Like all managers, i have an insatiable desire to clinch the quadruple. Back to back titles in 3 seasons had pushed me to Hall of Fame glory with Aston Villa, but i am still thirsty for more. Today is the 4Th of April, 8 days before enlistment date. Then it will be 2 more weeks before i can fm again. I can't wait this long. So, before i go, i'm gonna perform my magic once again. One more of each title, as a farewell gift.

Speaking of titles, i really can't stand the likes of Chelsea. They, in my opinion, play football with too much pragmatism. Really, the anti-thesis of Arsenal. Can you imagine playing at Stamford Bridge and they came up with a 4-1-2-2-1 formation? I mean like, WTF, this is your home game and you are trying to put 7 players behind the ball and try to counter with only Shevchenko, Robben and Pandev(they bought him from lazio i think with 76M USD.) But, like typical Chelsea, they are hard to break down and it took me a few tries and tactical reshuffling before i can beat them. Having 2 midfielders and a defensive midfielder meant that they zero in on my strikers before they could even dribble. Flooding the midfield also meant that there is no way my midfielders could create space to pass the ball out to the flanks to start a counterattack.
Superb defence and rapid closing down, along with lightning fast dribblers like Robben completed the worst rout in Aston Villa history, 0-4.

Ok, so maybe there's something wrong with the way i choose my midfielders. So i began shuffling. I began with a 4-4-2 with a DMC and an AMC. Lost 2-0. 4-3-3, with N'Zogbia, Moore, Okaka. Got thumped 3-1. By then i was losing it alr, so rational thinking and analysis gave way to random shuffling and playing the probability game. 4-1-2-2-1, flop. Then when i was about to throw in the towel, I thought maybe reverting back to 4-4-2 will be best. Put in Christian Poulsen and Sunny(a Nigerian DMC wonderkid) to mark out Raul Garcia and Frank Lampard. Send in Gabriel Agbonlahor(pace, acc=20) and N'Zogbia(pace=17 dribbling=18) for pure pace and speed. Slot in Okaka as a target man with good aerial ability and Luke Moore as an explosive striker with pace=19. Put in Gareth Bale for free-kick taking and Nedum Onuoha for his pace and tenacity. Anchor Gijs Luirink(formerly from AZ Alkmaar) for his passing and heading and Gary Cahill to partner him. The one between the posts will be Oscar Ustari, commanding GK and stunning technical skills. Then voila, at half time it was 3-0. But knowing the likes of Chelsea, you can never write them off at half time. When the second half started, i continue to flood their defence with passes and goal attempts, and all the while trying to let my team maintain goal possession. Eventually, Chelsea's squad lost morale and they never recovered from 3-0. Whent the final whistle went, i heaved a sigh of relief. Luck, tactics, coupled with the fact that the game's best midfielder Michael Ballack was out injured and Drogba was nursing his wounds on the bench, we came back with a fortuitous victory. Okaka was named his 6th man of match in 9 games and rightfully so with his heading ability. By then i was too tired to think straight and it was already 11+ at night, so i concluded the game by praising my players and raising their morale for their next game ahead of Everton at Villa Park.

BTW, i once comtemplated of playing using Man Utd. So i started a new user, and i took a look at the squad. I stared at the squad line-up for 5 minutes, wondering to myself how a team like this could challenge for the Premier League title. Kudos to Alex Ferguson for making them leaders currently in EPL(in reality, not in fm). I mean, this team is full of junk players and old ah-peks. Nevertheless, i started to clear out the junk. I sold Kieran Richardson to Portsmouth at half price for 5.5M USD.That meant that i lugi USD5M. Then I decided that Fletcher had to go he's not good enough at 22 yrs of age. My theory is that if you dun look promising at 22, you wun look any better at 25 or 28 or 32, and for a big club like the Red Devils, that's a hell of a problem. I kept Park Ji-sung, partially cos he is a marketable figure and also because he has pace, although i must say his technical aspects are crap. I sold Silvestre while his worth is still respectable, and out goes O'shea and Wes Brown too. That leaves a core squad of Smith, Saha, Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs, Scholes, Solksjaer, Ferdinand, Vidic, Heinze, Evra, Neville, Pique, Rossi, Carrick. But i soon realised that the problem with Man U goes deeper. As a manager, i emphasized a lot on the quality of the staffs and coaches, and as expected, Man U's best were all concentrated on youth development. So, reassignment and purchase of top-class coaches are top of my priority. In came Giampiero Ventrone(my assistant at Roma in Fm2005, widely considered to be one of the best Asst Mgr along with Pako Ayesterian and Pat Rice and whathaveyous.) In came Wally Downes from Reading as Defense Coach. A couple of signings from holland and germany completes the puzzle. The second problem is a huge one. As mentioned by Sir Alex in one of his many press conferences, Man U desperately need a midfield anchor, a Roy Keane of sorts. So, i began scouting. I shortlisted Christian Poulsen, Ayila Yussuf, Micah Richards(who told me he can be gotten for 8M?) and others. Owen Hargreaves looks weak technically and not up to standard, while Mascherano can't deal with aerial threats. With 45M gathered from sale of players, i realised that it is still not enough. So someone has to go. I sold Ferdinand to Chelsea for 35M and Saha to Marseille for 15M. That leaves me close to 90M. Now the work starts. In came David Villa, Micah Richards. Richards will play as DM, while Villa ST. The work is done and now my squad looks more like a title contender. Transformation complete. ( will blog more on Man U as i play.) Till then, byebye.

johannkrizalid blogged @ 11:39 AM