Season Six: Final games...

Manchester United vs Oxford
Away at the Theatre of Dreams, I set my stall out by playing a 4-5-1 formation, with Iversen and Nordtveit on the wings. The plan worked perfectly; after half an hour, Bendtner finished off a nice move, and we were 1-0 up at half-time.
The second half was rather uneventful, as I gradually brought the wingers back in order to hold off the expected onslaught. The onslaught never really came, but in the 90th minute, the ball fell to Rooney, unmarked, 30 yards out. BANG. So the game finished 1-1, and despite the late goal, I told the team that I was pleased to come away with a "bonus" point.

Oxford vs Charlton
One of just two home games out of the last six, so a home win was expected. But the attackers misfired, resulting in a dull 0-0 draw. This dropped us to 16th, but extended the lead over 18th-placed Middlesbrough to five points with four games left.

Easter Rush 1: Norwich vs Oxford
And so to the first of two crucial away games over the Easter weekend. With a tricky last two games, surely a win would be required from one of them. But Norwich scored in the first half, Iversen had a goal controversially disallowed in the second half, and Norwich went straight up the other end to make it 2-0. Boro drew, and we dropped to 17th: four points ahead of Boro with three games left.

Easter Rush 2: Middlesbrough vs Oxford
Easter Monday brought a must-not-lose game for both teams, so the first half was a cautious - and goalless - affair. With Sunderland and Leeds already down, a win would guarantee my safety.
Suddenly, with 25 minutes to go, Iversen was found by Larsson... he turns... shoots... and scores! After such a great season, the commentators remarked, it's fitting for Iversen to score the goal that would keep Oxford up if it stays like this.

No sooner were those words out of Motty's mouth, than Boro had gone up the other end, and John Carew had no trouble in equalising. 1-1 after 66 minutes.
Worse was to come. Soon after kicking off, we lost the ball again. Someone or other came rushing out of the back line and was caught out, Carew said "thanks very much", I said "****!", and it was 2-1 to Boro, just three minutes after Oxford had taken the lead.
That's how it finishes, so with two games left, the gap was just one point...

Oxford vs Tottenham Hotspur
The final home game was against Spurs, who were 3rd and set to qualify for the Champions League again. Given the oppoistion, I applied the same defensive formation that had worked at Old Trafford. Fortune smiled on Oxford, as Steven Taylor was sent off in only the 2nd minute. This meant that Oxford had all the first half pressure, and Bendtner and Flamini backed this up with goals: 2-0 at half-time.
"Don't let your performance drop!", said I. The players did not disappoint, as two more marvellous goals, from Rossi (a sub for the injured Bendtner) and Iversen (of course), gave a 4-0 win.

Leeds vs Middlesbrough
Two days later, Boro went to bottom club Leeds, who had won once in about 25 games, knowing that a win was necessary for them, as I was now four points ahead with a better goal difference. Carew notched another goal early on, and although Leeds soon equalised, two further Boro goals made it 3-1 going into first-half injury time. But then Boro collapsed, and Eidur Gudjohnsen scored twice to make it 3-3 at half-time.
As it stood, the battle would have gone into the final day, with Boro needing to win by 4 away at Spurs while Oxford lost by 4 at Villa. However, Kapo scored early on in the second half to make it 4-3 to Leeds... this was how it finished, which meant relegation for Boro, and SURVIVAL FOR OXFORD!

Aston Villa vs Oxford
So with safety guaranteed, I made several changes, bringing in four young players, three of them for their first starts, and Leo Roget, who is the only surviving member of the team I started the game with in League Two. After a scoreless first half, I brought on fans' favourite Kyle Wilson, who had also played for me in all four divisions. Just a few minutes after coming on, he went on a mazy run and slotted the ball in the net, and although Villa soon equalised, 1-1 was a decent result, and Roget signed off with a man of the match performance.

FINAL SIX RESULTS


FINAL TABLE

Arsenal won the league for the fourth time running, despite almost throwing away a 10-point lead. You will also notice that Southampton ousted Liverpool for a Champions League spot :-)

FINALLY: SOME STATS


Iversen was the star player, collecting the Player's Young Player Of The Year award and contributing directly to 30 of Oxford's 64 goals this season. Silva was an influential captain, while January signings helped too: Bendtner's goals and Huskova's tackling basically kept us up.

Johan Iversen

Here are the stats for the young Norwegian... Iversen has scored 11 goals in 11 games since Bendtner signed. He has also been helped by Larsson and Kewell coming back from injury, as I was often having to use him as a left winger.

Season Six, April 2nd: Run-in approaches...

Winter Blues
December and January saw a bad run, as Oxford slid into the relegation zone. Help was at hand, however, with the transfer window. Niklas Bendtner and Joey Barton added Premier League experience, and solid young Czech defender Petra Huskova was also signed, to compensate for the long-term injury to Moses Reed.

On Fire
The striking partnership of Bendtner and Iversen clicked almost immediately, with Bendtner scoring five times in his first six games. Local rivals Swindon were dispatched 6-0 in the FA Cup, and this was a catalyst for a good run in the league, as three wins in a row, including an impressive 4-1 thrashing of relegation rivals Leeds, dragged Oxford up the table.

Oxford 3-3 Arsenal
Then the league champions came to town, and promptly opened up a 3-1 lead. But former Arsenal players Bendtner and Larsson were on fire, and Lercher fired in a last-minute volley to extend the unbeaten run in all competitions to six games.

Defensive mishaps strike again
In the middle of this run, there was a draw away to QPR in the FA Cup 5th round. But the home leg was a disaster: a hat-trick from Hugo Almeida in the first half an hour ended all hope of victory, and bad turned to worse when new signing Huskova was stupidly sent off for kicking Agbonlahor. With Reed and Bougherra both injured, the defence was down to the bare bones for the trip to Birmingham. It was 1-1 at half-time, all going to plan, but then came a second half defensive collapse; a last-minute Iversen consolation didn't make up for the big number 5 in the goals against column. Needless to say, I let the team have it with an angry post-match team talk.

The next match was a tricky one, at home to Everton, who had van Nistelrooy (signed in January from United), V. Hleb, Cahill and Arteta to choose from. A strong defensive performance and a well-taken goal by Iversen earnt a 1-0 win. Then came QPR, and that man Hugo Almeida dealt another blow with the winning goal in a tight match. Meanwhile, relegation rivals Leeds were continuing their winless run: the final score was Leeds 0-8 Chelsea!

Finally for this update, a match at home to Sunderland, who were bottom and 13 points behind Oxford. A win would have been very useful, and Iversen duly scored yet again; however, the still makeshift defence couldn't hold on, and the match finished 1-1.

Run-In
I'm now in 15th, five points clear of the drop zone with a better goal difference. The last six games include several against teams near the bottom: Charlton (12th) at home, and Norwich (13th), Middlesbrough (18th) and Villa (14th) away. Two wins from six will probably mean safety...

RESULTS AND FIXTURES


TABLE: BOTTOM HALF


Johan Iversen
If Oxford do stay up, it will be mainly down to the young Norwegian, Johan Iversen, who has scored 16 goals already this season. Just look at the Young Player of the Month awards!

I'm going to finish off the season tomorrow, so check back and see if I can survive!

I'm still here...

I haven't updated in a while. That's because a few weeks ago, I moved house and started a new job. So I haven't had much time at all to play FM (plus, my interest in FM tends to wane a bit once the football season gets going), and I haven't had internet access in any case.

I'm up to about January now (I think). The main thing that I remember is that I signed Joey Barton and he got injured almost immediately.

I'll read through your blogs and/or update my own properly when I get a chance to...

Season Six, November: Climbing the Table

Point by point...
The win at Southampton provided a platform to build on. In the next two games (home to Pompey and away to Blackburn), Oxford fell behind in the first ten minutes, but pulled it back to 1-1. The pair of draws hauled the team out of the drop zone for the first time this season. The downside was an injury to key midfielder Vegard Nordtveit, who would miss six league games.

Then came two defeats: an unlucky 1-0 loss at home to "dirty" Leeds, with a sucker-punch 45th minute goal; followed by a trip to the Emirates, where the defence did their best but Miroslav Klose sealed a 2-0 Gunners win.

Now back down to 19th, the live home game vs. Birmingham looked a must-win. And we pulled through, again coming from behind (though Anderson Silva levelled within a minute) to win 3-1. It was down to earth with a bump in the next two games. Everton, only just outside the drop-zone, romped home 3-0 with two goals in the first ten minutes. Then Oxford were dumped out of the League Cup after an insipid 1-0 loss at home to West Brom. I gave the players a good bollocking - or as good as the FM06 team talk mechanism will allow - after that one.

Turning The Corner
Then possibly the unluckiest game I've had, at home to QPR. I decided to give Anichebe a try after no goals by any of my forwards in five games; he was injured after just 7 minutes. Makes a change from conceding early! That was it for the first half, but a Rossi penalty put the good guys in front shortly after half-time. QPR equalised midway through the half, prompting continuous Oxford pressure. With five minutes left, Iversen had a goal disallowed with a frankly dubious decision, and then in the last minute, Rossi missed a penalty.

My players let their frustrations out in fine style in the next match, walloping the barber poles of Sunderland 4-0 on their own patch! Then, just as the ground expansion had been completed (capacity now 15,000 instead of 12,500), came my proudest moment on Football Manager: keeping Rooney, van Nistelrooy at bay for 87 minutes, then snatching a winner courtesy of Harry Kewell in the 88th. Oxford 1 Manchester United 0, the stuff dreams are made of. I punched the air alright!

Amazing Match
Oxford were up to 13th after two successive wins, and next was a live game at Charlton. Clearly wanting to put on a show for the cameras, forwards Iversen & Rossi fired Oxford 2-0 up after just 7 minutes. It didn't end there: Flood got a goal back, Lercher made it 3-1, Parsons scored a penalty for Charlton, and then Darren Bent equalised: 3-3 after 31 minutes! There was even time for Charlton to miss a penalty before half-time.
The second half proved far less eventful, as Flood scored again and Oxford, potentially drained after the United match, ran out of energy. It finished 4-3 to Charlton.

Crunch Time
So, after all that excitement, I'm up to 15th, three points clear of the drop zone.
The next four games could be pivotal: I face three of my closest rivals at home, starting with Norwich, who came up with me last season. As highlighted in the table, it is still pretty tight with four points separating 13th from 19th. Five points from these four games, and I'll reach the half-way mark with 20 points, half-way to the traditional target of 40.

RESULTS & FIXTURES

LEAGUE TABLE: 3 December 2010

Season Six, August: A tough start indeed

My first three fixtures, away to Liverpool (who had finished 2nd two years ago), at home to Chelsea (who had finished 2nd the previous seaon), and away to Newcastle (who had finished 3rd two years ago, and signed Woodgate and Hargreaves during the Summer), would look tough to anyone, let alone a team who had been promoted two seasons running and so was still largely made up of players more used to Huddersfield and Brighton than the Premier League elite.

Therefore, I present my summer signings:
Harry Kewell (free transfer, Liverpool), a genuine left-winger, and one with vast amounts of top flight experience. He was injured after 25 minutes of my first match :P
Giuseppe Rossi (free transfer, Man United), a talented young striker with bags of potential.
Victor Anichebe (£675k ,Everton), bought on a permanent basis after a successful loan spell. He's happy to be a back-up striker for now
Sorin Nicusor Radoi (£875k, Dinamo - Bucharest, presumably), a right-back with good stats, brought in to provide competition to the error-prone Bodnár.
Jack Hobbs (Season Loan, Liverpool), a centre-back who starred as England U21s dominated during the summer of 2010.

I also added some more staff members, most importantly, an assistant manager you will have heard of: Sammy Lee, from Bolton. Here are his stats:
16s across the board, making him easily my best coach.

So, now to the matter of taking on Liverpool at Anfield. I played a defensive formation, with a flat back four, two defensive midfielders (Silva and Flamini), Iversen and Nordtveit on the wing, but as ML/R rather than AML/R, and Lercher in central midfield with just one up front. We lost 3-0 thanks to a couple of goals from set pieces early on. For the visit of Chelsea, I used the same tactics. We took the lead early on through fans' favourite Kyle Wilson, but were 3-1 down by half-time. Away to Newcastle, the difference in class told again, and another 3-0 defeat kept us rooted to the bottom spot.
I felt we had more of a chance at home to Man City, so I switched to 4-4-2. We still fell behind, but Anderson Silva forced an equaliser and it was 1-1 at half-time. City scored again early in the second half, but still we pressed on in search of our first point. Then just a few minutes from the end, we had a goal disallowed :-(
Four defeats in a row, but at least we were off the bottom (on goals scored), as Norwich were still on zero points and had lost by more.
Then, some salvation: we won 2-0 away to Southampton, who would have gone top had they avoided defeat! Rossi, partnering Iversen up front, scored both goals, and it was comfortable in the end. So we're up to 18th, and the next match is at home to fellow strugglers Portsmouth. I'm not too down-hearted yet, since all five of the teams we have played are in the top seven, but it would be nice to get some more points...


In light of our leaking goals at the back, I've splashed just over £4m on another Scandinavian, Espen Ruud. He can play anywhere across the defence, but I'll be using him at left-back. I'll let you know how he settles in next time. Hopefully the presence of Iversen and Nordtveit should make it easier.

Summer Transfers

Partnerships

Central Defenders

It's about time I introduced you to some of my key players. First, my centre-back pairing: Moses Reed, the young Swedish international; and Madjid Bougherra, who has just signed for Rangers in the real world.
Moses Reed was one of my first signings in the January transfer window of 2006, although he was only 17 then so I didn't play him until the next season, although the season after that he was a permanent fixture.
I got Bougherra on a free transfer three seasons ago, and built my defence around him. He's very tall (190cm), strong and has good mental and defensive stats. Surprisingly, he hasn't scored for me yet in 139 appearances.

Central Midfielders

Anderson Silva was another free transfer, brought in at the same time as Bougherra, whereas Flamini was a 275k snip from Brighton (see earlier post). They both have good mental and physical stats, although Silva is slightly better technically. Since signing Flamini, I've been letting Silva get forward more often, and he got six goals and thirteen assists last season.

Just a short one: August update coming soon...

End of Season 5: Rollercoaster

After my last update, I was in 4th position with nine games to go. The first of these was away to Fulham. After falling behind early on, Johan Iversen got two goals to give us a 2-1 lead, which unfortunately was cancelled out by a Collins John goal, and the game finished 2-2. During the game, my other Norse Master, Vegard Nordtveit picked up an injury :-(
Then came a crucial game at Crystal Palace, who were in 2nd, 3 points ahead. It started very well, with both of my strikers scoring in the first half to give us a 2-0 lead. Palace peppered my goal with 21 shots during the game, and scored with half an hour left, which meant a very nervy second half... until two of my substitutes scored to seal an amazing 4-1 win (and overtake Palace for 2nd place).
The following two games were quite similar: home games against struggling teams, which were both won with late goals. So at the end of March, I got manager of the month again, and Iversen got Young Player of the Month.
The next month was more difficult, and again a string of games followed a pattern. For three successive games, my Oxford team took an early lead, but went on to lose the game. The sequence dropped us from 2nd right down to 7th, with just two games left.
But Flamini rallied the troops, Millwall were dispatched 3-0. The bad news? Nordtveit, who had only just come back from injury, was carried off again. The good news? Since the 6th and 7th-placed teams were playing each other on the final day, a play-off place was guaranteed. Good job, really, because we lost the last game 2-1 to Norwich, who finished 2nd.
So a 6th-placed finish meant a play-off against Fulham, without Nordtveit or my 2nd-choice RM, Vieirinha. Iversen scored an early goal, but this time (unlike those three defeats), we held on to it.
The second leg was a tense affair, although Fulham had few chances to cancel out my slender lead. That man Iversen scored again with 15 minutes left, so we were through to the final despite Fulham's late penalty.
The final brought us up against Palace again, for a place in the Premier League.
So at the end of the rollercoaster couple of months, I had taken Oxford United into the Premier League!


The next post won't be for a little while, since I'm going on holiday (no, not to celebrate!) But when I get back, look out for the update on my summer signings, and first few premier league fixtures. Away to Liverpool, Home to Chelsea, Away to Newcastle. it's going to be tough...

Season Five, March: Norse Magic

My main signing in the January transfer was young Norwegian international Vegard Nordtveit, for around £1.3m from Newcastle. For the first time, the fans heralded a "bargain hunt". He's extremely versatile, being able to play anywhere from DR to AMR, plus AMC and FC. But he was injured when I signed him, so I had to wait a bit to try him out. And when I did (he replaced Vieirinha as my starting right midfielder), this is how he repaid me:

8 goals from 5 starts, and all this from right midfield! Needless to say, he was given the player of the month award in February.
He has linked up well with another young Norwegian, the U21 international Johan Iversen, whom I switched from the wing to centre-forward when Anichebe got injured. He has repaid me with six goals and four assists from the last six games:

With all these goals flying in, you may have gathered that I was climbing up the table during February. The first two months of my trial of 4-4-2 had been middling: December brought 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats (two last-minute goals costing me a total of three points), including a pathetic 1-0 loss at home to struggling Swindon, our local rivals.
January was no better, as my squad seemed to completely lose its scoring touch, whatever my choice of forwards (mostly between Anichebe, Derbyshire and Wilson). Losing 1-0 away to top club Birmingham is acceptable; as for the 3-0 defeat at Wigan, I think my squad was distracted by the prospect of an FA Cup clash with Premier League leaders Chelsea. I held the scum until half-time, but they scored the only goal of the game just after the restart. The hangover continued into the league, and another two draws.
Then Nordtveit was fit, and I moved Iversen up front. Seventeen goals were smashed in from all angles in four glorious games, before Sheffield Wednesday brought us back to earth by equalising twice. Iversen picked up a minor injury, so I took him off before half time (we were leading 1-0) as a precaution. The run lead to a rise from 10th up to 4th in the league. In addition, I got Manager of the Month for the first time this season, the Player of the Month was Nordtveit (Second: Bougherra), and the Young Player of the Month was Iversen (Third: Reed). Iversen also got 3rd in Goal of the Month. So with nine games left (including several against top-six teams), I'm sitting pretty in 4th place, and hoping that this run of form, one of the best succession of games I've ever had on FM/CM, can continue and thus keep me in the play-offs.


Attributes for my two Norwegian stars:

Iversen (age 19)

Nordtveit (age 22)

Season Five, December: Drawing Bored

Little has changed since my last post. I'm still doing well, bobbing between 7th and 10th in a very tight Championship, even rising to 4th after the Stoke win. However, I have a feeling that I could be doing better.
Basically, too many games are being drawn for my liking. But there are good draws and bad draws. Take my 0-0s against Crystal Palace and Cardiff. Palace have put together a very good team that finished 11th in the Premier League two season ago, and they and Birmingham (whom I also held to a draw) are running away with the Championship. So I was quite pleased to squeeze out a draw.
Then came a 3-week break for internationals, and a trip to Cardiff. Even when they had two men sent off, and had resorted to a 4-4-0 formation, I couldn't break then down. Thus leading us to the second meaning of this update's title: I'm going back to the drawing board.
So, I went through my Championship results so far and worked out my record using each formation. Today, I'll show my two most common formations.

Most common: 5-3-2

This was the formation I used for the 4-goal victories over Watford and Wigan. I've used it ten times, and am unbeaten with it, conceding only 5 goals and never more than one in a single game. But recently, the goals have stopped flowing. 9 goals in the first three games with this formation, but only 5 in the past 7.

Second most common: 4-1-2-3

I didn't realise quite how badly I'd been doing with this formation. It's been my main formation for six matches, which have garnered no wins, four draws and two defeats. My strikers don't seem to like ploughing a long furrow. In theory, this shouldn't happen (the formation is based on the well-known "trident" style), but in matches, the wingers tend to get pushed back, so it becomes a 4-1-4-1.

Conclusion
The problem is that my common formations are too defensive. This is what happens when you have three excellent DMs to fit into your side. My attacking players' stats should lead to more goals and more chances created; indeed, when using either a traditional 4-4-2 or a 4-3-1-2 (with 3 central midfielders) system, more goals are produced: Five games using either of these have produced three wins, two draws and 11 goals. The drawback is that, with these formations, I also concede more (goals conceded rises above 1 goal per game)
So my plan now is to continue using 5-3-2 in any match against the big teams, or away to medium teams, and use 4-4-2 in other matches. Basically, when I'm aiming for a win, it's 4-4-2; and when I'm hoping for a draw, it's 5-3-2.


I made the switch to 4-4-2 after the Cardiff game, and the chances - and goals - started flowing right away. As the transfer window approaches, I'm fairly satisfied with my squad, but will of course be on the look-out for bargains, and planning bosmans for next season. This blog has finally caught up with where I am on the game, so I'll let you know soon how I get on with 4-4-2 in the long run, and maybe soon introduce you to some of my key squad players.

Season Five, September: A good start

A great start, in fact, to life in the Championship for my Oxford team, and it really is my Oxford team now. All but one of the first team are players that I've bought at some point, with only Leo Roget remaining, as well as a couple of reserves.
I had a tough start, with two home games against Sheffield United and title favourites Wolves being followed by a trip to Watford, so I wasn't expecting much. As such, I adopted a defensive approach. This saw me draw the first two games, coming from 1-0 down against Sheff.Utd and 2-0 down against Wolves. Then came this:


A great surprise win that the board were delighted with. After a few more games (and a similar performance to the above to beat Wigan 4-1), the table looks promising.



The only problem is that I draw too many games, and often concede first. Maybe I'm being too cautious?

Wheeling and Dealing

As I mentioned last time, if I wanted to survive in the Championship, then many signings needed to be made. I had already sealed a couple of bosman deals.
Matt Derbyshire - A fairly well-known striker with Premier League experience for Blackburn. Stats on 1st July: Finishing 17, First Touch 15, Pace 14.
Laszlo Bodnár - An explosive full-back from Hungary with great pace and acceleration (both 19), and OK tackling (14).

However, it was clear that if I wanted to really strengthen, I had to sell. I had one player with high value that was interesting top teams, and also had itchy feet: Sherman Cardenás. I judged that the money freed by selling him could be used not only to buy an able replacement, but also to buy a couple more useful players too. So he went to Hannover for £4.3M. Here are his stats:


I only spent £1.4M of that in the end, but that's still a fair bit more than my original season's budget. I reasoned that there was no point just spending the money for the sake of it, and my signings turned out a little cheaper than I expected.

First, his replacement, Zoran Jovanovic. His strengths are his speed and his ball control, but he can also offload the ball well: finishing 15, passing 16, long shots 17. I'd been interested in him for some time, and he moved from recently-relegated Oldham for 120k.
Kelly Youga also signed from Oldham. He can be used either at left-back, left wing-back, or left midfield. Like Bodnár, he is quick (pace 17, acc. 19), and he's also a good defender (passing 15, tackling 16, marking 17).
Vieirinha is who most of my money went on. He's a right winger (crossing 16, dribbling 18, finishing 16, passing 16, technique 18), although he lacks a little in speed (pace 13, acc 12).
I also made the loan signing of Victor Anichebe. Given his attacking stats (crossing, dribbling, finishing, first touch, heading, long shots all 16 or above), I couldn't really resist.

One more hole to be plugged in my squad: my back-up central midfielders were not strong enough at all, only performing averagely even in League One. It took me a few weeks to find a player of the right calibre, but I eventually pulled off what could turn out to by my best signing yet... Mathieu Flamini!

Since he only broke into the Arsenal team during the 2005/06 season, he's not as fantastic on FM06 as you might expect, but he's still highly-rated by my coaches. He had already left Arsenal, on a free transfer to Brighton (I tried to sign him then too). He was worth something like £1.3M. I asked Brighton how much they wanted for him, thinking that I'd have to blow the rest of my budget... they said I could have him for 275k, so I snapped him up quicker than you could say "bargain".

TRANSFER SUMMARY

Most of the sellings were just getting rid of the players who don't live up to Championship standards. This meant that out of my first team squad, only two were in the Oxford squad when I started the game, and those two are both ageing and on the fringes of the squad.

I've now almost caught up with where I actually am in the game (I'm up to the start of December now), so look out for my early-season update shortly, and my mid-season update in a few days' time.