Dynasty Qualify for Top Tier! (we think!)

Wow, am I interested again now! It's been one hell of an end to the season. I wouldn't normally blog about it in such detail but for once I think the tension deserves re-living.

When the bad form finally left, we were outside the top-12 that I figure we needed to - by my calculations - reach to be sure of making the top tier of final qualifiers. But we were still in with a shot. The problem was our last five games included the league leaders Little Badgers twice, and third place Auckland FC (who hammered us 4-0 earlier in the season) once.

Firstly Little Badgers away, I changed tactics to go 4-4-1-1, played defensive retain possession and attempted to shut up shop. And it worked! 0-0.

Next up, Little Badgers at home. Stuck with the 4-4-1-1 but went counter this time given home advantage and we sneaked it 1-0! Probably deserved it too - although they had more possession and more shots we created 3 clear cut chances to their 0 and so should have put the game to bed long before the 82nd minute winner that eventually clinched it.

I felt really sorry for Little Badgers manager Nicholas as these two results ultimately cost him the league - he only lost to me and the team who eventually clinched the title SF Cosmos.

Next up a 1-1 draw with Soepurb, AI game this so I can't tell you much about it! So two games to go and it was looking tight between me, Stanmore and Stoke Shadows for 11th-13th. And one of my remaining games is the Shadows. I have AI but decided to play my Auckland FC match first because I know Stoke's manager often comes on later in the evening and a win against Auckland would mean we only needed a draw from the final game.

After the hammering I took early in the season I decided to start the Auckland game defensive, but as it went by and stayed 0-0 I gradually came out of my shell more and more and we did have a couple of great chances to win it. Only for disaster to strike. In the 4th of 3 added minutes their goalie hoofs it long down field, my defence stands still (expecting the final whistle?!) and their star striker who has been marked out of the game for 93 minutes tucks it past my out of position keeper. Lost 1-0. Absolutely gutted.

But still if we beat Stoke we're guaranteed to finish above them, and hence in at least 12th place. Trouble is now I'm on a losing streak, AND 3 players picked up their 5th yellow cards in the Auckland game so they're suspended. But I needn't have worried. A hard fought 1-0 victory wasn't without its scares - one of my CB's could easily have been sent off for a last man foul but was only booked (his DC partner was just about covering I think), and they had a string of late corners. And not only did we win it, one of my off-season signings last year who I'd stuck with all season despite him underperforming got the winner with a 20 yard screamer. Love it!

So we're 11th, it will probably be 12th by the time Stanmore have played their last 2 games, but right now I don't care. Top tier 3rd season gives me more prize money, higher rep, and a shot at the top leagues. Give us something to play for - we cried. Man did we get it!

The Bad Form Bug Strikes

6 games without a win. 2 draws, 4 defeats. Our place in the highest tier of qualifiers in Season 3 is now seriously in doubt - especially since we still have to play some of the division's big boys. I'm normally one of those who thrives in this sort of scenario - I get cross but I enjoy the challenge, I spend lots of time thinking about it, play some practice matches, work on tactics, scour the forums for tactical tips and so on.

But this time I feel strangely disconnected. I'm completely out of ideas and consequently I can't be bothered to log in that much. I've varied my tactics a bit, but I have two main ones that have worked well before under this ME and against the same opposition, and given that changing tactics too much has a negative effect why change all the time? I've rotated the squad and brought in a couple of players who are slightly better than what I had before, but that hasn't helped. I've got players back from injury now but that hasn't helped. So I'm a bit stumped.

I don't want to be one of those who whinges on the forum about how unfair it is, how the ME picks on me etc. I do believe the ME is as good as you'll get, and there probably is something I can do to turn this round. So I'll try to keep this constructive!

The problem I have is that the game doesn't give me much feedback at all on how to do that. There is no method for tactical feedback and the "form" information just gives me statistics I already know. And that's before I get started on "morale" which is probably my biggest bugbear. In the squad screen it only gives me an arrow, and even then it seems that given my team started the season well nothing is now going to shift those arrows out of green so I can't pick up on who is really struggling. In the match I can see slightly more - but what on earth does "player x is looking angry" actually mean?

So there is a real lack of information here. In the ideal world this could come through the community - and there is for example a tactics chat room where I can discuss that element of things. But (a) that's not always very helpful, and (b) it doesn't help with how to deal with the form effect or morale. In FM10 I can get detailed reports on a player's character, I can get backroom coaching advice and I can interact with my players (even if that's sometimes a bit naff). Why can't I do any of these things in FML?

Because right now, I can't figure this out. I'm not a brilliant player and as I say I'm sure there's an answer. But I've been on FML for more than a year now with some success and I have played FM and CM since 1994. What would a new player make of it?

Mid-season mid-table mediocrity

It's been a busy few days for me IRL so I haven't found time to finish the final article in my Vollernomics series. Apologies - it will be coming soon but in the meantime a quick update on the team.

So far in the league we are P21 W8 D5 L8 F22 A23 Pts29. You can't get much more mid-table than that! I'm reasonably pleased though: it's a tough division and despite my supposed buy buy buy strategy I haven't bought as many players as others - still waiting for the right guys to come along. At the end of the season roughly the top 13 will go in to the highest tier for the final qual season, but given that there's always the risk some top teams from other FAs might decide to transfer in to the TFA I'd like to make sure I finish top 11 to be on the safe side. It's going to be a challenge though - I'm missing several key players through injury including my star CB for 15 games.

In the cups I've traditionally either lost in the first round or gone really deep in the tournament so when I picked up some early wins I got quite hopeful. But last 16 defeats in both means we can "concentrate on the league" from here on in.

With being busy I haven't actually logged in all that much since the bank holiday, so many of these outcomes have come from my match plans. I've spent quite a lot of time setting up the plans and I think it's been time well spent. Whilst the interface is a pain, the functionality of the match plans is really great. I remember a time when if I couldn't log in for 3 or 4 days I'd be very nervous logging back in to see how far back I'd fallen. It felt like I was punished for having a life. Now I can set up the team the way I want, and consequently am really curious to log back in to see how they've been getting on. Of course the downside is that when they fail I only have
myself to blame... ;)