Vauxhall Motors 2021 — End of My Eleventh Season

Hello my friends and welcome to a new episode of the Vauxhall Motors Football Manager 2011 story. This post will present the second half of my eleventh season in charge of the Motormen, a season in which we attempted to win the Premier League title for the fourth time in a row and also to defend the Champions League trophy that we had won last year. Sadly we couldn’t defend the Carling Cup as we were knocked out by Everton early in the competition but we still had a chance to win the FA Cup. The year 2020 ended with an international triumph as we won the Club World Championship but now we had to head back home and do our best to remain top of the table in the Premier League as Aston Villa and Manchester City were not far behind us at the end of December.

Premier League Results January 2021

January was all quiet for us in the Premier League, we grabbed four wins out of four and we did that with ease and in style. The best performance was against Manchester City, we dominated that game quite clearly and Mr. Mourinho had to thank Joe Hart for getting away with just two goals conceded.

The month of January was not that quiet in terms of transfers though, I decided to sell nine players (three on loan to buy deals) for a total of 38.5 million pounds. Six of the players that left the club were youngsters that I felt were not reaching their potential but I also let go three first team players: Graham Howson, Walid Mechergui and Abdallah Yaisien. They were no more than fringe players at that point and I thought I should cash in.

Seven players were brought in, six youngsters with some potential and one superstar…

… and that superstar is Gilson, a very skilful Brazilian winger that joined us from Juventus for no less than 35 million pounds. He was ineligible for the Champions League this season as he had already played in the Europa League for his former club but I was OK with that since my plan was to see the best of him next season.

Enough about the transfers, now let’s get back on the pitch…

Premier League Results February 2021

February meant trouble for the Motormen, we started with a disappointing draw against Wolves after a poor performance, then bounced back against Fulham but suffered another setback against Everton. The Toffees seemed to be a bogey team for us this season as they had already knocked us out of the League Cup, we should have beaten them this time but they scored an early goal and then we wasted a huge amount of chances. The last match of the month restored our confidence though as we thrashed Arsenal and new signing Gilson scored his very first goal for the club while Lucas Cuello bagged his 10th of the season.

At the end of February the situation at the top of the table was as follows:

1. Vauxhall — 71 points (29 games played)

2. Aston Villa — 66 points (28 games)

3. Manchester City — 62 points (28 games)

Premier League Results March 2021

March started with two easy wins, a comprehensive 3-0 at Birmingham and a nice 7-1 thrashing of relegation candidates Newcastle at Vauxhall Stadium. The last league match of the month was a lot more difficult as we met Manchester United at Old Trafford and snatched the three points only thanks to quite a few spectacular saves from Luis Guilherme.

The situation at the top of the Premier League table didn’t change too much apart from the fact that our closest rivals now had two games in hand and that Manchester City seemed to be losing some ground:

1.Vauxhall — 80 points (32 games)

2. Aston Villa — 72 points (30 games)

3. Manchester City — 66 points (31 games)

Premier League Results April 2021

The title race was heating up as Aston Villa seemed determined to push it down to the wire and unfortunately we slipped up in April as Ipswich held us to an unexpected goalless draw. We won the other two games quite easily and we also celebrated a great goal from youngster Iain McManus against Blackburn (click here to watch).

The two points that we had dropped were not that costly as Aston Villa were quite sloppy too so we were nine points clear at the top before the last three games of the season but the Villains still had two games in hand.

Premier League Results May 2021

We needed six points out of the last three games to secure the title and we grabbed three of those thanks to a fabulous performance from Parana against Nottingham Forest. Then we took on Chelsea at Lampard Arena and the Blues were unable to cope with us: Parana kicked things off with a delightful lob (click here to watch), then Lucas Cuello made it two with a fine finish (click here to watch) and added another one after Robert Ackerman had already secured the win from the penalty spot. We were a bit unlucky to lose the last match of the season against Liverpool but that didn’t matter too much as we had already secured our fourth consecutive Premier League title.

However, we recorded significantly less points than last season, seven points less to be precise. It’s true that we probably lost six points because of the Olympics at the start of the season but I feel that we should have done better as we lost no less than five times compared to just two last season. Anyway, a title is a title and it’s a good enough reason to celebrate.

Left winger Tiago was one of our best players this season and he deservedly received an award for his performances, he was reliable throughout the season and he didn’t suffer any injuries either. Since I mentioned injuries we had quite a few of those: in February Indio (our best player of the season at that point) picked up a knock that kept him on the sidelines for 3 months, then things turned even worse in April with Gilson (6 weeks) and Moustapha Gueye (4 months) being the victims.

Needless to say that I was elected Manager of the Season again, that makes it five in a row! I would have picked Ancelotti though, he had a fantastic season with Aston Villa.

So, we won the Premier League title again but we were still in the race for another two important pieces of silverware: the FA Cup and the Champions League. Please go to the next page to see if we managed to win those and for other goodies (an Argentina update included)!

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

FA Cup Results 2021

After the shameful Carling Cup exit I was looking forward to a much better FA Cup run but that wasn’t going to happen. We had problems right from the start as Championship side Southampton nearly knocked us out, then we won a thrilling replay against Man City and finally beat bogey team Everton. That took us to the quarter finals where we managed to get into yet another replay and that time it went quite badly. I can’t really explain what happened against Aston Villa in that game, maybe it was just bad luck, but the facts are as follows: Aston Villa had six shots (four on target) and scored four goals! Moreover, the assists on three of those four goals came from… Vauxhall players! Maybe some of my lads bet on a defeat or on a high scoring match, that’s the only reasonable explanation I could find… Then again, that might not be too reasonable…

Champions League Results 2021

The first knock-out round saw us taking a good advantage in the first leg against Fiorentina, we beat them 3-0 away so I thought that we were already safe and decided to rest all my important players in the second leg. That proved a close call though as Fiorentina beat us 2-0 and nearly pushed the tie into extra time. The quarter final tie against Lyon was a lot more difficult even though we recorded a good 2-0 win in the first leg. The second leg was extremely difficult, especially since we were forced to play with 10 men for around 40 minutes, but luckily we held out to qualify on away goals. Then we met Barcelona for the very first time in the semi final (that’s right, we had never met them before) and we had a good first leg again as we beat them 2-1 at Camp Nou. This time we didn’t take anything for granted in the second leg and pulled of an amazing performance, we had more than 60% possession against the possession masters themselves and won the game 5-1!

Everybody was expecting a re-match of last season’s final between us and Arsenal but the Gunners were at the wrong end of an upset in the semi final as they got beaten by Tottenham! The Spurs were preparing for the very first Champions League final in the club’s history so we had a slight experience advantage since this was going to be our third consecutive final. However, our past record against Tottenham was fairly even as we won seven games compared to their six.

Vauxhall vs Tottenham (Champions League Final)

Venue: Türk Telecom Arena, Istanbul

Attendance: 52,695

Starting line up: Luis Guilherme — Gary Warner, Phil Jones, Danny Wilson, Pierre Touya — Leandro Velasco, Robert Ackermann, Marcos Fernandez, Tiago — Zé Carlos, Parana

Team Talk: For the fans!

I was expecting to have a slight fitness advantage too as the Spurs had played the FA Cup final three days before the game (won against Birmingham), but my hopes were not verified on the pitch as Tottenham enjoyed a much better start to the game. In fact, they took the lead after just seven minutes when a simple move outplayed my defence and veteran Gareth Bale finished it off with a powerful finish. There was no reaction from my boys after the goal and it was Tottenham who came close again minutes later on a corner kick. We started to regain our feet midway through the first half, the game seemed to be shifting in our favour but the Spurs were defending with great determination. It was that determination that probably cost them two minutes before the break, Zé Carlos received a good through pass and was clean through inside the penalty area when Bassong made a desperate tackle on our striker… he got the ball but he only managed to push it past his own goalkeeper! It was all square at the break and our confidence was restored after a not so great first half.

Half time score: 1-1

Half time team talk: For the fans!

Half time substitutions: Da Silva for Ackermann, Lucas Cuello for Ze Carlos

The two substitutions I made at the break were forced by fitness problems but I was still quite confident as both Da Silva and Lucas Cuello were in pretty good form. We continued to dominate after the interval but we were unable to create more than a few half-chances before the hour mark when I made my final substitution: Indio for Fernandez in the middle of the pitch. We were dominating more and more clearly and the opportunities to shoot from inside the penalty area were quite numerous but Spurs keeper David De Gea seemed unbeatable. The game had just entered its final 10 minutes when we finally managed to score: Tiago made one of his trademark runs down the left flank before drilling a low cross into the six-yard box where Velasco had no second thoughts as he volleyed home! Tottenham immediately switched to a 3-4-3 tactic so I replied by changing our strategy to counter. I was expecting a fierce finale but that wasn’t the case, we kept possession very well and the game was played in Tottenham‘s half of the pitch for most of the last 10 minutes of the game with my players expertly moving the ball around.

Full time team talk: Congratulations!

Man of the match: Tiago

Flop of the match: Zé Carlos

Video Highlights

Click here to watch the highlights.

Match Stats

Indio was undoubtedly our best player this season, the central midfielder provided no less than 25 assists and he totally deserved the high average rating. Parana and Zé Carlos did a fantastic job again as they scored 29 goals apiece (Parana would surely have scored more but he was injured for more than 2 months) while Robert Ackermann had his best season yet with 10 goals and 17 assists. Left back Pierre Touya also had a very good season while the new pair of centre backs did a remarkable job thanks to their talent and experience. There were three big disappointments this season though: goalkeeper Luis Guilherme (I will probably look for a replacement come July), central midfielder Marcos Fernandez and Leandro Velasco. Velasco is forgiven though after scoring the decisive goal in the Champions League final :)

You could say that it was a successful season overall as we won another four trophies (UEFA Super Cup, Club World Championship, Premier League, Champions League) but I want to do much better than this and win everything that there is to win next season. In fact, that is my main goal at the moment and this story will continue until I will manage to perform that clean sweep in a season.

Argentina

The last time I presented my Argentina career we had managed to win the Copa America, that was in 2019. Then we started the qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup and, as you can see, that started very well in 2019 as we won the first four games.

2020 was almost as pleasing as we won five competitive matches but unfortunately we lost the most important of them all, away at Brazil.

We recorded another two wins so far this year so we will probably qualify for the World Cup with ease.

In fact, we have already secured the play-off spot but that is not what I’m aiming for, I want to nick Brazil off that top spot!

That’s it for now folks, thanks a lot for reading this update. Your comments and requests are welcome again, as always, but this time you’ll have to speed it up a bit if you want a quick reply because I will be leaving tomorrow night (Sunday) to spend a week in Greece with my wife. I promised myself that wouldn’t even touch a computer during this vacation so you won’t see me around for a whole week starting Monday :)