FM2005: a frog in Europe

[FrogMan]

July 1st, 2012
It's the start of the transfer window.

The Board are still delighted with my work.

Gianni Zuiverloon arrives at Loftus Road on a free transfer. The 25yo Dutch centreback is expected to solidify our defensive line with his world class heading, markings, passing, and tackling skills. On top of that, he is reknown for always being well positioned, for anticipating the play very well and making very good decisions, as you can see by clicking the following thumbnail for his profile.


Right after him, Kim Källström arrives at Loftus Road, also on a free transfer. The 29yo Swedish attacking midfielder brings with him a knack for the offense rarely seen at Loftus Road. He will platoon with Youssouf Hersi in the AMC spot, effectively giving us the possibility of always having a fresh fellow on the position at the start of games. You can take a look at his profile by clicking the following thumbnail.


Following the arrival of both these players, Q.P.R.'s commercial director noted in his monthly financial update that their purchases are likely to cause sharp increase in revenue from shirt sales. SWEEET!!!

To top these arrivals, we get the news that Scott Morgan is ecstatic to have agreed to terms with Q.P.R. He said he is very keen to rise to the challenge of playing for such an illustrious club. The transfer is valued at $1.55M. As I said before, the 18yo promising centreback already has great marking and tackling skills coupled with being him being very aggressive and brave. He's got decent positioning to start with and hopefully, he'll grow with us and become a starter on our defensive line for seasons to come. On top of it, being that his got D LC for positions and he's a natural leftie, he becomes the second backup to the left fullback position, behind César Augusto Fawcett and Tom Howell on the depth chart. You can see his player profile by clicking the following thumbnail.


Let me know what you think of the kid, keeping in mind he is still a project to me...

With July 1st also come the end of contracts for many players.
Jeppe Lund Curth has moved to Coventry, broken leg and all.
Peter Till and Matthew Bates, now out of contract, have decided to leave the club.
Keigan Parker, Marc Bircham, and Li Tie, while also out of contract, have decided to remain at the club on month-to-month contracts. With respective weekly wage of $35k, $11k, and $17.5k, I'll keep them on for now, but I could eventually cut them loose, and pretty soon...

As the final whistle blew on the 2-1 win of Holland over Turkey in the EURO 2012, we get the news that England have sacked their current manager, Micky Adams. The FA were disappointed by the team's awful performance in the European Football Championship and feel that a new manager is required if the team is to improve in the future. England lost in the Quarter Final round.

I'm not really interested in applying for the job, but should they come knocking at my door, I'd probably consider it...

July 3, 2012
GRRRR, Kim Källström suffered a groin strain only 2 days after arriving to the club. He'll need 3 weeks of physiotherapy to get back into shape...

FM

[FrogMan]

July 7, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	99%	1	-	8.00
DL	Wnt	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-6-8-9	97%	1	-	9.00
DC		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	100%	-	-	-
DC		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	1	-	8.00
DMC		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	6-7-7-9-8	98%	0 (1)	-	8.00
MR		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	8-7-8-7-8	99%	1	-	8.00
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	96%	1	-	7.00
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	97%	1	1	9.00
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	8-7-7-7-6	100%	-	-	-
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	0 (1)	1	7.00
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Okay	-	100%	-	-	-
S2	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Very Poor	6-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S3		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	98%	1	-	8.00
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	100%	-	-	-
S5		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	8-8-10-7-7	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
S6		Ross McCormack	S C	Superb	7-7-7-8-9	95%	1	2	9.00
S7		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	1	-	7.00
-		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-		Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-	Int	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-

EURO Vase Round 2, Leg 2: we play Fylkir at Loftus Road. We are 4-7 favourites to win this game.

Danny Shittu is away on international duty.

Many of my defenders are showing as match fit already.

I switch the two strikers out.

One of their inner mid gets 2 yellows on one sequence of play in the 5th minute. They go to a 5-3-1 formation. I set everybody to easy tackling.

It takes us three rapidfired shots to finally score one in the 36th minute. Ahmed Yahoui's long range shot got stopped, Stephen Pearson got to the rebound first but his shot was also stopped, then Igor Nadal Lázaro finally buried the ball on the 2nd rebound. Up 1-0, 5-0 on aggregate.

The half ends with that score. We're outshooting them 12(6) to nothing.

We get into another shooting fest in the 58th minute, but this time, the ball keeps being stopped by the defenders, until Yahiaoui gets one through on a half volley. Up 2-0, 6-0 on aggregate.

One of their defenders add to the insult by scoring an own goal in the 75th minute. He tried clearing the ball to the back, but little did he know that he was in the 6yard box and what was directly in front of him was his keeper... and his own goal, thus the term "an own goal"

Final Score: 3-0 (7-0 on aggregate)

We outshot them 28(12) to a big fat nothing. Ouch again...

Marcus Kelly is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9 and we had numerous players at 8. Ben Watson did rate at only 6 in the 30 minutes he played late in the game. He put only 1 of his 6 shots on target...

We're through to round 3, in which we will play Spanish side Betis. Leg 1 will be at Loftus Road on July 14 and leg 2 on their pitch on the 21st.

I remembered seeing that team name last season and it's coming back to me now. They lost to Wisla Krakow in the Euro Cup last season, in the 1st Knockout round, right before we ousted Wisla from the Cup in the 2nd Knockout round. They are ranked 18th in Europe this season and will be tough opponents, BUT... they just beat a Ukrainian side named Chornomorets, 1-2 (away), 1-0 (home), so 2-2 (1-0 on away goal), and Chornomorets had barely beat in Round 1 a team that Fylkir had beaten last season...

Quincy Owusu Abeyie suffered a damaged shoulder in the game and will miss 5 days.

Danny Shittu was in magnificent form for Nigeria, as they won 3-1 over Zambia in a World Cup Qualifier.


FM

[FrogMan]

July 8, 2012
Siena offer a contract to Li Tie.

July 9, 2012
The EURO Vase Semi-Final draw happens. There are indeed 6 Semi-Finals. The winner of Betis/Q.P.R. will play the winner between Samsunsport (Turkey) and Marítimo (Portugal).

Phil Thompson, currently managing Aston Villa, has been named the new England manager. He will split time between club and national team.

July 10, 2012
Fábio Rochemback suffered a damaged neck and will miss one week.

Li Tie is said to be ecstatic at having agreed terms with Siena. The 35yo commented that at this stage in his career, when offers for older players can be hard to come by, he is only seeking regular first team action again.


FM

[FrogMan]

July 14, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Wnt	Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	99%	2	-	8.00
DL		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	8-10-7-7-8	91%	0 (2)	-	7.50
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	99%	1	-	7.00
DC		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	99%	2	-	7.50
DMC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
MR		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-7-9-8-8	96%	1 (1)	1	8.00
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-8-7-9	95%	2	-	8.00
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-9-8	97%	2	1	8.50
FC		Ross McCormack	S C	Superb	7-7-7-8-9	100%	1	2	9.00
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Okay	-	100%	-	-	-
S2		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	96%	1	-	7.00
S3		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-8-7-8-8	99%	2	-	8.00
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-9-8	94%	0 (1)	-	8.00
S5	Wnt	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-8-9-7	94%	2	-	8.00
S6	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	91%	0 (1)	-	6.00
S7		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	95%	1 (1)	2	7.50
-	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	78%	1	-	7.00
-	Inj	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	80%	1	-	8.00
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Int	Jason Wilson	S C	Very Good	6-7-7-7-7	91%	-	-	-

EURO Vase Round 3, Leg 1: we play Betis (long name: Real Betis Balompié S.A.D.) at Loftus Road. They're 4-5 favourites to win this game.

The EURO Vase is really a tough cup to play, with players that are note all match fit and little occasion to work everybody in the lineup slowly.

We go with a 4-1-2-1-2 formation. Ahmed Yahiaoui starts on the right wing, leaving Stephen Pearson to be Marcus Kelly's backup on the left wing.

This game has been picked up for live TV coverage and key men are presented as being Youssouf Hersi for us and Joaquín.

Football 365.com's prediction: A draw is on the cards in this game as I can see Q.P.R. and Betis cancelling each other out. Not one for the neutral in my opinion.

And close, it is...

The first half ends scoreless and we're outshooting them, but barely, 6(4) to 6(3).

GRRRR! Craig Crane might be a bit too agressive for his own good, as he collects his second yellow of the game and is sent off in the 90th minute.

Final Score: 0-0

We turned it on in the second half and outshot them 16(8) to 12(3) on the game, but we could not buy a goal!!!

Their keeper is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9.

Kasper Schmeichel also did well on our end with a rating of 8, same rating that got Ahmed Yahiaoui. Ross McCormack took the night off though and rated at 6.

Craig Crane will be suspended for leg 2 of the series after having been sent off in this game.


FM

[FrogMan]

July 15, 2012
I ask for extra wage budget, as I feel that two weeks into the transfer window, they have to have made up their mind about how much I'll be allowed to spend. They deny my request, say they feel the current wage structure should allow me to attract players of sufficient calibre to succeed... Oh well...

I take everybody off the preseason training schedule, on which they've been since the first EURO Vase game, and I put them on their positional training schedule.

July 21, 2012
Squad numbers are to be confirmed to the league. It's always something I have fun doing. The one good thing about being in the EURO Vase is that we have not played friendlies in which players are numbers based on their spot on the lineup. I hate that, can't recognize who is who on the field...


FM

[FrogMan]

July 21, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Wnt	Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	3	-	7.33
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Very Good	7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
DL	Wnt	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-8-9-7	100%	2	-	8.00
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	100%	2	-	7.00
DC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
DMC		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-9-8-8-8	99%	2 (1)	1	8.00
MR		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	8-7-8-8-7	100%	2 (1)	-	7.67
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-8-7-9-7	98%	3	-	7.67
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-9-8-7	99%	3	1	8.00
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	97%	2	-	7.00
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	90%	0 (1)	1	7.00
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Good	7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S3		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	89%	1	-	8.00
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-7-9-8-7	94%	0 (2)	-	7.50
S5		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	10-7-7-8-7	99%	1 (2)	-	7.33
S6	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	95%	1	-	7.00
S7		Ross McCormack	S C	Superb	7-7-8-9-6	96%	2	2	7.50
-		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	100%	3	-	7.33
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Sus	Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-8-8-6	100%	3	-	7.33

EURO Vase Round 3, Leg 2: we play Betis on their pitch and they're again 4-5 favourites to win this game.

Following the draw at Loftus Road a week ago, it's 0-0 on aggregate at the start of this second leg. Away goals will be used if we're tied after 90 of after extra time. This means that we'll be through if we either win it straight, or if we tie it with one goal or more...

We go with a 4-1-2-1-2 again. Players' conditions look much better, maybe it's because of the switch to positional training schedules.

They show a 4-4-2 formation with heavy push from the wingers to start the game.

And that is a ugly first half of football from us. We're lucky to come out of it with a 0-0 tie, let me tell you this. They outshot us 5(4) to 1(0). I tweak a few little things at the half, hoping to get something going.

In the 58th minute, I pull Hersi out and put in Rochemback in a second DMC spot as we got to a 4-2-2-2 formation.

It pays off in the 77th minute, when Tom Howell, now in for Marcus Kelly on the left wing, centers a beautiful ball that is headed in by Ross McCormack for the 1-0 goal!!! They'll really need to score two on us now to win. There won't be any extra time today...

They go to a 4-2-4 formation in the 80th minute.

Their keeper joins the offense on a corner in the 88th minute and I have flashback of our EURO Cup match last season, when a keeper scored on us, but we deny them this time.

We hang on in a nailbiter second half!!!

Final Score: 1-0

We really turned the heat on in the second half. They still outshot us on the game but now only barely, 13(5) to 10(5).

Danny Shittu is named Man of the Match with a rating of 8, but Schmeichel, Fawcett and Fritz all got rated at 8 too. It's now Andrew Johnson's turn to take a night off with a rating of 6.

We're through to the Semi Final in which we'll play Marítimo from Portugal. I don't know much about them, other than the fact that they're a professional team that plays it's home game in a smallish stadium with only 14,000 seats. They are ranked 79th in Europe. Leg 1 will be played on their pitch in only 4 days (ouch) with the second leg at Loftus Road one week later.

FM

[FrogMan]

July 22, 2012
Here's a headline you don't want to see when your star right fullback is already injured for the next 4-5 months: "Crane suffers pre-season setback"... Craig Crane suffered a groin strain and it will take 4 long weeks of physiotherapy for him to get back to full speed. With Anthony Vanden Borre already out of commission, this pushes John Davies to the spotlight. Hopefully the kid won't be to impressed with all the big time left wingers coming to his side of the field...

Burton Albion want Paul Davies on loan for three months. They'd pay 100% of his wages and I could call him back if needed, so I accept.

July 23, 2012
Huh, Julian Hudson informs me that Quincy Owusu Abeyie was absent from training this morning. It's a first offense so I only issue him a formal warning.

July 25, 2012
I offer a contract to a 16yo phenom inner midfielder currently playing at Arsenal. His name is David Elliott and my scouts keep telling me is a star of the future. Thing is, he says he's not interested in a move to Q.P.R. but we'll see. I offer him $2,200 per week with a $130k signing fee as a hot prospect. If he agrees to terms, we'd have to pay $2.2M in compensation to Arsenal for the young middie who turns 17 in October.

Paul Davies is set to go on loan at Burton Albion.

FM
PS: and with that, I'm finally caught up...

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

We are 4-7 favourites to win this game.

This is the first time I think I've seen that. Congrats!!
Great read into the new season, glad you're all caught up on reporting. Now, go win that EUROVase.

/tk

[FrogMan]

Oops, here's something that should have been reported on July 21st but got lost somehow...


We've had 5 games picked up for live TV coverage in the first half of the season:
Aug 19, away, Birmingham
Sept 9, home, Crystal Palace
Oct 14, away, Everton
Dec 3, away, Middlesbrough
Dec 16, away, Fulham

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

The thing with all the final spots of the CL being England is simply because of game setup. If your only running England, teams from England end up dominating every competetion, including international ones. It's always been that way in the game.

Oh, that's true about active league getting better. Forgot about that. But as you saw, England failed in EURO 2012, so there are not really better England born players, but England based clubs are managed better because the league is active...

Originally Posted by Tellistto

As to who will qualify for Europe, if Liverpool wins the CL over Chelski they'll bump Arsenal down to Euro Cup as it's coded in the game that CL winner auto qualifies regardless of league position. I'm thinking you would have gotten into the Euro Cup if you'd won it, as well, but I'm really not 100% for sure on that one.

Don't know about it, and have no way of knowing now I guess we'll have to win the Vase, then win the dang EURO Cup, but then it won't matter because we'll have qualified for the Champions Cup through league placement

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Blargleflarz. stupid penalties

Tell me about it, them and *beep.beep* wonderkeepers... Should have killed them in extra time... Oh well...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Wow, and I thought I got angry with the game

Okay I do, but yeah... Rough one losing the Euro Cup

I found myself getting a bit more frustrated with our team playing poorly against team we should have beaten, and beaten badly, but oh well...

It was a rough one

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Tough loss in the final but, wow, congratulations on the season. Great season, overall, not to mention improving the squad immensely.

A agree absolutely, to think that I thought there was absolutely nothing to get out of this team when I got here, seeing them relegate after my first half season, then shooting right back up and staying up, simply amazing. I'd never had players like we have now, guys like AvB, Roch, Yahoo, Pearson, Fritz, and then seeing Howell develop the way he has, with Crane now coming along too. These last two were among my kid signees in my first off season...

Originally Posted by daedalus

Hopefully, AvB recovers properly. Hey, maybe we'll get a silver lining thingie and he'll re-ink during his rehab at a lower price tag.

Agreed again, I've seen it more than enough that players can tend to sign at lower price when coming back from big injuries. But now, his injury, with Crane's injury, is putting John Davies on the spot. Hoepfully he can keep blunders to a minium while pumping the ball forward to whoever is playing the right wing in front of him.

Originally Posted by daedalus

By the way, I love a ridiculous minimum fee so that's one possible way to sweeten the contract for the player. I mean, he's a heck of a player but if somebody wants to give you 50-60M for AvB then, hey, I'd say it's a good deal for the R's.

That's a strategy I've never tried mostly because whener I tried upping the minimum fee release clause, I also did it while lowering the offer wage, ending in a contract rejection. Maybe I'll try it in the future. Thanks for the tip.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Kevin

What a horrible way to end the month May!!!! First EaglesFan in the FA Cup and then Frog in the Euro Cup.

I saw EF27's loss in the Cup and while both were in PKs, I think mine, being such a high profile Final game for our club, had to be a bigger hurt. I still have dreams at night... (nah, not really, well almost not )

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Havok

hey... post a pic of Tom Howell's skills when you get a chance, he must be amazing.

I'll try to grab a screenie of his profile tonight. (this is more a not to myself than anything, since so much has been posted in a short period of time )

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

This is the first time I think I've seen that. Congrats!!
Great read into the new season, glad you're all caught up on reporting. Now, go win that EUROVase.

LOL!!! I swear we were favourites before... once I think And to say it took us playign a semi-pro team to be favourites to win a game again

FM

[daedalus]

Nice ratings on Morgan. Good find.

Although I can't wait to see his 17 aggressiveness with Rob Styles refereeing.

[Desnudo]

Congratulations on another solid season. Have you asked the board to expand the stadium again?

[daedalus]

By the way, nearly forgot, congratulations on the nice season opener. Not a bad welcome back to D.III, eh?

Meant to congratulate you earlier but we seems to never run into each other on AIM anymore.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Nice ratings on Morgan. Good find.

Although I can't wait to see his 17 aggressiveness with Rob Styles refereeing.

Thanks for the good words. Good comment on his aggressiveness. I guess I'll simply put him and Craig Crane on the field at the same time. That should be 33 in aggression in 2 players, can you say Golden Leg treatment?

FM
PS: sorry if you've not seen Shaolin Soccer, but if that's the case, I highly recommend it to you, I think it's one movie that you especially would like

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Congratulations on another solid season. Have you asked the board to expand the stadium again?

Thanks for the good words. Nope I have not, but been thinking about it. Simply thought that upgrading in back to back seasons was maybe a bit much. I'm thinking it could make more and more sense if they don't want to unlock any more wage budget and I wouldn't be able to use any new transfer budget as effectively as I'd like (because of the wage problem) so mayb I should ask them to spend the money somewhere it would help in the long run. Good thinking, thanks!

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

By the way, nearly forgot, congratulations on the nice season opener. Not a bad welcome back to D.III, eh?

Meant to congratulate you earlier but we seems to never run into each other on AIM anymore.

Thanks, took a second or two for my brain to register what you were talking about, heh Got the best ratings of the whole series too, also got a mutual friend that promoted in the series via a qualifier Poor fellow's gonna get killed this season though.

And we never run into each other on AIM cause I can't find time to sign on Patsy's new wife has her on evening shifts starting this week and Andrew's got soccer games/practices two evenings per week, and I got that dang addiction I don't feel is gonna get away soon. They'd make a fortune selling FM2005 patches for controlling the cravings

FM

[FrogMan]

July 25, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Wnt	Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	100%	4	-	7.50
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7	94%	1	-	7.00
DL		César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	6-8-9-7-8	92%	3	-	8.00
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	96%	3	-	7.33
DC		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	93%	1 (1)	-	7.50
MR		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	96%	3 (1)	-	7.50
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	97%	1 (3)	-	7.25
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-9-8-7-7	94%	4	1	7.75
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	93%	1	-	7.00
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	91%	1 (2)	2	7.33
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Good	7-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	2	-	7.00
S3		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	9-8-8-8-7	93%	3 (1)	1	7.75
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-9-8-7-8	90%	0 (3)	-	7.67
S5		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	8-7-9-7-7	93%	4	-	7.50
S6		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-6	91%	3	-	6.67
S7		Ross McCormack	S C	Superb	7-8-9-6-7	92%	3	3	7.33
-		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	100%	3	-	7.33
-	Inj	Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-8-8-6	63%	3	-	7.33
-		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-

EURO Vase Semi Final, Leg 1: we play Marítimo on their pitch in Portugal. They're ranked 79th in Europe and are 6-4 favourites to win this game.

They made it to the group play stage in the EURO Cup two season ago, they are definitely not to be taken lightly.

Prior to the game, Quincy Owusu Abeyie acknowledges that his behaviour was unacceptable and that he deserved a warning. He has indicated a willingness to improve his behaviour in the future.

We go with our usual 4-1-2-1-2 formation.

They flight a corner kick to our 6 yard box and, with only 91 seconds done in the game, they head it in to go one up on us. Everybody on our side felt pretty down after that goal, all rated at 5...

In the 30th minute, Quincy Owusu Abeyie is staking his place of a regular place in the first team as he scores on a nice pass from Youssouf Hersi. That was a nice one-two combination involving Hersi and Abeyie on the sequence. Tied 1-1.

Youssouf Hersi gives us the lead only 4 minutes later, striking gold with a fabulous strike from 30 yards out. Up 2-1.

That's the halftime score. We had a rough start but we regrouped well and end the half outshooting them 9(3) to 5(1). I had the feeling we played better from the moment I pulled the defensive line back a little. We go to a 4-2-2-2 formation as I put in Ahmed Yahiaoui for Youssouf Hersi.

They tie the game in the 59th minute on an impossible shot with no angle. Kasper Schmeichel is dejected and rates only at 5.

Final Score: 2-2

We outshot them 15(6) to 7(2) and even though I'd have like the win more than the draw, we still come out of it with 2 away goals.

Stephen Pearson is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9. Fawcett, Rozehnal, Hersi, and Rochemback all rated at 8. Schmeichel ends the game with a 5...


FM

[FrogMan]

July 26, 2012
I get a reminder about all the players with contracts that expire in the next 12 months. There are a few big names in there: Danny Shittu, Andrew Johnson, Kasper Schmeichel, Youssouf Hersi, Igor Biscan, Stephen Pearson, Justin Wall, Darren Evans, Paul Davies, Igor Nadal Lázaro, Ben Watson.

These are the players you've at least heard of. There are a few younger, more reserveish ones, or players that are already on month-to-month contract: Keigan Parker, Scott Blake, Mike Cook, Marc Bircham, Joe Marshall.

There's also a slew of youngsters, of whom we may keep 1 or 2...

July 28, 2012
David Elliott signs a new contract with Arsenal. Dang, money wasn't the issue I guess, as I see he's agreed to a contract worth only $900 per week. I see he's still not interested in a move to Q.P.R. but when I go to offer him a contract, it doesn't say I would have to pay any compensation, just like it did when Kevin Joyce was signed away from me when I was at Luton... I offer him $5k per week with a $150k signing fee and a minimum release fee at $45M, as a hot prospect.

July 31, 2012
Oddschecker.com announce their odds for the EPL Title. Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea have been made 2-1 co-favourites to win the EPL title this season.

The rest of the main contenders are priced at: 8-1 for Liverpool, 16-1 for Aston Villa, and 33-1 for Birmingham

With Q.P.R. being priced at 80-1, it is apparent that the bookmarkers don't believe we have any real chance of winning the title. A high mid-table finish is probably the best me and my side can hope for.

We'll see about that. Gotta say that at first, when I saw the 80-1 odds, I had to go check with last season's odds. After checking, we were priced at 100-1 last year, so that's an improvement I guess. Fwiw, Liverpool and Arsenal were 7-4 joint favourites to win it last season. To remind you, Arsenal finished 4th and Liverpool finished 6th...

David Elliott rejects our latest contract offer, saying he wants to be considered a more important part of the team. He's basically saying "promise me a starting spot and I'll leave Arsenal, else..." He feels that an agreement is probable and would like to proceed with further negotiations.

Going to offer him a contract, I see he's still not interested in a move to Q.P.R. although he might be tempted if the offer was too good to refuse. I offer him $6000 per week with a $300k signing fee as a player on squad rotation. I also lower the minimum release fee to $35M. For the record, he's a 16yo AM LC with sound basic skills but a 17 for pace...

August 1st, 2012
The board is still delighted with my work.

Oh crap... It takes a few seconds for my brain to register, mostly because Davies isn't really a household name, but this headline is not good: "Davies major doubt for season opener"... Turns out John Davies, usually third on the depth chart at right fullback but current starter due to injuries to Anthony Vanden Borre and Craig Crane, has sustained a twisted ankle in training this morning. The 20yo fullback broke down during training and is rated 'extremely doubtful' for the team's opening Premier Division game. Exact diagnosis says off for 2 weeks. With the league opener against Liverpool in only 10 days, we still got Craig Crane who's 2 weeks away from being ready and Vanden Borre still has 3 full months of recuperation following his surgery. Gianni Zuiverloon, who was pegged to play centreback for us, is a D RC so he'll step in for league play, but we still got a hole for the EURO Vase game(s) since Zuiverloon isn't eligible for those. I could end up playing Ahmed Yahiaoui, since he's got all the skills I could ask for in a fullback...


FM

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Frogman

And we never run into each other on AIM cause I can't find time to sign on [img]../../%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif[/img] Patsy's new wife has her on evening shifts starting this week and Andrew's got soccer games/practices two evenings per week, and I got that dang addiction I don't feel is gonna get away soon. They'd make a fortune selling FM2005 patches for controlling the cravings [img]../../%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Ahem. Patsy's new wife? I think you mean job....

/tk

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Ahem. Patsy's new wife? I think you mean job....

/tk

err, you're right. See how this being the fulltime dadd mixes me up?!? huh, you mean it could be because of FM overdose? How could that be, that's UNPOSSIBLE!!! You can't have too much of a good thing, can you???



FM

[FrogMan]

August 1, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Wnt	Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Okay	7-7-8-8-5	100%	5	-	7.00
DR		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	8-8-8-7-7	100%	3 (2)	1	7.60
DL	Wnt	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Very Good	8-9-7-8-8	97%	4	-	8.00
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	100%	4	-	7.25
DC		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	100%	3	-	7.33
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	98%	2 (1)	-	7.67
MR		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	8-8-7-7-9	98%	4 (1)	-	7.80
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-9-7-7-7	99%	4 (1)	-	7.40
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	9-8-7-7-8	100%	5	2	7.80
FC		Ross McCormack	S C	Superb	8-9-6-7-7	100%	3 (1)	3	7.25
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-6	100%	3	-	6.67
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Good	7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
S2		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
S3	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	7-6-7-7-7	100%	3	-	7.00
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-9-8-7-8	98%	0 (3)	-	7.67
S5		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	2 (3)	-	7.20
S6		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Very Good	8-7-7-7-7	98%	1 (1)	1	7.00
S7	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Very Good	7-7-6-7-7	94%	2	1	7.00
-		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Very Good	7-7-6-7-8	98%	2	-	7.50
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Inj	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	82%	2	-	7.00
-	Inj	Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-8-8-6	55%	3	-	7.33

EURO Vase Semi Final, Leg 2: we play Marítimo at Loftus Road. We're 6-4 favourites to win this game.

Aggregate score is 2-2 after the first leg and we have 2 away goals. Away goals will be used if teams are level after 90 minutes of after extra time.

I start Ahmed Yahiaoui in the right fullback spot and we go with our usual 4-1-2-1-2 formation.

The first half is a tight affair always keeping me on the edge of my seat. It's scoreless after 45, even though we're outshooting them 7(3) to 2(0) and we're spending way more time on their end than they do on ours. A scoreless draw means we're through but I'd feel much better with one tiny goal, as I wouldn't want them to get that one lucky late goal to make it 2-3 on aggregate...

Yahiaoui is struggling at right fullback, rating at 6 after 45, but he was at 5 for a long while in the first half. Danny Shittu is also only rating at 6.

The second half is more of the same at the start, until the 78th minute, when we get a free kick just outside their penalty area. Ross McCormack kicks it hard through their wall and the ball gets deflected before slowly ending its course in the back of the net. Up 1-0, 3-2 on aggregate.

They kick it off right following that goal and they backtrack like they love to, all the way to their goalkeeper. Thing is, Igor Nadal Lázaro, like a good power forward in hockey, is forechecking and gets in the face of the keeper. He blocks his low pass and gets the ball back with an empty net in front of him. An easy goal! Up 2-0, 4-2 on aggregate. Now I can breathe!

Not only can I breathe, I can even celebrate as Ahmed Yahiaoui proves his worth is in the DMC spot, where I moved him in the 60th minute. Up supporting the attack in the 84th minute, he gets the ball from Marcus Kelly. He tries to curl one in from a distance but the ball is kicked right in by one of their defenders. An own goal!!! Up 3-0, 5-2 on aggregate!

Final Score: 3-0 (5-2 on aggregate goals)

We outshot them 13(7) to 6(1) on the game and really took control in the second half.

Marcus Kelly is named Man of the Match with a rating of 10 while Ross McCormack is rated at 8.
Yahiaoui definitely played better when I moved him to DMC, taking Rochemback's spot. Igor Biscan took his place at right fullback.

Ugh, the crowd of only 10,030 is a new record low for a competitive match for Q.P.R.

We're through to the Final though! Interesting fact, Liverpool needed to go to penalty kicks to get through. After winning leg 1 3-1 at home, they lost leg 2 with the exact same score on the road and couldn't win it in extra time...


FM

[FrogMan]

August 2, 2012
The draw for the EURO Vase Final round happens today. We'll play another Portuguese side, Braga. They also got to Group play in the EURO Cup two seasons ago and are ranked 120th in Europe. Leg 1 will be played at Loftus Road on August 8, only 3 days before we open our season against Liverpool. The good thing is that Liverpool will have also played on August 8. Leg 2 will be played on their pitch on August 22.

August 4, 2012
Frigging injury rash isn't stopping. It's now Igor Biscan that will miss the start of the season, and beyond, as he suffered a groin strain in training. It'll be 3 weeks of physiotherapy for the old fella...

David Elliott rejects our latest offer again saying he wants to be considered a more important part of the team. He would like to proceed with further negotiations and hopes terms can be agreed soon. I offer him a first team contract but I drop the weekly wage to $2800 and the signing fee to $140k.

August 6, 2012
This is getting ridiculous!!! César Augusto Fawcett dislocated his jaw in the morning's training session and will miss the next 3 weeks, but guess what, that is not the worst...

Ross McCormack tore his hamstring and is first thought to be missing 2 months but my physios recommend we send him to the OR, which I do... A big whopping 5 months is what he'll miss. These two injuries are to key parts of our team...

David Elliott again rejects our offer, this time saying he feels the basic wage offered is unacceptable. He is concerned about the length of time these negotiations have been going on for and hopes that a deal can be reached during the next round of talks. I offer him $4,400 per week and a $200k signing fee. Way things are going right now, he could very well end up on our starting lineup the day he'd get to Loftus Road...

FM

[FrogMan]

August 8, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Wnt	Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	7-8-8-5-7	100%	6	-	7.00
DR		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	100%	4 (2)	1	7.50
DL		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	2 (3)	-	7.20
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	5	-	7.20
DC		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Very Good	7-7-6-7-8	90%	2	-	7.50
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	100%	3 (1)	-	7.50
MR		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	8-7-7-9-7	100%	5 (1)	-	7.67
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	9-7-7-7-10	99%	5 (1)	-	7.83
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	100%	6	2	7.67
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Very Good	7-6-7-7-8	92%	2	1	7.00
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	4	-	6.75
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Good	7-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	87%	4	-	7.25
S3	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	6-7-7-7-7	97%	0 (1)	-	6.00
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	8-7-8-7-8	92%	0 (4)	-	7.50
S5		Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	7-7-8-8-8	96%	-	-	-
S6	Req	Justin Wall	F LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	90%	-	-	-
S7	Unh	Jason Wilson	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-6-7	95%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	61%	2 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-8-8-6	47%	3	-	7.33
-	Inj	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	73%	2	-	7.00
-	Inj	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	68%	5	-	7.80
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Superb	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	69%	2 (3)	3	7.20
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-

EURO Vase Final, leg 2: we play Braga from Portugal at Loftus Road. Braga is short for Sporting Clube de Braga. We are 4-6 favourites to win this game.

We go with a 4-1-2-1-2 formation but we have so many injuries, it's not even funny. They went unreported, but James Collins and David Marek Rozehnal both had minor injuries during the week, explaining their relatively low conditions compared to everybody else on the squad.

One thing though, the three new boys, Källstrom, Zuiverloon, and Morgan, will be fresh for the start of our EPL season in three days.

I have Jason Wilson and Justin Wall on the bench.

A ball is center of a high flying pattern to our 6 yard box in the 3rd minute. Shittu and Howell look at each other but none of them goes for the header and it's headed in. Down 0-1, bah.

We start working at it right away and while it doesn't pay off immediatley, it does in the 36th minute, when Stephen Pearson centers a nice ball to Andrew Johnson's head. AJ directs it to goal and scores. Tied 1-1.

Another header is at the source of another goal of ours only three minutes later. Tom Howell played a corner kick short to Marcus Kelly. Kelly played him the ball back and Howell sent a beauty of a center to Danny Shittu who powered a header to the back of the net. Up 2-1!

That's that halftime score. We're outshooting them 14(8) to 3(3). We had a rough start, but we really got back in the game later on. Jason Wilson is brought in for Quincy Owusu Abeyie. Ahmed Yahiaoui, again starting in the right fullback spot, is much more solid on the field this time around.

Stephen Pearson has to leave the field, injured, in the 53rd minute. Yeah, I guess it had to happen, right... Clemens Fritz comes in.

And 12 minutes later, Fritz presence in the game at least pays off, as he is the architect of AJ's second goal of the game, as he ran past 4 opponents, all the way to the byline, before centering the ball to AJ's feet in th 6 yard box. AJ doesn't waste his chance as he makes it 3-1.

Final Score: 3-1

We outshot them 22(14) to 6(3). That's a huge advantage there, but they did get one away goal in...

Marcus Kelly is named Man of the Match with a rating of 10. He had 15 runs past opponents in the game. Andrew Johnson also had a great game, also rating at 10. Danny Shittu rated at 8, but Kasper Schmeichel and Youssouf Hersi both had down games with ratings of 6 for each of them.

Huhoh, Clemens Fritz ended the game with a red cross (minor injury) next to his name. Sure, we need that too...

And the news isn't good when I get to the clubhouse Stephen Pearson suffered a bruised shin and will mis 5 days and Clemens Fritz suffered a chest injury and will also miss 5 days. Just like that, I lost both my right wingers for that important season opener... *sigh*


FM

[FrogMan]

August 9, 2012
David Elliott has decided that there wasn't much point in carrying on negotiations with Q.P.R. He described the chance of agreeing to terms with us as extremely slim and he break off talks.

August 10, 2012
Jason Wilson fractured his wrist in the morning's training session and will miss one month. WHEN WILL IT STOP?!?!?

Take a peek at what the EPL injury table looks like at this point:


NINE! WE GOT NINE ON THAT FRIGGING LIST!!! AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGG!!!!


FM

[FrogMan]

August 11, 2012
This was in the news this morning:

Schalke 04 gamble on Fawcett
FC Schalke 04's beleaguered manager Ralf Rangnick is attempting to sign Q.P.R. full back César Augusto Fawcett in a bid to improve his team's performances.

If Rangnick does wish to secure the services of Fawcett however, it is believed he will have to offer the Rs something in the region of $7,800,000.

HUH! You frigging crazy, or stupid, or both?!? $7.8M is Fawcett's value and there's no way I'll let him leave for that low price when I'd have to pay $13M+ to replace him... I issue a "hands off" warning despite what Julian Hudson tells me. He thinks I should listen to any offers for him... Here's how my warning come out in the media:

Gougeon: Hands off Fawcett
Queens Park Rangers boss Steve Gougeon has revealed that full back César Augusto Fawcett is not for sale at any price.

With FC Schalke 04 supposedly interested in securing the player's signature, speculation had increased over whether Q.P.R. would sell the player at a certain price.

But Gougeon Says the club will not sell their 27year old gull back whatever the bid.

Gotta tell you, I'm very happy I resigned him to a new contract without a minimum release fee...

FM
PS: and with that, I'm caught up with what I played yesterday evening. I'm setting up my excel spreadsheet to do my annual position-by-position reviews. I doubt I'll get to them today, but I will get them all done before the regular season goes on full speed or at least before I start reporting on the regular season ... Hope you're still all enjoying the read. Keep cheering for the Rangers, we'll need your support because me thinks we're in for a rough start to the season with all those injuries...

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Havok

hey... post a pic of Tom Howell's skills when you get a chance, he must be amazing.

Even better than only one, I'll post thumbnails to all the profiles of Howell I saved over time Here we go...

The day he got to the team, March 23, 2009


July 19, 2009


December 2, 2010


November 19, 2011


July 26, 2012


I know Desnudo will bitch and moan about his lack of pace, but the kid has grown into a very nice player, capable of doing just about as well as a fullback as a winger...

FM

[terpkristin]

Good win there in the EURO Vase final (leg 1, not 2...).

It definitely seems as though you have a massive case of terpkristinitis. Hopefully you'll be able to field a decent squad as you open in what, 3 days or so?

9 injuries. Wow.

/tk

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Good win there in the EURO Vase final (leg 1, not 2...).

Yeah, leg 2 will be played on August 22, but to get a 2 goal lead is always a nice thing. Looking at how we dominated the shots figures, unless we crash and burn unexplicably, we got a shot at going back to the EURO Cup. Once you're in, anything can happen again

Originally Posted by terpkristin

It definitely seems as though you have a massive case of terpkristinitis. Hopefully you'll be able to field a decent squad as you open in what, 3 days or so?

9 injuries. Wow.

Well, I've never had it this bad since the start of this career. While I would sweat missing guys like John Davies and Igor Biscan in regular times, this time we're missing big names. I always try to remember that we survived without Jeppe Lund Curth for half a season when we had just promoted to the EPL, so we'll probably find a way, but it may hamper our early season success, and THAT could be a problem later on, when we'll miss a couple points to make it to 6th place, or even 4th place...

Start of the season is the next thing that will happen when I play again, Liverpool, on their pitch on August 11. They do show up kind of high on the injury table too, with a big one to Djibril Cissé, their usual lone striker in their formation from hell...

FM

[daedalus]

Have you tried possibly increasing the number of Physios you have in your employ?

Originally Posted by FrogMan

And we never run into each other on AIM cause I can't find time to sign on Patsy's new wife has her on evening shifts starting this week and Andrew's got soccer games/practices two evenings per week, and I got that dang addiction I don't feel is gonna get away soon. They'd make a fortune selling FM2005 patches for controlling the cravings

You'll have to fill me in.

At least the kids are doing okies nowadays.

[FrogMan]

Positional reviews are coming up before I get to report yesterday evening's playing sessions and yet more injuries...

I tried putting the individual skills in order of their relative importance to the position played. If you see anything that is really out of place, or that I seem to be missing, let me know. I can add any skill to these reports, but I present the ones I mostly base my decisions on, meaning you don't see those that my brain blacks out on

I'll also be splitting inner midfielders in two this time around, reviewing defensive middies and attacking middies separately, with skills different for both sets of players.

Also, I decided not to take njuries into account when presenting the depth charts. At the moment, I'd have to present some 16yo U18 members as 3rd on the depth chart and it simply wouldn't make much sense. The current injury rash *should* subside at some point, or so I hope, and when that will happen, the team I present here is the team we'll have...

Finally, if you think the team is lacking in one area or another, feel free to comment. I probably won't go out and address that area immediately, or I may never take your advice/comment into consideration, but oftentimes, it sets some inner discussion with my own self as to what kind of player I could (not really that I should, simply could) pursue in the future.

Let's get it going!

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Goalkeepers

KEEPERS	depth	Position	Age	aer	coa	com	ecc	han	kic	one	ref	rus	pun	thr	pos	jum	bra
Schmeichel, Kasper	1	GK	25	12	13	14	2	13	12	16	13	15	12	12	15	15	15
Alexander, Wayne	2	GK	18	12	13	11	2	13	12	14	16	17	2	12	3	11	7
Davies, Paul	3	GK	23	12	13	12	2	11	18	13	12	3	3	12	12	19	3
Marshall, Joe	4	GK	20	11	11	11	2	11	11	11	11	2	2	11	12	14	2

We enter this season with again Kasper Schmeichel as the top keeper on the squad. One thing though, he's got a minimum release of $4.8M and he's had teams scouting him one and off for the last season or so. I'm not so sure I wanna go and shell out the $53k per week he's asking for, mostly because he can sometimes be shaky, getting ratings of 5 and 6 early on in games, when he's facing no shot, or almost no shots. Best example of that is this EURO Vase run we're in. Despite conceding only 3 goals in 6 games so far, he's averaging a form rating of under 7 and while form rating isn't the only thing, it can also be a big thing. If a bid come, I'll be very tempted to let him go, and I could have no choice anyway, with a minimum release fee lower than his actual value of $6.8M.

Under him we got 18yo promising goalkper Wayne Alexander. If not for his outrageously low positioning and anticipation (unpresented here, but widely discussed in this thread in the General Discussion forum) he could have had an amazing future with us. He's already got as good handling as Schmeichel, with much better reflexes and rushing out ability. He spent the whole 2011/12 season as the #1 backup behind Schmeichel while not making even one appearance with the senior squad.

Paul Davies used to platoon with whoever was the starter when he first got to the team. He never devlopped beyond what he was on day 1 at Loftus Road and despite amazing kicking power, he's lacking in other aspects of his game.

Joe Marshall rounds out this group and is mostly there because he costs about nothing and he fills a bench spot on the reserves squad.

If Schmeichel were to leave, I'd be looking to bring another veteranish keeper, but money may be short, as we only have $3.1M in transfer budget for the moment.


Next up: Centrebacks!

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Centrebacks

CENTREBACKS	depth	Position	Age	hea	jum	mar	tac	pos	agg	acc	ant	bra	dec	det	pac	pas	str
Shittu, Danny	1	D C	31	20	18	11	14	12	15	14	10	16	7	16	14	5	18
Zuiverloon, Gianni	1	D RC	25	20	12	20	20	20	8	7	19	8	20	12	7	20	9
Vanden Borre, Anthony	2	SW/D/DM RC	24	14	11	18	14	14	4	14	14	15	16	14	14	20	16
Collins, James	2	D C	28	18	13	15	15	16	10	8	12	14	16	15	9	15	15
Rozehnal, David Marek	2	D C	32	17	14	16	13	12	12	13	12	12	12	14	13	12	15
Biscan, Igor	3	D/DM C	34	15	15	13	13	14	15	12	14	16	12	18	12	11	15
Morgan, Scott	3	D LC	18	15	7	19	16	13	17	14	13	17	10	11	14	10	7
Evans, Darren	4	D C	21	11	12	14	14	14	6	10	16	3	13	10	8	11	18
Evans, Mark		D C	16	3	13	7	8	11	7	12	3	1	11	10	10	4	10
Lyons, Stephen		D/DM C	18	7	13	5	10	8	8	12	7	1	9	10	13	6	12
King, Paul		D RLC	17	6	11	6	6	8	7	9	6	8	6	7	11	6	15
Singh, Gary		SW/D LC	17	7	14	5	6	7	17	11	14	7	9	9	11	5	10

While Danny Shittu is still very solid in the centre of our defensive line, he seems to be losing steam at 31. He's still the unquestionned, always in there, centreback, the one I pull out only if he's injured.

Gianni Zuiverloon has been brought to the team to be the second in command in the middle of the defensive unit. At only 25, he could be with us for many seasons to come.

I use Anthony Vanden Borre more as a fullback, but he's got all the tools of the trade to be a great centreback when needed, even though he may be a bit to offensive. He is described as a cultured centreback and everytime I played him in there, he's done very well.

James Collins had a shaky start to the season but got better as he settled down and didn't scare me as much when I played him very often down the stretch and when Shittu got injured.

David Marek Rozehnal and Igor Biscan have been with us for a few seasons now and they've always responded well when asked upon. They both used to be starters but they'll mostly be used in backup duty from this point on, with Biscan also doubling as a defensive middie backup.

Scott Morgan is an 18yo promising centreback for whom I have great hopes. He's already got great skills for a player of his age, with some first team experience, so he could even see quite a bit of first team play to help him learn the job.

Darren Evans used to be a starter, until he pissed me off with repetitive mistakes. I think his lack of aggressiveness, coupled with ordinary skills in other areas of his play, is what pissed me off the most. I got used to see him get beat and not even fight back to get the ball. Can't have that happen in the middle of your defensive line.


Next up: Fullbacks!

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Fullbacks

FULLBACKS	depth	Position	Age	mar	pac	cro	agg	tac	pas	ant	hea	pos	sta	acc	str	str	wrk
Fawcett, César Augusto	1	D L	27	16	15	17	11	16	14	14	15	17	16	15	12	12	15
Vanden Borre, Anthony	1	SW/D/DM RC	24	18	14	16	4	14	20	14	14	14	16	14	16	16	10
Crane, Craig	2	D R	22	15	17	13	16	15	13	20	13	17	13	15	12	12	15
Howell, Tom	2	D/M L	21	20	8	20	14	20	17	14	17	14	18	12	16	16	6
Morgan, Scott	3	D LC	18	19	14	13	17	16	10	13	15	13	8	14	7	7	12
Davies, John	3	D R	20	14	11	14	5	16	15	13	20	13	17	10	6	6	11
Zuiverloon, Gianni	4	D RC	25	20	7	16	8	20	20	19	20	20	17	7	9	9	10
Davenport, Robert		D L	17	9	10	11	8	12	10	8	3	5	14	9	9	9	10
Henry, Andy		D L	18	5	9	7	5	6	5	5	6	9	13	9	10	10	16
Matthews, Dean		D L	17	3	11	4	14	1	5	19	4	2	9	11	6	6	6
Corbett, Steve		D R	15	3	12	8	7	6	9	7	2	6	12	11	8	8	10
Lamb, Joe		D R	16	1	10	6	10	8	6	5	6	6	13	9	8	8	14
Pearce, Craig		D R	17	13	12	8	10	11	5	9	5	9	12	7	11	11	12
King, Paul		D RLC	17	6	11	6	7	6	6	6	6	8	13	9	15	15	18
Singh, Gary		SW/D LC	17	5	11	6	17	6	5	14	7	7	12	11	10	10	15

César Augusto Fawcett has been a star on our left side from the day he got to the team. He's got a way to restart the offense from the back that is just great. He is often relied upon by the left winger (Kelly or Howell) for a backpass so he can restart the thing with a nice cross, sometimes to the far post.

While Anthony Vanden Borre is still two months from coming back, but when he does, he's got his spot on our right side secured. He's a solid kid, only 24yo, who can move the ball and sometimes take off with it and support the attack out of the back.

Tom Howell is a multitalented kid who can cover fullback or winger just as well as backup, or starter, anyday. His lack of pace is widely known, but I think he compensate for it with world class marking, tackling, and crossing ability.

Craig Crane got relegated to the reserves squad for no apparent reason two seasons ago. I brought him back to the senior squad last year and he did well. He's still got room to grow, but I think he's got the basic skills to be a good, sometimes great, fullback when called upon, maybe platooning with AvB when he goes to play DMC.

John Davies was injured for the most part of the first half of last season, but the Q.P.R. youth product was once seen as a future starter for the club. He's for the moment mostly a backup, but I think he can fill in when asked to.

Scott Morgan and Gianni Zuiverloon were both brought on to be centrebacks, but they also could be asked to fill in on the sides. We usually have plenty of right fullbacks, but there have been a time or two when both Fawcett and Howell were not available to play fullback, so Morgan's ability to fill in is a big plus to his name.


Next up: Defensive Midfielders!


FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Defensive Midfielders

DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS	depth	Position	Age	hea	mar	tac	agg	tea	pas	dri	fir	lon	pos	fin	cre	pac	sta	wrk
Rochemback, Fábio	1	DM C	30	11	16	17	20	17	15	12	14	20	17	14	13	11	17	15
Yahiaoui, Ahmed	1	DM RC	25	19	19	20	14	15	20	20	16	20	20	18	20	13	16	8
Vanden Borre, Anthony	2	SW/D/DM RC	24	14	18	14	4	10	20	19	20	18	14	9	15	14	16	10
Biscan, Igor	3	D/DM C	34	15	13	13	15	15	11	7	9	10	14	8	9	12	14	15
Watson, Ben	4	M C	27	9	11	9	11	12	20	13	16	16	13	11	18	11	14	12
Chapman, Chris	5	M LC	20	7	13	16	8	10	13	20	5	15	15	13	11	9	10	9
Bircham, Marc	6	DM C	34	7	12	18	18	20	8	5	6	7	13	6	10	10	12	20
Blake, Scott		M C	20	12	12	14	10	9	14	11	11	11	10	11	11	12	17	10
Lyons, Stephen		D/DM C	18	7	5	10	8	10	6	5	6	6	8	5	6	13	9	6
Cook, Mike		M C	19	10	8	7	12	4	11	9	7	9	8	9	9	12	19	13
Young, David		M C	16	8	8	8	10	15	16	8	6	9	8	8	8	14	12	17

Fábio Rochemback had a rough start to his second season with us last year, so much so that I seriously thought about letting him go at the end of the season. He started playing very well around midseason, and even though I had brought in Ahmed Yahiaoui to take his place, I made a push to resign him and he's back this season. Being the hot blooded Brazilian that he is, he's somewhat of a hot temper and sometimes finds himself at odds with some referee (Rob Styles or Tom Rigby anyone?). Other than that, he's been pretty solid in the middle of the field for us.

As I said, Ahmed Yahiaoui was brought in to replace Roch in the DMC spot, but he's been playing better out of the AMC spot, mostly because he's got great attacking skills. He's got a deadly kick from long range and whether he's playing up front or in the back, he's always told to swing it whenever he can, the same way I ask Roch to do.

Anthony Vanden Borre, as good as he can be at the fullback or centreback spot, is another killer DMC. He played great for us in that position when Roch got injured last season. His great passing, long shot, and dribbling can help restart the offense whenever he gets the ball in our half of the field.

Igor Biscan is the dependable old guy. Pushed to action in the DMC spot last season, he did solidly, if not spectacularly well. His experience helps him and he's a solid option late in games when we want to preserve a lead and we got to a 4-2-2-2 formation.

Ben Watson and Chris Chapman are mostly used as last resorts. They're not bad, far from it, but they're not as strong overall as the top 3 (4 if you count Biscan) guys.


Next up: Attacking Midfielders!


FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Attacking Midfielders

ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS	depth	Position	Age	dri	cre	off	pas	lon	fin	sta	fir	tea	pos	mar	tac	pac	agg	wrk
Källström, Kim	1	AM C	29	16	19	17	19	20	13	16	17	15	15	13	15	7	12	17
Hersi, Youssouf	1	AM C	29	15	15	14	15	15	13	16	15	8	12	7	4	15	16	15
Pearson, Stephen	2	AM RLC	29	17	15	15	15	11	12	16	3	16	5	12	16	14	10	18
Yahiaoui, Ahmed	2	DM RC	25	20	20	18	20	20	18	16	16	15	20	19	20	13	14	8
Watson, Ben	3	M C	27	13	18	13	20	16	11	14	16	12	13	11	9	11	11	12
Chapman, Chris	3	M LC	20	20	11	11	13	15	13	10	5	10	15	13	16	9	8	9
Donnelly, Scott	4	AM RC	24	13	13	13	13	13	12	11	14	8	10	7	8	12	8	10
Young, Peter	4	AM RLC	17	13	11	13	14	13	12	10	13	9	12	8	10	13	15	14
Cross, Matt	4	AM/F RC	22	12	12	12	12	13	12	16	12	8	9	9	11	8	15	10
Blake, Scott	5	M C	20	11	11	10	14	11	11	17	11	9	10	12	14	12	10	10
John, Matthew		AM C	16	6	10	6	7	7	7	10	1	11	1	2	2	14	5	10
Bates, Adam		AM/F C	17	7	7	7	9	9	9	13	6	13	6	6	6	14	11	14
Berry, Steven		AM/F C	15	6	5	9	5	6	5	12	3	10	5	4	4	9	18	15
Cook, Mike		M C	19	9	9	6	11	9	9	19	7	4	8	8	7	12	12	13
Young, David		M C	16	8	8	8	16	9	8	12	6	15	8	8	8	14	10	17

Kim Källström was brought on board to platoon with Youssouf Hersi in the AMC spot and while he's got about no pace, he is an extremely well rounded player that could bring a spark to our offense and feed quality balls to our strikers and wingers.

Youssouf Hersi has been a solid playmaker for us since being signed as my first high-profile player, per request from my team chairman. He kind of slowed down late in the season last year, thus the reason for bringing Källström. Hopefully, a platoon of two well rested AMC's like Hersi and Källström could mean many goals for us.

Stephen Pearson is played more often on the wing than in the middle, more out of need than anything else, as I think he could make a killing in the middle more than he does on the wing. He still is a solid alternative as a backup AMC.

Even though he's primarily listed as a defensive middie, Ahmed Yahiaoui has done very well when asked to play up front, right behind the strikers. He's a very creative player with great dribbling, passing, long shot, and even tackling, helping him sometimes get the ball back from unsuspecting defenders.

Again Ben Watson and Chris Chapman round up the group and again, they're simply not as good as the top 3 or 4.

Finally, Scott Donnelly, Peter Young and Matt Cross can also be used as backups, but this would be a major injury rash if it ever come down to them, but hey, we never know...


Next up: Wingers!


FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Wingers

WINGERS	depth	Position	Age	dri	cro	pac	pas	sta	cre	fin	fir	lon	off	mar	tac	tea	lth
Kelly, Marcus	1	AM RL	26	19	12	12	13	16	13	12	13	13	12	6	6	14	5
Pearson, Stephen	1	AM RLC	29	17	14	14	15	16	15	12	3	11	15	12	16	16	8
Howell, Tom	2	D/M L	21	13	20	8	17	18	18	16	10	9	18	20	20	12	4
Fritz, Clemens	2	AM R	31	20	16	17	18	10	11	17	10	17	8	18	17	8	5
Yahiaoui, Ahmed	3	DM RC	25	20	17	13	20	16	20	18	16	20	18	19	20	15	1
Vanden Borre, Anthony	3	SW/D/DM RC	24	19	16	14	20	16	15	9	20	18	20	18	14	10	3
Chapman, Chris	4	M LC	20	20	13	9	13	10	11	13	5	15	11	13	16	10	3
Donnelly, Scott	4	AM RC	24	13	15	12	13	11	13	12	14	13	13	7	8	8	6
Young, Peter	5	AM RLC	17	13	15	13	14	10	11	12	13	13	13	8	10	9	7
Cross, Matt	5	AM/F RC	22	12	13	8	12	16	12	12	12	13	12	9	11	8	6
Morrell, Ian		AM R	18	7	7	10	8	13	8	5	1	6	6	3	6	15	2
Carter, Peter		M L	18	14	12	10	12	11	13	14	8	10	5	7	9	10	4
Henry, James		M L	17	8	9	13	10	7	7	9	5	6	8	7	6	10	5
Talbot, Kevin		M R	18	9	10	14	17	11	9	11	6	9	10	10	7	12	4

Marcus Kelly is back as the starting left winger and while his skills might say it, he plays pretty well in game, creating occasions out of thin air. Hidden to me, but I'm only guessing, the guy has some pretty solid mental skills to be playing this well. His dribbling skills are unmatched, and he uses it well with what little pace he has.

Stephen Pearson is the starting right winger, sort of by default. He's not as good as Clemens Fritz but he's got the stamina to play well into the second half and sometimes stay in for a whole game, something which Fritz sadly can't do...

Speaking of Fritz, he is simply electrifying to see at work. He can take the ball from midfield and bring it to the keeper before burying with a precise strike. He's that special. The one sad thing is his low stamina and even lower natural fitness (unreported in here) making him pretty much unable to play a whole game. Depending on how the game unfolds, he can even get to a pretty low condition after only 45 minutes, but, and there's a big BUT, he scored 13 goals in many games where he came in around the 60th minute, against defenders who are more tired than he is. That's when his great pace, coupled with amazing dribbling skill and finishing, can be deadly. Not only is he useful when we're down by a goal and we want to get even, but he also holds up the ball so well, it keeps it from our opponents, sometimes saving games when we're one goal ahead and want to keep a lead...

Tom Howell is a very dependable backup winger, and even a good starter for a few games at a time. Opposite of Fritz, he's got plenty of stamina, but about no pace. Everytime he comes in for Kelly, I change the individual order for him, asking him to cross from deep and play many through balls, and he does pretty well.

Ahmed Yahiaoui has all the skills needed to be a pretty good winger, but he seems uneasy at the position. He makes a solid backup though.

Anthony Vanden Borre has not been played at the winger spot often, mostly because we had greater needs in the back, but he remains a solid option there.

Scott Donnelly and Chris Chapman are sort of last resort options, but they can do the work for a couple games at a time, even though the risk of them being overwhelmed is a bit greater than with others. They're also both described as "midfielders" and not really "wingers" so that may explain the tendency I've seen from them of having slow starts in games sometimes.

Peter Young was brought on as a promising winger only for me to see him get injury after injury during his first half season with us. It's kind of sad because the kid already has some skill at the young age of 17. If he can stop being assigned to a physiotherapist, he could develop into a nice player.

Matt Cross used to be that promising winger on our squad, but the Q.P.R. product kind of stopped improving before the beginning of last season and I am now convinced he will never make it to be a regular first squad contributor. He is currenlty transfer listed and is earning a way too big wage for what he contributes to the team ($33,000 per week)


Next up: Strikers!


FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Strikers

STRIKERS	depth	Position	Age	fin	off	cre	dri	pas	fir	fla	lon	hea	jum	pac	sta	str	dec	cmp
McCormack, Ross	1	S C	25	20	16	19	15	16	9	10	20	20	13	11	16	10	20	16
Abeyie, Quincy Owusu	2	S C	26	19	19	16	20	16	11	17	17	19	2	16	12	5	19	15
Nadal Lázaro, Igor	3	S C	25	20	20	14	11	14	14	4	15	15	17	15	17	14	13	12
Johnson, Andrew	3	S C	22	13	14	10	14	13	13	3	13	14	19	11	16	8	12	14
Wilson, Jason	4	S C	17	12	17	12	11	11	11	4	10	12	11	12	15	12	12	8
Wall, Justin	4	F LC	20	11	12	12	12	12	12	2	12	12	17	7	12	9	13	12
Cross, Matt	5	AM/F RC	22	12	12	12	12	12	12	4	13	13	17	8	16	12	14	8
Campbell, Jason		S C	17	9	8	15	7	9	3	5	11	8	11	13	13	9	7	6
Clark, Gary		S C	15	8	4	8	7	7	2	13	6	6	9	11	12	17	6	11
Turner, Dave		S C	17	10	9	7	7	9	11	15	7	7	11	10	11	9	8	7
Beattie, Richard		F LC	18	6	6	6	6	6	5	4	6	5	11	14	9	13	4	3
Parker, Keigan		F RC	30	18	14	9	8	10	2	12	11	11	14	17	16	8	8	9

Ross McCormack is capable of the greatest things, but also of taking a night off every now and then. That being said, the clinical striker will be missed very much for the whole time he is recuperating from his surgery and a spot on the first team will be waiting for him the day is even a little match fit to take it back from whoever has replaced him while he was gone.

Quincy Owusu Abeyie got to our team on a free transfer from Arsenal and while the fans were ecstatic to see him get to the club, he never really got it in gear to impress me enough to make him an automatic selection. He's got this chance this season as he is now also described as a clinical striker, and our original clinician is out recuperating from surgery.

Igor Nadal Lázaro played amazingly well for us two seasons ago but injuries slowed him down last season and he never really got it into gears. I hope he'll get back to his goal scoring ways this season, as we need more production from up front.

Andrew "AJ" Johnson is now a bit in a "Matt Cross" kind of situation. I once thought he could almost get to a world class level, but his improving has kind of stagnated during last season. His dribbling got to 15 at some point, but his finishing leaves a bit to be desired and I sometimes scream at him in-game when he kicks it wide when all alone inside the opposing team's penalty area...

Jason Wilson was brought in last season as a promising striker but never agreed to sign a contract as a hot prospect, only agreeing to sign if I made him the false promise that he'd be a first teamer. This resulted in him getting pissed and it probably hindered his development. He's still only 17 and hopefully he'll keep on growing. I like his great off the ball skill, well devlopped for a player so young.

I once had great hopes for youngster Justin Wall, but a few badly placed loans have probably killed his potential. I mean, he went on a couple of loans without even increasing one point in ANY skill. This shouldn't have happened. He also probably got stuck behind too much depth, especially when we had Jeppe Lund Curth, and Keigan Parker on top of who we have now...

Striker could be a position of improvement if I ever get a bit more transfer budget. It seems we sometimes don't use our scoring chances well enough to my liking up front...


FM

[FrogMan]

Well, this is it for the team and at the same time, you saw the crappy batch of youngsters that graduated to our U18 squad last June. Really nothing to get too excited about, not even one bearing the "promising" tag, only "young" ones, meh...

If you got comments, feel free to express them. I'm not sure I'll get to the reporting of last evening's playing session today, means you won't who got the latest injuries but we got time to chat about that team of mine.

As daedalus commented yesterday, this is a vastly superior team to the one I inherited when I first got to Loftus Road. Now if only the injuries could stop, we'd be golden!


FM

[terpkristin]

*wipes away a tear*
It's so nice to see how far this team has come in such a short time!
Team looks pretty darn good...

Now, as far as those injuries go, keep in mind that IRL I have 5 surgeons, 3 other doctors, and about 6 physiotherapists. Maybe you need to increase your staff?

/tk

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

*wipes away a tear*
It's so nice to see how far this team has come in such a short time!
Team looks pretty darn good...

No kidding, as a comparison, I just went and found the first time I posted some positional reviews that included skills, I'll repost them here for a trip down memory lane...

NOTE: THESE ARE FROM OCTOBER 2008, the start of my first full season at Loftus Road. The team had just been relegated to League One..
Goalkeepers

Name	Age	Position	Aer	Cmd	Com	Ecc	Han	Kic	One	Ref	Rus	Pun	Thr	Pos	Jum	Bra
Chris Day	33	GK	13	13	13	7	12	10	13	17	14	7	8	9	14	10
Jamie Young	23	GK	14	10	12	6	15	14	8	17	3	11	13	4	10	10
Neil Murray	19	GK	10	10	10	7	10	10	10	10	1	1	9	11	7	2

Centrebacks

Name	Age	Position	Acc	Ant	Hea	Jum	Mar	Pac	Pos	Sta	Str	Tac	Pas	Pac	Wor
Danny Shittu	28	D C	14	10	20	18	11	14	12	16	18	14	6	14	16
Darren Ward	30	D C	11	14	18	16	14	13	13	16	15	14	10	13	16
Darren Evans	17	D C	10	16	11	11	14	8	15	11	18	14	11	8	18

Fullbacks

Name	Age	Position	Acc	Ant	Hea	Jum	Mar	Pac	Pos	Sta	Str	Tac	Pas	Pac	Str	Wor	Cro
Gino Padula	32	D/DM L	11	13	7	12	13	13	14	13	12	14	12	13	12	11	12
Matthew Rose	33	SW/D/DM RC	9	12	11	11	13	9	13	9	7	15	7	9	7	15	5
Mathew Sadler	23	D L	13	14	14	5	14	13	11	10	6	17	10	13	6	5	11
Marcus Bignot	34	D/DM RL	9	10	8	10	10	10	12	9	10	12	7	10	10	16	7

Inner Midfielders

Name	Age	Position	Cre	Dri	Fin	Fir	Lon	Off	Pas	Mar	Pac	Pos	Sta	Tac	Agg	Tea	Wor
Nigel Quashie	30	M C	14	10	12	12	17	13	13	8	12	12	16	12	14	12	15
Marc Bircham	30	DM C	11	7	7	9	8	10	11	13	13	13	16	19	18	20	20
Ben Watson	23	M C	18	12	10	16	16	13	20	10	11	13	14	8	11	12	12
Lee Mansell	25	AM C	10	11	15	6	14	15	11	11	10	11	16	12	10	11	13

Wingers

Name	Age	Position	Cre	Cro	Dri	Fin	Fir	Lon	Off	Pas	Mar	Pac	Sta	Tac	Dec	Tea	Wor
Martin Rowlands	29	AM RC	11	16	13	13	13	13	14	12	9	12	15	10	12	13	13
Jim Paterson	29	AM L	13	15	14	11	13	13	11	13	13	11	15	13	8	12	12
Matt Cross	18	AM/F RC	12	13	12	11	12	12	12	12	10	8	16	11	15	8	10
Lee Cook	26	AM L	11	15	11	11	4	9	12	13	7	13	16	7	11	14	15
Nathan Jameson	23	M RLC	17	16	16	15	7	13	18	14	12	12	15	15	17	10	10
Scott Donnelly	21	AM RC	10	12	11	9	12	10	10	12	6	12	11	6	10	8	10

Strikers

Name	Age	Position	Cre	Dri	Fin	Fir	Fla	Lon	Off	Pas	Hea	Jum	Pac	Sta	Str	Dec	Wor
Iván Kaviedes	30	S C	16	16	16	14	16	13	18	14	17	10	4	3	14	15	6
Andrew Johnson	18	S C	9	13	13	13	3	13	13	13	13	19	11	16	8	11	16
Steve Brooker	27	S C	10	10	15	12	9	15	15	12	15	12	9	16	14	11	15
Jamie Cureton	33	S C	10	10	13	9	14	12	9	9	10	5	12	4	6	8	6

Granted, I didn't present every soul that could have taken part in a game, but still, depth was pretty laughable back then

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Now, as far as those injuries go, keep in mind that IRL I have 5 surgeons, 3 other doctors, and about 6 physiotherapists. Maybe you need to increase your staff?

I got 5 physios I think, maybe that'll be one solution, other than that, I guess I'd have to wait for it to subside...

FM

[FrogMan]

gotta add that we still kicked everybody's butt on our way to back-to-back promotion, from League One to the Premiership in two seasons

FM

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I know Desnudo will bitch and moan about his lack of pace, but the kid has grown into a very nice player, capable of doing just about as well as a fullback as a winger...

FM

Umm yes, he's a good player, except...well you know.

[FrogMan]

August 11, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Wnt	Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	8-8-5-7-6	100%	7	-	6.86
DR		Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Poor	6-7-8-7-8	100%	-	-	-
DL		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	95%	3 (3)	-	7.17
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	100%	6	1	7.33
DC		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-6-7-8-7	94%	3	-	7.33
DMC		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	94%	5 (2)	1	7.43
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	94%	4 (1)	-	7.40
MR		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-7-10-10	94%	6 (1)	-	8.14
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	6-7-7-8-7	92%	3	1	7.00
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-6-7-10	92%	5	2	7.40
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Good	7-7	100%	-	-	-
S2	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	6-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (1)	-	6.00
S3		Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	7-8-8-8-7	95%	0 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	7-8	98%	-	-	-
S5		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	90%	2 (3)	3	7.20
-	Inj	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	57%	2 (1)	-	7.00
-		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	92%	7	2	7.43
-		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	94%	4	-	7.25
-	Inj	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-7-9-7-7	82%	6 (1)	-	7.57
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Superb	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	64%	5	-	7.80
-	Inj	Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	76%	0 (5)	-	7.40
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Inj	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	70%	2	-	7.00
-	Inj	Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-8-8-6	43%	3	-	7.33
-	Inj	Jason Wilson	S C	Good	7-7-6-7-7	46%	0 (1)	-	7.00

League Match #1: we play Liverpool on their pitch. They finished last season in 6th place and are 4-7 favourites to win this game.

We go with a 4-2-2-2 formation to try to counter their 4-2-3-1.

Djibril Cissé is injured for them. For us, injuries are to numerous to name one by one...

Gianni Zuiverloon is the only one of our new players set to make is debut as a starter today. Kim Källstrom is left to the bench since we're going without an AMC and Scott Morgan is left out because I don't want to have too many new faces in there and the kid will be brought along a little later on...

Both teams last played in a EURO Vase Semi Final on August 8.

They pinball the ball around very early on and after only 4 minutes, Gerrard curls one in from a distance to make it 0-1. Schmeichel and many others are rated at 5 to start the game...

After only 35 minutes, Quincy Owusu Abeyie's condition has dipped to 68% with still 10 minutes to do in the first half. On top of it, he must be running around without even touching the ball because he's rated only at 5. I pull him out and put Igor Nadal Lázaro in the game.

AAAAARRRRGGGG! Andrew Johnson suffers a minor injury and is condition dips to 56% in the 42nd minute.

The half ends with us down 0-1. They're outshooting us 11(4) to 5(2). The score is tight, the game isn't...

Andrew Johnson is pulled from the game and Kim Källström replaces him as we go to a 4-2-2-1-1 formation. Schmeichel is rated at 6.

In the 71st minute, Kasper Schmeichel passes it straight on of their strikers. He stops his first kick but lets go of the rebound and it's kicked straight in. Down 0-2.

Final Score: 0-2

They outshot us 21(9), to 6(3). An ugly, ugly start to the season...

Marcus Kelly and Quincy Owusu Abeyie both rated at 6 while Kasper Schmeichel ended with a 7. We start the season in 20th place, I guess it's "nowhere to go but up"...

Awww, come on... Andrew Johnson suffered a strained wrist and he will mis one week.

After his side defeated my Rangers, Rafa Benítez spoke of his liking for me, saying I should ne be disheartened by our loss in the match-up between the two sides as it is still early in the season and he feels I can steer my side to success.

Following his comment, Danny Shittu and Andrew Johnson are both pleased that I'm getting the praise I deserve while Marcus Kelly, Ross McCormack and Anthony Vanden Borre all believe the team cannot fail to perform whilst under my guidance.

Tottenham enquire about César Augusto Fawcett. He is valued at $7.8M, but since he doesn't have a minimum release fee anymore, I tell them that a cool $25M will pry him away from me


FM

[Kevin]

I like your evaluation system. I'm always looking for different ones to help with my own. I know next to nothing about football and struggle on things like player evaluation and tactics. One item that I don't know is placement of midfilders in a 4-4-2 formation. Should the DMs be in the middle and the AMs on the flanks?