Dave — FM2011 Ultimate European Challenge, Liverpool season 13/14 October — December

Hello and welcome to further developments at Liverpool FC.  I have made a decent start so far which has left me feeling optimistic about my chances in all competitions.  I will start off with Sergio Asenjo’s profile as requested by Plobdork in the comments of my previous post.

As mentioned in my previous post, he is a more than capable understudy to Pepe Reina and I am sure he would be a decent enough 1st choice goalie for any other team! Now let’s see how I am getting on!

October

This was a month of up’s and down’s really. The highs of thrashing CSKA Moscow and beating Napoli in Europe were completely undone by Tottenham and Newcastle in the League Cup.  The Tottenham result was my first defeat in the league and I totally deserved it.  However, 2 of the goals were blasted in at Reina’s near post!  I was pretty annoyed with him for that but in the end, Spurs wanted it more than us.  I hope not to be too forgiving next time!  I fielded a fairly strong team in the Newcastle game but they looked a bit complacent.  They took us all the way to penalties which luckily I won 6-5 after 11 spot-kicks were taken by each side!

During October, I noticed that the Sweden job became available so applied and got it!  I was curious how my 433 formation would fare on the world stage.  I had 2 friendlies against Italy and Andorra.  I lost to Italy 2-1 with them scoring the winner in the 91st minute so quite a brave performance.  Against Andorra, we won 3-1 but I quickly decided that International management wasn’t for me and resigned.  My biggest worry is that I appointed Pierpaolo Bisoli as my assistant there as well so I am hoping he doesn’t leave Liverpool to take over the Sweden job!

November

Undefeated on all fronts in this month makes David a very happy manager!  Ignore the fact that it was against teams I should be beating!  The Napoli result means that I have now qualified from the group and have only conceded 1 goal!  The team is definitely finding it’s feet with regards to my tactics now so it’s just a question of how I get on against the top teams and not doing anything silly against the rest.  At this point, I am starting to believe that the Premier league trophy could be on the way to Anfield for a 2nd season in a row but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself.

Doing November I received this message —

I thought I would share this because I found it funny!  We are not even half way through the season and Steve Gerrard has already broken the assists record!

December

Looking at the fixtures above they don’t look too spectacular but when I break them down, they are not so bad! The win over Blackburn put us through to the semi-final of the League Cup.  We could have beaten Man City with the amount of chances we produced but looking at their first team and it is clear they have spent a lot of money as you would expect from them.  Eden Hazard looks to be the pick of the bunch.  I was a little bit disappointed with the CSKA result which lost our 100% record in the group but I didn’t field a strong side so can’t complain too much.  Bolton was a comfortable game and beating another big club in Arsenal means another month domestically where we were undefeated!

Another funny message this month below

Nice to know my colleagues in Italy are still thinking of me despite leaving 5 months ago!

At the end of the year all the International awards are dished out.  I managed to get 2 players in the World Team of the Year and they fully deserve it!  Danny Wilson was also awarded European Defender of the year.  I am surprised that no Fiorentina players featured in any of the awards handed out, not even 2nd or 3rd in the respective catagories considering their dominance last season?!

Final thoughts

First of all, let’s have a look at the league table at the end of the year.

When I took this screenshot, I didn’t actually realise that we had gone 2nd so had a little panic to myself!  Then I quickly realised that we still have 2 games in hand.  I feel we are doing extremely well in the league but Manchester United are hounding us every step of the way.  As I mentioned earlier in this post, it is just a question of not slipping up against the teams I should be beating and also getting results against the bigger boys.  I know that one lapse of concentration could cost us dearly.

As the months roll by, I am getting a better impression of my team.  I now have a fair idea of my best starting XI and who I can count on when these are injured/suspended etc.  Steven Gerrard is continuing to impress me despite his age but I know that he cannot last much longer.  Andriy Yarmolenko who started the season so brightly whilst covering for Fernando Torres has gone downhill.  I rarely play him anymore but at 23 years old and knowing that he can do it leaves me in a limbo of whether to cut my losses or to remain patient.  Currently, I am leaning towards keeping with him or until someone makes an offer at least!  Diego Costa is a player who I have adapted to play striker.  He has got some unbelievable skill but can be extremely frustrating too.  I cannot trust him to start games anymore but he has come off the bench on a few occasions and turned games so his future is uncertain too.

There are 3 players future’s which are certain though.  Anthony Mounier and Jonas Olsson who both were brought in on free transfers in the summer by the previous regime have both left the club for 4.9 million and 1 million respectively.  It felt good making a huge profit on those players who I didn’t want in the first place!  I also decided to cash in on Diego Perotti who didn’t quite adapt well enough to the striker role.  He left for Lyon for a cool 6.25 million and my well wishes.  His departure was partly prompted by a certain Yaya Sanago becoming available from Barcelona.  To my delight, I have bought him for 5.5 million!  I know he is not going to help with the homegrown rule but I just couldn’t resist him at that price!

One final thought before I leave you.  I noticed that last season, Roy Hodgson’s  Liverpool won the league 78 points.  If I use that as a target, that means I have to win 11 of the 19 league games left.  Things could get very interesting!