Next up, another away game against a relegation threatened team, Burnley. They were down in 18th place but I couldn’t forget that we had a difficult home game with them in September, we won it 3-2 then. My worries became lighter just after a few minutes into the game, Agnaldo crossed a ball from the left and Hinshelwood was right there at the far post to head it in. We seemed to keep the game under control well and new striker Zigoni took advantage of a defensive error to score his first goal for the club. I was a bit angry two minutes later, left back Alberto Morgado conceded a penalty kick after making a useless foul inside the penalty area. His lack of judgement could have cost us the win, Burnley pushed forward after converting the penalty and we have to thank Romero for surviving the pressure.
Our league form was looking alright again, now we had to confirm that in the FA Cup. We had to knock out Hull City to get to the next round and we had a slight advantage as we just beat them 2-0 at The Circle. The first 15 minutes were a complete nightmare, I guess my players thought that the game would have become ours just because of their names. We were 2-0 down after 13 minutes, something had to change. I already had a few substitutions in mind and I made all of them at half time. Guilherme clawed one back before the break and the second half was entirely ours, Gianmarco Zigoni scored again and Rodney Sneijder fired in his first goal of the season from a free kick. I was pleased that we managed to turn the game around but I was not pleased with the draw, we got Manchester City in the next round!
The last game of the month was at home with 19th placed Wigan, a team that held us to a 2-2 draw in September. We were in control throughout the game and we scored one goal per half. Agnaldo finished off a team move in the first half while Zigoni did the exact same thing in the second. The game ended with a frustrating episode, goalkeeper Sergio Romero got sent off for a stupid foul, he came out of the box to intercept a ball that was going safely towards our defenders and upended one of Wigan‘s players. He was banned for one game, I hope we won’t miss him too much.
With these results we managed to maintain our 6th place with 9 points above the 7th. Liverpool had a game in hand though.
I tried to bring in another player on loan before the end of the transfer window, I felt that another central midfielder could give us better depth in that department. After browsing through several options I chose Colombian youngster James Rodriguez from Juventus, a skillful player that we can buy during the loan for a fixed fee. He could prove to be decisive in some games with his ability to place long shots, I hope he’ll do well.
February will be quite difficult, we’ll start with European challengers Sunderland, then Arsenal and back to back games with Manchester City. I’d be happy to get two wins out of the four league games and try to get an unlikely win in the FA Cup game.
That’s how January was, I’m satisfied that we managed to keep our 6th place and go through the next round of the FA Cup. The most difficult part of the season is yet to come though, we have to get as many points as possible to stay in with a chance to get a ticket for Europe at the end of the season. Thanks for reading, I’m looking forward to reading your comments and to answering your questions.
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Kevin Mayo
25 января, 2010 at 23:13
Hi Johnny
Well you had a pretty decent month there aside from the Chelsea result and unlucky against Man Utd. Nice cup victory over Spurs too. I like your signings of Zigoni and Rodriguez and with his long shots attribute at 17 it will be intersting to see how many attempts/goals
Rodriguez has in comparison to the AI. Sorry, I’m a bit of a «long shot watchdog» lately.
Johnny Karp
25 января, 2010 at 23:35
Thanks Kevin, Zigoni has already produced some good performances. I don’t think I’ll count the AI long shots though but I hope Rodriguez will have the chance to bang in a few until the end of the season.
Laxeyman
25 января, 2010 at 23:44
Good month there Johnny, well done! Don’t worry about the Chelsea game, they are a good team and are difficult to beat. Zigoni looks like a good player I’m sure he will do well for you.
TheZiggy
25 января, 2010 at 23:47
Although you had the losses to Chelsea and Man United, it was still a decent month.
Zigoni is looking good. You’re nearly further on than I am, and comparing how he is right now in my game, can see how much better he is in yours. If can produce that much improvement I may look to sign him permanently. The long shots are odd, sometimes my players can’t get close to the goal all match, and then another time, it’s a bit more how you’d think, with it mixed. My big issue with the AI long shots, is how often players that have poor attribute manage to be on target. Somewhere I remember a player with the attribute at 1, scoring a screamer from 40 yards out, which is frustrating.
The next month is definitely tough, but hopefully you can do enough to maintain your position. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
26 января, 2010 at 00:08
@Laxeyman
Thanks mate. I’m not worried about the Chelsea game, I guess everybody expected them to win that one.
@TheZiggy
I will try to sign him permanently too, he seems to be a great talent. About the long shots, I guess that players with scarce abilities do score such goals in real life too, I know several examples. Some goals from long range are scored with a great deal of luck but I tend to agree that there is an issue with the AI long shots in FM 10. I’m not too bothered by it though, I try to focus on the positive aspects of the game. Oh, and thanks for the good luck wish, we’ll surely going to need some luck next month…
Martin
26 января, 2010 at 00:11
Good Month There Johnny, Zigoni Looks To Be A Good Player Already.
He Is Not As Good In My Game With 14 Finishing And 15 Strength 11 Acc. And 13 Pace
I Wish You Luck On The Rest Of Your Journey To Europe
Laxeyman
26 января, 2010 at 00:18
The Ziggy, isn’t Johnny 1 year (almost) ahead of you? Anyway he looks a good player on both your games. Will you try and sign him permanately Johnny?
TheZiggy
26 января, 2010 at 00:25
I just put that long shot down, as that players one in a million where he managed to strike it perfectly. If you have a keeper that is a good at reacting to such shots it helps. Another striker I’ve scouted, who I like the look of is Oscar Cardozo, but whether I could get Benfica to part with him for sensible money I don’t know.
TheZiggy
26 января, 2010 at 00:34
Laxeyman, you’re right that Johnny is nearly a year ahead of me, and that’s a vital word I missed from my orignal reply. It was interesting to see how much he’d improved in that time.
Kevin Mayo
26 января, 2010 at 02:17
Johnny,
Ref: Long shots
You’re right. Best to focus on what’s good about the game and that is it brings people together with good clean conversation about a sport and a game we are all passionate about.
Of course Swindon getting promoted would be a good game feature too :)
Lye
26 января, 2010 at 02:48
Hi mate, the loss to Chelsea doeesn’t have an effect on your position. So far your losses had been to those traditional strong teams, you are doing very well against the rest of the teams. I believe you should be able to achieve a Europa place when seasons ends.
I am very impressed with Zigoni, his attributes is awesome in such a young age. It will be a good investment if you buy him. Tough fixtures next month especially meeting Man City twice, i hope you can prevail over them and progress to the FA cup next round.
TheZiggy
26 января, 2010 at 04:09
I really should try not to get annoyed the little things are quite right. I’m sure SI will see them in time. The biggest problem is, I’m a programmer and a perfectionist, so I hate seeing those little issues.
There are many great things about the game, otherwise I wouldn’t still be playing it. Seeing how the situation changes on the pitch after making changes is great, especially if your team then go on to play much better.
Johnny Karp
26 января, 2010 at 08:37
Thanks for the comments folks!
@TheZiggy
I already figured out that you’re a perfectionist but being a programmer too explains your eye for those mistakes. The game got better each year and I hope there will be less errors to spot in the future versions.
@Lye and Laxeyman
I’m impressed with Zigoni too. I tried to buy him during the summer but Milan asked 22.5 million pounds for him back then. Now they only want around 10 to complete the loan to buy deal so I think I’ll make an offer if I’ll have the money.
@Martin
Thanks mate. How old is Zigoni in your game? Maybe he will make the same type of progress in there too.
@Kevin
I think that they’ll rather get Watford promoted instead of Swindon, that’s the team that Miles supports :)
marvin
26 января, 2010 at 12:51
Is it cheating when you use the search option, especially in LLM?
Johnny Karp
26 января, 2010 at 14:03
Marvin, what do you mean by using the search option? I don’t understand, be more specific.
Martin
26 января, 2010 at 14:57
He’s 20, 1 Year Younger :P
TheZiggy
26 января, 2010 at 14:58
Marvin, if you mean search for players using the search within the game, then it’s not cheating. I see that as a bit like in the real world, if you heard mention of a good player from a newspaper or TV report, you might then search them out and see if they’re any good.
However, if you mean using one of the external tools, such as Genie, it’s up to you if you think it’s cheating. To get the most out of the game I prefer to have my scouts do the searching, and if I hear mention of a player I might search in game.
Johnny Karp
26 января, 2010 at 15:06
Using the in game search is not cheating, I do that quite often because I know a lot of players from real life football. After finding the player in the game I send a scout to look at him but most times you don’t have that possibility to do that in the lower leagues, so you have to use your own judgement to see if the player is good enough or not.
marvin
26 января, 2010 at 15:09
what ziggy said is what i meant johnny, well sorry if you were confused about my question
Johnny Karp
26 января, 2010 at 15:21
OK Marvin, hope you’re satisfied with the answers :)
Martin
26 января, 2010 at 22:18
Just A National Team Suggestion, A Guy Called Gonzalo Barreto, You’ve Probably Got Him But If You Don’t Then You Should Check Him Out:)
joeegreennbludd
26 января, 2010 at 23:07
you should learn to play the game properly instead of cheating johnny. stop saving it before each game, and stop replaying the games until u win. and putting the odd loss in there to make it a little bit more realistic.
Lye
27 января, 2010 at 04:44
@joeegreennbludd
I think here is a very open blog that everyone is subject to his own opinion. I think Johnny respect that too. Thats the reason why he never engage into a argument with the readers. A lot of us visit Johnny’s blog regularly because we like his updates. Thats why we never have the thought of Johnny being cheating.
What i am trying to say is if you think he is cheating, you can choose not to visit his blog. Else please do not accuse him without any substantial evidence. I think everyone here are sharing the same passion and this is a place to make the game more enjoyable. Not to make the game less enjoyable.
Johnny Karp
27 января, 2010 at 08:47
@Martin
Thanks for the suggestion mate. I’ve called him up quite regularly but it’s difficult to give him a place in the first team because of Cavani and Forlan. He seems to have a good future ahead of him and since Forlan is already 33 years old I guess he’ll have his chance sooner or later.
@joeegreennbludd
I already said what I had to say about this type of accusations, I guess there’s nothing more I can add.
@Lye
Thanks for the comment mate.
Kevin Mayo
27 января, 2010 at 12:21
Hi joeegreennbludd
Just «change the channel» if you don’t like what you are seeing.