Hello my friends, welcome back to the Notts County Football Manager 2010 story! It’s been quite a long break since the last post, I had to travel around the country to do some work but I’m back home now so hopefully I’ll have the time to play the game regularly again. Let’s see where we left off… We were lying safely in 6th place at the end of 2012, that gave us hope for an European Qualification at the end of the season.
The year ended with a defeat for us, Liverpool beat us 3-1 at Anfield Road. We had another tough game coming up, at home with the Premier League leaders, Chelsea. They won the previous game 1-0 in August and it looked like they had a good chance of repeating that result. We had four first team players injured and one suspended but I hoped that the squad depth would be sufficient to overcome that crisis.
The first half was extremely boring, Chelsea managed to block our attacking initiatives. They struck just after the break though, one error was enough. We played better after conceding the goal and Chelsea were trying to give us the fatal blow on counter attack. We failed to create something special upfront and Chelsea finally converted a counter attack chance, it was an Italian style win for Ancellotti‘s side.
We had an FA Cup game coming up, at home with Tottenham in the 3rd round. The players were determined to get back to winning and we started the game pretty well, Biglia fired in a free kick from 20 yards out. Guilherme doubled our lead just after the break, he broke through Tottenham‘s defense on a counter attack, dribbled past the keeper and slotted it home. Tottenham had a bit of bad luck with the injuries in the first half, they were forced to send in Peter Crouch as a centre back in the last 45 minutes. He did a decent job in that role but he couldn’t stop Guilherme from scoring again, we were through to the next round.
After the FA Cup game I tried to conclude one of the transfer deals that I had in mind for January, we brought powerful striker Gianmarco Zigoni on a loan to buy deal from AC Milan. With Pekhart and Szalai performing below par this season I felt that Guilherme needed better support upfront so I chose the strong Italian striker for that role. He is both strong and quick and his heading ability could turn a lot of crosses into goals or assists for us.
The next game was another difficult one, away at Old Trafford. Manchester United beat us 3-2 at Meadow Lane back in October and they were lying in 5th place, just above us. My boys started the game very well, we were pushing forward quite freely. We missed a few chances though and Rooney popped one in out of nowhere just when I thought that they will crumble under pressure. Centre back Havard Nordtveit headed a corner kick in right before the break to make it all square again. The second half began beautifully for us, Tomas Pekhart converted another corner kick into a goal with a fine header. We continued to play well and miss huge chances and, as always, we paid the price as Berbatov fired one in to make the score level again. We could have won it judging by the number of chances that we created but they always count the goals, the rest is just useless numbers.
We had to get a win in the Premier League pretty soon, the situation was threatening to become worrying. The next game was away at 13th placed Hull, a team that we managed to beat 2-1 at Meadow Lane in September. We had a good first half and Sburlea made our domination count on the scoreboard as he powered in his 10th goal of the season. Hull dominated the second half but we defended pretty well while waiting for the perfect chance to double our lead. That chance came a bit late but Szalai didn’t turn it down, he fired it in to give us a vital win.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
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.