPL without a win, they're now in 18th while we're still in 19th. They're 5:4 favorites at their house, we're 7:4. We lost to them at home in an early season disappointment and want revenge. We're 8 points behind them. Severely lacking in match fitness since he wasn't playing for Man City and at 74% fitness, I think I'm going to give him a game with the reserve squad before bringing him up. I remember starting Lynch right after an injury once and he basically couldn't move and got beaten in horrible ways.

GK: Johnson
D: Kirkland/Henrique/Brown/McKerr
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mariga/Berthet
AMC: Gordon
ST: Constantino

24 y/o ST Ibai Platas leads them with 7 goals in 14 matches. This is their big signing as they promoted up to the EPL with us last year, the type of one player splash we didn't make. They bought him from Reading for $14.5 Million. He's only 24. Sam Collins has 5 goals in 16 matches and is their second leading scorer.

We debut Henrique at DC next to Troy Brown. McKerr starts at DR. Berthet MR, and Jack Hughes gets the start at ML today with Adriano coming off an injury. Gordon AMC. We'll counter on the road here.

1': We start with the ball and build up nicely, Hughes centers it to Gordon who shoots from 20 yards out, its saved by the keeper but he placed it pretty neatly towards the left.

2': They get their two strikers up near hte 18 yard line and a through ball gets through to Platas, Johnson comes out, and McKerr recovers quickly to tackle behind, whew. That looked like a goal when the pass went through.

10': they move the ball forward after we have a free kick cleared, a pass goes to ST Collins, Platas cuts into the middle and he hits him perfectly, Henrique is running with him but a step behind perhaps... shot, its a clear cut chance, and they get a goal out of this one, Johnson can't make the stop. 0-1

26': We build up down the right side, a pass goes from McKerr to Mariga who has a shot from 25 yards out, its on target and struck really well, the keeper stops it but there's a rebound, Neil Gordon is first to it and he blasts it by the keeper before he can recover!! 1-1 I really feel Kang doesn't get that goal the way he's played lately.

33': They are attacking, Henrique clears a ball out of the area but they get it back forward, there's a shot from 25 yards out, Johnson tips it over for a corner... they earn a second corner.. then Kirkland clears. They recover and set up their offense, eventually Neil Gordon makes a nice tackle and sends it long.

HALF: After that last clearance I mentioned at the 33 minute mark.. we fly to the half without another highlight. We're tied up, Troy Brown must have taken the blame for that goal, he's got a 5.5 rating. Constantino is struggling and has a 5.9. Henrique and Hughes are both doing well. Huddersfield have 10 shots but 5 are from long range. We have 5 shots... but 4 are from long range. I'm going to tell out guys to try harder to get it into the area, we can do better. Very even match!

47': They earn a corner nearly right away, a shot is blocked behind, we clear though. Its cleared to Constantino who begins a long run down the left... he crosses in, Mariga can't win the header though.

52': After 3 more highlights showing Huddersfield attacking, they earn a corner here. We're able to clear it.

55': They have another attacking highlight, here they get a pass ahead to Sam Collins, he runs by McKerr, Troy Brown misses a tackle... and he's into the area and finds an easy goal. Brown... sigh. 1-2

63': Adriano in for Brown.. Hughes to DC, Adriano ML. Khan is in for Constantino.

79': I tell the team to attack, 10 minutes to get a goal.

Though we do take a couple long shots in the final 10 minutes mostly we see them with the ball passing it around while we desperately chase. Frustrating that all of our play against the other bottom feeders have come up losses.

Huddersfield 2 : 1 Ipswich

Goal: Gordon (7.1)
Assists: Mariga (8.3)
Notables: Kirkland (7.0)

Troy Brown with a 5.1 rating today. Henrique 6.8, Hughes 6.7. Both played pretty well.


We now sit 10 points behind 18th and 11 points behind 17th.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Radii

The good news is that we injured 3 of their players including their keeper during the match.

Dang -- quite the cutthroat, aren't we?

[Radii]

-- McDonald Mariga is named to the EPL team of the week this week. He's really playing so much better than anyone else on the team right now.

January 19th, 2019

Sheffield United(7th) @ Ipswich(2-3-18, 19th)

They're 4:7 favorites today making us 4:1 to get a win, 5:2 for a draw. We lost to them back in September 2:0.

GK: Johnson
D: Kirkland/Henrique/Hughes/McKerr
M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mariga/Berthet
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan

Luca Vanelli leads them with 8 goals, but they have a lot of guys out today, as reported by our pre match scouting. Maybe that'll help us out!

I didn't really intend to start Jack Hughes too much but Troy Brown has to go. Lets see how the Hughes/Henrique combo works out. Guarin at ML and Khan starts up front today for the struggling Constantino.

4': Hughes picks up an early yellow for a foul out near the midfield.

7': They earn a corner as a shot is blocked... we clear easily though. They've got a couple early shots and all the early possession and aggression.

19': We get a couple attacking moves, but end up with long shots wide every time. Guarin just put one pretty close... but I'm not seeing any attempt to get closer, I go ahead with the Work Ball Into Box instruction.

28': They earn a corner after controlling possession forever. Henrique with a nice header to clear, they recover and work their offense some more... a couple minutes later we win it, they're being real patient, this must be the "control" strategy in action here, I want to say we just watched an offensive highlight for them that lasted ~5 minutes of game time.

33': Free kick for Sheffield. They take it and send a shot around the wall, Antonio dives for it, its off the post... and back into play where Vanelli is the first man to the ball, he puts it into the empty net. 0-1 "The Ipswich players are bereft of confidence" ... well yeah.

HALF: It looks like Jack Hughes took the blame for that goal, he's at a 5.7. Khan is struggling too, I haven't seen him touch the ball yet. We take 6 shots, 4 from long range and all are off target. They shoot 10 times, putting 5 on target. They control 60% of the possession. Just frustrating.

52': We win the ball after a corner and send it long, earning us a throw in... we build up on offense but they've really packed it in. They head out a cross, we recover and earn a corner. Gordon takes it. They're able to clear but we recover again. As we try to build up the attack again they win the ball. Nothing remotely close to a shot happened there.

71': We have a free kick 25 yards out, Gordon bends it around the wall... and it hits the side netting. Close.

80': Constantino in for Khan, Yebda in for Donnelly, Kang in for Gordon. We will try to attack the final 10 minutes.

87': We've got a throwin in their end.. after one pass Mariga shoots from 30 yards and its way over.

91': We've got a throwin in their end.. cross into the area and they head it back for a corner. They clear the corner and keep the ball. That'll do it.

Ipswich 0 : 1 Sheffield United

We were bad today. Not a single shot on target. 8 of our 11 shots were from long range. Poor, poor effort.

Kirkland put up a 7.0. Hughes 5.4, Khan 5.6.


Huddersfield win again and we are now 14 points out of the 17th spot, with 14 matches to go.

[Simbo Klice]

Wow. I guess the Premier League is a huge step up, but what's a dynasty without a little adversity?

[Barkeep49]

I hope that the losing season doesn't deter you. It sounds like you've been financially prudent and just clearing away that persistent red ink should give you a better footing to go back down and come back up for good.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

I hope that the losing season doesn't deter you. It sounds like you've been financially prudent and just clearing away that persistent red ink should give you a better footing to go back down and come back up for good.

Yeah for sure. There's a good chance I'll get impatient and try to really fly through the rest of the season sometime soon, but I'm not discouraged at all. Once the result is nearly in the bag, I am ready to progress ASAP.

I've been reading the SFraser posts mentioned i n the FM11 thread, and I already knew there was a ton I didn't know about soccer and about the game, but holy crap I have to say I didn't know exactly how deep one could go in this game!

There are really simple things I didn't do this season, just because the game is so deep I didn't think about it. I probably could afford to get really solid upgrades at every coaching position to help our development. The two times I had coaches hired away I easily found *much* better for a reasonable price. The more I play with a team with money the better I should get at it!

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Dang -- quite the cutthroat, aren't we?

Hah, I would try to say "well that's not how I meant it" but I dunno how else I could have possibly intended that statement to be taken

Just a bit of "oh yeah, well screw you for kicking our asses!" on the way out I suppose.

[Radii]

Injury Update

GK Carlos Antonio tears a groin muscle running after a ball in training... he's out for 2 months. Holy Christ!!!! I go back and look at his injury history, he is 25 years old after all... and he'd never been hurt a single time until this year.

-- With Antonio hurt I decide to call up my young keeper Chris Mason. I'll play him in the FA Cup and may give him a couple starts in the EPL just to get him some high level first team time.

-- Liverpool make an offer of $11.25M for DL Stuart Kirkland. I turn them down. Kid is 19 and is handling the EPL as well as anyone else on my team right now. I want him to be here when we break through and stay up for good.

January 26th, 2019

FA Cup 4th Round

Leicester(4th, Championship) @ Ipswich(19th, EPL)

We're 4:5 favorites today at home to beat Leicester. We're at the bottom of the EPL, they're in contention in the Championship, but hopefully we can get the win here even without our keeper.

GK: Mason
D: Kirkland/Brown/Hughes/Berthet
M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Constantino

Henrique can't play since he played for West Brom in the FA Cup already (I assume that's the reason). We attack at home today.

2': Mariga with a yellow.

5': Kang gets a good look from 18 yards out, but surprise, weak shot. Easily saved.

12': Defender Rosenior with a yellow for a foul about 25 yards out. Neil Gordon takes the free kick, he blasts it around the wall and into the right side of the net! 1-0

14': Constantino receives a pass way out to the left, he runs towards the area, gets into the area and shoots towards the far post... if on target its an easy goal, but, he sends it just wide.

24': We have a throwin in their end, its quickly passed into the area, Mariga has it and he lays it off for Neil Gordon who has a clear cut chance from the penalty spot, he scores!! 2-0

41': FC Andy Carroll with a yellow for Leicester.

46': Defender Barr with a yellow for Leicester

48': We earn a corner, Gordon takes it and sends it to Troy Brown. He dodges a tackle and shoots, keeper dives, stops it but can't hold it... Constantino is there for the rebound and puts it into the empty net! 3-0


HALF: We shoot 11 times, putting 7 on target. They shoot 4 times, putting 3 on target, nothing worrisome or anything but Mason did have to make a few saves for us and did well. We've got 60% of the possession and we're in great shape here. Yebda in for Donnelly and Coutts in for Mariga at the half to rest guys a bit.

55': They counterattack after we lose the ball in the midfield, a long ball goes ahead to MC Cia, he's way behind our defense, gets a free run into the area and scores easily. Don't give this back guys! 3-1

70': Constantino makes a great run and is fouled out tot he right just outside the penalty area. Gordon quickly takes the free kick, passing to Jack Hughes 20 yards out up top, he shoots, its deflected... Constantino races to the loose ball, he's there first and from a really right angle near the end line ot the right of the goal he shoots and puts it in! 4-1

70': Fryers comes in for Kirkland. Yebda got hurt at some point here, no idea when or how.

92': We build up quickly on offense, Coutts has it about 25 yards out, makes a short run forward, draws two defenders and lays it off to the left for Kang, he's wide open now, runs into the area and sends it to the right post, its by the keeper and in! 5-1

Ipswich 5 : 1 Leicester

That's what I wanted vs Yeovil. Lets have some fun and get lots of goals.

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (9.6)
Goals: Gordon 2, Constantino 2 (9.3), Kang (7.8)
Assists: Gordon 2, Constantino, Mariga (7.0), Coutts (6.8)
Notables: Berthet (7.6), Kirkland (7.2), Hughes (8.1), Brown (7.3), Guarin (7.2)

Mason with a 6.8.

2 goals and 2 assists from Neil Gordon today, awesome stuff!


-- We receive $150,000 for the win today.

[Tellistto]

Wow, what do you have to do to get a 10 rating in a game if 2 goals and assisting 2 others won't do it? That's just one awesome game for Gordon!

Tell

[Radii]

FA Cup Fifth Round Draw

-- We're down to 16 teams left in the tournament. We're the first team drawn... there's a few Championship teams still left.. there's also the #2 team in the EPL, Aston Villa. That's who we're going to be playing in the next round.

New Signing

I thought I was done here with only $400k left in transfer money, but we did have one more goal that came up awhile ago. I search for South Korean players, I don't really care about talent here, but Kang Soo-Jin is still having troubles settling in in England. I find a kid who came up through the Tottenham youth system and was cast off and looking for a new home. Welcome 18 y/o DC/MC Park Sang-Ho to Ipswich. He "has the potential to be a decent player". But mostly he's spent a good number of years in England and we really hope he'll buddy up with Kang Soo-Jin and make him happier.

Physical: 13 pace, 13 accel, 15 stamina, 13 agility
Mental: 19 teamwork, 14 work rate, 10 determination, 7 anticipation, a number of 6-10 ratings, composure of 6.
Technical: 12 marking, 10 tackling, 9 heading, 8 technique, 13 dribbling

I'll play him some to try to keep him happy as well.


We've got one more match then we hit February. I'm going to start speeding up the matches and may speed up the reporting as a result.

-- One other personnel note. Between league and cup matches, Adriano has played 16 matches for us. He's only signed through the end of this year and won't be coming back. There's a clause in the transfer deal I made for him that will have me giving Liverpool $400,000 if he plays 20 matches. So if we have another busy stretch come up I may start him and play him 90 minutes up to 3 more times. But if he doesn't start I'm not making him available as a backup.


January 29th, 2019

Man Utd(11-7-6, 7th) @ Ipswich(2-3-19, 19th)

Man U are 1:3 favorites today. They are fighting hard for their place in Europe sitting in 7th currently. We're 7:1 to win here. We're on TV today.

GK: Mason
D: Kirkland/Brown/Henrique/Berthet
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Constantino

Henrique is back in. Hughes starts at ML. Wayne Rooney starts for Man U today, he's getting up there in years and playing a little less, he still has 5 goals and 6 assists in 17 league matches.


7': An easy goal, a pass from MC Fletcher in to ST Belfodil, right in between our two DC's and he buries it by Mason. 0-1

15': Gordon with a yellow.

22': Rooney with a yellow.

26': A quick attack for Ipswich, Donnelly with a ball to Mariga in the area and he's behind the defense... their keeper rushes out and cuts off the angle, Mariga tries to put it by the keeper but he deflects it wide.. We have a corner, they clear but we control and build back up on offense. Mariga to Kang, Kang passes to Constantino who is cutting in front of his man... he conrols the ball well, shoots as the keeper is rushing out and he's got it by the keeper and into the net!! 1-1

41': Well we got to be tied with them for about 15 minutes. Rooney with a pass to Belfodil, he's got it 40 yards out and just outruns Troy Brown and gets a shot by Mason and in. 1-2

HALF: We're playing well today, we generated two clear cut chances but sadly only converted one. 7 shots, 3 on target, they have 9 shots, 4 on target. Things are pretty even outside of of course the headers where we aren't winning enough of them in general.

53': Theo Walcott receives a pass about 20 yards out, runs into the area, completely burns Troy Brown and then easily scores. 1-3

58': We win a fight for th e ball in the midfield, Donnelly with a quick pass forward to Constantino, Kang is streaking up the middle and their defense isn't set, Constantino hits Kang, and for once Kang finds the power I expected out of his shots... he catches the keeper trying desperately to run out but no chance, Kang puts it on target and into the back of the net! 2-3

74': We damn near tie this thing up, Constantino with a shot from the left side of the area, just into the side netting, good effort.

81': Fryers in for Brown, Guarin in for Hughes, Yebda in for Donnelly.

That'll do it sadly.

Ipswich 2 : 3 Man Utd

We really played well today. Troy Brown once again takes a hit with a 6.3 rating. Donnelly has been off his game lately, he puts up a 6.0 and is the only guy on the team struggling with morale right now

Goals: Constantino (8.9), Kang (8.6)
Assists: Constantino, Kang
Notables: Kirkland (7.0), Mariga (7.0)


Its amazing it hasn't happened before now, but Watford finally gets a win, their first of the season, over Huddersfield. That win plus a lot more ties than us puts them into 19th and we fall back into last place in the league.

[RPI-Fan]

Keep fighting on! Will be fun to watch you absolutely roll up the m-effers in the Championship next year, if it comes down to that. Also, might be good to try and have a 100% rested lineup for the FA Cup game - maybe you can catch Aston Villa resting on their laurels!

[Radii]

-- We get a note that Neil Gordon has trained well over the last 6 months, and really this kid is worth another look, his performances this year haven't been as strong as I'd hoped, but I'm expecting a superstar season out of him in the Championship next year. He's still just 22 years old. Over the last 12 months his Strength is up 2 to 12. His positioning, one of his weakest traits sadly, is up 2 to 10. Off the ball +1 to 17. His Aniticipation is steady at 18. Creativity +1 to 18, Passing +1 to 11. And he is *the* man on the team for all set pieces. Corners 19, Crossing 18, Free Kicks 15, Long Throws 16, Penalties 16. I'm still unsure whether Gordon will settle at MR or AMC (weaker tackling and marking numbers offest his brilliant crossing ability), just as Kang could settle at AMC or MC still, but Gordon just looks so good.

February Update

-- We play on the 2nd, 9th, 12th, and 23rd in league play. The 16th is our FA Cup match.

-- The board remains pleased with my leadership. Signing Mariga is the highlight, signing Bojinov the lowlight. We lost $4.5M last month. We spent $5.36M on new players so that's about right. That leaves us just $1.5M cash positive but still with a $9.6M profit on the year.

February 2nd, 2019

Ipswich(2-3-20, 20th) @ Tottenham(8-5-12, 14th)

Tottenham are 1:3 favorites, we're 7:1 today.

GK: Johnson
D: Kirkland/Hughes/Henrique/McKerr
M: Guarin/Kang/Mariga/Berthet
AMC: Gordon
ST: Constantino

Johnson starts at GK, I decide not to throw the young kid out on the road. Hughes/Henrique at DC today, McKerr DR, Guarin ML, Berthet MR. Kang takes Donnelly's place at MC and Gordon moves back up front. I give Donnelly the day off. Down to key highlights from extended for now.

2': We start out with possession and have a long buildup on offense... Berthet sends a ball into the area for Constantino, he heads it down to Gordon who has a great look, in fact its a clear cut chance from the penalty spot... but the keeper makes the save.

12': A long pass goes forward to their striker Stuer, he tries to pass forward for their other forward... Henrique is there, but their ST Caicedo takes the ball away before he can clear, controls it and puts it into the net. 0-1

19': Mariga with a yellow.

23': We win a ball in the defensive end and there's a long ball ahead to Constantino. He's got it but is out pretty wide to the left, he makes a long run as they are slow to close down, Constantino into the area, shot from a tough angle out left though... and its saved. There's a rebound but it deflects out pretty far, Gordon was in a perfect spot if it didn't bound away so strongly.

42': A through ball sees their man Steur earn a clear cut chance from 10 yards out... he shoots off the post, we dodge a bullet there.

HALF: Henrique and Hughes are really suffering in the back, 5.2 and 5.5 ratings for them. Once again though, we are generating some really good chances out there, the finishing just isn't quite there. They shoot 8 times to our 5. Each team puts 3 on target, and possession is even.

55': They get a freak goal after a deflection leading to a header... but the scorer was offsides and it doesn't count.

76': They earn a corner after 20 minutes with no highlights. Its curled in tight and Johnson simply catches it.

77': Park in for Mariga, Yebda in for Gordon, Yebda MC, Kang up to AMC, and Khan in for Constantino.


And that's it, Tottenham didn't really attack all that strongly in the second half but we didn't see a single offensive highlight in the final 45 minutes, and in fact just shot once.

Tottenham 1 : 0 Ipswich

Notables: McKerr (7.2), Kirkland (7.4), Guarin (7.1), Mariga (7.1)


We're playing a lot better against some of these really good teams lately.


With 25-26 matches played by every team in the league we're 2/3 of the way through the season. Chelsea has pulled ahead in first by a little, the top teams have slowly started drifting to the top, and the 3 leading relegation candidates have become obvious. Here's a look at the standings:


1. Chelsea - 25 G - 54 pts
2. Aston Villa - 26 G - 51 pts
3. Sunderland - 26 G - 50 pts
4. Arsenal - 25 G - 48 pts
5. Newcastle - 26 G - 48 pts
6. Man Utd - 26 G - 46 pts
7. Sheffield Utd - 26 G - 45 pts
8. Liverpool - 26 G - 43 pts
9. West Ham - 25 G - 36 pts
10. Southampton - 26 G - 35 pts
11. Man City - 25 G - 34 pts
12. Tottenahm - 26 G - 32 pts
13. Birmingham - 26 G - 32 pts
14. Blackburn - 26 G - 30 pts
15. Everton - 26 G - 29 pts
16. Nottingham Forest - 25 G - 29 pts
17. Huddersfield - 26 G - 24 pts
---------------------------
18. Wolves - 26 G - 19 pts
19. Watford - 25 G - 10 pts
20. Ipswich - 26 G - 9 pts

Huddersfield promoted up with us last year and has a legit shot to stay up. Watford was the other team that made it up along with us, and it looks like we'll be seeing them next year.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

Keep fighting on! Will be fun to watch you absolutely roll up the m-effers in the Championship next year, if it comes down to that. Also, might be good to try and have a 100% rested lineup for the FA Cup game - maybe you can catch Aston Villa resting on their laurels!

Yep, that's definitely the plan. We'll take it a bit easy against Everton on the 12th to make sure we're as strong as possible for the FA Cup match on the 16th. I'd love to pull off an upset there, and with a lot more reasonable performances lately I think we've got an upset in us somewhere.

[law90026]

The win over Leicester just makes it look like re-promotion if you go down should be highly probable, so Ipswich is in really good shape.

Question though: If a bigger club were to come in with some sort of offer, would you consider moving? Think Alex McLeish being relegated with Birmingham last year then being offered the Aston Villa job.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by law90026

Question though: If a bigger club were to come in with some sort of offer, would you consider moving? Think Alex McLeish being relegated with Birmingham last year then being offered the Aston Villa job.

I wouldn't plan to in the near future, no. My intent right now is the same as with Woking... to take that specific team as far as possible. I'm quite confident that Ipswich has the resources to at least hang in the EPL if managed well, and I wouldn't want to leave them unless I felt like I'd taken them as far as they can go for some reason.

[Radii]

Injury Update

-- Troy Brown "has sustained a damaged spine" after a fall in training. Ouch!! He's out for 2 months. That seems low for a damaged spine.

-- Chelsea beats Arsenal 1:0 in a big league match. With all teams even now at 26 matches played Chelsea now leads Aston Villa by 6 points.

-- We have 8 players called up for international duty for matches between the 11th-13th. 5 of them are starters for us and all the matches are friendlies so I request that none of them play more than 45 minutes.

-- Our match on the 12th vs Everton is pushed back to the 20th instead due to international callups.


February 9th, 2019

Ipswich(2-3-21, 20th) Birmingham(8-8-10, 13th)

Birmingham are big 2:5 favorites today, we're 13:2 to get a win.

GK: Johnson
D: Kirkland/Hughes/Henrique/Berthet
M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Khan

We rotate people around to get Donnelly back in, Kang AMC, Gordon MR, Berthet DR, McKerr has the day off. Khan starts up front for Constantino.

2': A through ball to ST Benitez who scoots in behind Jack Hughes, Henrique tried to cover but he was taking a step towards their other forward and couldn't get back in time. Easy easy goal. 0-1

35': They're up to 7 shots with 5 on target, Johnson has made two pretty nice saves in recent highlights.

44': They earn a corner as we block a shot, a header goes high on the corner.

HALF: These teams are just soo much better than we are, and given an early lead they make it nearly impossible. We have 2 shots so far this match, both off target. They have 12 shots, 7 on target.

65': Wow, I don't know what the hell just happened... there's a header... ball is in the air near midfield... their man goes up for a header, and best I can tell from watching the little sprites run around, Jack Hughes went in for a slide tackle and took his man out. Its a straight red, something I assumed the second play stopped. Hughes had been playing ok and his morale is Superb, I don't know where that came from at all! I sub Park in for Kang and run a 4-4-1.

70': They take advantage quickly of the man advantage, getting an easy goal from midfielder Chapman... he really looked offsides and we complain a lot, but it stands. 0-2

74': A 25 yard strike from Midfielder Sergio Suarez is by Johnson and in... 0-3

And that'll do it.

Birmingham 3 : 0 Ipswich


We give up an early goal allowing them to do what they want, and then the red card for Hughes makes it easy for them to get more.

Berthet 5.4, Donnelly 5.9, Khan 5.6. Guarin with a random 7.1 out wide.


-- Chelsea puts a further stranglehold on first place with a 2:0 win over Aston Villa today.

-- Hughes is suspended for 2 matches. I issue a warning for his violent play which he accepts.

[Radii]

-- The league's disciplinary committee reviews the red card by Jack Hughes and decides that 2 games isn't enough, his suspension is extended by 2 more matches to 4 games. I really can't complain about it I don't think. It really looked awful.

February 16th, 2019

FA Cup Fifth Round

Aston Villa (2nd, EPL) @ Ipswich(20th, EPL)

Aston Villa are 1:2 favorites today, we're 9:2 to get a win. They're clearly better but we hope to catch them off guard with a strong performance and maybe them worrying more about their league position.

GK: Mason
D: Kirkland/Bruce/McKerr/Berthet
M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Constantino

We're in a tough spot with Henrique unavailable for cup play and Hughes suspended and Brown with an injury. Bruce and McKerr start at DC, Mason in goal at home.

2': They get an early shot on a cross/header but Mason makes the save and we clear it out. A ball is sent long ot Constantino and he makes a long run to get into the penalty area before they catch him, one missed tackle and he's going to score, but the defender that got back made a good stop. Donnelly was able to recover hte loose ball and shoot but he sent it high.

7': Donnelly is hurt and has to come out immediately. Yebda is in for him.

14': Another cross/header that they just miss, this one just over.

17': We get a throwin in their end, its taken short and a pass goes to Kang 20 yards out, he turns and shoots and its a strong bending shot that just goes wide right. Close!

18': They kick it long on their goal kick and we recover, there's a long ball ahead to Kang, we've got 2 forward and they have 3 back... kang gets down to the right end line, into the area and he blasts a shot, the keeper stops it. Corner is taken by Gordon, crossed to the 6 yard box, Mariga wins a header, and its a goal!!! 1-0 I drop back to defensive for a bit.

21': They have a throwin in our end, after one pass midfielder Fabian Delph shoots from 20 yards out wide to the left... and puts it perfectly by everyone and into the far post. 1-1

28': It looks like a replay.. throwin, pass to Delph, shot from almost the same spot... through a big crowd in the area and into the net. 1-2 Boy did they answer fast.

42': We have a nice long buildup, they defend well, Guarin sends a ball into the area but Constantino can't control it to get a shot off, they clear for a throwin. After the throwin there's a cross, Mariga header... but its very weak and the keeper easily collects it.

HALF: We're thrilled to get the early lead but they answer so swiftly. And it appears Alex Bruce takes the blame for both goals... he goes into the locker room with a 4.9 rating. They shoot 7 times, 5 on target, we shoot 6 times, 2 on target. Possession is even but our problem like usual is getting killed in the air, we only win 33% of our headers in the half.

78': Gordon AMC, Berthet MR, McKerr DR, Fryers in for Kang and he takes over at DC. After one highlight early in the half showing them shoot high, about 25 minutes fly off... we'll try to attack in the final 10 to get a goal here.

86': Berthet is hurt... he can stay in but he has the nasty injury symbol that always worries me.

88': We win the ball in the defensive end and send it forward, Constantino is first to it, he's not going to be able to get all the way into the area before they close down... he pulls up from 20+ yards out and shoots towards the far post... and it sails just wide.

94': We have a throwin in their end, its taken to Kirkland who immediately crosses... someone's made a huge mistake!!! Its a cross to the far end of the 6 yard box, and they aren't there. McKerr drifts over to the ball and none of their defenders move that way, we catch them completely off guard, McKerr gets his head to it and its in!!! With 5 minutes of extra time for the injuries, we may have just earned another shot at these guys. 2-2

That'll do it!

Ipswich 2 : 2 Aston Villa

Their goal scorer is easily man of the match.

Goals: Mariga (8.0), McKerr (7.5)
Assists: Kirkland (7.8), Gordon (7.2)

Alex Bruce just blows... 4.8.

Finally a result of some kind against a good team. Of course this just means a replay at their place, but we've been playing a lot better in the last 6 weeks as far as not getting blown out and generating legit chances to score, and its nice to see us come through here in a big way.


Injury Update

-- Donnelly is out about a week.

-- Berthet is also out about a week.

Could be worse.

The replay will be on the 27th, in 11 days. Donnelly and Berthet will be back by then. It'll be Jack Hughes final game under suspension so we'll have the same issues at DC.

[Radii]

The 6th round (quarterfinals) of the FA Cup are today. Should we somehow get by Aston Villa on the road we would host Blackburn, easily the best possible matchup available for us out of the final 8.

-- Sporting Moscow want to loan Kang Soo-Jin with an option to buy him. $850k for the loan and $5.25M if they wanted to buy him when it was over. I'm a little concerned that Kang hasn't settled in but I'm sure as hell not giving up on him yet.

February 20th, 2019

Everton(7-9-11, 14th) @ Ipswich(2-3-22, 20th)

We're 9:2 dogs today, they're 1:2 favorites at Portman Road. This is the type of match I feel like we can compete in with our improved play of late. I'd like to have our first string keeper, but whatever!

GK: Mason
D: Kirkland/Henrique/Fryers/McKerr
M: Guarin/Yebda/Mariga/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Constantino

We've got 5 starters out (depending on whether you count Troy Brown a starter or not at this point). This is the best lineup we can field.

2': A nice attaching move out of the gate for us sees a good deal of buildup leading to a shot from Kang from the 18 yard line, but the keeper easily saves it.

7': Henrique goes for a tackle on their striker 20 yards out, he turns by and has the first clear cut chance of the match, but its right at Mason and he stops it. They get it back though and after resetting the offense striker Brian Kelly goes around Fryers for another clear cut chance... this one is wide.

24': Mariga blasts a shot from 25 yards out, off a defender and out, corner is cleared though. I've already issued the "work ball into box" instruction... Mariga loves his long shots though.

31': They work the ball forward but we intercept a pass, quickly it goes to Mariga, he sends it down the right side, Constantino is first to it, his first touch is beautiful, poking the ball ahead to the edge of the box, allowing him to sprint ahead for it... the keeper comes out, Constantino aims far post, and its perfect, into the net!! 1-0

Just one highlight the rest of the half, a long shot for them saved easily by Mason.

HALF: We know we're going to have to face a hellish attack in the second half but this is the kind of play I wanted to see coming into the season, we hold them off and get the quick counter attack goal. Course, we withstood a couple clear cut chances and they could be up 2-1, but still! We have 5 shots, 3 on target. They have 7 shots, 3 on target. Possession is even, we're tackling really well (78%) and winning over half our headers, which is better than we can say many games.

I open the second half in a defensive mindset and with the "Retain Possession" instruction. Lets slow this up a little and try to hold off their initial attack that we expect to come.

54': Mariga doesn't retain possession either. We have a throwin, he gets it 35 yards out and just turns and fires... its a decent effort, just wide, but come on dude!

65': Free kick for Gordon outside the right edge of the area, he crosses in, the keeper goes for the ball, but fumbles it... Zeki Fryers is there and he pounces, poking the ball into the net!!! 2-0

68': Oh man!! Their defense is passing it around looking to start moving up, Constantino sees a lazy pass though and jumps on it, charging forward to the edge of the penalty box, shooting, but the keeper came out well to cut off the angle and he can't score. Its wide for a corner which we can't do anything about.

77': Coutts in for Yebda, Khan in for a very tired Kang. We move up to a 4-4-2 with that change.

82': We have it on offense, Khan goes forward but pulls the ball back instead of attempt a bad shot, a couple passes, Coutts to MAriga at the edge of the penalty area, he wheels and fires, and this one is on target!! It bends into the right side of the net, its a damn blowout!!!! 3-0

Well would you look at that.

Ipswich 3 : 0 Everton

Man of the Match: McDonald Mariga (9.1)
Goals: Mariga, Constantino (8.0), Fryers (7.9)
Assists: Mariga, Coutts (6.9) -- Fryers goal is unassisted, or it would have been credited to Gordon.
Notables: Mason (7.1), McKerr (7.6), Kirkland (7.8), Henrique (7.6), Gordon (7.0), Guarin (7.2)

Only Yebda and Kand are under 7.0 today out of the starters.


-- Blackburn fire their manager after the match, I'm expected to be a top choice, I deny that I have any interest.


-- With that win we move back into 19th place. Sadly we're still 12 out of a spot that would avoid relegation with 10 to go. I would totally get excited about trying to go on a run to end the season... except our next 4 in a row are on the road and our final 5 matches of the year are Arsenal, Man City, Aston Villa, Liverpool, and Newcastle. so if any sort of magic is to happen, it best happen now.

But hell, that was a fun and spectacular win and we're gonna enjoy it regardless.

[Radii]

-- Berthet is back to full training but won't be ready to start in time for our next match.

February 23rd, 2019

Ipswich(3-3-22, 19th) @ Sunderland(16-6-6, 3rd)

They're 1:3 favorites today, putting us at 7:1 to be able to win and even 3:1 to draw. I would have wished for something a little more realistic to try win 2 in a row after that last match we played.

GK: Johnson
D: Adriano/Henrique/Fryers/McKerr
M: Guarin/Yebda/Mariga/Gordon
ST: Bojinov/Khan

Johnson starts in goal. I'd love to rest a ton of guys today but with our injury issues its not realistic. I do give Adriano one of his 3 remaining starts today, giving Kirkland the day off at DL. I also rest Kang, but AMC/MR are huge issues for depth right now, so instead I run a 4-4-2 today with Bojinov and Khan up front.

24': After one very early highlight we jump to 24 minutes in. They end up settling for a shot from 25+ yards out, its a rocket that bends in and hits the right post, a scary chance there, but we did a good job not letting them get something easier.

25': Bojinov is fouled as we get the ball forward. Gordon takes the free kick from 30 yards out, he shoots from there and its right at the keeper, saved.

27': They pass the ball around, never getting it close, before midfielder Arismendi settles for a shot from 25 yards out, settles isn't the right word really, he crushes it on target and Johnson has no chance. Its into the back of the net. 0-1 Those kinds of shots specifically are what I was hoping our new keeper Carlos Antonio would prevent.

40': Arismendi with a yellow for them.

HALF: They shoot 7 times, 4 from long range and only 2 on target. Their goal was a really impressive long strike. We've got 4 shots, just 1 on target. Seems unlikely that we have any chance today, but we will of course keep trying.

64': They get a corner, we clear it after a couple headers, they try twice to push the ball back into the area.. the second time Fryers tries to clear but messes it up and the ball pops free in the area, striker Darren Bent is there to pounce and fire a shot in, we can't stop it and its a 2 goal deficit. 0-2

75': McKerr comes down injured... we'll check on it post-match.

82': The floodgates open fully as they get a long ball to star striker Nuno Goncalves who flies past Fryers with ease and scores. 0-3

That'll do it here.

Sunderland 3 : 0 Ipswich

Adriano 6.2, Fryers 6.3, Gordon 6.3 but nothing in the 5s or 4s as we often see in bad losses. We just can't hang with these guys on the road without a lot of luck.

[Radii]

February 27th, 2019

FA Cup Fifth Round Replay

Ipswich(3-3-23, 19th) @ Aston Villa(2nd, EPL)

Aston Villa are 1:2 favorites at their place, making us 9:2 dogs.

GK: Mason
D: Kirkland/Fryers/McKerr/Berthet
M: Guarin/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon
AMC: Kang
ST: Constantino

I give Chris Mason the start in goal. He's been playing fairly well, of course I've been setting him aside in our rougher matches but he played in the first match against these guys. Donnelly and Berthet are back in today. I go with Fryers/McKerr at DC with Henrique unavailable. I don't like it at all but I'm not letting Alex Bruce near the field.

5': They pass the ball around the left side. Their dangerman Delph receives it, crosses into the area, a header... Mason dives and just stops it, we clear it behind for a corner. We clear the corner, they retain possession but end up with a shot going wide in the end.

9': Their man Delph with a free kick from 25 yards out, he bends it around the wall, Mason dives again.. and just gets enough of his fingertips to it to push it aside. WHEW.

24': We have a corner, taken short to Fryers, he tries a shot, blocked, it falls to Constantino 18 yards out, he shoots, it deflects like a pinball through the area, the keeper gets to it and shoves it away, it seems like we've got a man there, we shoot... but wide. That was WILD.

33': We attack but Constantino loses the ball and they counter... they get a man forward behind the defense, he's approaching the penalty area, Zeki Fryers comes in with a sliding tackle and wins the ball away, great defense!

HALF: There were a lot of highlights in that half considering I dropped back to only key highlights to speed things along a little. And damn our defense played a great, great half. Mason was flying all over saving the ball (now of course that is in part b/c he's so young and has to make great saves sometimes to make up for lack of anticipation and positioning). We made a number of clutch tackles and clearances, and we almost got ourselves a freak goal. They shoot 10 times, but 7 are from range. 5 are on target. We have 7 shots, 4 on target, and only 1 from long range which is really good for us! We're tackling much better than them and winning exactly 50% of our headers... can we make something magical happen in the second half?

46': Hah I was afraid of that. They go straight down the field, a cross comes in from the left to the far end of the 6 yard box, their man Young is there and heads it home. Kirkland takes full blame for that one, missing a header he should have won. 0-1

67': Gordon with a yellow. Looks like with 20 minutes flying by they're just shutting things down with the lead.

80': We have a corner, its taken short for Fryers again, and agin he shoots and its blocked. It falls towards Constantino, he jumps on it, and on a full volley strikes it into the net before the keeper can reposition himself!!! 1-1

FULL TIME: A second freak play gives us a goal, we hold up on defense really well and we're headed to extra time. I go ahead and use Adriano's second game here, putting him out at ML for Guarin. I also bring in Khan for an exhausted Kang and go to the 4-4-2.

99': We have it on offense, Kirkland passes to Donnelly, he spots Constantino 20 yards out, Constantino tries to turn by his man but he's tackled and loses the ball. He goes down... but no foul. They look to counter quickly. They win a header and I fear a through ball here... they get it to their star Delph, its a clear cut chance... but Mason rushes out then dives for the shot and stops it!! They recover, a pass into the area, their man Delph has it again, and Kirkland comes in with a perfect tackle to knock it away. Corner for Aston Villa. We clear it nicely... and counter attack, it goes forward to Constantino who makes a long run down the right... hm I really think he shoulda shot... he tries to pass it through the area but they intercept and put it out for a throw, and finally an unbelievably hectic sequence comes to an end.

103': We give up 2 corner kicks... the second is a header by one of their strikers that's high.

ET HALFTIME: I knew what my last sub would be but delayed it as long as possible due to the talent difference. Yebda in for Donnelly. I think we've reached a point where the fresh legs matter more.

106': A highlight right after their kickoff... slow buildup, lots of passes, but in the end defender Darragh Byrne tackles Khan and its a yellow... I didn't note the first one but that's his second yellow and he's out of the match!

118': We have a corner, taken to Fryers, back out to Gordon, a cross goes in... and cleared. They push ahead on offense, getting it easily forward to their strikers, ST Derdiyok gets his foot to it... Mason with another diving stop!! What a game!!!!

That's it! Now... can we possibly beat them on penalties?

Penalty Kicks

1.

Gamez for Villa: Hits the left post!! No good!!
Khan: Shoots right.. keeper saves

2.

Derdiyok (Villa): Into the right side of the net.
Constantino: Saved by the keeper, he hit it right at him and the keeper didn't move.

0-1

3.

Delph (Villa): Off the left crossbar and in.
Yebda: Up high and to the left, in the net!

1-2

4.

Young (Villa): Right down the middle and Mason breaks left early. Goal.
Gordon: HE shoots left... keeper dives that way.. and makes the stop. Game over.


Aston Villa 1p : 1 Ipswich

Aston Villa wins 3-1 on penalties.


What an exciting match!! A great, great effort by our guys. Their goalscorer is man of the match.

Goal: Constantino (7.5)
Assist: Fryers (7.0)
Notables: Mason (7.1), Berthet (7.0), McKerr (7.0), Donnelly (7.3)

They shot 29 times, putting 14 on target. Our 17 year old kid Chris Mason was everywhere. He needs to fill out... a lot... before he'll be a legit keeper even for the Championship, but he was really fun to watch today.


-- We were expected to make the 4th round of the FA Cup. Making the 5th round makes the board and the fans happy, always nice to exceed expectations.