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:
