Season 5: Ireland Update - European Championships

Hey guys and welcome back to my FM 2012 story. This post continues with my international career with Ireland and will go over the events of 2016/17. In the last post i had managed to break the top 20 in the rankings with Ireland and my aim now was the top 10.

Since the last update, the staff have changed slightly:

Friendlies:

 

Overall the friendlies went really well. I organised some tougher friendlies to keep the competitive edge up but the games against Estonia and Luxembourg were use to simply experiment and change players around, it proved to be a success; albeit against weaker opposition. There aren't screens of all the games; just those that i deem to be the most important.

The friendly was probably the most important; vs England. They fielded a much weaker team than i was expecting and that allowed us to sneak a win: the fans were ecstatic :)

The game against Spain was also really tough and again we managed to sneak a win. The performances that my Ireland team are pulling out of the bag have been phenomenal.

After the earlier results i was confident going into the game against current world number 1: Portugal...... Then Ronaldo happened..... He didn't actually score but tore my team apart from start to finish. 

Argentina also play an incredibly weird formation... I was pleased with the draw even though we had some great chances and could have taken the win (sorry, couldn't find the match screen...).

The game against Luxembourg was pleasing as we dominated completely; which is what is expected against a weaker team but it's nice that it actually happened.

SI employing Daily Mail journalists to write their headlines...? Just something that made me laugh :p

European Championships:

My Ireland squad for the European Championships (includes the numbers for those interested... :p):

Group Stages:

No screens of these individual matches. The squad didn't seem to really perform in these opening matches. The goals just weren't coming and we didn't seem to really be creative enough in the final third. Andy Keogh was the unexpected top performer; putting in some great performances. The only positive is that we didn't lose any games and managed to scrape into the next round. After the group stages i changed the formation in an aim to get the team performing.

2nd Round:

A really good result for Ireland against a strong Russian team. The match was really even game with Keogh continuing his good form from the group stages into the next round and slotting one to see us through. I still wasn't happy with lack of creativity and lack of chances created. At least we're through.

Quarter Final:

This match was one that we controlled a lot more and Italy didn't even manage a shot on target. A much better performance but we still created far too few chances even against the supposedly stronger Italian team.

Semi Finals:

Our cup journey finally came to an end against a very strong France team. We probably had the better of the stats but Gamerio's finishing proved to be too much. We did launch a comeback but it was too little to late.

Tournament Overview:

I think, for Ireland, we performed really well in the tournament and surpassed the expectations put on us. We didn't play the most attractive football but we ground out the results. The key player for us in the tournament was defiantly Keogh and he was rewarded with a place in the team of the tournament (albeit on the bench). Norway have to be the surprise team of the tournament along with Ireland but everything else was pretty much as expected (within reason).

World Cup Qualification:

Considering the teams that are also in the qualifiers, we had a pretty easy group draw. We absolutely dominated the group scoring 33 goals and conceding just 2. I was hoping that Denmark could pinch second place from Ukraine but it wasn't to be. A really good qualifying run with all players performing. The only result that i didn't like was the 0-0 draw against Switzerland but you can't have ever

Conclusion:

A really great season(s) with Ireland surpassing all expectations and punching way above their weight. I am really pleased with the way the team is starting to play although i'm slightly worried by the lack of promising youngsters but that can't really be helped. The next post will focus on the World Cup amongst other things. 

Thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed it. As always, i'll answer any questions i can and any comments are appreciated.

Thanks,

Atok

Season 5: Onwards and Upwards

Hi everyone and welcome back to my FM 2012 story. I hope you enjoyed the last post in which Boro lost out on the prem on goal difference. This season i was determined to win the title. This post isn't in as much detail as some of the others but there will be a bigger one next time :)

I told the board that we would be contenders for the title as i wasn't quite sure if we could pull it out of the bag but i knew we'd be up there. The press were more sceptical and didn't give us a great chance of winning.

Transfers:

Season 5 at the Riverside started with a lot of activity in the transfer market. I was determined to strengthen my squad and get rid of the 'deadweight' and one or two of the older players so i could give my youngsters some more game time to help their development.

In reality, not that many players joined the club apart from Julio, none will go straight into my first team. All the signings are young players with a lot of potential.

Jordan Farrell is a great young player with bags of potential. He came highly recommended by my scouting team and i couldn't turn him down. At only £350K he's an absolute margin and is defiantly a future star.

The brilliantly named Frank Flammersberger was another player i cannot believe i got so cheap. This player also has incredible amounts of talent and i'm looking forward to seeing how he develops.

This signing was done in a moment of madness.... Grabowski is talented but i don't think he has the potential to be better than Farrell or Julio and for some reason i paid over £10m for him... Worst transfer i've ever made... O well.... He may prove me wrong.. hopefully...

Julio is the signing i'm most exited about. He came with a hefty price tag but he is defiantly worth it. He has the potential to become one of the best CB's in the world without a doubt. I'm looking to a Farrell - Julio CB partnership for the future.

An incredible amount of players left the club this year. Some huge names for Boro were amongst those that left including Rhys Williams, Kevin Thomson, Jorge Pulido and Richard Smallwood. Most of the player let go were youth players who had no future what so ever at the club. The transfers brought in a nice £15M which almost paid for Julio :p I am confident that none of the players will be really missed although the fans were outraged with the departure of Rhys... Can't please everyone...

Preseason:

Our preseason didn't go too badly. I experimented a lot.. trying youngsters in different positions to see which suited them best and generally mixing things up to make sure everyone was fit for the start of the season. I'm confident of a good season. The defeat at the hands of Sampdoria was more of a fluke than a bad performance, we dominated but just couldn't score.

First time i've ever seen a player get a 10.0 rating... Didn't even think it was possible..

The finances after the summer weren't looking too bad and hopefully some prize money this year will bump 'em up :)

My squad at the end of the summer:

League Cup:

We seem to have become League Cup specialists now and retain the cup for the 4th year in a row. We played some good teams on the way to the massacre of Wolves in the final; we completely dominated the match as you can see in the screen below:

It wasn't all as easy as that and the most thrilling game was by far the two legged tie with Chelsea which was settled by a penalty shoot out; thankfully we managed to win :)

FA Cup:

After having been knocked out in the first round last year i was determined to do a lot better. We cruised to the final really.. Didn't have a tough game. I was annoyed to lose to City but it was a really good game and they do have a quality team. Now we have to concentrate on getting our own back by beating them in the title race.

Champions League:

After having been ripped apart and then some by Real Madrid last year i was upset to have drawn them although it guaranteed we wouldn't meat them in the next round (if we got there). We had a fairly tough group but brushed aside Zenit and Rapid Buc. and fought bravely against Madrid. We dominated the games against the weaker teams in the group; an example is below:

Ironically we had a much easier draw this time around after coming second in our group. OM played well and we just edged it by a goal. Bayern were a much tougher team to break down and hit us on the break a few times. They deserved to beat us. So we managed to progress a stage further than last year but i would have liked to get further..

Premiership:

My starting XI for the first game of the season (....which we lost....):

I was really looking forward to the youth prospects in my team and was excited to see how they performed. Julio took the CD spot straight from LLori and David cemented his place at LB over Bennet. Overall a good looking team but maybe a bit on the young side and without the experience even if the quality is there. I was really annoyed when these came through (Julio after a few games and Sanogo at the half way point):

After the clear out at the beginning of the season, these injuries left us a bit thin as i didn't have huge amounts of depth... Something i probably should have paid more attention to.

A absolutely fantastic set of results. I really could't have asked for more. The team seemed to gel really well and understood my tactics to perfection. Only three defeats and a handful of draws over the season was encouraging. The final table ended up looking like this:

After a set of results like that Boro ran away with the title. A great result and exactly what i wanted :) My young team really performed; i'm so proud :p

Misc:

After a successful season, two important players were awarded for all their hard work :) It's nice to see all 3 of the youngsters from Boro.

Conclusion:

Overall an incredibly good season for the Boro. Wining the prem was my only aim and we did that in style. It was nice to retain the league cup and we were unfortunate to lose out to a Man City team who were probably stronger on the day; we'll win it next year :p

Hopefully this is enough to keep you interested and looking forward to the next post. As always, comments are always welcome and i'll answer any questions :)

Thanks,

Atokous