Play and Win a Copy of FM 2011 in My Football Manager Story's Competition

Hello everyone, sorry for not posting about my Liverpool story, I am now unable to post about it any more. That is because I don't have the time, because of my involvement over at www.footballmanagerstory.com/
You can of course, follow my Oldham story there, but you may also want to join in Johnny Karp's World Cup Contest, at the same site. Go to the site for more details, but basically the format consists of the reader making a prediction on any World Cup game. The contest is free, and they can predict on every game, you can either predict the result, or the exact score, or both! The person with the most points at the end of the tournament will win a copy of FM 2011 (they'll have to wait until it comes out, of course).
I recommend that you check it out, hopefully I'll see you in the comptition, and to anyone who plays, good luck!

Liverpool and England September and October

Hello everyone, first of all I'd like to apologise for the delay. Once again I've been really busy, I will try to get posts up quicker in the future, but there may be delays in the future, I hope not though.
Anyway, on with the story, after the European Super Cup win we had to continue our good start to the season, here are the results:

We have had a very good start, we are unbeaten, and have had some very good wins. The standout is the 9-0 demolition of Red Star, we absolutely tore them apart, the players looked like they were from another planet. We also hammered Chelsea, I was very pleased with that. The best players so far have been the strikers, Torres, Gignac, and Roman Vavilov have all been excelllent, we look very dangerous up front, and have scored a lot of goals.
As a result of this we sit 4 points clear in the league, we should win it with ease this year, the other challengers have been very poor.

Here is the Champions League group, we have been incredible so far, I am really pleased with the players, especially the goalscoring form, although a lot of the goals were in the thrashing of Red Star.

We played three England matches in the two months, thankfully all of them were won.

The Norway game was just a friendly, but I was still pleased with our attacking performance, and the wins against Estonia and Liechtenstein were very good, they looked in awe of playing at Wembley. Rodwell's hat trick was very pleasing, he'll surely be the future star of England, the natural replacment for an ageing Gerrard.

We are top of what is a pretty easy group, we should qualify for the European Championships with ease now.

Well then, that sums up the first couple of months, we have had a really good start so far, hopefully we can keep it up in the coming months.

Thanks for reading!

Liverpool July and August 2014

Hello everyone, sorry for the delay, I have been very busy recently. However, I now have time to write this post, so welcome back!
After my exploits with England at the World Cup it was back to Liverpool for pre season, I immediately turned my attention to transfers. Only two players left the club for money in the summer, they were Alberto Aquilani, who didn't get many starts and is getting on a bit, and Emilano Insua, who, after losing his place to Anthony Anderson, wanted games.

All the players who were released were young players, who aren't good enough. Obviously, after selling a left back and a midfielder I needed to replace them, and I set about straight away trying to do so. Here are the transfers in, only two players were signed, despite my huge transfer budget.

Stefano Paoli is the centre midfielder, although he is also a natural DMC and accomplished on the right wing. He has very good attributes, and at just 19, he has potential to be one of the best midfielders around. Particularly impressive are his mental stats, they are very good for someone so young. $21.5m is a big fee, but I'm confident he can repay it.

The other signing was, you guessed it, a left back. It is young regen Jonas Helland, he will play as a backup for Anthony Anderson, and he has good potential. Hopefully he can be a good player for us for many years to come.

With the new signings on board it was time to start the new season, here are the results:

Friendlies:

We only played three friendlies, but all of them were won, we played with confidence against both St Mirren and Wigan.

After that it was time for the first competitive match of the season, it was the community shield against Man City. The match wasn't a very good one, the first chance fell to David Silva in the 39th minute, and he tucked it home. It was level just two minutes later, and after that very little happened. Penalties were inevitable, I was confident going into them, but it seemed that we just lost our composure. After Wilshere and Gerrard both missed it was Alexis Sanchez who blew the crucial penalty, and City had won the shootout. I was disappointed as we had created the better chances during the game, but I guess the shootout is just a lottery.

We played three matches in the Premier League in August, and we looked in fine form, we bounced back quickly from the shootout loss to Man City. The Tottenham game was particularly pleasing, we absolutely hammered them, we were clinical in front of goal, partciularly from corner's, that were three of our goals came from.

UEFA Super Cup

The most important game in August was the the UEFA Super Cup final against Valencia. We were looking to win it for the second time in a row, here are the team line ups:

We were missing Valencia old boy David Silva, he had a minor injury, so Jack Wilshere came in. We started the game well, we looked very dangerous going forward, and in the 14th minute Wilshere crossed for Torres to slot in from ten yards. We still looked good, Valencia also looked dangerous on the counter attack. Unfortunately despite our chances we couldn't kill the game off, but Valencia were also wasteful. We managed to hold on in the nervy final stages, but I'm disappointed we couldn't score more goals. However, I'm delighted we have managed to win the trophy, hopefully we can make history and win it three times in a row next season.

We have climbed to the top of the table, I won't show you it, but we are three points clear after our great start.

That's all then friends, thanks for reading!

England At The World Cup 2014

Hello everyone, after another good season with Liverpool, I had a huge challenge ahead of me, my first World Cup as England manager! We were drawn in a group alongside Switzerland, Ecuador and Iran. I was confident of our chances.
Here is the squad I took to Brazil:

I was confident going into the tournament, I felt that we had a strong squad with a good mix of experience and youth, I was hoping that we could go a long way, I felt that we should reach at least the semi finals.

Here is my strongest team, the team I put out when everyone is fit.

The only regen in the team is young full back Anthony Anderson, he plays for my Liverpool side and has developed into the best English left back, you can find his profile in the Current Squad section.

So onto the important stuff, the matches. We started against Switzerland, the team expected to challenge us for top spot in the group. We got off to a good start, the players were knocking it around with confidence and we went ahead when Wayne Rooney played in Ashley Young, who slotted home. It was 2-0 just after half time, Gerrard plauyed a nice ball to Rooney, who got on the scoresheet. After that we started to defend more, we did that comfotably and we made a good start to our World Cup campaign.

After that good start, we needed a win in the next game to edge closer to qualification to the knockout stages. We were up against Iran, I expected a win as they were ranked 50th in the world, 48 places behind us. Once again we started well, and we were ahead in the 16th minute, Jay Rodriguez slotted in from 10 yards after a good move. We had to wait until after half time to get our second, Steven Gerrard smashed it in from the edge of the area, and he had his second soon after, it was a brilliant goal, he picked it up in midfield and hammered it in from a full 35 yards. He was on a hat trick and got a perfect chance to get it not long later, we won a penalty which he took, and he grabbed the chance with both hands, to round of a fantastic performance. It was an important game for Gerrard, it was his 126th apperance for England, he broke Peter Shiltons long standing record.

After that win we were all but secure of qualifcation so I decided to rest a few players for the final game, against Ecuador. In the previous game Ben Foster picked up an injury, putting him out for the tournament. Joe Hart replaced him in goal for the remainder of the tournament. We did the opposite of the previous games this time, we went behind early on through a brilliant goal. We were the better team however, and on the stroke of half time Rooney equalised. I expected us to go out and get a second after that, but it wasn't to be, the game finished level, despite a number of chances for us.

Despite that draw we still finished as group leaders, one point ahead of Switzerland, who went through with us.

So we were through to the knockout stages, we learned that we had a very difficult game ahead of us, we were drawn against Brazil!
Loooking at their team, they had some good players, but I felt we had a great chance, we have some good players as well. Again, we got off to a good start and we went ahead when Wayne Rooney was played in by Lennon, and he fired past the keeper one-on-one. I wanted us to hold out to half time, but I didn't expect us to score again. I was shocked, therefore, when Jack Rodwell burst from midfield to hammer in a second goal for us. The match was even in terms of possession and shots, but whereas Brazil's efforts were mostly from range, ours looked much more threatening, and we killed the game off when Rodwell got his second, he slid it in from eight yards out. It was a great result, we were through to the quarter finals and we would face Nigeria.

In the quarters we were to face Nigeria, they have a good side and are ranked 14th in the world. I still expected a win, but we didn't play well and their keeper had a blinder. After Jay Rodriguez had put us ahead we just couldn't break through again, and they snatched a goal meaning it went to extra time. It was the same story in the additional period, and the match went to penalties, I was disappointed about that, but confident that we had good spot kick takers. I was proved right as, Anthony Anderson, Tom Huddlestone, Wayne Rooney, Jay Rodriguez and James Milner all scored and one miss from them meant we were through! I was very pleased, particularly as we were missing Gerrard in the shootout, he went off injured, but fortunately no injury was there after the game so he was going to be fit for the semi final, where we were to face France.

So we were to face France, they have a very good side, I knew the game was going to be very tough. Sure enough, France started the better, and after just twelve minutes we were behind through Karim Benzema. We looked stunned and they got a second before half time, rounding it off in the second half. We were out then, beaten by a good French side, but I was disappointed with the performance.

We had one more game to play, it was the third place play off against Italy. We didn't play very well again, but we snatched a victory thanks to goals from Curtis Davies and Ashley Young, and some wasteful finishing from the Italians.

That concludes our World Cup campaign, I am pleased that we ended on a high, and I'm satisfied that we got to the semi finals, but our performance against France was woeful, I am disappointed with that. I will stay on as manager though, I've still got to win more trophies with England before I'd consider resigning.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Liverpool May 2014 - Chasing The Trophies

 Hello everyone, welcome back! After wrapping up the league title in April, we now had a chance to rest some players ahead of the FA Cup Final against Man City, and the Champions League Final against Real Madrid. Victory in both would secure a historic quadruple, I really wanted that to happen.

First we had three league games to play, and here are the results:

We absolutely hammered Middlesborough, they had no answer to the fantastic attacking play of my young team, Danielsson, Brown, Kortadi and Williams are all young regens, the oldest of them is 22. You can see there profiles (and all the other profiles of all players in the first team squad) in the 'Current Squad' pages.
The Man City game was very even, a draw was a fair result, but I was very disappionted with the West Ham game, the players were poor, it seemed like most of them were on their holidays already.

Here is the league table, another very good season for us, we wracked up 95 points, 1 point more than last year.

After those final Premier League games it was on to the most important games of the month, first up was the FA Cup Final, versus Man City, who had enjoyed a good season themselves.

I expected quite a tough game, but Man City were alot better than I expected. They started the game fantastically and ripped our defence apart in the early staged, deservedly taking the lead when Carlos Tevez rifled in a free kick. We hit back though, our first attack saw Fernando torres whip in a cross from the right and Steven Gerrard bundled the ball in. It was 2-1 not long after though, Jo finished a nice City move that left our defence standing. Once again we managed to equalise, David Silva had an easy finish after good work from Torres. The match then became more even, and I thought the game was going to penalties when Gignac, on as a substitute, was played in and slotted home. I was very happy, I thought the cup was ours, but with 10 seconds left on the clock Pablo Zabaleta powered in from range and the match went to extra time. Extra time was quite boring, little happened except that Sanchez got a second yellow, I was very disappointed with him for that, and the match went to penalties.

 I was quite confident as I chose the spot kick takers, but I was not preapred for what was about to happen. After Anthony Anderson and Carlos Tevez missed in the early stages, everyone on both teams scored until Jose Reina and Nedum Onuoha both missed. After that everyone scored until finally someone crakced under the pressure. Unfortuantely it was Glen Johnson, he rolled his shot wide and we had lost the shootout.

So we had lost the FA Cup Final, but we had to pick ourselves up quickly, we had the Champions League Final coming up! We were facing a very strong Real Madrid side, just look at some of their players!

Casillas, Ramos, Zapata, Pepe, Santon, Diarra, Velosos, Ronaldo, Vucinic, Higuain, Benzema.... not a weak link anywhere. They have such a good squad that Kaka was only on the bench!

R.Madrid started as the better team, they were knocking it about well. Our defence stayed strong, they had no clear cut chances, and we were looking dangerous on the break, using Sanchez, Silva and Torres' pace. We couldn't break through, and neither could they, the match drifted into extra time, and eventually, penalties.

We faced our second shootout in a week, and I'll admit that I wasn't too confident after losing against Man City. Everyone scored in the first five penalties so the match went to sudden death. We immediately had a chance to win it, after Sergio Ramos missed Glen Johnson had the chance to win it but his kick was saved by Casillas. We had another chance straight away, Evra missed for them, but Axier Kortadi couldn't punish them. Another two penalties went in, but Cristian Zapata missed for Real, leaving Nicolas Otamendi with the chance to win it. He ran up and belted it into the top corner, past Casillas, we had won the Champions League! It was our second in a row, I was so pleased that we had managed to defend our crown!

Here are some player stats for the season. I would say the best five players of the season are:

1 Fernando Torres

2 Steven Gerrard

3Nicolas Otamendi

4 David Silva

5 Andre Pierre Gignac

That's about all for now, we have a busy summer ahead, it's World Cup year! I will be leading England there, hopefully we can come home with the trophy, there will be a post about our adventures soon.

Thanks for reading!

Liverpool April 2014

Hello everyone, welcome back! At the end of March we were nearing another league title, we were also through to the Champions League Quarter Finals, we were to face Genoa. We had a crazy schedule coming up, we had ten games to play, including three in six days! It would surely test our fitness, I was expeceting a few tired players by the end of the month. Here are our results then:

You can see that we had a great win over Genoa in the first leg of our Champions League tie. Nicolas Otamendi scored twice, Fernando Torres got yet another goal this season, and goals from Glen Johnson, David Silva and Francesco Magnanelli completed an emphatic victory, one which put us all but through to the Semis. Federico Laurito scored the consolation goal for Genoa.
The second leg was rather boring, they opened the scoring, but once Torres equalised it was all over and we were through! We later learned that we would play arch rivals Man Utd in the Semi Final, it was sure to be a big game.
The Premier League matches against West Brom, Fulham and Sheff Utd were pretty straightforward wins, the FA Cup Semi Final against Aston Villa was slightly more difficult, but we managed to pull through and we are through to the Final!
After that it was on to the first leg of our Champions League tie against Man Utd, the first leg was at Old Trafford. We were missing both Javier Mascherano and Magnanelli through injury, and as I wanted to play a five man midfield, 20 year old wonderkid Adam Brown was brought in.

 He did quite well and we played alright, but United were the better team. However Fernando Torres nicked a goal, and although they equalised we never looked like conceding more, and we came away with a very good draw.

After the victories over the above mentioned teams we needed one more win to secure the title. It was a tough one, away at Chelsea, made tougher by the fact that we had played the first leg against Man Utd just two days earlier. The game wasn't very good but once again it was Torres who scored the decisive goal for us, he terrorised Terry with his pace. Chelsea didn't play well and barely created anything, so it wasn't too difficult for us to hold on to our lead. The victory meant we had won the title once again! I was very pleased, we can now rest players for the big matches coming up.
One of the matches in which players were rested was against Newcastle, and we lost, despite playing well going forward, we were poor at the back and Newcastle punished us and we succumbed to only our second loss in the league this season.
We had to pick ourselves up quickly for the final match of the month, it was the second leg against Man Utd. Mascherano was back from injury and the fit again Jules Jourdain came in for Carragher.

We played much better in this game than the first leg, Mascherano protecting the defence made a big difference. We dominated possession and had much more attempts, but we had to wait until the stroke of half time to go ahead, Torres was played in and he doesn't miss from 8 yards. We came put after the break still playing well and it was 2-0 when Gerrard slotted in after a through ball. Torres then slotted in another with Untied powerless to resist. After this I took off the key players with the game in the bag, and it finished a comfortable 3-0 victory for us, we had beaten our main rivals and are through to the Final!
We will face Real Madrid and all their superstars in the final, it will be a tough game, but we have a good chance of victory if Torres continues his form. He has now got an incredible 49 goals in just 45 games this season, one of those as a sub!
Here is the league table then, we are confirmed as champions, so I will rest a few players ahead of the two finals we have coming up.

We have a big month ahead of us, we have two finals, one is of course against R.Madrid, the other is the FA Cup Final against Man City. We have to play them in the league before that, whoever wins that may hold a phycological advantage come the final.

That's all for now then friends, thanks for reading and please comment!

Liverpool March Results

Hello fellow FM gamers, it's time for an udpate on my Liverpool story! The biggest match of March was the game against Barcelona, we also had a trip to arch rivals Everton. I appreciate that most of you may have already read this post at http://www.footballmanagerstory.com/ , so I won't go into huge detail about this month.  

Here are the results for March at a glance.

The Everton game was won by two fantastic goals from 18 year old Giovani La Rosa, he was playing due to a series of injuries to the main strikers.

The match against Sheff Utd was disappionting, we battered them all game but, after they scored an early goal, we couldn't break them down. It took a wonder goal from Steven Gerrard to get us a replay, his goal came just five minutes from time.

In the Sheffield United game I rested quite a few players ahead of the Barcelona match. It was a pretty poor game to be honest, we managed to nick a goal just on half time when Torres' pace enabled him to beat Valdes to the ball, after doing that he poked the ball in.Barcelona were the better team after the break but the defence stood firm and we managed to hold on, we are through to the Quarter Finals! It later emerged that we will face Genoa, the current champions of Italy. They have some good players so we will have to be careful, but I'm confident we can progress.

After the Barca game we faced Blackburn away, we looked very good going forward, but for some reason the defence looked very shaky. Torres scored two good goals and Andre Pierre Gignac got one, but just as I thought the points were in the bag we conceded and ended up drawing.

Next up was the FA Cup Replay against Sheff Utd. Again we looked poor at the back, luckily we are very good at attacking. It still took us until extra time to secure the winning goal, Nicolas Otamendi stabbed in from a corner. This followed goals from Darijo Srna and Gignac and two equalisers from them. The result means that we are through to the semi final, we will face Aston Villa there.

The final game of the month was back in the Premier League, we faced Tottenham. We were on top most of the match, and we got a comfortable win thanks to an early goal from Torres and a late one from Wilshere secured another three points for us.

After that pretty good month we are now 6 points ahead of Man City with a game in hand. I am sure the title will once again be ours, the test is to try and progress in the other competitions.

Next month sees us play a very tough nine matches. The squad will be tested by the busy schedule, I hope they can cope and that we don't get too many injuries. The biggest games are obvisouly the matches against Genoa, it will be interesting to see how the players cope with the 'favourites' tag, something we didn't have in

the last round against Barca.

That's all for now then, thanks for reading, I hope you will continue to follow my career with the Reds.

I'm Back!

Hi everyone, just a short announcement, basically to say I'm back! In case you don't know, I lost my Liverpool save a short while ago and started as Oldham. My story with The Latics will continue to publish over at http://www.footballmanagerstory.com/, I hope you will follow it there. I am also continuing with my Liverpool game, I am currently nearing the end of March 2014. The posts probably won't be as frequent here as my Oldham save is the main game, but I hope to post once a week.
That's all for now, I just need to play March and then I will update you. If you need any information on my career with Liverpool, my story from May 2012 - March 2014 is on the above mentioned site, check it out there.

True Football Manager Story has moved!

Hello, everyone I am sad to announce that my time on blogger is over. I am, however delighted to tell you that my story will continue to publish at http://footballmanagerstory.com/, so if you want to continue to follow it, please check it out there. On that site you will also find three other superb FM story's so I strongly recommend it.

I would like to thank everyone who has supported me through the comments, in my relatively sort time blogging, and I hope you will continue to do so at the new site.

Cheers,
Laxeyman

League is Won but Champions League is Over

Hello Readers, over the last few weeks in FM, there has been a high and a low, almost at the same time. I will start with the high.
We have won the league again! Just take a look at the league table, it shows how clearly we were the best team this season. The league was wrapped up as early as the 24th March, with 6 games left. I am really glad of this as we had important matches coming up, so I wanted to rest players.

Now onto the low. It was of course, that we were dumped out of the Champions League by Real Madrid. Look at the screenshot for the 1st leg. My hopes weren't high for this game as we were missing Gerrard, Aquialni, Srna, Otamendi, Lucas, Downing, Aurelio and Gignac, due to a combination of inelegability, suspension and injury, meaning we had a very weakened team out. This weak team had to deal with players like Ronaldo, Alonso, Benzema, Higuain, Huntelaar, Diarra, Kaka and Vukinic, so it's no wonder we struggled.
Despite this, if you look at the match stats they were quite even, and I thought we probably deserved a draw. Unfortunately Benzema opened the scoring with a tap in, and then Ronaldo scored a penalty after Insua was penalised even though he won the ball.

In the 2nd leg though, I was hopeful that we could turn in a good performance, as we had a much stronger team and I set attacking tactics in the hope of getting at Real's dodgy defence. It sort of worked. Unfortunately, it meant the defence was more exposed to players like Ronaldo and Benzema, although once again I don't think we deserved to lose. Again looking at the match stats, the match was quite even and we probably deserved a draw (again). It was actually a pretty entertaining match and went like this:

-Benzema opens the scoring with a placed shot

-Mascherano levels it up with a stunner from 30 yards

-Benzema scores again after Ronaldo's cross deflects, wrong footing Reina and falling in Benzema's path, and he scores from a yard out

-Benayoun then taps the ball in after Torres nicks the ball from Casillas and sets him up

-Benzema completes his hat-trick with a tap at the far post

-Ronaldo finishes it off with a close range header

This means we can't fulfil our goal of conquering Europe, and we will have to give it another shot next season.

On a better note, we are through to the FA Cup Final (again) after beating Wolves 2-0 in the Semi - Final. This means that we will play Arsenal in a repeat of last seasons final. Hopefully history will repeat itself and we will do the double like last season.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

February 2012 and Champions League Thriller

Hello readers, sorry for the slightly longer than usual delay with the posting. However today is the day for this post, and I am pleased to say we have gone more games unbeaten. Take a look at our latest results. We got a good draw against Arsenal, which means we are all but guaranteed the title.
I am saying this because look how many points clear we are. A whopping 12 points, with only 8 games left! Another few wins will wrap up the league and we should almost definitely win it in the next 5 games. This is a good thing because I want to win it as early as possibly, so players can be rested for the crucial knockout Champions League games.

In the first Knockout round, as I said in a previous post, we were drawn against Lyon, a decent team, but a side I expected us to beat. The two legs were thrilling ties, although I am disappointed that we conceded so may goals after going in front.

You can see, we did that in the first game, conceding two very disappointing goals after we had taken a two goal lead. You can see from the match stats, that Lyon had more possession, but we had more attempts on goal, and looked more dangerous throughout the game. I was particularly pleased with the performance of Yossi Benayoun, who sliced open the Lyon defence a number of times and claimed both assists, and Fernando Torres, who terrorised their defence, with his pace, skill and great finish for his goal.

Despite conceding from a winning position, I still felt this was a decent result, because we had scored 2 very important away goals, and probably deserved to win the game. I felt with a strong defensive display, we should easily qualify for the next round.

Unfortunately, we didn't play well at the back in the 2nd leg, although I thought we were cruising through when Carragher scored from a corner, to double our lead, after Gerrard's penalty had given us the advantage. Then, as in the 1st game, Lopez scored to give Lyon some hope, and our defence couldn't cope, allowing Lopez to score again, and level the match and the tie.

As you can see from the match stats, Lyon had more of the ball, but again we had more shots, both on target and off target.

Lopez's two goals meant the tie was level and after that the game went very flat, with no chances at all, even in Extra Time. This meant the game went to penalties. As I chose my penalty takers I was confident we had better takers than them. I looked through their team before the shootout, and their highest attribute penalty taker was Lopez with 12 as his rating. I felt this was very poor, although Lyon surprised me by scoring 4 out of 5 penalties taken. The only miss was from Kim Kallstrom, who's weak penalty was saved by Reina. For us I was delighted that every penalty was scored, and I never had any doubt, that my players would miss. Obviously I was delighted we had come through, but I am slightly worried that we became so complacent after going ahead.

It means, though that we can still achieve our goal of Champions League glory, but we have drawn Real Madrid in the quarter final. This match will be very tight, I am sure, but the competition is definitely getting tougher.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Good Form and January Transfers

Hello Readers. I am pleased to say that our good form is continuing. Have a look at the league table. We sit a comfortable 9 points clear, which is mainly due to Arsenal's poor form of late. We are playing Arsenal next, and if we win we will be 12 points clear and the title would almost be ours.
Here are the latest set of fixtures from the beginning of December to the end of January. We only lost one game, and that was a dead rubber against Roma when we fielded a weakened team, and even then we didn't deserve to lose. Apart from that it has been an excellent couple of months and we are now unbeaten in 20 league games. As I have said before, the Champions League is the target this season, and after topping our group, we were drawn against Lyon. Lyon are a decent team but I fancy our chances of winning the tie.

These are the all the transfers for the season, but you can see we signed two players in January. They were Darijo Srna on a free, after his contract expired at Shaktar. He is a very useful player due to his versatility. He is a natural at DR, WBR and MR, and is accomplished at DL, WBL and ML. The one player sold was Albert Riera, to Barcelona. He was sold mainly due to his age (29), his declining pace and the good offer Barcelona put in. Downing was signed as a replacement for him and will be a backup for Silva on the Left.

Here are Srna's attributes. He has no real weakness, and is quite quick, skillful and is a decent tackler. He also has amazing crossing and delivery, and is a real danger from free kicks.

Downing was signed as a direct replacement for Riera, and his attributes are very similar, he is just younger and quicker. He is only a backup player, so is not a particularly interesting signing and is merely a decent player. Finally, I would like to mention Lauri Dalla Valle. He was out on loan at Stoke until Christmas, but came back just in time to play a few matches. We had an injury crises up front and he ended up playing against West Ham, Fulham and Man United. The crises came because Fabiano got an injury that kept him out for a month, Torres got an elbow injury, that sidelined him for 2 weeks. Gignac was still not fit, due to his broken ankle, although he has just come back now. To top it all of the 4th choice striker Vavilov was out for 6 weeks with Cruciate Ligament Damage.

All this meant Dalla Valle played up front on his own in 3 games, and he did well, scoring against Fulham and a beauty against West Ham from an impossible angle. He has really improved over the last year, and now is my bright hope for the future.

That's all for this post, thanks for reading. I will inform you of the Champions League and spring results soon.