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.

Playing With Fire

After the euphoria of promotion had subsided, a period of reflection was necessary, especially as my contract ran out in the summer. So I asked myself how far I could take Oxford, bearing in mind that I was competing on a lower budget than even the teams high up in League One (Season 4 spendings: Oxford 140k, Preston and Ipswich both around 4M). My stats are good, except for "Ambition", which has fallen to just 2. So I wondered if a Premier League team would accept me (Like Paul Ince going to Blackburn IRL).

With impeccable timing, West Ham sacked their manager, so I rejected Oxford's contract offer and applied to West Ham. A nervous wait followed as I wondered whether I'd aimed too high - my reputation was only "regional" after all. You'd think that two promotions on a shoestring in four seasons would get you noticed! Sure enough, West Ham rejected me.
Happily, Oxford came back with an improved offer: Wages of £2,300pw instead of £1,000pw, and an increased transfer/wages budget. I accepted, so have another three seasons to see how far I can take Oxford. An interesting stat to note here: West Ham's new manager is on just £2,000pw.

Once the Championship TV money came in, the budget was raised further. I now had about £1M to spend on players, and £51k per week on wages (last season: £34k, so an increase of 50%). I was over-budget with wages last year, on around £38k, but suddenly that problem was removed.

Now that I'd got the money and the new contract, it was time to prepare for life in the Championship. I needed new players in almost every position, otherwise, as my assistant manager helpfully informed me, I'd sink without trace. Wheeling and dealing follows in the next post...

Season Four: 2008/09

A very successful season, as my Oxford side reached the top 2 on a wave of good from in about November, and stayed there after a record-breaking winning streak. At one stage, the gap was 10 points, but that was whittled to about 3 by poor form, possibly due to being distracted by the prospect of an FA Cup 3rd round tie with Portsmouth. Form was renewed in the Spring, however, and with three games to go, Oxford were 7 points clear of 3rd-placed Preston, with an away match against lowly Stockport. The result was not the expected one! I'll let the picture tell the story:


So with two games to go, the gap was four points... a home game against Wycombe, another bottom half team. For the first half-hour, Oxford completely dominated, but Wilson and Cárdenas missed several chances. Then on 38 minutes, Wycombe break away from an Oxford corner, and Chadwick outruns the defence and slots the ball home. 1-0 to Wycombe, and that was the half-time score. Wave upon wave of Oxford attacks followed, until finally on the hour mark, a sweeping 13-pass move was finished by Anderson Silva blasting the ball in for the equaliser. Then, with just five minutes remaining, Madjid Bougherra hit a long ball from the edge of his own box, and suddenly Barrett was in the clear, one-on-one with the goalkeeper... GOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Not just a "punch the air" moment, a "punch the air and shout loudly" moment. As the text commentary said, "That has to be the winning goal!!!"
BUT.
In the 91st minute, a hopeful Wycombe ball finds Chambers in the penalty box... he squares for Adonis Shala with an open goal... and the ball is in the Oxford net. 2-2. Bugger.

BUT BUT!
The flag is up! Shala was offside - no goal!
The air gets another good punching, and after a few nervous minutes, the game is over... Oxford 2-1 Wycombe, and promotion to the Championship!
The final table, and the key players:



As you can see, the stable backbone proved very important. Centre-back Madgid Bougherra finished with the best average rating out of the permenant players; Striker Kyle Wilson not only weighed in with 33 goals, but also the most assists (12); and youngster Cárdenas was so impressive, he was listed in the League One team of the year. His 14 goals were very important. In addition, midfielders Anderson Silva and Sebastian Larsson (the latter, mainly used on the left, was signed from Arsenal on loan for a season, and then permenantly once the loan had finished) contributed several assists each as well as a good tackling average. Also worth a mention is Graham Barrett, who only started 18 games (coming off the bench 13 times), but scored 13 goals, including the one that sealed promotion.

Meanwhile...
Arsenal won the Premier League for the 2nd season in a row, and add the FA Cup to complete a fourth Double. Newcastle beat Chelsea to the last Champions League spot, and Man United won the European Cup. It's not all good news at Old Trafford, however: they finished 7th in the league and were knocked out of the FA Cup by losing 1-0 at home to non-league side Bradford Park Avenue.

Promotion!
Up next, a busy summer with a few surprises...

Season Three: 2007/08

The backbone brought me success, and I spent much of the season in the top 6. However, I missed out on the play-offs on the final day after a poor run-in of just four wins from the last nine games (see below), and results not going my way on the final day. If I had managed just one extra point, I would have been in the play-offs, but I didn't rate my chances too highly anyway because of my poor record against the rest of the challengers.

Young Stars
This was the year when my strategy of signing promising young players started to pay off. Moses Reed was used sparingly in the previous campaign, but became a key player this time around, making 39 league appearances despite being just 18 when the season started. He was mainly used as a left back, but can also play in the centre.
Then there is Sherman Andrés Cárdenas, a 75k signing who had just turned 18 at the start of the season. Due to his youth and frequent international games for Columbia (he got his first cap at just 16), he was used in rotation with Sweeney, but quickly began to outshine the Englishman, with 9 goals and 6 assists from 30 league appearances. His stats (to be posted later) are amazing. I'd be interested to hear how good he is on FM08.

Meanwhile...
Oldham and Leeds reach the Premiership, and Sven Goran Eriksson leaves the England manager's job after winning the World Cup and the European Championships. He is replaced by Sam Allardyce.