My Tottenham Game - FMFormation.net - Football Manager

RAKKA · 02-07-08, 05:13 PM

I'm new to these forums – and, indeed FM in general, 08's my first – and I figured what better way to introduce myself than a 'current game' thread…

I do have a habit of rambling, so this will probably be pretty in-depth, and 'wordy'. I'll try to include pics to colour it up a bit.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

I chose Tottenham as my weapon of choice, mainly because I'd never managed in England before. My previous games have been at Villarreal and F.C. Seoul. Also they seemed a decent middle-tier team: not too difficult, some decent players, but also unlikely to win the league in the first season.

Personal Aim
In this save I'll obviously be aiming to lead Tottenham to domestic and European trophy glory, however, I'll also be aiming to achieve a team capable of fast, flowing football. The gritty style I employed with Seoul has left me wanting a change.

SEASON ONE 2007-08

Since I had little idea of Spurs' lineup I decided to take charge in march, to get a few games in before the team went on holiday. I've since discovered that by doing this I circumnavigated King and Woodgate's injuries. I guess that could be called cheating, but oh well…

I'll leave out the first few games I played before the players' holiday as they were just to assess the players, and most had to be against my reserves team anyway, following a number of rejections.

Season goal: European qualification through league finish.
Transfer budget: £26,000,000

Team Assessment
The first thing I noticed when looking at the team was a lack of a decent creative central midfielder. Jenas and Tainio wouldn't really cut it as first choice.
Secondly, the full-backs were good, but could certainly be improved upon, with Bale, in particular needing some help whilst he was still developing.
Finally the two attacking wingers, Malbranque and Lennon, had no real cover, and the former could perhaps do with a replacement.
After this I decided to list, Gilberto, Lee Young-Pyo, Jenas, Bent and a variety of reserve players, and had a general shake up, moving players like Tainio to the reserves.

Summer Transfer Window

Outgoing

Darren Bent to Man City for £12M
There were actually a few offers for Bent after I played him in a few of the friendlies. They all started at about the £9M mark, but after I asked for £12, only Man city and Wigan remained. I'd hoped he'd head to Wigan, since I suspected to be close to Man city in the league, but he had other ideas, clearly

Jermaine Jenas to Sunderland for £6.5M
Nothing much to say here, I didn't think I needed him so, I let him go. A decent price too, all things considered.

Aaron Lennon to Blackburn for £10M
Not planned, this one, but Blackburn made the offer and after delaying for a while I decided it was probably worth it. At the time I had a few wingers lined up anyway, so it wasn't that big a deal.

Some of the reserves went out on loan or to affiliates Watford, not really worth mentioning though, and Leyton Orient, another feeder, received a couple of U18's.

Incoming (Total to spend: About £60,000,000 (inc. budget adjustment))

Rafael van der Vaart from HSV for £16M
What better way to solve a central midfield problem? Probably my best player pre-season. Unfortunately his arrival made Boateng unhappy – too much competition, and he eventually handed in a transfer request. Not a lot I could do though to be honest, van der Vaart's presence on the field was too important to leave him out all that often.

Lorik Cana from Olympique de Marseille for £5.5M
I lined up this DM whilst interest in Zokora was high, nothing ever came of that, but my scouts say Cana is a better player so I decided to get him anyway.

Bogdan Lobont from Dinamo Buc. for £1.2M
Discovered by one of my scouts in Romania, after Cerny received an injury that would see him out for 5 months and I consequently terminated his loan. Done well enough to keep Robinson out of the team so far.

Andrey Arshavin from Zenit Peterburg for £8.5M
I knew I needed to get another striker into the team, and after At. Madrid's 11th hour swoop for Huntelaar, I had to go for my second choice. Took a while to get started since he arrived with a 3 week injury and received another almost straight after, but recently picked his game up. Plays mainly AMR now.

Jeremy Menez from AS Monaco FC for £7.5M
Bought for AML position, but can cover for van der Vaart and even play as a striker if needed. A real unsung hero for me in the early stages of the season, setting up goals left and right. How the fans could question his purchase is beyond me.

Renato Augusto from Flamengo for £7.75M
Yet another AML/R/C. Perhaps I can see where Boating's complaint was coming from, but he's also done pretty well since arriving. Doesn't get as many assists to be honest, but he's chipped in with a goal or two on occasion.

The following players were also bought for the reserves, or U18's. Mainly as prospects for the future, but I bought Mantorras, purely because mt reserves didn't have a striker – they were all on loan.

Matthieu Saunier from Girondins Bordeaux for £350K
Distel Zola from AS Monaco FC for £250K
Levan Kenia from Schalke for £675K
Damien Le Tallec on a free transfer (plus clauses)
John Fleck on free transfer (plus clauses)
Mantorras from Benfica for £700K

Formation and Tactics

Nothing revolutionary tactics wise. Back four with full-backs going forward to provide crosses and through balls. In the centre, van der Vaart acts as midfield playmaker with a DM alongside him. Wingers are attack minded, with forward runs and run with ball, both set to either mixed or often depending on the player. If Arshavin is playing AMR, then the arow will bend in towards the penalty area, and he'll be given a free role.

Note: Augusto was only playing in FC as he needed the play to get ready for the new season, I don't play him there usually.

Pre-Season Friendlies

1-0 Charlton
2-0 Leeds
5-1 Derby
4-2 Aston Villa
1-0 Dinamo Kiev
4-1 HSV
2-1 Watford
4-0 Preston

The pre-season games had gone pretty well, 8 games, 7 wins, 1 loss. The opposition quality left something to be desired at times, but there were some good results there too. All things considered, I was confident I'd managed to assemble a decent team and come with up an effective tactic too. Either way there was no more time for friendlies, and we were thrown into our first league match against Middlesbrough.

**liveru** · 02-07-08, 05:16 PM

Bit weird buying players for your reserves only mate.

Looks good so far mate though.

RAKKA · 02-07-08, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Bit weird buying players for your reserves only mate.

Looks good so far mate though.

If you're talking about Mantorras, I figured that it would help the reserve players development if they were playing in the roles I intended them to play in the future. It's no good trying to get a winger to improve his crossing skills if there's no-one to cross too. Maybe FM's not as detailed as that though. Plus at that time I only had two strikers, and poor player as he is, he could always be used for back-up.

August

5-2 Middlesbrough (H)
1-1 Newcastle (H)
2-2 Portsmouth (A)
1-1 Aston Villa (A)

After the Middlesbrough performance promised so much (not least four goals from Robbie Keane), august quickly became a month of underachievement. The Villa result was most disappointing considering the result a month ago.

However, most worrying was that the only players to have got on the score sheet were Keane and Berbatov, in fact in the latter two games the Spurs midfield was practically absent. Hopefully just a case of needing time to mesh together.

Player of the Month: Robbie Keane
His four goals against Middlesbrough pretty much single-handedly won us the game (the 5th was an O.G.), and his strike at Villa Park allowed Spurs to sneak away with an undeserved point.

September

4-0 Wigan (H)
1-3 Chelsea (A)
4-4 Belenenses (A) (EURO Cup)
1-1 Everton (A)
1-2 Liverpool (H) (League Cup)
1-2 West Ham (A)

Another decent start to the month with a 4-0 victory over Wigan, but better yet, a convincing performance in midfield, including 2 goals from van der Vaart and a goal and an assist by Menez. The defeat at Stamford Bridge wasn’t that bad either, I knew from the start that the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal etc, were out of our reach this season.

However, the 4-4 draw away in the EURO cup was a return to last month’s shambles, against what should have been easy opposition. The back line had a universally poor game, with no-one reaching a 7. What’s more try as I might I could not get our midfield to stop giving the ball away. Luckily Berbatov was on form with a MOM performance, to get our first two. Arshavin capped an average at best game with a goal of his own before VDV found the net with a late free kick.

Our league cup run was over before it had even started, in an enthralling 120 mins face-off with Liverpool, that saw their new signing Adrian Mutu finally hit his stride with goals in the 55th and 116th minutes. A good performance by Tottenham, but just not enough. That’s football…

Unfortunately, such a game was always going to leave the players tired, and so it was a less than full strength side that took to the field, three days later, against West Ham, and it showed with a poor performance all-round. Frankly we were lucky to escape with a loss. Though van der Vaart’s goal was a thing of beauty and rightfully won goal of the month.

Player of the Month: Rafael van der Vaart
Totally ran the game against Wigan, and was no-less impressive against Liverpool and Everton, putting together a number of key passes, and getting assists in both games.

RAKKA · 02-07-08, 05:56 PM

October

8-0 Belenenses (H) (EURO Cup)
3-2 Reading (A)
2-1 Man Utd. (A)
2-0 Rosenborg (A) (EURO Cup)
2-1 Derby (H)

After a poor start to the season I decided to have a change of tactic; mainly tighten things up in midfield, trade a bit of offence to improve possession. And well if these results are anything to go by it seems to have worked.

The 8-0 win against Belenenses was great for morale, but the tie should really have been done and dusted by now, so really it was more of a practice match to see if the new tactics worked.

The 2-1 against United at Old Trafford was an amazing result, deserved too, we dominated the match.

Player of the Month: Dimitar Berbatov
A tough one this month. Could have been van der Vaart again for his hat-trick past Belenenses and any number of assists elsewhere. But I’ve decided to go for Berbatov, who put in two man of the match performances, against Rosenborg and Man U. Got on the scoresheet in both games, and set up a number of chances for Robbie Keane too.

November

2-1 Sunderland (H)
1-1 Galataseray (A) (EURO Cup)
0-1 Blackburn (A)
3-2 Birmingham (H)

Our decent form in the league continued this month, albeit with a slight hiccup against Blackburn. Can’t complain though, it was a good performance; we just spurned any and all opportunities we got.

The Galataseray match was a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting a win, and honestly, we were a bit lucky to get a draw. It’s never a good sign when your keeper gets man of the match.

Player of the Month: Gareth Bale
Showed signs of his potential for the first time this month, most notably against Birmingham. Came on at half time to replace Lee Young-Pyo and by the end had got himself a goal, an assist and MOM.