Vauxhall 2021 pre-season plus Confederations Cup

Hello folks, I am officially back from my vacation in Greece! I’ve missed you guys a lot during the holiday but I did my best to stay away from computers, as I had promised. Now I’m back and it’s time to offer you a new update of the Vauxhall Motors FM 2011 story which also contains an interesting run with Argentina at the 2021 Confederations Cup.

But before moving on to what happened in the game let me offer you a taste of the place I have enjoyed in Greece. We spent the whole week in a small village on the island of Thassos, a lovely little place called Skala Potamias. The village has the beautiful Mount Ipsarion on one side…

… and the crystal-clear waters of the Aegean Sea on the other. It was exactly what I was looking for, a quiet and friendly place and I can tell you that I had a great time there.

But football was still on my mind, while lying on the beach I thought of a new tactic to employ in Football Manager 2011! As you can see from the picture below I used 11 pebbles to design the tactic, it’s something close to a 4-2-4. Obviously I was unable to test the tactic until my return but I did spend some time thinking about it.

And since I had a few games with Argentina before the new season with Vauxhall I used Messi and company as a testing ground for the new tactic which I have called «Johnny’s Bulldozer«. We were going to take part in the Confederations Cup with Argentina in June since we had won the latest Copa America but before the tournament we had another couple of World Cup qualifying games. Both went well as we beat Bolivia and Colombia quite convincingly using the new tactic.

Then I had to choose the 23-man squad for the Confederations Cup and I can tell you that I had a few tough decisions to make as a few more veterans were left out of the squad: Angel Di Maria, Ever Banega and Gonzalo Higuain. The other experienced players like Romero, Ustari, Burdisso, Otamendi, Messi or Higuain were probably going to see their last caps for the national team at the Confederations Cup, their age is taking its toll on their abilities…

The group stage started with an easy game against Saudi Arabia, we won it 2-0 but we didn’t really play too well. Then we played better against 2018 World Champions Denmark but we paid the price for our wasteful finishing as the Danes bagged the equaliser following a controversial penalty kick. The final match of the group stage was also the easiest, we dispatched New Zealand 4-0 but we could have scored quite a few more goals.

We won the group on goal difference while France cruised past their opponents in the other group. That meant we were going to face USA in the semi final while Denmark were going to meet France.

During the three group matches I made a few modifications to the new Bulldozer tactic so before the semi final I had «version 2» ready to be tested. The game proved that the new version was pretty good, we dominated the game quite convincingly, scored 4 goals, missed a penalty and seven clear cut chances!

The other semi final didn’t produce any surprises, France beat Denmark 3-0 so we were going to meet the 2020 European Champions in the final. Their line up was quite impressive with Sanogo upfront and a very strong midfield and defence. Our only absence was Messi, he was injured but I probably wouldn’t have sent him in the starting eleven anyway. Now you can see the new formation more clearly, it features a regular back four, two central midfielders, two wingers that play the role of inside forwards and two strikers.

The tactic still needs some further testing though so I will publish a download post when I will reach a satisfying version.

France vs Argentina (Confederations Cup Final)

Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground

Attendance: 94,984

Starting line up: Sergio Romero — Sergio Garcia, Nicolas Otamendi, Fabio Ortiz, Fernando Pereyra — Marcos Fernandez, Gustavo Iglesias —  Leandro Velasco, Juan Pablo Yavar — Sergio Araujo, Sergio Aguero

Team Talk: For the fans!

We started to push forward right away and the first good chance fell to central midfielder Iglesias but somehow he managed to miss the net from just seven yards. We continued to dominate the game and the reward came midway through the first half when a good acceleration from Araujo was finished off with a poignant low finish. There was no reply from France until the 37th minute when Sanogo took advantage of a huge mistake from Otamendi but couldn’t beat goalkeeper Romero. A few seconds later France had another chance on a corner kick but our goalie saved us once again. It was quite curious to see our opponents creating two clear cut chances in just a few minutes after being on the back foot for most of the first half.

Half time score: 0-1

Half time team talk: Pleased.

Half time substitutions: Javier Pastore for Fernandez, German Pacheco for Yavar, Rodrigo Gutierrez for Aguero

We got off to a bright start after the break too and we came very close to making it 2-0 after just a few minutes but substitute left winger Pacheco was denied by the upright. We continued to enjoy good possession but France were causing some problems on set pieces due to their superior height and strength. They hit the post in such a situation in the 65th minute while my players appeared quite tired. Sanogo was causing my defenders all sorts of problems but it wasn’t him who created the equaliser, the two French wingers created it and it was all square 11 minutes from time. We were no longer dominating the game, our opponents were determined to end the game before the 90th minute. Luckily we managed to catch them on a counter attack three minutes before the final whistle and substitute striker Gutierrez powered one in from the edge of the area! We won the Confederations Cup and the victory was even sweeter as France were definitely better if you compare the players one by one. The new tactic gave us very good possession but we seemed a bit shaky at the back as France managed to create four clear cut chances, two on set pieces and two during open play.

Full time team talk: Congratulations!

Man of the match: Sergio Araujo

Flop of the match: Javier Pastore

Video Highlights

Click here to watch the highlights.

Match Stats

Anyway, it’s another trophy to be added to the CV and a good rehearsal for the 2022 World Cup. However, I seriously doubt that we will win the World Cup since we’re going to meet a lot more tough opponents there like Spain, Italy, Brazil or even England. That’s all about Argentina, now let’s move to the next page to find out more about my pre-season with Vauxhall.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Before moving to the usual transfers I have some good administrative news to share. Firstly, the new chairman decided to get something out of his pockets to help the club, 29 million pounds is not a fortune at this level but it’s the largest ever sum we have received from a chairman so far.

That money along with the TV revenue provided a good opportunity for the board to invest in the club’s infrastructure, I was ecstatic to see them deciding that without a request from me!

The biggest news is that the stadium will be heavily expanded, almost 13,000 new seats will be added and that will increase the capacity by more than 50 percent!

Another pleasing aspect is that UEFA puts us right at the top of Europe according to their coefficients, that’s a dream come true!

We also moved up in the Richest Clubs table, we are now 8th and officially richer than Man City!!!

The transfer budget doesn’t reflect all that wealth though, the board offered me just 40 mil for a title win. I didn’t want more to be honest, the investment into the stadium and training facilities is much more important at this stage.

As usual, there were quite a few players that left the club but most of them are youngsters that were unable to reach their expected potential. Three first team players left the club: goalkeeper Luis Guilherme, right back Rafael and central midfielder Graham Howson.

Eight new players joined the club for an overall fee of 60 million pounds. Half of these players will be heading straight to the reserves while the other half will reinforce our first team.

The first important signing is Ivorian goalkeeper Franck Gnahoua, I paid 6.75 million for him to Liverpool as I believe that he can become better than Luis Guilherme. He is still very young and has a lot to learn but I think that getting him straight into the first team will boost his chances of reaching his awesome potential.

After selling veteran Rafael I needed a new backup for the right back position and I decided to splash the cash on a hot prospect from Spain: Miguel Angel Tomas. I paid no less than 20 million pounds for him, maybe a bit too much, but he was the very best prospect in Europe at the time.

Another young Spaniard will be a backup for the right winger position, his name is Raul Manrique and he joined us for 11 million pounds from Real Madrid. He seems to have what it takes to become a leading Premier League player, time will tell…

The last signing was a bit selfish from my part, I didn’t really need Thiago but I signed him just to make sure that he doesn’t end up at one of our rivals. Portuguese club Leiria let him go for just 8 million pounds and I believe he will be easily worth at least double shortly. He is strong, quick and talented, I might keep him or sell him for a good profit at the end of the season.

Here is how our 25-man squad looks like, we have very good depth and pretty good quality overall as well.

We also have quite a few good prospects in the reserves, usually I sell those who turn 21 and are not good enough to break into the first team by then.

The pre-season meeting with the coaching staff was quite pleasing this time, we still have the youngest squad in the whole league but we also boast the best passing and first touch, the two essential attributes if you want to employ a possession tactic.

Speaking about tactics, I arranged quite a few friendlies to help the team to get used to the new Bulldozer tactic and I have to say that the results were pretty good overall although we conceded quite a few goals in the first few matches. However, the last three games saw us keeping a clean sheet while scoring 16 goals against pretty good teams. The lads are not entirely familiar with the new formation yet and I think that they will fully understand what I’m asking them to do midway through the season.

The bookies seem keen on losing money again, they offer 6-1 odds for Vauxhall to win the title! We won a few in a row already and I can’t see why we wouldn’t win it again. Or maybe I know how we could lose it, the new tactic might be a risk that would backfire…

That’s about it for now folks, thanks a lot for reading. Questions and comments are welcome as always, I’m looking forward to hearing from you.