Coming to the closing stages of the opening season and we have suffered a dip in form, more by design than by accident…
I was getting a bit concerned at how easily we were creeping up the table with such a poor squad. I really want this to be a long term save so that I can slowly progress the team and build it up over a number of seasons.
As a result I decided to make the switch back to full manual, I was previously PA1 with manual shooting but I have moved the passing to manual now too. It has really opened the game up in terms of realism and has ramped the difficult up a notch too. More importantly, I think it has really helped give some personality to the teams in the league.
I can really tell the difference when I’m playing against a 3 star team where I can still dominate possession and carve out enough chances to at least try and score. On the other hand, coming up against the stronger sides in the league you really have to think about your passes and positioning, plus take your chances when they come.
I won my first two games against Hapoel Be’er Sheva and Panathinaikos - But then we faced a few difficult opponents:
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The Kiev game was ruthless and could have been about 5-0 to them. We hung on but we just couldn’t string any momentum together.
The Red Star and Dínamo games were much closer. We should have probably won against Red Star but conceded a brilliant counter attack goal, we just didn’t take our chances. We had some great chances to equalise against Zagreb too but couldn’t quite score, a draw would have probably been a fair result.
It leaves the league table looking like this with just 6 games to go:
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We should have probably done enough to secure a top 7 finish but we will need to pick up form again quickly.
We already have a few players earmarked for summer transfers through the scouts. The plan will be for a gradual rebuild rather than just signing several players to bump up the quality, plus we still only have a small budget so money will be a factor.
Looking forward to a bit of fun in the last few games as I get used to the full manual controls again, hopefully with better players next season it will be a bit easier too.
I should have the end of season update within the next few days…