The short break was over, back to the Premier League for the most difficult game so far — away at Old Trafford. Manchester United were right behind us in second place, they were hoping to get the top spot back. Our only problem was that Lucas Biglia was suspended for reaching the yellow cards limit, we had to play without him. We got punished in the first minutes of the game again, the referee saw something wrong during a corner kick battle inside the box and he pointed to the spot! The team was getting used to letting in those early goals, the lads reacted well again. Our first chance came from Kevin Thomson, he took a shot from the edge of the area but it rattled the crossbar and bounced quite a few yards away. Sobis had a good chance too but his vicious shot was tipped over by the keeper. United had a couple of chances on counter attacks but Rooney missed them. I was hoping for more in the second half but the lads looked exhausted, our performance was less impressive and we were outplayed by the Red Devils throughout the last 45 minutes. Fortunately Rooney was largely wasteful, so we went home with a narrow defeat, the first Premier League defeat of the season.
We should have had two more games to play but one of them got postponed for some reason. So, the last game of the year was at home with last placed Reading, a team that we beat 3-1 in August. It was a good chance for us to forget the bitter taste of the defeat at Old Trafford and the players surely understood that. We were all over them right away and the Brazilian cooperation gave us the early lead: Agnaldo played a near post cross from the left and Guilherme headed it in. Then we managed to hit the woodwork twice before Guilherme passed one in to make it 2-0. The referee was impressed to, he awarded us a harsh penalty kick but Guilherme missed the chance to get a hat-trick! He earned it and a bit more in the second half, he banged home a double! My boys were playing around with Reading‘s defense and could have scored a lot more, it was an impressive performance. The bad news was that right back Gergely Varga picked up a knock, he will be out for three weeks.
Guess what, we were back in second place, one point behind Manchester United. But this time we had three games in hand, I guess we could get two points out of three games…
Now let’s have a look at the player stats for the first half of the season, they are sorted by average rating. The best performer was undoubtedly Rafael Sobis, he had a slow start but once he got going he banged in no less than 20 goals! As you can see, all of them played pretty well, only 3 players out of 25 have an average rating below 7! If you spot other interesting numbers in the stats please make them public in your comments ;)
2013 was over, we had a fantastic first half of the season! The team’s performances were brilliant in most matches but I have to admit that we didn’t have any injury problems so far, that helped us a lot. Now let’s take a look at January’s fixtures… That’s right, you can look again and count again, we have 9 games to play!
I guess I’ll have to give the players some coffee, otherwise I can’t see how they’ll be able to endure that rhythm. I will try to rotate the squad as much as possible because we probably won’t be able to bring in any new players, the board didn’t give me any more money for transfers. Anyway, we seem to have a Champions League spot almost secured and we also seem to have what it takes to challenge Manchester United‘s claim for the title. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next post, it will be about my year with the Uruguay national team, I hope you’re curious to find out if we managed to get the tickets for the World Cup or not.
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Calum
9 февраля, 2010 at 17:58
Another great month for you. You are challenging well at the top of the League and progressing through the UEFA Cup as well. The huge amount of 9 games in a month should really test your players and I hope that they are up for the challenge.
Good Luck :D
Laxeyman
9 февраля, 2010 at 18:26
Well done Johnny good month there. I feel sure you will be top of the table after those 3 games in hand, it seems you’ve got a great chance of winning the league! The January schedule will be tough but hopefully your players can manage.
Kevin Mayo
9 февраля, 2010 at 18:29
Firstly, that is a ridiculous amount of games to play in Janauary, it would be intersting to see how many Man Utd are playing? Is someone or something trying to prevent you from snatching the title?
Anyway, great wins over Chelsea and Liverpool and you finished the month with a morale boosting victory. You should do well in the Europa League based on the draw you’ve been handed.
Well done again!
Johnny Karp
9 февраля, 2010 at 18:48
Thanks for the comments Calum, Laxeyman and Kevin! I think that most of our matches are postponed due to international call ups to the Under 21 and Under 19 teams, sometimes those are different from the main national teams fixtures. And since we have a huge number of under 19 and under 21 players, our games get delayed. I don’t know how many games Man Utd will have to play, I think they’ll have 6 or 7 maybe. We’ll see how it goes, I guess I’ll start working on January tomorrow if I’ll have the time.
Bilal Ahmad
9 февраля, 2010 at 19:46
Unlucky for losing against Saint-Etienne and Man Utd however you done good against Chelsea and Liverpool! You got 3 games in hand and your fixture look easy! Good luck on the Carling Cup and the FA Cup!
TheZiggy
9 февраля, 2010 at 23:30
A very good month. Manchester United are always a tricky team to beat. It’s funny that like me, your unbeaten record has been ended by the same team, at just about the same point in the season.
Things are looking quite good, leaving you right in the title challenge.
Lye
10 февраля, 2010 at 02:46
Well done mate, with 3 games in hand you will be at the top of the table after playing those game. Very impressive victory against Liverpool and Chelsea, i am putting my bet on Notts County to win the league this season.
Hectic schedule in January, i hope your players can stand up to the challenge. Good luck.
AS
10 февраля, 2010 at 06:47
nice work. i have been browsing through your pages and noticed that u try to negotiate with teams and get players with smaller prices that i get?
is there a way to negotiate with the clubs properly?
Johnny Karp
10 февраля, 2010 at 09:43
@AS
Thanks. When I try to buy a player I look first at the scout report, it gives you an idea of how much the club will ask for a player. Then you make an offer and if they ask for more you can go for something in between, or monthly installments, or a bigger percentage of the next sale and try to get the player for less.
@Lye
Thanks mate, I was quite impressed with my team in those two games two, especially with Liverpool, we taught them a lesson. I hope to survive January…
@The Ziggy
Thanks for the comment, we were a bit powerless with Man Utd, I guess they are a tough nut to crack at Old Trafford. I hope we’ll be able to get revenge at Meadow Lane :)
@Bilal
Thanks for the good wishes. We deserved to lose the Man Utd game though.
Martin
10 февраля, 2010 at 15:06
Those Are Some Good Results For You There!
I Hope You Can Keep Going In The Europa League.
I Won League 2 On My Game With 104 Points And In January Of The 1st Season I Signed That James Rodriguez That You Had On Loan Even Though He Was Disappointing For You:P
In The Summer I Have Signed Naughton On Loan (£8M Buy Option) And Tommy Spurr From Sheff. Wed. For £2.5M
Btw, How Do I Backup My Save In Case It Says ‘Save Game Cannot Be Loaded’ ?
Clark
10 февраля, 2010 at 15:30
Hey Jonny
Been reading your blog for some time now and just want to say congrats with your work with notts county and especially with blyth.
Btw I see that Rafael Sobis is playing well for you. Do you have any special training plan for him because he always flops when I sign him, and how did you get a work permit?
Anyway gd luck with the season.
Johnny Karp
10 февраля, 2010 at 15:43
@Martin
Hey mate, thanks for the comment and congratulations on winning the league, well done! Those are excellent signings for League One, I bet you’ll triumph again. About the save, I set the game to save automatically each week to multiple files, that’s the best way. Once you get that error there’s nothing much you can do other than loading the game from a different file.
@Clark
Thanks for following the stories, the Blyth one has a special place in my heart. I can’t remember if I got the work permit for Sobis after the appeal but it probably was rejected at first. I have him on the same training schedule as my other strikers but he isn’t in the starting line up for every game, I rotate the four strikers a lot.