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I'm starting to feel a little better about my goal bet now with those future scores, though it does suck to see that the team stumbled.
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Jun 1, 2014 04:35
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The only result I don't like now that I looked at it again is the Schalke loss. I'm not liking our chances of taking 3 or even 1 from them after a flight to Germany.
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Jun 1, 2014 04:50
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Just wanted to say thanks Habeus, not only for a thoroughly well written and entertaining thread, but also for inspiring me to play this game again. I just managed to get my team promoted for the first time ever after a million false starts.
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Jun 1, 2014 11:52
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On steam FM2014 is 75% off due to a 'Summer Samba Sale'. http://store.steampowered.com/app/231670/
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Jun 2, 2014 15:46
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Habeaus, if you decide to get FM15, is it possible to import the databases or at least the save into FM15 and continue the LP there? I'm worried that the LP could end when FM15 gets released. Also, I'm an idiot and I have no idea who your avatar is. Who is it? Dreamsicle fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 01:56
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To be fair, Chelsea & Liverpool are the definition of mega bastard clubs. That's hardly a reason to commence panic. I think this is the perfect occasion to steady the boat and show what we're really made of. Also it's been a while since we had a tactical update, I know shirra is the lynchpin of current attacking creativity but do we have a setpiece specialist? Seems like that is mostly Meteor at this point. Come on you dragons!
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Jun 3, 2014 05:03
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Geokinesis posted:On steam FM2014 is 75% off due to a 'Summer Samba Sale'. http://store.steampowered.com/app/231670/ Because we couldn't get the rights to say World Cup sale. I'd get this if I had any confidence in my ability to know what the hell habeus is doing.
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Jun 3, 2014 05:09
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Sorry to be that guy, but it's habeas not habeus. As in habeas corpus. Loving the LP, up the Dragons!
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Jun 3, 2014 05:38
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Teddybear posted:Because we couldn't get the rights to say World Cup sale. Get this! Habeas gives out some good tips here, and with the various internet guides it's possible to slowly get the hang of this. Just pick one area at a time to get better at, dive into it, practice it and then move on to the next area of the game. If you feel like you've screwed things up too much, just kill the save and start a new one. I did this after years of aborted attempts at playing the various versions, and this time it's finally clicked. I think a big part for me is that they got rid of the stupid sliders, and the penny finally dropped for me that you need to stick with a tactic a bit before deciding it's no good.
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Jun 3, 2014 05:42
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Geokinesis posted:On steam FM2014 is 75% off due to a 'Summer Samba Sale'. http://store.steampowered.com/app/231670/ Can you run around dressed in bright yellow colours while shouting orders from the sidelines? Because that would sold the game.
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Jun 3, 2014 08:47
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Fat Samurai posted:Can you run around dressed in bright yellow colours while shouting orders from the sidelines? Because that would sold the game. With some voice command software and a carefully selected wardrobe, there are no limits to what you can do.
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Jun 3, 2014 09:57
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Dreamsicle posted:Also, I'm an idiot and I have no idea who your avatar is. Who is it? It's the the Wrexham Logo (the team he's coaching). It's okay, since we rarely see the logo.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:42
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KDavisJr posted:It's the the Wrexham Logo (the team he's coaching). It's okay, since we rarely see the logo. No I mean his character avatar which is: 
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Jun 3, 2014 21:49
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It's Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones. I think.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:54
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JAIME!!!!  Yeah, I've been using the ol' Kingslayer as my ingame avatar since I started playing the series. If I get to pick a fictional face for my coach, it's going to be a sexy scandinavian. Sorry about the delays, a very not fun stomach bug over the weekend + lots of time sensitive work stuff have occupied my whole time. Thankfully that's all over. The next two updates are mostly written, fully cropped, and I'll work on them tonight as I unwind and try not to think about how scraped up and raw the back of my heels are from my "nice" pair of shoes.
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Jun 3, 2014 22:03
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Ah, I haven't watched GoT and my progress in reading the books has stalled and I forgot where I was. Still, hearing he's called the Kingslayer makes it weird for me since I just associated Brown with the King of Kings, Triple H. If Sky Shadowing in-game avatar wasn't Shane McMahon I would be more ashamed with making wrestling associations. Dreamsicle fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 22:23
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Kingslayer? What Kingslayer? That's clearly an immortal Dutchman. Pretty sure I'm the only person who ever watched that show, but that's beside the point.
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Jun 3, 2014 23:01
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Revenant Threshold posted:Kingslayer? What Kingslayer? That's clearly an immortal Dutchman. New Amsterdam was pretty good, I'm not ashamed to say I also watched it.
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Jun 3, 2014 23:18
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Thought you all might like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJoep1cDlY
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Jun 4, 2014 00:59
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tatankatonk posted:Thought you all might like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJoep1cDlY Just not the same in English. Really needs that soaring 'Gwlad, Gwlad! Pleidol wyf I'm Gwlad' for the proper impact.
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Jun 4, 2014 01:10
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Chapter the Third: Power outage. October 1, 2021-November 1, 2021 We're still not getting on TV very much. I don't know why that is, our club reputation is now rated at the highest category, Worldwide, and we're behind just the megabastards and Tottenham (aka "mini-megabastard") in total reputation. Meanwhile, through our first seven games we'll be on television for Premier League matches just twice- or three times less than Liverpool. It's a little frustrating, we need that live TV revenue considering that we're always going to have lower turnover than the clubs that can pull 40k plus to games. It's not like we don't have star players, either, we have fifteen players with Continental reputations. We don't yet match the Megabastards for household names, but we certainly have higher reputation players than lowly Liverpool.  More than half our jerseys are being sold overseas now, I'm guessing this is the Mujkic/Bastable effect, along with the fact that the game counts Scotland (Shirra and Mair) as overseas. We've only got one Welshman on the team right now, Chris Todd. I've got a medium term plan to remedy that, though. The great Shaun Davies is now into his early thirties, and still a potent attacking force despite his age. His contract with Real Madrid runs out in 2 years. If our finances are healthy enough I'm going to look into bringing him back home for the twilight of his career. The jersey sales alone should cover his six figure a week salary.  Joy. A televised game against one of the best teams in the world, at their stadium. It's one of four games I think we should be rightly considered underdogs for on our whole league fixture list. Why doesn't England want to watch us play West Brom on the telly? vs. Chelsea, October 3, 2021 Premier League  Oh, you think I've forgotten about how you thrashed us in the preseason? I will make you pay for that, сволочь. You're against our first team this time. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak (c), Laux, Todd, Suslov, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic, Bastable. Subs: El Sayed, Pejkovic, Feruga, Morvan, Julio, Matko, Cardozo. Chelsea rip us apart for the first twenty minutes, beating us over and over again on the counter. They get on the scoreboard when our gigantic German centerback panics under pressure and clears the ball directly into our net for an own goal after 17 minutes. We pick ourselves up and go back to dominating the match, but after an hour we're still down one nil. I put in El Juez, seeking a late game spark, but despite pushing Chelsea to the edge we can't unlock their defense and go down to our first league defeat of the season. The loss is extremely frustrating, we outplayed Chelsea for 3/4ths of the game and deserved at least a draw, but we weren't putting our shots on target. It's also the first time we've been held scoreless going back to May 4th.   Wrexham 0-1 Chelsea  Feruga had two vesting clauses in his transfer deal, the first one here is an extra two-hundred grand when he plays 10 international games, and the next is when he plays his fiftieth competitive match for Wrexham.  They can only beat Trinidad and Tobago 1-0 on friendly turf? Hah! Fire the loser, hire the king!  England is going back to the World Cup, having won it's group handily. Wales is not, finishing a point back of 2nd placed Turkey and two points back of 1st placed Switzerland in their group. Scotland also finished third in their group, the golden generation hasn't quite arrived yet for the Scots. But the biggest surprise in qualifying is that Die Mannschaft will be staying home. Germany was in a group with France, Latvia, Iceland, Finland, and Malta. There was no way they should be looking at anything worse than a playoff against another second placed team. In a complete shock, it's Iceland who's in the playoff with a chance to go to Qatar next summer. This is the first time Germany has ever failed to qualify for the World Cup, and the old saw that Soccer is “22 men running around for 90 minutes and at the end the Germans Win” has been reworked by intertube (trademark Applezoncast, 2019) wags as “22 men running around for 90 minutes and then the Germans go home.”   I'm surprised it took Shirra so long to get on the scoresheet for Scotland, but it's probably because they're playing him in a deeper midfield role than we do. Shirra spends his time at the club in an entirely offensive trequartista role where he basically looks for open space while the rest of the team tries to get the ball back so that he can the defense's life hell when we regain possession, it's how he racks up so many goals and assists. But at the same time since he's looking for open space when we're on defense he provides very little in that half of the game for us. Scotland are using him as a distributing midfielder, meaning his responsibilities for country are much different than those for club.  What a shock, Liverpool's on TV again. So are we, I guess I shouldn't gripe.  They're going to get drummed out without winning a point. Stupid communists running the USA Soccer program.  Welcome back, El Gaucho. It's going to take him several weeks to get back to full speed, so we'll take it slow. At Manchester City, October 16, 2021 Premier League  City will be our toughest challenge to date. They've shipped only two goals to date, but we're by a fair margin the best offensive squad in the league. We now sit 2 points back of Arsenal and one back of United on the table, any points here would be a draw that I am happy with. Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak (c), Laux, Feruga, Suslov, Matko, Morvan, Petts, Mujkic, Shirra, Bastable. Subs: El Sayed, Pejkovic, Todd, Mair, Nieddu, Taborda, Cardozo. Kovacevic earns his wages early, as we again start a game slow and disjointedly. Man City slices us up several times and we're forced to scramble to keep them from going up. The early jolt does wake us up, and the defense firms up to prevent any more City chances, but they're stifling our counter. Bastable especially is awful, unable to find any space and looks bereft of ideas going forward, while Shirra can't get free of his marker to create anything. I once again bring on El Juez for a late boost, but the final twenty minutes see City turn up the heat as they hunt for the elusive winning goal. Neither side can find it, and our often porous defense did their job ably while our now seemingly stoppable force whacked into their immovable wall. Oleg Suslov is named man of the match for his efforts, but Kovacevic was just as deserving the title. Man of the Match: Oleg Suslov   Man City 0-0 Wrexham  It is an impressive defense, but I can't help think that they were lucky to catch us in a poor run of form. None of the last three teams we've played are pikers by any means, but we'd previously dropped three goals on Man United and four on Olympique Marseille.   Nope. You're only 20, you'll get your chance in time. But I'm not going to Mourinho myself by sending you off for seasoning just to discover I desperately need a striker. vs. Schalke 04, October 20, 2021 Champions League, Group B  Schalke is a club located in western Germany. They had their greatest run of success in the 1930s, leading an English paper to proclaim a few years back that Hitler was a supporter. That didn't go over very well. They're having a rough start to their season, and are only 12th in the Bundesliga. Two more wins should be enough to move us onto the next round, but we're at home so there's some rotation to keep the legs fresh. At this point the only player who are serious downgrades from their starting eleven counterparts are Mejasic, Julio, and Matko, and all three are good enough to be regulars for most Premier League teams. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: El Sayed, Pejkovic, Laux, Todd (c), Mejasic, Mair, Julio, Matko, Nieddu, Taborda, Cardozo. Subs: Kovacevic, Cirjak, O'Hanlon, Dixon, Petts, Mujkic, Aarts. We have developed a very bad habit of getting caught snoozing when the game starts. Schalke takes the lead before five minutes is up when Matko gets robbed of the ball by an enterprising Schalke forward, who is able to then avoid Todd's challenge and score. El Juez dockets his reply 90 seconds later, and we're back to 1-1, but can't build his case further when he misses an open net chance from range at the twenty minute mark. We spend forty minutes of the first half knocking on the door, but can't get anything to fall. When the game restarts the ref realizes that he has a mortgage to pay and some Singaporean gangsters who want to help him pay it, and gives Schalke a ludicrous, unconscionable, uncontrovertably insane penalty. They convert, and we're down 2-1. We respond by hitting each of the posts, and by bringing on Petts and Mujkic to try to salvage the game. It doesn't work. We lose a match we should have won or at least drawn, thanks to the diabolical machinations of a striped shirt. If I could have gotten sent to the showers for coming onto the pitch and spitting all over him while using every last curse word I can pull from the depths of my memory, I would have. That's a feature that needs to be added. Marseilles beats Valencia, and our group of evenly matched teams is level across the board at four points.   Wrexham 1-2 Schalke  Hey, ref, how were you able to pay cash up front for that nice new condo? I hope you're letting your Singaporean gangster friends crash on the couch, since they paid for it.  Your silence in the face of this travesty won't restore our lost point!  At least I have the moral victory. As if that's worth anything.   We've won one of our last five games, and our offense has sputtered to almost nothing. How can y'all be happy with this performance? Stop diddling with your iBrains and pay attention! At Liverpool, October 23, 2021 Premier League  When everything is falling to poo poo, it's time to go back to basics. I'm breaking out the 4-4-2. Liverpool, who are having another awful year, sit just outside of the relegation zone. It's a good chance to get back to our winning ways. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Standard Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak (c), O'Hanlon, Feruga, Suslov, Matko, Morvan, Shirra, Mujkic, Cardozo, Bastable. Subs: El Sayed, Mejasic, Pejkovic, Dixon, Petts, Julio, Aarts. The first half sees nothing doing, we both have our chances and don't take them. The woodwork sees a lot of actions on both ends of the pitch, deflecting near misses away from glory. Liverpool goes ahead eighteen seconds into the second half, and we respond with a flurry of good play that presses them deep into their own area and scrambling to hack our shots off the line. That all ends when they catch our defense napping and score a second goal. It's an awful loss, and after being a juggernaut the first two months of the season our offense has entirely vanished. El Juez was especially bad, but the effort was all around terrible and no one should be happy with how they played.   Liverpool 2-0 Wrexham  drat right I tore them a new one. We haven't gone five games without a win since 2018. Back then it was because we were adjusting to a higher level of play, not because we suddenly forgot how to put the ball in the back of the net. vs. Blackburn Rovers, October 26, 2021 Capital One Cup, Fourth Round  If we can't get a win here, we're well and truly screwed. While a loss would mean one fewer competition to focus on, and thus more rest time, that's a losers mindset. I'm the me-damned God-King of Wales, I am here to win every trophy there is and some that will have to be invented just to reward me. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Pejkovic, Feruga (c), Todd, Mejasic, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Julio, Taborda, Aarts. Subs: El Sayed, Cirjak, O'Hanlon, Dixon, Matko, Cardozo, Bastable. Our possession play is keeping a good hold of the match, but once again we're not getting our shots on target. It results in a poor first half; Blackburn has just three shots but two were big chances due to mistakes by our players. As play proceeds I can see our team getting frustrated and taking more long shots instead of breaking down opposition to create chances in dangerous areas. At the hour mark I bring on the Bastard for an ineffective Aarts, and slide Nieddu to a central position behind him. Ten minutes later I have to use my third substitution when Taborda is tackled in the penalty box. It's a reckless tackle from behind that gets the ball first but also gets Taborda. He goes down clutching the same ankle he broke not four months ago and has to come off, replaced by his slumping countryman Cardozo. There's no chances for Blackburn in the second half, but they've forced us to extra time. It's there that things go from bad to worse, with Dinko Mejasic forgetting that he's not allowed to earn a second yellow card in extra time, and leaves us with 10 men for the final seventeen minutes of the game. My luck with going down a man is still a thing, though, because when a goal comes it's from Nieddu and for us, with just 3 minutes left before the game would be sent to a penalty kick shootout. We survive, despite showing virtually nothing on offense all game long and all three strikers, Aarts, Bastable, and Cardozo, having bad days at the office. I call out the team for poor play despite the win, but credit the defense for keeping Blackburn off the board even after going a man down. My dyspeptic postgame talk receives mixed results, some players look deeply inspired and others look downright ready to murder me. Man of the Match: Richard Petts   Wrexham 1-0 Blackburn  Mejasic is earning yellow cards at an even faster pace than he was last season, as if he's making up for lost time now that he's a backup.   You're seriously wondering why I fined you?  Stop earning constant yellow cards, or you're out of the club come next summer.  Not as bad as it could have been. Taborda isn't considered injury prone but he'll have spent about 80% of his time since joining the club in the trainers room by the time he heals from this injury. In this case he reinjured his ankle, which can happen when players are still rebuilding their match fitness after coming back from a prior injury.  Both of our Argentinian wonderkids got hurt last game. Cardozo's injury is fairly minor, but it leaves us thin at left wing. Mujkic better be ready to play every minute of every game for the next two weeks.  He can sleep when he's dead. Or when we aren't playing two matches a week. I'm going to get more and more of these reports as the season goes on, but we have no choice but to fight through it.  Meanwhile Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea are all facing lower division opponents in the quarterfinals. So even if we get past City we're going to be up against excellent opponents for as long as we're in the competition. Stupid League Cup. If I weren't trying to win everything I'd just run out a youth squad and get us knocked out to preserve our legs.  The Bastard has looked bereft of ideas over the last five games, not scoring and only logging one performance that could charitably be referred to as mediocre. He's missing the target a lot more than he usually does, and seems to have lost his confidence. Let's see if we can change that.  I got your back, Rock. I know you'll pull through. Because I know you understand what I'll do to you if you don't. vs. West Bromwich Albion, October 30, 2021 Premier League  West Brom must be happy to have us in the league, it means they don't start the season in dead last. They must also be salivating at the prospect of playing us right now, given our stooped form. That being said, they're now in dead last, and haven't won a match yet. Given the struggle that Blackburn put up, I don't want to take them too lightly. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: El Sayed, Cirjak (c), Laux, O'Hanlon, Suslov, Dixon, Morvan, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic, Bastable. Subs: Kovacevic, Pejkovic, Todd, Petts, Julio, Matko, Aarts. That heart to heart with the Bastard immediately pays off, just 25 seconds into the match he latches onto a Shirra long ball and busts out of his slump. That doesn't mean all is well with our offense again, as he proceeds to miss two more chances while Meteor squanders another. But West Brom just aren't in our league, and Bastable adds a second goal with a rocket header from a corner not long past the half hour. We keep bursting the Baggies defense just to let them off the hook with weak finishing, but at least 50% of our shots are on target this time around. Youth system product Alex O'Hanlon scores his first goal for the senior team with an impressive finish from a rebound after another corner late in the game to seal it for us. It's a much better performance, but we were still wildly profligate with our chances. 9 clear cut chances and 6 half chances should result in more than three goals, the research on expected goals for “big chances” I've read suggests that clear cut chances should be converted about 50% of the time. That's a slightly different metric than the game uses, and “clear cut chances” are probably less likely to convert than their real life counterpart, but we still should have scored at least one or two more goals. Rocky Bastable was able to answer his critics with two goals, but still gave them something to harp on by whiffing on four other chances. Man of the Match: Rocky Bastable.   Wrexham 3-0 West Brom  Our team personality is “very determined.” So why do I feel like we're lacking mental toughness? I'm hoping that the West Brom match was exactly the type of win we needed to get back on track. Our defense also seems to be gelling, while our offense remains questionable even with three goals scored against West Brom, we conceded just five goals in the last six games, and had three shutouts. That needs to continue if our offensive power outage doesn't abate. The Champions League group looks exactly as expected, four evenly matched teams sitting at four points. We top the group thanks only to every team having lost a game at home and our slightly better goal differential. With three games remaining any team could advance, get knocked down to the Europa League, or get knocked all the way out of continental competition.  
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Jun 4, 2014 19:03
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Hitler can't be a Schalke fan, because I'm pretty sure they have more than one ball.
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Jun 4, 2014 19:16
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The Champions League group is panning out roughly as I expected. They're all good sides so equal on points is not surprising. Hopefully we're slowly pulling out of our slump. Btw, have you looked into different team talk approaches? Results on that front often seem to be mixed or is it just that you always gloss over the neutral to slightly positive ones?
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Jun 4, 2014 19:21
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The thing with team talks is that basically there's a lot of coddling involved (I think? Like so much of FM it's kind of a black box). If you overdo the shouting it causes the morale collapse that locks you into the slump: if anything I'm much harder on the players when they're doing alright than when they're terrible.
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Jun 4, 2014 19:59
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There's pep talks before, in the middle, and at the end of every game. I don't bother showing those, and only mention them in passing if something out of the usual happens, but I'm very good at them. I show pretty much all the team talks, and most of the individual player chats. The individual player chats depend on whether the player's been at the club since they were a teen. If they have they tend to view me as a father figure and appreciate my compliments and support. If not, they think I come off a bit smarmy and patronizing. The team chats, as you've seen, rarely go well. Part of that is we don't have a strong captain who's a veteran player and who the whole team respects yet*, part of it is that the team as a whole is not hyper-ambitious, and part of it is that we're really, really young and are more prone to being stressed out by the pressure. Morale is hugely important in the game, and one reason I prefer coaching younger players because I know how to prop up their morale and the type of things to say to get good responses. A 31 year old veteran of two World Cups is going to react a lot differently than an 18 year old wonderkid to the coach telling them "Relax, there's no pressure on you. Just go play your natural game." * Cirjak will get there, but he's been on the club for 18 months, he's 23 years old, and his English language skill is still "basic."
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Jun 4, 2014 20:14
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Chapter the Fourth: Game in hand. November 1, 2021-November 28, 2021 The good news is that a couple weeks of bad play isn't enough to sink us. We're still alive in our group, though we only have one home game remaining, and we're still in the hunt for the league title and the Capital One Cup. The dreams of the Quadruple are not yet dead, even if they're not nearly as likely as optimistic supporters had whispered in late September.  Shirra has developed from “wonderkid” to “cultured midfielder.” They grow up so quickly. He just had his 21st birthday in late October, when I told him I'd take him out for his first beer he looked at me quizzically as if I had forgotten that he could already order a beer with dinner when he arrived at Wrexham as a 16 year old.  I probably wouldn't have put Bastable on the team of the week given how many easy goals he failed to score against West Brom, but he got himself into very dangerous positions repeatedly. O'Hanlon is the 19 year old product of our youth system, I bought him from Northern Ireland's Linfield for 100,000 smackers in March 2020. He's already a two star player for us with 3.5 star potential, he's going to become a solid rotation option for our defense.  Our long winless streak drops me from Untouchable to merely Very Secure. The board has very high expectations of me, they want to see at least a return to the FA Cup semifinal and for us to reach the knockout round of the Champions League. If they stay this ambitious I'll have to do the double just to make them happy in five years time. At Schalke 04, November 2, 2021 Champions League, Group B  We get another shot at Schalke right away. There's some tired legs on the club, but we have only a match against Reading before the November international break, and winning this game is of paramount importance to our continental aspirations. It's time to deploy the 4-2-3-1 in a counter, meaning we're going to drop back further and use Mair as a midfield destroyer. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Counter Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak (c), Laux, Todd, Suslov, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic, Bastable. Subs: El Sayed, Pejkovic, Feruga, Morvan, Julio, Matko, Aarts. First, the good news. The counter attack has caught Schalke completely out. We're rampaging through their defense every time they venture forward and lose possession. The bad news, someone's nicked our finishing boots and replaced them with Jozy Altidores. Dimitri Nieddu's disgusted with himself after an easy miss five minutes into the game, and his expression is mirrored on my own face. Bastable has the announcers calling his duffed shot “awful” as the eleventh minute ticks by. Given enough time, typewritters, and monkeys you'll eventually end up with a complete set of Shakespeare plays, though, and given far less time and opportunity we'll finally score. Thus it is when Nieddu finds Bastable on a perfectly timed run, the Schalke keeper comes off his line to try and stop Bastable, and Bastable runs right past him and taps his finish into the open net from a few feet away in the 18th minute. We can't add to that slim lead, our best chance coming five minutes later when Bastable can't get a free header on target, and we lose our imposing centerback Mattias Laux when he comes up lame after winning a tackle in first half stoppage time, but Schalke never learn how to deal with our defense. They repeatedly get suckered into defense and lose possession, finishing with a paltry two shots on target all day. We leave Germany with a win that keeps us on course to escape the group. Man of the Match: Tonci Cirjak   Schalke 0-1 Wrexham  European competitions have different yellow and red card rules than the league. Mair picked up a third yellow in four games, the European refs don't seem to appreciate midfield destroyers. Last year Mair spent all season as a Ball-Winning Midfielder in the Premier League and picked up eight yellow cards in 24 matches, a pretty normal rate of cautions for someone with his job.  Our finances have stayed stable since the end of the transfer window, we're still £4.8m in the red but haven't seen it get any worse. If we make it out of the group stage we're due another tranche of £2.8m. vs. Reading, November 6, 2021 Premier League  We're four points back of Arsenal coming into today, and currently Man United are five points up after a 5-0 mollywholloping of Southampton in the early game. Reading are in 6th, the schedule-makers seem to always want us to face teams when they're at their peak. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak (c), Todd, Feruga, Mejasic, Morvan, Julio, Matko, Nieddu, Mujkic, Aarts. Subs: El Sayed, Pejkovic, O'Hanlon, Dixon, Petts, Shirra, Bastable. The best signing of 2020-2021 continues to show AC Milan what they let walk for nothing in the 18th minute when he jinks past the last defender and wins his 1v1 with the keeper. It's Nieddu's fifth goal in nine Premier League games this season, to go along with three assists. We don't score again until late in the game, but Reading look like a lower league side compared to our sleek machine rather than a club that's a mere four points back of us. We complete our victory with two late goals, one from Aarts where he coolly places a Meteor rebound into the corner of the net and one from Todd, courtesy a professionally delivered free kick from Mujkic. It's a performance akin to our early form, and our fourth shutout in a row. Man of the Match: Chris Todd   Wrexham 3-0 Reading  AJ_Impy is approaching the midpoint of his potential four year term. I guess you could call it a success, so far. Still no titles, unlike the two we won in the lower leagues with Sky Shadowing. I guess you could call the FA Cup impressive. As I did last year, I'll hold an election in January if AJ_Impy is defeated in his reelection efforts.  Good thing we're going on a two week international break.  And to make sure it's actually somewhat of a break, I make sure our players who are being called up for friendlies don't get run out there for full 90 minute matches. The two exceptions are O'Hanlon and Cardozo, both of whom are set to earn their first international caps. I can't ask them to only play half a game in their debut.  I've become a famous enough man about town that reporters are dialing me up to ask about players picked for the England squad, in this case the decision to include Southampton's striker. England has a good team, but they are very poor at striker and this guy is clearly their best option, so I don't understand the hullabaloo and say so.   I am the father figure to a mighty brood.  Giggsy's Back! I guess he found some other oligarch to back his purchase of the third most valuable club in the world.   : HAHAHA! : How well do you think you'll do without your only two world class players? : YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE! AYATOLLAH OF SCREW YOU OVER WINS AGAIN!!! Stay healthy for at least a month, please. You've got all the talent in the world, I'd like to see you actually reach it.  Viva Shirra! European Golden Boy is one of the biggest awards one of your players can win. The awards are based upon a calendar year and take into account both international and club competitions, so Shirra's excellent performance last spring and his downright otherworldly start to this season at Wrexham combined with his improving performances for Scotland make him a real contender for the award. I would bet that we might see him and another player or two in the conversation for the World XI team, as well. They may only make the bench, but being picked for that is a huge honor. At Watford, November 20, 2021 Premier League  Our next match is in France against Olympique Marseille and a win there sends us to the knockout round. Ergo I'm going to rotate out some of our starters to make sure they're 100% for that match. As such, our backups need to show me something. Watford are struggling deep in the table, if this isn't a win, I'm going to execute a coach and bathe in their blood while whispering eldritch verses to seek the favor of a new, unwholesome diety. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Pejkovic, Laux, O'Hanlon, Mejasic, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Cardozo, Bastable (c). Subs: El Sayed, Cirjak, Todd, Morvan, Julio, Taborda, Aarts. After he delivers two wonderful through balls that don't end up in the back of the net, Petts takes it on himself to score in the 19th minute, courtesy a fine assist by El Juez. He's followed by European Golden Boy nominee Scott Shirra, who slaloms through the Watford defense for a second goal just before thirty minutes have elapsed. We take a well deserved two goal advantage into the break, but when play restarts Watford has clearly found their mettle and test us sorely. The Golden Boy doesn't care much for that, and shuts them down with his second goal of the match, coming on a lovely little give and go move with the Bastard just before the hour. Petts wants a brace of his own, and lashes a long free kick into the the back of the goal himself just a minute later, and our offense is once again humming with brutal efficiency. The only slight disappointment to take is a very late goal by Watford that ends Kovacevic's shutout streak at over 300 minutes. We put on the type of magisterial performances the best clubs are supposed to put on when visiting their poor cousins even when using a rotated squad, and it was a delight to watch. Man of the Match: Scott Shirra   Watford 1-4 Wrexham  We previously had Man City in the League Cup quarterfinal sandwiched between Arsenal and Man U league matches, now we just have Arsenal and Man City. I'll take it, even though it means we'll have at least eight matches in January.  Dick Petts and The Golden Boy combined for four goals, I didn't see any other midfield doing that. vs. Olympique Marseille, November 24, 2021 Champions League, Group B  We win this match, and we have something like a 90% probability to advance. We lose, and qualification is wildly up in the air. Marseille needs to beat us, they still sit at just four points and if they lose they're not making it to the knockout round. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak (c), Laux, Todd, Suslov, Morvan, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic, Bastable. Subs: El Sayed, Pejkovic, Furuga, Dixon, Julio, Taborda, Cardozo. We seem to have gone from a team that starts quickly and then tapers off to one that struggles at first and then asserts itself. I'm not sure why that is, but it leads to Marseille having more possession through the first quarter hour. They do nothing with it, and it's our turn to show why we deserve a spot in the Round of 16. First comes a cultured finish from Petts off a Nieddu cross in the 18th minute. Then Nieddu adds a goal to his assist thanks to a killer ball from the Bastard to spring him at 32 minutes. When Todd scores from the near post at 40 minutes, we've score thrice on five shots. Our clinical finishing is a welcome change from not being able to hit the broad side of a barn in past matches. Bastable has to wait until the 90th minute to punch one in for emphasis, but I'm not sure anyone was watching him. The crowd was too busy gleefully chanting about the knockout round as they saw the 3-1 Valencia victory over Schalke finalized and realized that we were moments away ourselves from the sixteen team knockout round. Man of the Match: Chris Todd   Wrexham 4-0 Marseille  Seven years ago we were mired in a relegation fight in League Two and my job was under pressure. Now we're one of the final 16 teams in the Champions League. Our seeding for the knockout round will be determined by whether we can win an away match against Valencia in two weeks time, if we do finish atop the group we've got a chance of avoiding a megabastard and instead getting to play a good but not great club like PSV or Porto. If we finish second, it's almost certain that we're going to be up against one of the best teams in the world.  Oh, right, and the money. The money is always nice. vs. Norwich City, November 27, 2021 Premier League  I was looking forward to this game, I didn't rate Norwich and expected them to be hovering near the relegation zone. Instead, they're 9th in the league, and they've beaten Manchester United twice this season. We're still the better side, but when will we get some minnows to stomp all over? Other than West Brom, who are still looking for their first win a third of the way through the season. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak (c), Feruga, O'Hanlon, Mejasic, Mair, Julio, Matko, Petts, Taborda, Cardozo Subs: El Sayed, Pejkovic, Laux, Morvan, Shirra, Mujkic, Aarts. Welsh tiki-taka is in full bloom in the first half, and Norwich can't fire a single shot. We take the lead when a Norridge defender plays Matko's early cross directly to El Juez in the six yard box. It couldn't have been a more perfect assist if he'd been wearing red. They clamber back into the game thanks to converting their first shot at 52 minutes, when a corner kick deflected off the scrum in front of the near post and out to a waiting and unmarked Canary. We drop points for the first time in four games despite outshooting Norridge 4-1, and racking up 6 chances to their 1. Our inconsistency in front of the goal continues, and makes us pay once again. Man of the Match: Woj Feruga   Wrexham 1-1 Norwich  As frustrating as our struggles have been- it seems like a long time since we've walked into a match I expected to lose and every game we don't win against anything short of a megabastard is now an outrage- we're still just three points back of the league lead and we've qualified with a game in hand from our Champion's League group. After going winless five straight games for the first time since the Championship days in 2018 we ripped off six straight wins, and over the last seven games we've outscored our opponents 17 to 2. We're going to need another few years before I can dream about going undefeated in every competition, but through four months of twice weekly matches we've proven that we have depth and can succeed in both the toughest national league for club football while advancing past top clubs in the Champions League as well.  
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Jun 4, 2014 20:50
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Is it normal that none of our Premier League games are televised? I would expect a league-topping club to attract a bit more attention. Edit: Turns out we had three TV broadcasts in the update before the last, welp 
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Jun 4, 2014 20:55
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It's annoying me that we're not getting more coverage. If you notice we only got on TV against big teams, and Liverpool are on TV constantly despite being a complete disaster. I'm not sure how they figure it out, our reputation is certainly good enough to deserve more televised games.
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Jun 4, 2014 21:00
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How are Rangers doing in the Champions League after a decade out Habeas?
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Jun 4, 2014 21:14
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I might be wrong, but aren't TV games selected before the season begins? If so, then that may be why since the reputation may still have been slightly too low to air most of Wrexham's games in spite of the increased reputation as the season wore on.
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Jun 4, 2014 21:14
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Why are Valencia above us in the CL table?
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Jun 4, 2014 21:22
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mfcrocker posted:Why are Valencia above us in the CL table? EDIT: Sky Shadowing explains it better a post after this TheFlyingLlama fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Jun 4, 2014 |
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Jun 4, 2014 21:34
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mfcrocker posted:Why are Valencia above us in the CL table? UEFA has different tiebreakers. First is points between teams (1-1 draw, so even at 1), second is goal difference between teams (again, 1-1 draw, so even at 0), third is goals scored between teams (still 1-1) and fourth is goals scored away between teams, which they take because they drew us at Wrexham, thus 1 away goal to our none, since we've not played there yet. Sky Shadowing fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Jun 4, 2014 |
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Jun 4, 2014 21:37
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A Tartan Tory posted:How are Rangers doing in the Champions League after a decade out Habeas? Two points through five matches. Sorry. 
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Jun 4, 2014 21:39
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habeasdorkus posted:Two points through five matches. Sorry. Huh, so we are actually doing better than usual! Good to know! 
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Jun 4, 2014 21:50
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At this rate you should just angle yourself to take over the Australian team and guide them to the World Cup. Elliot ain't gonna do it.
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Jun 4, 2014 22:30
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Teddybear posted:At this rate you should just angle yourself to take over the Australian team and guide them to the World Cup. Elliot ain't gonna do it. Or maybe you should nurture Shirra some more by leading Scotland to greatness with their Golden Generation. 
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Jun 4, 2014 22:41
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A Tartan Tory posted:Or maybe you should nurture Shirra some more by leading Scotland to greatness with their Golden Generation. To be honest I just wanna see him give international soccer a proper go, even if it's not as the American coach. Wrexhamming it!  Also I just put two and two together-- a Massachusetts-based lawyer named Scott Brown, you're not our former Senator, right? 
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Jun 4, 2014 22:47
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You mean my evil doppelganger? I volunteered on three campaigns going back to 2004 trying to beat him. He's New Hampshire's problem now. I had a whole plan for running for office against him as an independent in 2012 but decided not to when Elizabeth Warren got into the race. Didn't want to risk her chances, but my big goal if I'd done it was to get onto the Colbert Report. The fake pundit and the fake candidate!
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Jun 4, 2014 22:54
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habeasdorkus posted:You mean my evil doppelganger? "Scott Brown 2012: No, Not That One, The Good One Who Likes Soccer"
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Jun 4, 2014 23:06
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